Virginia's Run (In With the Trailer Park Boys)

Here we go again! I watched a movie just to find the Trailer Park Boys connection. This time I watched Virginia's Run, which had been on my radar for quite some time. This movie doesn't focus around any of the actors from TPB, but rather a little girl, named Virginia, whose mother died in some horse related accident. The father, being so angry at the horse that killed his wife, has sold the horse, but Virginia still tends to it. The horse bites the dust while giving birth, so the foal imprints on Virginia as its mother. From here we have your typical, cookie cutter early 2000s coming of age movie. Father and daughter disagree, father makes a huge (and financially irresponsible) gesture to apologize to his daughter, and now magically has complete and total faith in adolescent daughter's decision making skills, after having spent the first part of the movie questioning them.

I know this movie isn't aimed at me, so I won't judge it too harshly. I'm not into horses, nor could my family ever afford one, so two strikes right there, but that's on me. Much like with Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor I hope the target audience find their solace in this film as well. After the huge apology gesture from her father, Virginia enters into a horse race, but not before she has an interaction with the town bully, a rich kid, whom Virginia and her horse completely smoke in an unsanctioned race. As revenge for this, and to avoid losing in front of the whole town, the rich kid horsenaps the horse, causing Virginia to be late to the race.

This is where all four of the Trailer Park Boys actors meet up. In the first few minutes Mr. Jeremy Akerman appears, and later comes back as the overseer of the horse race. While recovering her horsenapped horse, Virginia runs past a traffic stop, where none other than John Dunsworth is portraying the sheriff. Once Virginia is escorted into town, by Sheriff Jim Lahey (not really the character's name), she is held back from entering the race by Mr. Akerman's character, who is a DICK! Which causes a pair of men in the crowd (credited as JP and Rob, aka Julian and Ricky) to chant "Let Virginia ride!", repeatedly.

This is where all four of them interact, before Akerman's character finally relents and allows Virginia to enter the race. The scene switches to Virginia who is now mounted up and in hot pursuit to catch up to the race, even though she's like fifteen minutes behind. Do not fear though, as this is a feel good, coming of age movie it only takes a few minutes before she's battling for the win. This leads to a side by side battle between Virginia and her rival, which results in him pulling some typical rival bully tricks and causing Virginia to take a tumble. In true feel good movie fashion she recovers and within a few more short minutes they're both battling it out to the finish line.

Sheriff Jim Lahey!

My only real complaints about this movie are the jaw harp that had to be used for almost any reason at all. Does it need more cow bell? No! It needs more jaw harp! And Gabriel Byrne did a pretty abysmal job with his accent. His acting was good, but his accent wasn't sure if it wanted to be his native Irish, or hillbilly American. As for the Trailer Park Boys connection, Mr. Akerman, JP and Robb were all featured pretty heavily throughout the final part. As for Sheriff Jim Lahey, well he was there at the end, but didn't say much else. Now shit hawks here, folks!

Freedom 35?

A Quick Thank You

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for us Americans, and no the irony of the holiday is not lost on me. I figured I would take a moment to thank all of the readers who have put up with my ramblings for over thirteen years now. On the backend of my blog I can see where views come from, and sometimes I'm surprised at where my little island of incoherency is being viewed from. While these are purely statistics, and put no face to the viewers who actually take the time to view the blog, I want to say thank you for reading, whomever you are. I've tried to make sure that my blog is accessible to everyone who wants to read it. If the page doesn't automatically translate I've made sure there has been a translation option on the right-hand side of the page.

I'm not a writer, a fact that is obvious by reading any entry in this blog. I just wanted a small space to express what I find interesting in the world, and to share my hobbies and my (very limited, and sometimes questionable) knowledge. I've done reviews, some might call needless, and I've done some tutorials, some might call those needless as well, but I've always tried to be helpful in some way or another. I can see my blog has been quoted a few times in forums seeking help, and I'm glad that I could be useful. After all, that's really all I've ever tried to be. I don't know who you are, but if my blog has helped you in any way shape or form, I thank you for taking the time to read it.

Sam's Movie Review: Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor

I've mentioned it here a few times that I love Trailer Park Boys. That show came to me at a time in my life where nothing made sense. Even though it was a comedy mockumentary, to see that I wasn't alone in life making absolutely no sense made it make sense. Does that make sense? Apart from Trailer Park Boys I knew there were a few other film projects the cast and crew worked on such as The Cart Boy, One Last Shot, and even Virginia's Run. More recently I watched Vandits, starring Robb Wells, and enjoyed it quite a bit. After that I decided to see what else Mr. Wells had been in, and a movie by the name Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor showed up, so I decided to give it a watch as well.

I have to preface this by saying, while I did enjoy this film, there were so many moments where I was like "This is totally connected to Trailer Park Boys.". Aside from starring Robb Wells, this movie was written, produced, and directed by the lovely Shelley Thompson, aka BARB FRIGGIN LAHEY! Whose scalloped potatoes, I am sure, are not fucked. There were a lot of moments where I could see Ricky coming out of Robb. I totally admit that's wholly on me, because I went into this movie with the mindset of finding the Rickyisms in Robb's other work. For that, I'm truly sorry. Again, I did enjoy this film!

The story focuses around Dawn (formerly Don), who transitioned from male to female, and trying to circumvent the tribulations that brings to one's life. Robb Wells portrays her father, who just lost his wife, and both Dawn and her sister, plus her sister's boyfriend, come back to be with their father to help him through this tough time. While back in town Dawn's family slowly but surely accept her for who she is now, but there are some typical troublemakers in the town whom needlessly cause quite a bit of trouble. While trying to reconnect with her father, Dawn takes an interest in her mother's old tractor. As a way of showing support for his daughter the father helps her restore the tractor. Said troublemakers complicate this by burning down the barn in which the tractor was stored, which only causes an outpouring of support from the community in restoring it one final time, so that it could be used in a communal event.

I'll say it again, I did enjoy this film. It felt like a low budget, tight-knit community film to me, which is in no way a bad thing. The actors who normally do plays at the Blandford Recreation Centre finally got their time to shine. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!) I grew up in very rural America and I understand the small town mentality, so much of that felt very genuine to me. Transitioning isn't something I've personally experienced, but just like Trailer Park Boys helped me feel less alone in my life not making sense, hopefully this film will help those struggling in the same way as Dawn find their own solace.

I'm Bored: Let's Review Taco Bell Sauces

There for a while I was addicted to a hot sauce called Valentina, thanks to my ex fiancée. To fill the void when she left I started trying dollar store hot sauces. Louisiana Hot Sauce was my favorite, with Texas Pete being adequate. I then started to wonder where Taco Bell's sauces would rank. I used to love their Fire Roasted salsa packets so much that I would order Taco Bell for no other reason than to have an excuse to hoard the salsa packets, or just drink them straight. So where does their current line up of sauces rank?

Mild

I've never been a fan of Taco Bell's mild sauce. It's always tasted and looked like dish water to me. There is a slightly sweet smell that doesn't really excite me one way or another. I'll use it, if forced to, but I usually try to avoid it. 

Hot

Hot has the same flavor and texture as mild, but with a little kick to it. The overall experience is pretty much the same as a mild packet, just a tiny bit of heat and some chunks. If you read the ingredients it's just mild with some jalapenos thrown in to add bite.

Fire

Fire is thicker, has some chunks and brings the heat. A nice flavor, a nice texture and a good amount of heat. It has a very olfactory pleasing smoky scent that gets my salivation glands working overtime. 

Diablo

Diablo sauce has a smoky scent to it that immediately excites my taste buds. It's slightly thinner than fire, but still thicker than mild or hot, with a nice smooth texture. As soon as it hits my tongue I detect a sweet, smoky flavor that quickly evolves into heat engulfing my palate. The heat lingers for a while, much longer than with fire.

Breakfast Salsa

Breakfast Salsa was introduced to me when I chose Taco Bell's breakfast burritos on the road to thrift stores, slathered in their breakfast salsa. These packets are slightly taller and contain the nectar of the Gods! It's a bit sweet, thinner than both fire and diablo, but still thicker than hot and mild, and is filled with chunks, as good salsa should be. The heat is somewhere between hot and fire, leaning more toward the hot sauce. The jalapeno chunks add something, but not too much.

Avocado Verde Salsa

These cost money, so it's rare that I will ever use them. I did give them a try and I wasn't very impressed with it. I remember it was thin, but the flavor wasn't bad. It was about what you could expect of something called avocado salsa. Again, since they're charging 20 cents for these I don't get them.

Of all these sauces I prefer Fire, Diablo and Breakfast Salsa. If it's not going onto Taco Bell, directly into my mouth, or onto a Mexican inspired meal, it's usually going on tuna salad. You see, that ex fiancée that I mentioned earlier once made some really good tuna salad, and I've been chasing her recipe ever since. She ghosted me after ten years, so I can't just outright ask her what it was, but I try to replicate it the best I can. I shovel a little bit of my tuna and mayo concoction onto a cracker and then cover it in one of my favorite Taco Bell sauces. For purist results these reviews were written after drinking a packet of each flavor straight. I couldn't give accurate reviews with pesky food sullying the flavors.

Reaching Beyond My Capability

One of my greatest passions in life has been doing small electronics repairs as a hobby. Never in a billion lifetimes did I think I would become the repair person in the family. My brother has asked me to look at a few things, and it's usually a simple repair. Things are slowly progressing in difficulty though, and that's forcing me to learn a little bit more to reach that next level. On the repair list is a Peavey Bandit that my brother picked up super cheap. It turns on, it just doesn't producing any sound. I opened it up and did a board inspection, which didn't yield any results in showing what was wrong with the amp. All of the components looked fine, nothing was scorched or broken. Fuses were ok too.

At the end of the signal was the 12" speaker. I popped off the leads and checked the speaker to see what impendence it was and the multimeter read -- nothing. He's dead, Jim. So I haphazardly  hooked up a small speaker just to see if this amp produced sound, which it did. I reported back to my brother all he needed was a replacement speaker and it's good to go. Well, that's been a few weeks and it's taking up quite a bit of space, so I decided to take it upon myself to see what I could do to move this project along a bit.

The first thing I learned was the Scorpion speakers have removable magnets. Interesting! Once the magnet is removed the voice coil is right there. Let's check some continuity. From the lugs to what should be the start of each side of the coil is fine. Then I found continuity throughout the entirety of the coil. After probing around with my multimeter I found the break in the coil is RIGHT BESIDE where it should connect to the output lug. Solder bridge to the rescue! Except, it's not that easy. Dealing with the speaker was tough, and trying to solder in such a small space was even worse. After some trial and error, mostly error, I finally got a solid 6.2 ohms through the speaker consistently.

I carefully replaced the magnet, snugged it up, placed the speaker back into the Peavey and it worked. For a brief period of time. I checked the speaker and the continuity was yet again broken. I painstakingly ran another solder bridge and got the continuity back and tried one more time. Again, the speaker worked and after about ten minutes decided it was done. I'm not trying it again. If it's done, I'm done dealing with it. I'm not a speaker repair person, I'm just someone who can search on Google and then apply that knowledge to real life. The real MVP here is the ability to remove the magnet that gave me the chance to find the fault and attempt the repair. I've made sure the solder bridge isn't massive and rubbing up against anything, but it shouldn't be so frail it falls apart. I just think this speaker is done and doesn't want to be repaired, so I will abide by its clear wishes. At least I tried.

O Cartridge, Where Art Thou?

Sometimes I'm more shocked by the games that I don't own rather than the ones that I do. I own a few games that are difficult to find, but only because I found them cheap during my thrifting adventures. What I don't own, however, is a North American version of Super Mario Kart. I bought a Super Famicom version a few years ago, and since the menus are super easy to navigate, even for a dolt like myself who can't read Japanese, the cartridge was perfectly serviceable for my needs. I don't own a copy of Super Mario 64 either; I don't even own the DS remake. I don't own a copy of A Link to the Past, Super Metroid or even Kirby's Adventure. All ubiquitous games, I've just never found them in the wild.

To say I've never found them would be inaccurate, but what I consider to be in the wild is in a thrift store, flea market or at the outlet store. All these games are readily available at almost any media resale store around me, but I always held out hope I would find them for cheaper in the wild, where prices used to be less regulated by greed. I remember thrift stores having stacks of common games that I had tons of, for exceedingly cheap prices too, but most of the time they had already been picked through and the good games were gone. What was left were things I would pick up for trades or to fill out my collection.

Perhaps I'm frugal to a fault, but I feel I don't need something unless I'm comfortable with the price. As time moves on prices are shooting up, and that's really exacerbating things. I'm not looking to have a complete collection, or to own all the rare games on any given console. I just want to own the staples of each console, that way I can enjoy them like most people my age did when they were kids. As if it's a Friday night and I just rented this game, or came back from Toys R Us with a new game for getting good grades and I was going to use it to numb my mind for the weekend.

Sure, I can emulate all of the games in question, and I certainly have throughout the years. I still retain there is something to be said about genuinely having the cartridge, or in the case of the Playstation the disc, and playing it on the original hardware. I found a PSOne console a few weeks back that I have no clue where it came from. It's not on my spreadsheet of consoles, but it was hidden inside a bag of my stuff. I decided to spend the day fully testing it, and let me tell you being 41 never felt so much like 16 this entire year. It was an absolute blast! So again, I could easily replicate the gameplay with an emulator, but for me personally nothing beats the original hardware, software and controller. I just need to find the staple games of the consoles I love and live that reality.

My Adventures in Illusion of Gaia

Taking inspiration from having finished Breath of Fire, I decided it was time to finish this one off too. There are RPGs that hold your hand, and there are RPGs that don't care what kind of mess you get yourself into with no hope of rectifying the situation. Illusion of Gaia falls at the tail end of the former and leans over into the latter. You see, you don't earn stats the normal way by grinding and leveling up, you earn stats by clearing out rooms. The final enemy of each room gives you an upgrade of strength, health or defense. There is no magic really to speak of, rather you transform into stronger characters.

While Illusion of Gaia is kind of an entry level RPG to ease people into the genre, I felt I had a pretty good grasp on finishing the game. Everything was hunky-dory until I hit that final home stretch. An often overused trope is to force the player to defeat every single boss they've already defeated, just to pad out the game's play time due to developer laziness. While Illusion of Gaia was very generous with save points, which double as healing stations, in the last few parts of the game, I figured I was perfectly fine and this was going to be a piece of cake with ice cream and chocolate pudding on top. The sad reality was the game was luring me into a sense of false superiority and plotting my downfall with each step I took.

In any normal RPG you would carry a stock of healing items, or at the very least healing spells, again of which there are none in this game, to supplement any damage you take after a battle. With Illusion of Gaia I was lured into a false sense of security with as often as I could just pop into a save point, heal and save my progress. Herbs are available to take with you, but that is if you can be bothered to find them as they're hidden in chests, rather than sold by vendors. I felt there was really no need, instead I chose to keep my inventory open for the items I felt I would need along the journey, rather than needlessly hunt down herbs to heal what the save points would already do.

Illusion of Gaia also has a life system, which is kind of useful, but not really to me. Most enemies will drop an orb, each orb gives different points towards an extra life. You can have a maximum of 9 lives and 100 points from collecting those orbs earns an extra life. If you should die in battle one life is spent and you're allowed to restart from the entry of the room where you died. I've used a few lives along my journey, mostly due to my lack of patience. When it comes to bosses though, your life is spent, your health isn't completely replenished and you're forced to start the fight all over again. Meaning you're worse off than you would be just restarting from your previous save, no matter how far back the previous save was.

Some might say that Illusion of Gaia's traps are my fault, and I would say maybe you're right. However, when an item has been useless 90% of the time you've played a game, and you forget it's even a thing because it has been so useless, but when you finally need it the game doesn't allow you to leave the tower to go back and find it, well the item is still useless and this game is just a trap. I did beat this game, but it was a long, hard road. I don't hate this game, that hatred is reserved for Lagoon! Fuck that game! Illusion of Gaia was a nice, charming little introductory RPG that I did enjoy most of my time playing through. I'm glad I finally got through it. I might even play through it again, but just to unlock the final red jewel mansion.

"I want to burn you into my memory."

Autumnal Shift

Autumn is upon us and pedal building season 2024 has come to a close. Against all odds, and desires, this year I built one more circuit than I did in 2023, which I swear I did not plan on doing. I still have kits I put together that will now have to wait to be built in 2025. Beyond these kits I've only found a few things that have inspired me, but I swear it won't be 46 (or more) circuits in 2025! I don't plan on quitting, I just feel the need to move on to other projects for 2025.

As the days turn colder, the nights grow longer, the urge to play RPGs grows stronger. With having beaten a 20+ year old save on Breath of Fire I'm started to wonder what I should tackle next. There is an entry coming up that explains what RPG I beat after Breath of Fire, so I won't spoil that here. I own an SNES multicart that has both Actraisers, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Terranigma, Link to the Past and a few other RPGs on it I'd love to get stuck into. Although I have saves for both Chrono Trigger and Earthbound from at least 2017, and a more recent one for Dragon Quest 5 on my Wii. Maybe I should take care of those first. Who knows, we'll see!

I Finally Beat Breath of Fire (After 20 Years!)

 In late summer of 2001 I was gifted my first Super Nintendo console and some games. In either 2002 or 2003 I purchased a copy of Breath of Fire and went straight to work on getting to the game's end. After many hours had been invested something else took my interest and Breath of Fire was packed away. I truly can't remember what it was, but whatever it was took me away from Breath of Fire so long that I totally forgot where I was and what I had left to do. If you're a fan of old RPGs you'll know, unless it's your favorite RPG that you've played through a few times already, picking up where you left off in an old RPG is damn near impossible. Throughout the years I attempted to figure out where I was, but I kept drawing a blank, getting frustrated and just packing the game away again. Not this time!

I knew I was on a tower with two elevators, so I went to GameFAQs and searched the most suggested walkthrough to see if it could steer me in the right direction. Thankfully it did! Now I finally knew where I was, after twenty years! I was literally an hour or less away from completing the game for over twenty years and never stuck it out long enough to get to the end. What a shame. My tendency to grind levels helped out quite a bit here as I found it fairly easy to get through the bosses I had left. I needed to backtrack through and pick up some equipment and learn some dragon skills, but all in all it wasn't a big struggle, especially the end bosses. #Spoiler: Once I got the agni ability they were actually really easy. Just keep a pocket full of cures and you're golden.

Yes, it's a photo of my TV screen. What?

The main reason why I wanted to beat Breath of Fire was to finally close the book, and have experienced this game completely after all these years. The second is because my 68 in 1 SNES Multicart has both Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire 2, so I have access to a (semi legit) copy of Breath of Fire 2 to play on real hardware. No save state safety net for me! Although I will be using a walkthrough if I get stuck and frustrated. Just being honest. With all the fun I had finishing the game I really hate to just pack it away and only think of it who knows when. I do think of the cartridge now in much the same way as I do my Playstation memory cards; windows to a bygone era when I had a lot more fun in life. Back when I was playing Gran Turismo 1 and 2 on the PS3 I pulled out my PSOne and took a stroll down memory [card] lane to see what my old garages looked like. It was a good time! Now I leave you with a typo I found in Breath of Fire. Yes, it's also a photo of my TV screen.

Modern(ish) Retro Gaming: Playing PS1 on PS3

The original Playstation was one of my favorite gaming eras. When I was a teenager I bought a Playstation with my summer job money, only to quit that job, because I was a dumb teenager, to spend more time playing my Playstation. Remember kids, don't bite the hand that feeds you, nor quit the job that buys you video games! I spent countless hours playing games such as Driver, Grand Theft Auto, Auto Destruct, FF7, Breath of Fire III, Gran Turismo, Resident Evil, the list goes on and on. Don't even get me started on demo discs, as they sometimes harbored a gem that turned out to be better than the finished product. Sure the graphics, by today's standards, are quite janky, but back then things looked amazing. I do miss the era of jagged polygons.

For the past few months I've had the urge to play Gran Turismo and Resident Evil again, but I didn't want to set up my original Playstation to do so. It's shouldn't be a mystery at this point that any PS3 can play PS1 games, so the quickest and easiest way was to just use my PS3. At first I was really annoyed by the dithering that ruined the field of view, but I found out that can be turned off. The issue then became the need to turn it off every single time I boot up a PS1 game on the PS3. The other problem is it doesn't seem to allow Gran Turismo to choose whether the control settings should be digital or analog, which I also need to change every time I boot that game. Except for some reason I need to change it for every single race too. Still, I'm actually having a ton of fun! Well, once I beat all the dreadfully shit license tests on Gran Turismo I was having a ton of fun.

With all of my PS1 games currently just sitting there, I think this newfound interest in using my PS3 to play them may give life to a lot of them that I've been wanting to play through. Crime Killers and Wild 9 are two that I've been wanting to play for a while, I've just put it off because I wasn't sure how well the PS3 would emulate the PS1. There are some RPGs I've wanted to get back into such as Eternal Eyes and Battle Hunters, or I might try out RPG Maker and create my own. Maybe even play some Hot Wheels Extreme Racing. It's not a perfect solution, but I think my PS1 consoles can take a rest and let the PS3 do the heavy lifting for a while.

Over 100 Builds and Still Going

If we could get in a time machine and go back in time, first I would like to stop somewhere in 2009 and tell myself to do things just a bit differently. After that we would reach our destination of 2020 and I would ask myself if I thought I would have built over 100 circuits. I believe the answer would be "No! Why? Do I? Really? Wow.", or something along those lines. Earlier this year I was just shy of 100 builds and I added a few small projects to boost (get it? because most of them were treble boosters) those numbers to bring me to 100 builds in total. The ideas kept coming though, and I've surpassed that to currently be on 121 builds in total.

If you're an avid reader you'll also know I swore I wasn't going to build 45 circuits like I did last year. I'm wrong. Admitting when you're wrong costs you nothing. I'm currently at 41 total builds for 2024, and I still have six kits to build, four partially put together kits that I need to order parts for, and an additional five planned circuits that also need me to order parts. If I accomplish building all of those that will bring 2024 to a total of fifty-six builds. When does this go from a hobby to a career? You tell me. I've had offers to support this going full-time, but I just don't want the stress of it becoming a business to ruin the fun of it being a hobby.

My ultimate goals are as follows: to build lots of pedals for myself and have a tool for nearly any eventuality that may arise while writing and recording my own music. I also want to build some one-off pedals for friends as a keepsake. I realize I'm not going to live forever, so I want all of my pedals to become a legacy. Will "Firebeard FX" ever become a brand? Doubtful, but at the very least it's a moniker to give my circuits a life after I'm gone. Something that ties them together, rather than just being some insane amount of random DIY pedals out there floating around. Maybe, just maybe tomorrow's guitar God will get ahold of one of my pedals, say in the year 2112. Maybe there will still be rig rundown videos online, during which they will explain how my pedal helped shape their whole outlook on playing and tone. It's a big dream, but not impossible.

I don't know if, or when this hobby will ever see an end, apart from my own eventual end. I honestly daydream of sitting at my workspace on a small balcony off the side of my little home somewhere in Mexico, building pedals to trade to the local music store. Maybe then I could finally afford the Gibson Les Paul of my dreams. Maybe then it would become a business. A lot of maybes become involved. One thing is for sure, we never know what the future holds. No plans to turn pro, no plans on giving up. We'll just have to see where this crazy ride ends up taking us.

My Review of Christmas Twister

I'm always looking for a good tornado movie or documentary. Ideally I want to find the documentary from about 20 years ago where they interviewed a gentlemen who said "They say tornadoes sound like trains, but I didn't hear a woowoo or nothin'!". I can't find that documentary anywhere. If you know what I'm talking about, let me know! Apart from the tons of really good tornado documentaries made by youtubers, I also like to watch tornado movies. Ranging from pretty decent to who let their 4 year old cousin try to create this CGI? Christmas Twister, or as they themselves allowed the title card to say Christams Twister, is firmly in the latter of that scale.

The genuine title card, as seen on Tubi

Let me start this off by saying I believe all of the actors and actresses did an adequate job. I believe they all did well, it's just they weren't given the best material to work with. This movie is super cheesy, but I don't blame any of the actors, or even the extras. They did what they could with what they were given. That being said, the beginning tells us that we're in Texas, and it's a few days before Christmas, or Christams, never trust a movie that can't even spell its own title right. We start at a small, out of the way gas station and diner, where a tornado unexpectedly decided to bother some folks just trying to go about their lives. The news of this tornado rouses a meteorologist who has to go to his office to track the storm. Once he's at work, at 4am, his sole colleague notices a hook echo on radar. This hook echo freely roams Texas without doing any harm, like an Armadillo searching for love, for about 5 hours before touching down again.

The poor CGI tornado touches down directly beside some poor guy who A) bought a Ford Ranger and therefore it stops working randomly, the one rare bit of reality this movie offers, and B) has absolutely no clue what the tornado is until it's right on top of him. I understand Texas is huge, and most Texans have never seen a tornado, but the way this movie portrays them as complete buffoons with no clue whatsoever what the giant sky penis dragging across the landscape is just blows my mind. Again, shit CGI. Another issue is the color filter used to try and hide the fact these scenes were all filmed on perfectly sunny days. It's horrible, and so is the CGI. Have I talked about how bad the CGI is?

Anyway, there is a lot of needless tension between the meteorologist and his wife, and they have kids and a dog. Why did I mention they had a dog? The dog subplot, of course! As this tornado is roaming Texas freely and touching down wherever it pleases, the family dog escapes the house, when it too is hit by the tornado, and the dog goes on a journey of its own. Why? Dogs = Cute to counter balance ugly CG tornado? I don't know. So the dog is out roaming the Texas landscape as the meteorologist is trying to collect his family to get them to safety. While he's racing around, in perfectly sunny skies, the singular supercell that keeps producing these poorly CG'd tornadoes is about 12 hours old now. That checks out with reality. Oh, but it gets better. MUCH better. Because the latest spawn is a.... a.... a.... *gasp* F6!!!!!!!!!!!! While editing this film they should have Alt F4'd if you ask me. This film, depending on where you find it, is either 2012 or 2016, take your pick, so to say F6 is stupid, they should have said EF6, but even that would have been stupid!

There have been very few cases where an F6/EF6 were debating, but ultimately considered inconceivable. Cue Wallace Shawn! Actually, if they had Wallace Shawn pop in just once to say that line when they said it was an F6, this movie would get at least a thumbs up from me, not the two middle fingers up I'm giving it now. This is just a brief overview of all the stupidity this movie offers. Again, I stand behind all the actors and actresses in this movie. I truly believe they did their best with what they were given, but never, and I mean NEVER trust film that can't spell its own title right! In the end the meteorologist and his family are reunited, having a barbecue in their back yard on Christmas. The parents have made up and are just about to get freaky right in front of their kids when the dog comes waltzing through the fence. Merry Christmas!

Once the happy ending starts to fade and the credits start rolling nothing further is discussed. No death toll, no damage path, no discussion on how one singular cell could live for over 12 hours. It was just we're alive, fuck everyone else. The End. I've watched some really horrible films, I've watched some really horrible tornado films, but nothing takes the cake like Christmas Twister does. Oh yeah, did I mention they used real footage of Joplin's EF5 damage as tornado damage for this movie? Good job, you sick bastards! Who thought that was a good idea? Couldn't you CG it like you did everything else?

Amp Building Like a Champ[ion]!

My guitar amp history is pretty abysmal. I started with a Peavey Bandit combo, which exploded one night while jamming. I heard a loud pop and the amp went dead. From there I went to a Crate GX-30M, which was my main amp for quite some time. Then I used, and still actually miss, a small red B.C. Rich combo amp that came in a pack with a Warlock I used to own. My first amp head was a used Crate G600XL, followed by my Line 6 Flextone HD. The Kalamazoo Model 1 was my first tube amp, and by far the oldest. I later bought my Fender Mustang Mini and used the hell out of it, until it died. Losing the Mustang Mini caused me to build Buddy, my Noisy Cricket. There are other amps that I'm forgetting or just not mentioning because they're more a novelty than a serious guitar amp, but you get the idea.

Almost all of my amps were solid state or modelling, which I'm ok with. Once I found my Kalamazoo Model 1, and restored her to working condition, I did start noticing how much I like tube amps. No, I'm not going to go on and on about how superior tubes are, but there does seem to be a difference in the feel. With my Kalamazoo Model 1, even though it's a just a small wattage combo from the late 60s, things feel different compared to my other amps. I can't explain it, I just know that whatever it is that I'm feeling is there with Kali and not with my other amps.

As I've been building pedals for the past five years I think it's time to take the leap and build something a bit more complicated. I've decided to build a pair of tube amps: the Ruby Tuby and a Fender 5F1 Champ clone. The Ruby Tuby is essentially the same as my Noisy Cricket, except it has a tube. While not a traditional tube amp, it does get in on a technicality. I wanted to build it to see if there was any hint of tube feel in the circuit. The build came together really quick, but I was extremely nervous I would ruin something when it came to testing. This requires 12v and my only 12v adapters are reverse polarity to the normal pedal PSU, so I had to wire the test box differently. Also my cheap and dirty wiring for the tube had me scared I would ruin my 12ax7s. Once it was all set it came to life. Oddly the ancient RCA 12ax7a I pulled from Kali is much louder than the modern JJ. Neither of them sound too pleasing, but it works. I'll go from here to make it sound better.

The 5F1 clone is going to be a bit more exciting, as I'm pretty sure the Kalamazoo Model 1 is really close to the 5F1 already. And since I love my Model 1, hopefully the 5F1 will give me a bit more of that, but with less concern about the amp's ever aging condition. I don't want to retire Kali, I just want something to take some of the work burden off of her. A nice little tweed amp cranked to the max, screaming with one of the overdrive pedals I built in front of it would be an amazing thing to me.

The 5F1 clone is going to take a bit of time as I thought I had the wire required for it, but it turns out I sorely underestimated what was required. Lesson learned! Another issue is the high voltage, that's going to take me a while to feel comfortable messing with. I also need both the power and output transformers. The more I think about it, the more I need for this build. All in due time, all in due time. In the meantime the Ruby Tuby is where I'll focus my time and see what I like and dislike about it. I know it needs a better tube, and I might experiment with which 12a_7 sounds best. I also think I might need to build an EQ of some sort for it. Maybe just a basic gyrator EQ with bass, mid and treble to give it a bit more tonal capability. For now it's functional and that's all I wanted from it.

Additional Information: While testing the Ruby Tuby I had a few issues that I didn't like. Using my guitar's volume seemed like it was a bias control, ala the Z'Vex SHO "Crackle Ok", which was not ok with me in this circumstance. Also the pickup selector switch made a loud pop while switching, which again was not ok. I like the glassy sparkle of the amp with no gain, and I like the crunch of the amp with the gain cranked all the way up, but the middle ground tones aren't really very useful to me. That was until I introduced the TS9 I repaired a while back. Not only did this pedal make the circuit sound amazing, (I'm assuming) the buffer also eliminates the crackle from the volume control and the popping of the selector switch. The EQing of the TS9 made this circuit much more interesting and useable. I'm thinking now instead of an EQ I'll build a[nother] TS9 circuit to make a channel two when put this amp in a head cabinet.

Every Cartridge Has a Journey

Most people take for granted how their game cartridges reached their final destination. About ten years ago I came across Olympic Gold: Barcelona '92 for the Sega Mega Drive. On the surface there isn't much to think about. It's a Sega Game, it's about the Olympics, therefore a sports game, and that's pretty much it. The point being I found this at a thrift store in the United States, where our Sega console, as you well know, was the Genesis. How did a PAL game come to rest in a thrift store in the US? I don't know, but I would love to find out.

I've been known to purchase Japanese games for the Famicom and Super Famicom, as well as import Famiclone style multicarts, but I still own those, as they are part of my collection. I assume if this came from a collection I would have found more games, and maybe even the Mega Drive console itself. None of which were present. There are a myriad of perfectly reasonable explanations as to why this cartridge was where it was when I found it. I'm mostly interested in its backstory.

Clearly someone purchased this game in, or around, 1992 with an interest in the Olympic games. They must have given it at least one play before deciding to never play it again. After that, perhaps the owner moved to the US and their belonging were cut down to a more manageable amount for whatever reason. I honestly don't know, and at this point it's really just me guessing. Although not much to anyone else, I think this cartridge is a unique piece in my collection. While everything else says Sega Genesis, this is the only one that says Mega Drive. At least currently.

Tube Screamer Terror: TS9 Repair

My brother, who was the inspiration for me learning to play guitar, often goes guitar hunting. Whether it's Guitard Center, or a pawn store in the middle of a swamp, my brother will check it out to see what kind of guitars and gear they have. He often texts me photos of cool stuff, and sometimes to ask me if I know what something is, or what it's worth. This particular day he sent me a photo of an Ibanez TS9 tube screamer, saying he was told it was broken. He didn't bother testing it before he handed it off to me to see what I could do with it. I wasn't completely sure what was, or could be wrong with it before I got my grubby little hands on it, but I soon found out.

Well there's your problem! If you search TS9 repair online, this seems to be quite a common issue with the TS9. The PCB only has this singular anchor point and is otherwise free floating. This wouldn't be an issue if the pedal was only powered by a battery. The problem being the power jack is a point of force, although not much, but over time repeated plugging and unplugging of a power source put a certain amount of strain on that singular point. Another possible reason could be if the pedal takes a hard bump on the front while it's plugged in. Clearly it doesn't take much for that small section to simply break.

The odd thing is I had no issues with this pedal. Was it broken? Technically yes, but it did function. A little bit of solder to bridge the points that were broken, and add a slight bit of strength back into it, and it was good to go. I also cleaned up the pedal a little bit, now it functions completely and looks nice. I already built myself both a TS808 and TS9 clone, so this one will be going back to my brother to do with as he sees fit, but not before I take the chance to A/B my TS9 clone circuit beside the genuine article. It's not every day that I have the chance to do that.

I did the A/B test of my TS9 clone circuit and the genuine article and I have to say they're pretty close. I think the "proud papa" syndrome of having built mine makes me like it more, but they're not much different. Mine seems a tiny bit louder and has a tiny bit more at the top end of the drive control. I have to say the tube screamer is just an iconic sound, and whether I built one myself or not, I'm glad I have at least one in my tone library.

A Treble Problem

I can't stop building treble boosters! There, I said it. They're such simple little circuits, and I love how so few components can make such an impact on tone. At this point I've built about a dozen treble boost circuits. It all started with the original Naga Viper circuit I built, then the Screaming Bird only made me want to build them even more. I've built a Rangemaster clone, and my dream come true in the Diaz Texas Ranger. The Cornish TB-83X clone is really nice too! There's just something about treble boosters that I love, even though I don't use an amp that really needs one. They just sound good to me. They add something to my tone that I really enjoy.

As I've said before the journey originally started when I wanted to build a Diaz Texas Ranger, but didn't want to mess with the switchable input caps. I decided to poorly modify a Naga Viper to get kind of the same effect. Then I decided to build a Screaming Bird clone to get some December builds done, as it was a super simple circuit I could build indoors on a cold day. From there things just went a bit crazy with how much I like them. I decided to finally mess with the switchable input of the Diaz Texas Ranger and I'm super glad I did because I love that circuit. I also decided to build a Rangemaster clone, which is the Grandfather of all treble boosters. My most recent treble boosts have been the Vox treble boosters, which I liked so much I built two of them.

Now I've decided to scour the layout websites for as many treble booster circuits as I can. I came up with two Brian May style treble boosters, a FAL treble booster, a Hornby and Skewes Treble Booster, the Maxon treble booster, and the Throbak Strange Master. Is that enough treble boosting? Sure they don't sound drastically different from one another, and they do the exact same thing; they boost the treble. Why do I feel the need to build so many? I couldn't tell you. Maybe it's the creator complex of feeling like I've actually done something with my life once a circuit is done, coupled with the fact I truly like what a treble booster does to my tone.

Recently I built a transistor version of the EHX Muff Fuzz, to see how it stacked with the op-amp version I built a while back. I think it worked out pretty nicely. This has me wondering what it would be like to stack a pair of, or a few, treble boosters together. Too much like an icepick to the ear drum, you think? I honestly don't know how pairing treble boosters can be a good thing, but I guess at some point I'll find out. For now, I'll keep looking for treble boosters to build.

Let's Talk About Electra Distortion Clones

When it comes to the Electra Distortion circuit I'm very late to the party. I mean so late that the party was 30 years ago, but I still showed up in a Hawaiian shirt with my RSVP in hand type late. I have always been amazed at how simple circuits can sound so good, and so different with small tweaks, and the Electra circuit is a great example of that. I've unknowingly built a few in the past, because I was so unfamiliar with the topology. I just thought they were really good sounding little circuits with very low component counts. I guess we all learn at our own pace.

Lately I've been in a bit of a transistor usage mood, because I have so many of them laying around. I have a good stock of 2N3904s, and some that I consider specialties such as BC108s, BC109s and 2N2222. While most people probably wouldn't consider them anything special, I think any transistor that costs more than a dime each certainly is. I've been looking for almost any excuse to use up the D1302 and C1740 transistors that I have, because they're perfect for an Electra circuit. The only slight problem is they're ECB pinout, but because Electra circuits are low component circuits, all I need to do is swap a few things around and it works just fine.

The latest one I have built is a COT50 clone. Again, I'm impressed with the sound that comes out of this little circuit. On the list to still be built I have a Lovepedal Woodrow, Tchula and a Mythos Golden Fleece. All of which I can't wait to get started on, but I have to pace myself or I'll be building 100 circuits just this one year. I swear I would, if I'm not careful. Last time I took a count on how many projects I had left I was sitting at a total of 45 this year, the same as last year. Since then I've added even more. Will building over 50 a year serve any purpose? I don't know, but there's no excuse not to, I guess. If you know of any good Electra circuits let me know!

One Delay Is Not Enough

I think I've made it abundantly clear that I'm a fan of Gary Moore. Along my journey of building guitar pedal clones I've been known to build a few pedals simply because they were on Gary Moore's pedalboard. The newest addition to that club is my Deep Blue Delay clone. Although I've already built a few delay pedals, that doesn't mean I shouldn't build another one. Right? My delay pedal journey started with a cheap one I bought off Scamazon, then I built my Disaster Transport Jr., then the Faux Analog Echo, and I like them all. These are all PT2399 based delays, but they still all have their own thing. I've never used an analog delay, so I can't say how closely an PT2399 based delay comes to sounding like an analog, but the repeats don't sound perfectly replicated as it decays, so it's at least trying.

The day started out sunny and comfortable, so I decided to get out and build the Deep Blue Delay. Everything went fine, actually better than I expected. When testing time came I used one of the fake TL072s from Scamazon I have an abundance of, to see if the pedal passed sound. Thankfully it did. Then I installed the PT2399 to see if it would echo, which it did. Except... the repeat control did nothing and the repeats were a bit lower than the dry signal, even when Mix was maxed out. I did a quick knifing between the gaps and realized I didn't put a resistor where it actually should go. One mistake is all it takes! I moved the resistor up one spot and voila! It works perfectly now. The repeats can now be varied, and the volume of the delays came up too. It's a really nice delay!

When it came to the op-amp in this one, it was suggested to use an OP275 or AD712, which wasn't going to happen. I know when a circuit doesn't have a lot of gain one of my fake TL072s will work just fine. It's a delay pedal, not a distortion, so I'm glad these fake chips are useful for something at least. I still have one more PT2399 that I'm not sure what to do with, but I'm sure I'll find it a purpose at some point. I truly think unless it's a Memory Man clone I don't need any more delay pedals. I say that now, but the future is always probable to change.

This is circuit build number 115. Remember when I was excited to get my 100th build completed and be completely done with builds? HA! I was so naive a few months ago. With 115 builds done, I have 15 builds left to go. I know, I know. Trust me, I know. I'm currently going through a bit of a phase with two well known, and easily modded, circuits. I'll be posting more about them in their own entries later.

A Pickup Review: DiMarzio HS-3

When I was about thirteen I asked my brother to teach me how to play guitar. Part of his instructions included a list of guitarists to listen to for inspiration. Many of those guitarists are still favorites of mine to this day. Randy Rhoads, Paul Gilbert, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Vernon Reid, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jake E. Lee, the list goes on and on. The one whose speed caught my attention the most at that age was Yngwie Malmsteen. After years of listening to Yngwie I had decided I needed to add a strat to my arsenal. Naturally I want an Yngwie strat, but that was, and still is, far beyond my realm of attainability.

This led to a pair of attempts at what I called Project YJM on a budget. I took any strat style guitar and tried to make it look and sound as close to a YJM strat as I possibly could. The key ingredient though has to be pickups. While I see a lot of people getting really close to Yngwie's tone with stock pickups, I felt my projected needed DiMarzios for authenticity. I eventually found an HS-3 in stock on Scamazon, so I bought it. When it arrived I couldn't have been happier. My banana yellow partscaster was finally ready to have its day as my YJM strat clone. Once the pickup was installed I noticed two things; firstly this pickup was microphonic, like REALLY microphonic. Secondly I noticed just how weak the pickup was. I knew it was a low output pickup, but I didn't know it was this low output. 

To say the least, I hate this pickup. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I bought it, but apparently I didn't. Unless you have another HS-3 or HS-4 in the other positions it's impossible to match the volume and gain. Currently my project YJM strat has a cheap unknown brand single coil in the neck and the HS-3 in the bridge. I can't lower the neck pickup enough, nor raise the HS-3 enough to get them to match. It's such a weak pickup. I understand the concept behind it; allow the preamp and amp to do the overdrive, not the pickup, but I honestly think a pickup's contribution to the overdrive is part of the whole package. Sure, Yngwie's tone sounds great, but this pickup just doesn't appeal to me. Not anymore.

Another of my favorite guitarists, Jero Ramiro, plays what appears to be a YJM strat, and it sounds like a YJM strat, but every thing I can find says he's not using the HS-3, and I can see why. I hate to dump on this pickup, but I just can't see why this pickup costs as much as most other strat pickups and does far, far less, and even then it's less than that. 

I did search around as to why this HS-3 was microphonic the word "fake" was floated around in a few places. The reality being I don't think anyone could possibly fake such a low output pickup. You have to plan to fail as badly as the HS-3 fails, you can't fail this badly on accident. I contacted DiMarzio and they said to send it to them for potting. This was during the pandemic, so that was an impossibility, and thus this pickup is what it is. And certainly at some point this pickup won't be in this guitar anymore.

If you're considering a DiMarzio HS-3, try to find someone who has one, or try a guitar store that has something with one installed already in stock. It might be your dream pickup, but for me it just fails on every level except for the fact it's kind of got me addicted to humbucking single coil pickups. That is this pickups one singular saving grace. I guess.

Pedal Builders Anonymous: Admitting I Have a Problem

Hello, I am addicted to building pedal circuits. I suppose there are far worse things to be addicted to, but it has become a bit of an obsession as of late. About a month ago I had seven builds left to go. I've since built ten circuits and I now have twelve left. See what I'm talking about? I swore 2024 wouldn't have anywhere near as many builds as 2023. I just checked and if I complete all of my current kits that I've put together, I'll be at the exact same number of builds for both years. That's if I don't add any more to the list!

My most recent build is the Cornish CC-1 clone. It was one of the last larger builds I have on the list. Everything works, with the exception of I had wired the bass control backwards. Mine does have a bit of a clean bleed that I've not heard in the demos of the actual pedal. I've x-acto knifed the gaps and made sure everything is in the right place, but still the clean bleed persists. It's not a bad circuit, it's just not exactly what I was expecting.

This one is short because if I talk any more I'll give away the plot to a few upcoming posts. Stay tuned, take care of yourselves and hug the ones you love. If you can. My arms don't stretch 2000 miles, so I can't. Currently. But she's more than welcome to come get that hug!

A Little Fuzzy Muff Diving

I don't know if many of you will remember the op-amp Muff Fuzz I built a few years ago, because I had nearly forgotten about it myself. Anyway, I remembered there was also a transistor version, so I decided it was time to try that version for myself. The goal with this was to see how the two differed and try to be clever by putting together two Muff Fuzz circuits to see what happy accident I could create. The problem being, Electro-Harmonix already thought of this and made a pedal called the Double Muff decades ago, so I'm S.O.L. there. Undeterred I still needed to test how different a transistor version sounded from the op-amp version.

Well, they do sound different. I read one review of the transistor Muff Fuzz as a fuzzy overdriven amp with a torn speaker, and that pretty much hits the nail on the head with this clone I've built. I used old transistors, as I do, which were in the 500 HFE range. Almost all of the resistors were used stock as well, with the exception of needing to make the 2.7k, because it's a super odd value although it shows up sometimes. I used 82nf caps instead of the two 100nf, because I'm all out of 100nf. I'm temporarily using an A100k volume, but I will be removing it later. So there are clearly reasons why this sounds different, apart from op-amp vs transistor, but I didn't know just how different they would sound until I tested them together.

I first tested them each on their own, to get a base line of what each sounded like. Then I tested with the transistor version running into the op-amp version, which became an aggressive distortion that I quite like. Then I tested it with the op-amp version into the transistor version and it just sounds like a boosted transistor version. The transistor version sucked all the distortion out of the op-amp version and made it sound way too mellow. Now I'm wondering if I should build another transistor version to see what two of those sound like, or if I should build another op-amp version and stick it on the tail-end of the transistor version I already have to get that aggressive distortion I liked so much. In the name of science, I almost have to at least build another transistor version. Seriously.

Freaky Fuzz for the Fourth: Finalized!

In the original post I wasn't exactly sure which input cap I was going to use. After testing I really liked the 22nf and some error/oddball caps I have that are marked 104 (100nf), but read 40nf when tested. I'm not sure if my tester just doesn't like these caps or not, because there genuinely seems to be quite a bit of different between 22nf and 40nf, but that's what I went with. Instead of my original idea to just use the one I liked best I went with an on-on switch to choose between the two.

I usually test my circuits with a strat, so I had to make sure humbuckers didn't make this circuit too bassy. After testing it with humbuckers it sounded pretty good. I even did the Kami test and both the overdrive-ish sound and the fuzz sound came out really nice. I've been thinking about building another and tweaking it a bit to just be an overdrive, but that's a potential project for the future. If I had one complaint about this build it would be that it's a tinge bright. I expected it to be bright with the 22nf input cap, but even when I switch it to the fuzz setting it's still bright. Again, this is only if I had one complaint. For my purposes it's perfectly useable and I'm glad it's my 110th build.

The update is now I have seven projects left to do. Yeah, builds keep being completed, but the project number never goes down. Three of these projects still require parts, four of them should be ready to go. I've seen a few smaller projects I might be adding to the build list. It really depends on size of stripboard, because I really want to find a purpose for my scraps. It also really depends on other parts, but mostly on stripboard size.

Freaky Fuzz for the Fourth

Yadda Yadda Yadda, Sam doesn't like fuzz. WRONG! I've been lying to you, the readers, and myself. I'm sorry. I promise to do better from here on. I've built numerous Bazz Fusses, a Fuzz Face clone, a Muff style clone, and countless other fuzz circuits that I'm currently forgetting. Most of them danced sonically in my head for brief moments before being packed away and forgotten. The Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz however, it's a different beast.

The layout popped up, I searched for demos and immediately I recognized how highly tweakable this circuit is. Which is the whole purpose of the original pedal. In some cases, such as the Diaz Texas Ranger, I love the idea of switchable input caps. I never thought this concept would be what won me over to the dark side of fuzz though. The original layout was a bit much, with all the input caps, so I decided to slim it down and use sockets as the input device. This way I can pick and choose what input cap I like best.

With capacitors ranging from 10pf to 1uf I've decided to go on a bit of a journey. The circuit can sound like a nice mellow overdrive or a hairy, velcro ripping fuzz. The only drawback is if you expect it (by which I mean my slimmed down version) to clean up crystal clear, because it doesn't. It's still a bit fizzy, but it does clean up with the guitar's volume control. Anywhere between 4.7nf to 150nf seems to be my favorite, with each value giving the sound its own unique qualities. I tried a 470nf and that's when we reached velcro territory. I've not been brave enough to get into the 1uf world yet, but I have to try, just to be thorough.

The only changes I will suggest are C4 should be sockets, and to use an anti-log, or C/reverse, taper for gain. There is a teardown video on youtube that states the gain pot is C2k, I used a C1k and it works fine. Other than that it's verified, it sounds pretty good and it's highly tweakable. Once I've decided what value I like best as the input cap I will remove the sockets and solder it in. Either that or I'll find a good overdrive sound and good fuzz sound and make it switchable between those two.

Vox Treble Booster: A Circuit So Nice, I Built It Twice!

Welp, I did it again! Just out of curiosity I checked my parts boards to see if I had enough to do another Vox Treble Booster, and I did. At this point it wasn't even a question, I had to build another. Scraps of stripboard that may otherwise go unused, 1/8th watt resistors and transistors I may otherwise never use. It just felt like I being guided by some supernatural force to build another one. It took all of 5 minutes to solder together and it's a really nice little treble booster.

Dime for size comparison.

 Do I need two of them? Probably not, but I wasn't using the parts for anything else. I did add a 1meg input resistor on the second build, just in case. I figure I'll find a use for them at some point. No biggy!

Double Treble!

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm addicted to treble boost circuits. I can't explain it, I don't know why, I just am. Maybe because the majority of them are simple to build. It's not completely that though as I just love the sound of a treble boost. None of my amps are particularly dark. I guess maybe a top end shimmer seems to connect with me deep down in my soul. I can't fully explain it.

As the 2024 build season continues on I find myself still searching for circuits to build, and the exceedingly simple Vox Treble Booster crossed my path. Super simple, super low components and this particular layout gave me a reason to use parts I'd never used before. My collection of 1/8th watt resistors were going unused, as were my collection of ECB transistors. After finding the tiny little scrap of stripboard I needed I threw it all together. This one doesn't use a potentiometer, so that's even better! I plugged it in and let it sing to me. It is truly amazing.

The next one is a bit of a modification that, admittedly, I'm not sure I got right, but it does a bit of what I want it to do. The Joyo Roll Boost has been on my radar for a while, because it's another super simple circuit. I decided to lower the input cap and see if it works. Well, it does, kind of. The Joyo Roll boost seems to take inspiration from the MXR Micro Amp circuit, and with a lower input cap I find there is a nice shimmery top end. The boost throws my amp into overdrive, as it should, but sustains that treble I'm so fond of, without cutting out all the bass. If anything I'm finding it a bit too bassy, but it is what it is. I like this little one too, but not as much as I love the Vox Treble Booster.

These are circuits 107 and 108, and I still have four kits ready to go, and an additional four projects that still need parts. When I planned to stop at 100, I was dreadfully wrong. That's not a bad thing though, because it's keeping my mind busy. Who knows what else I'll be throwing into the mix, but I'm super glad these circuits worked out. I may tinker with the input cap on the Roll Boost, or I may just leave it alone. We'll just have to wait and see. I have another build planned for the fourth of July, just to have that date in my logs as having built a circuit on that day. I'll post about it on the fourth. Stay tuned. Or don't, I don't control you. I appreciate you though!

Nostalgia Is a Hell of a Drug Part 10: Mom's Porcelain Dolls

As a child I was at the mercy of my parents and their collections. While my Dad mostly collected regrets, Mom was into antique teddy bears and porcelain dolls. The issue being she displayed them on the top bunk of the bunk bed in which I slept for many years during my youth. You should already know how creepy antique porcelain dolls are, but the things they did in the dark was downright unnerving. I believe that items that are well loved by their owners are kind of imbued with a part of that person. Since teddy bears and porcelain dolls whole purpose is to become a favorite item for someone, that only assures these items had some kind of spiritual connection to their past owners. Trust me.

The things started innocently enough, things like I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear porcelain clanking against porcelain. No biggy, maybe I wiggled about while I was asleep. As time went on things became a bit more sinister, such as the ones with criers in them would go off without warning. For those unfamiliar with a crier, it's a cylinder that has a diaphragm in it and when turned 180 degrees the diaphragm slides down and makes a crying like sound as it moves. The effect is only repeated once the item, be it doll or bear, are turned upside down. Meaning since these dolls and bears were sitting upright there should be no reason for their criers to be going off in the middle of the night.

Now, I won't say I ever experienced one peaking over the edge of the bed and watching me sleep, but it's creepy enough to have them moving about and crying for no real reason. I'm pretty certain some of these were trauma aids from one of the world wars, or even many sinking ships of the early 20th century. These weren't 10 year old dolls, back in the 90s, these were 1800s, early 1900s porcelain dolls and raggedy old teddy bears. These were well loved by some mischievous little scamps and after they had outgrown them these items were passed down and eventually sold to my Mother. After which they would haunt me in the darkest hours of the night as I tried to sleep, as a mischievous little scamp myself. I've often wondered what items I've picked up from my many thrift trips that might have some connection to a mischievous little scamp.

Giving Myself a Little Push: Build 106

This year has been a whirlwind; an odyssey filled with ups and down. To get back to myself I've had to keep doing what I love doing and relearning each day how things used to be. A few months ago I only had a handful of builds left to do, but after seventeen builds I now have six builds left to do. I keep adding new ones to the build list because I need something to keep myself busy, you know?

Recently added to the docket was a pedal I had never heard of before; the Keeler Designs Push. A layout popped up when I was looking for circuits to build using my small scraps of stripboard and this one piqued my interest. So I threw everything together and I build it. Joe Perkins does an amazing job at selling this pedal. The pedal itself sounds amazing, but The Darkness posters on Joe's walls, and him throwing in some The Darkness riffs won me over. I had to build this circuit simply because of his demo. Thank you Joe!

The circuit itself is very simple, but the sound it produces is what I would consider far beyond it's circuitry. Clearly it's not, because that's how it works, but my mind is still blown at how so few parts thrown together in such a way can produce such an amazing tonal range. Some circuits I've built in the past have very few components but once they're built the circuit is a complete total beast. I'm super glad I built this one! This build was my 106th total, and like I said earlier I still have six circuits left to build, with a few ideas waiting in the wings still. I seriously don't want to build as many as I did last year, but I'm already over half way there. Is there a pedal builders anonymous?

My Faux Faux Analog Echo

On August 31st last year I built what I consider to be my favorite delay pedal (so far). I love my Disaster Transport Jr. clone, and I like the Mugig delay pedal I bought off Amazon almost five years ago, but I just like the Faux Analog Echo clone more. I do plan to build a Deep Blue Delay clone sometime soon, simply because I have the parts to do so, and maaaaaaybe because I saw one on Gary Moore's pedalboard. I'm not sure it's going to be much different from what I already have, but I figured I may as well build a clone, just to have one. One can not have too many delay pedals, especially when some can be set to a faux reverb.

When it came to housing the Faux Analog Echo clone I wanted mine to look like as close to the original version as possible. Since it's for my use only I don't think there will be any problems with that. So the enclosure had to be orange, the knobs had to be white and I decided to go with a white power input jack as well. The LED placement is in a completely different place, but it is blue just like the original. Once it was all wired up and ready to go I had to insolate the board from grounding out on the bottom plate of the enclosure. I use folded up parchment paper for that, if anyone is curious.

Sure, it might be a bit confusing without spending a little time with it first, as to what knob does what. When I put one of my clone circuits in an enclosure I always set it up to have the same control layout as the original. So if the bottom plate of the enclosure says it's a clone of this pedal, or that pedal, all someone needs to do is look up that pedal and the controls will be the same. Plus I make little instruction sheets for all of the pedals I make. Even though I know these pedals are just for my own personal use it feels nice to create something and give it a bit of the whole "production" treatment. I don't think I'll be producing pedals in large quantities, maybe a few for friends etc., but to feel like I'm giving each pedal a bit of fanfare does feel like I've actually done something.

Sometimes Scraps Work

I have a ton of offcuts from the stripboard I've used throughout the years that are just too small for most circuits, which really limits what I can build. Or does it? A while ago (maybe a year or so) I saw someone solder together two pieces of scrap stripboard. Since then I've always toyed with the idea of finding two pieces that butt up together, could be soldered and used to create a pedal circuit. Recently I watched a demonstration of the Colorsound Power Boost and fell in love, but the smallest layout I could find was eighteen spaces wide, which is six more than my current biggest piece of stripboard. Now was the time to test my soldering skills, and the theory on whether or not it would work.

I found two pieces that fit together the best, which wasn't very well at all, and soldered down the seam. I decided to give myself one column grace to avoid soldering components onto the seam and potentially accidentally breaking one of the necessary seam solder joints. As I tend to do with projects like this, I worried this project was doomed from the start so I avoided doing it for a week or so. In the interim I built an MXR Micro Amp clone. It was slapped together using the small scraps I have and spare parts. Instead of the C500k potentiometer it usually requires, I used a C250k and it works pretty well.

Forgive the messy solder, but it should be easy
to see where I seamed the two boards together.

Enough waffling about that build, I decided it was time to either do one of the larger builds, ala my Zoar or CC1 clones, or finally get down to business and complete the Power Boost. I chose the Power Boost, and it went together a lot better than I expected. I was worried I would get too close to the seam and cause a catastrophe, but I never broke any of the seam solder joints. Thankfully! When it came to testing the circuit it works really well, but there are a few issues that need addressed. The layout suggests using a B10k for the gain, or try anti-log. I can already tell I'm going to be removing the B10k pot and trying one of my anti-logs. The A100k I had for the master volume is a bit janky, so I'll need to replace that later down the road, or figure out what's going on with it as it's not working properly at the moment. The bass control also seems to be a bit weak, but that could be my fault somewhere in the soldering. I didn't do much troubleshooting as I was pretty glad it worked at all.

Apart from the few things that need fixed, it does work. It gives that Colorsound Power Boost overdrive and as soon as I get everything fixed it will be a success. I'm still undecided on whether I'll be using this method in the future to create more stripboards for other projects. I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I do prefer to give myself an extra column to make sure I don't solder too close to the seam, which might be too much for some circuits to fit inside an enclosure. For those of you keeping track this is build number 104 and I have seven more kits I've put together left to build. I know, the build number goes up, but the kits I've put together doesn't go down. Funny that, isn't it? I have a modified circuit that I'm really excited to try, but nervous I didn't get the layout right. As much as I love the input cap idea for the Texas Ranger, I'm not a fan of it for a Fuzz Face, but the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz is just that. So I've taken a layout and omitted the input caps and I'll be socketing the input cap to see which one I like the best. I call mine the Tweaked Fuzz. I just hope I did the layout right. *gulp*

Mystery Build: Fruitful or Failure?

Apart from the Univox Unicomp, every build this year had been functional, for better or worse. Worse being the case of the Bazz Fuss rebuild. I check pedal layout sites everyday, throughout the day looking for ideas on what to build next. Even though I've already built my 100th circuit I still want to keep building. I really should stop, but in my current situation I have to find something to keep my mind occupied as much as I possibly can. Months ago a layout popped up that caught my attention, and as I do I downloaded the layout to get the stripboard cut and gather the parts. A few days later the layout was removed from the website and I was left holding the bag, or rather bags of parts.

I don't know why it was removed, it's really none of my business, but at that point I was already too invested to not go ahead with the build. For months I agonized, not from this build but with life in general. Paralleling that was a slight agony from having this build bagged up and ready, but not knowing if it would become a waste of parts or not. I can't look at a layout and say "Yep, that's viable!", or "No, that simply won't do. Move this here and that there and voila!". I consider myself the da Vinci of paint by numbers, when it comes to building circuits. I can solder the parts in place, but if the layout is wrong I can't begin to tell you why, or where. Luckily for me there is a community out there that want to verify layouts quickly, but for this particular one, that was impossible.

I recently decided it was time to stop agonizing and start solderizing. Does that work? I'll go with it anyway. Everything seemed to fight me, and I know from past experiences that if things are fighting me during a build, it's not going to turn out the way it should. There was even a brief thunderstorm during the build to kind of drive home the point that this just wasn't going to work. I persisted and finished the build. During the testing phase my assumptions were proven right. The output was very low and things didn't quite work the way they should. I looked the board over and realized I was a dope and didn't install one of the capacitors right. (Remember the da Vinci comment I made earlier?) The problem being if it works with the capacitor in wrong, fixing it wasn't going to completely cure this build's ailments.

After the capacitor situation was fixed I tested the circuit again and there was no change. With both the volume and gain maxed the output was below unity, with very little overdrive. I did my standard x-acto knife through the gaps and cleared away any unseen solder bridges, but that didn't help either. I sat there for a moment fiddling with the controls and when I moved the bass potentiometer it came roaring to life, but only briefly. Something about the bass control was messing up the output? It was then I noticed a rather large solder bridge that I somehow missed before, so I broke out the soldering iron and cleared it away. Afterwards the output was much better, and the gain control added a little more dirt. The problem now is even after clearing that solder bridge and getting more output volume, the bass potentiometer controls the gain somehow. *shrug*

The circuit functions, the pots do approximately what they're meant to do, and it gets somewhat close to what it's supposed to clone. I wouldn't call it a complete failure, because the issues I initially had were of my own doing. The bass control also controlling the gain isn't something I quite understand yet, and may never will. I'm hoping it's an easy fix, but I've been over the board a few times to make completely sure I placed everything where it should be. If it were a complete loss, like the Univox Unicomp that doesn't work at all, I would be far more frustrated. If that were the case I would have completely dismantled this build and distributed the parts to other projects that need them. Maybe at some point in the future I'll be able to explain what it is, and maybe even get some support on the build, but I won't be holding my breath. Mostly because holding your breath is a bad thing.

The 100th Circuit Build!

A handful of years ago I first heard the name César Díaz while watching a rig rundown for Warren Haynes. César Díaz was a guitarist turned tech; his name mostly being associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan as his amp tech. After doing some research on the Díaz amps I found he also did pedals, the first of these that caught my attention was the Texas Ranger. This was César's take on the tried-and-true Dallas Rangemaster treble booster. The circuits are approximately the same, but with a switchable input capacitor that allows the player to dial in the amount of bass they want. For quite some time now I've wanted to build a Texas Ranger, the main problem was I didn't want to mess with the rotary switch. Instead I added a toggle switch to a Naga Viper clone, which wasn't a very well thought out mod, and called it the Texas Rattler, my take on César Díaz's take on the Dallas Rangemaster. Essentially it's the same idea, but the Naga Viper uses a potentiometer to blend between tone caps, while the Texas Ranger uses a rotary switch, and mine just kind of, well does whatever it does.

Recently I went through a circuit build spree and decided I finally needed to build a Texas Ranger clone. In my previous post I acknowledged my lack of ability to create a layout from a schematic, so I used a layout for a Dallas Rangemaster and just swapped the parts values over. I had my layout looked over by the DIYPedals community on reddit and once it was approved I decided it was time to get to work. I was scared of things not working out very well, so I ordered a handful of varying transistors from Tayda Electronics, just in case. I know from experience that most of them work and sound essentially the same, but sometimes you need a BC108 or a 2N2222a for the cool factor, you know? Oh yeah, I also bought an Alpha rotary switch. I'm not half-assing this build.

The build was fairly easy, except nobody, myself included, found the error in my layout until it was literally staring me in the face, but we'll get to that in a little bit. The build went together nearly perfectly, but it seemed a bit out of bias. In the end I settled on a 2N2222a as the transistor of choice and then I went to work on getting the bias correct. I initially tacked on the 4.7k resistor and tested the voltage, getting 7.7v, which was a tad too hot. I went all the way down to 2k, which gave me 6.7v which was still a bit off. I read that the suggested resistor was a 2.2k in the forum post where I found the schematic, which brought me up to 6.98v. Close enough! After giving it a listen I decided that was the resistor I would settle on. Now all I needed to do was solder it in.

And that's when the mistake became glaringly obvious. I had placed that resistor over the solder hole for the input wiring. Yep! Nobody had noticed that mistake. It happens, so I'll have to figure out what to do when I go to put this circuit in an enclosure, but otherwise it works. Well, I mean it functions. You remember the rotary switch I was so worried about? Turns out I should have been, because it's backwards. When I soldered in the capacitors I tested it on my component tester and it worked exactly as the switch should, but once it's in the circuit it's backwards. It makes no sense. I had to painstakingly desolder the lowest and biggest caps and swap them around, which fully remedied it! With the 2N2222a and the correct bias this circuit now sounds great!

I'm super glad I finally decided to build this circuit. I'm even more proud that I created the layout for it, even if it did have a huge mistake, and it's just swapped component values on a Rangemaster layout. I'm completely stoked at how good it sounds, even if the lingering doubt that it sounds anything like a real César Díaz Texas Ranger haunts my thoughts while using it. Although I have to say, my main concern was the low setting (100nf input), but after listening to a demo of both the Texas Ranger and the Texas Twang clone mine sounds really close to the youtube demo I heard. Mostly I'm glad this is my 100th circuit build. If I found a real César Díaz at a thrift store I would certainly pick it up, but I can't afford one on the used gear market. For now, such as with all of the clone pedal circuits I've built, I'll enjoy it for what it is.