100k Views! Thank You!

At some point, I suspect back in late April or early May, this blog hit 100,000 views. A lot of these views come from really old posts that still get the odd hundreds of views in a single day, when spread around on reddit or somewhere. Most of my new posts are very slow burns, as the feed service I was using no longer feeds to my social media, but I know they'll find their readers eventually. I wanted to take a moment and express that I appreciate all the views, no matter how many or few they are. I'm not much of a writer, as my entries clearly display, but this blog has been a great source of solace for me. Hence, Sam's Asylum. It's become a focal point throughout many transitions in my life, and I just hope it's been a resource of many reasons to other people as well. I've tried to make this site as accessible to anyone who needs it as I can.

June of this year will be the fourteenth anniversary of my first post here. Sure, I wish things had gone better, but I'm sure they could have gone much worse. I'm pretty ok with it having ended up somewhere in the middle. I'll just wait to see what the future holds. Even beyond my existence on this world, I hope my insight is useful to someone. I know since publishing many of my posts, especially those often posted across help forums and such, better ways have been found to do what I explained within them. If it gets the job done I'm glad to help, but I would always advise looking for a better, more up to date method.

My initial idea was to chronical my growing interest in thrifting, and showing off what I was finding. I write for TheVintageGamers.com where I had a series called Sam's Scores. There I would show off all the vintage gaming stuff I had found, but I had nowhere to show off the more modern things that site didn't yet cover. Now that website isn't strictly just about vintage gaming, and my blog has turned into more a chronical of my life, my story and my dreams. Sometimes it's a rant, sometimes it's sappy, sometimes it's informative, sometimes it's just plain stupidity, but it's all me. My words, my thoughts all typed by my fingers tip tapping away at the keys while my mind dictates what needs to be written.

So, to all the readers past, present, and future, I humbly thank you for taking your time to read what I've written. I see all the countries you've viewed from. I see whether it's mobile or otherwise. I see what browser you're using, what OS you're using, and even where you were referred to my site from. Thank you. *Sam Elliot cowboy hat tip gif* Thank you!

Some quick stats and oddities:

• First post - June 23 2011
• Total posts - 349 (Including this one - so far)
• Total views at the time of publishing this entry - 106,000+
• Most viewed post - 3234 (Gameboy Color Speaker Repair)
• Most views in a single day - 9806 on August 31st 2023
• Country outside of the US who have viewed my blog the most - Singapore (24,600+ views)
• Oldest Unpublished Draft - September 18 2020

• There is one post with an Easter egg. It looks funny, because it was formatted to have a special message along the left edge. The person for whom it was written couldn't care less, but I had fun making it work.
• Last year I published entries in a certain order to spell out the essentially same secret message on the backend. Again, the person for whom it was done couldn't care less, but I had fun.
• I have written numerous entries simply to get it out of my head and delete, never to be seen.

Purple Smoke Boost Build

This one is a bit of a controversial build, by which I mean there were comments left on the original layout website about how pointless it was to build your own, when the real thing is already so inexpensive. Well to each their own, right? The original layout is perfboard, and since I absolutely hate building on perfboard I had to make my own stripboard layout. I know it's low component count but it's still difficult for my brain to translate it all over, and take into account all the jumpers and cuts. I have a habit of overthinking and under focusing. After a little while I managed to make the stripboard layout, but I completely forgot to get it verified by eyes and minds far better at this stuff than my own. Surely that won't come back to haunt me!

I'm a huge fan of low component count circuits that affect the tone in useful ways. This pedal was right up my alley. I have built plenty of boost circuits in the past, but this was one that I just had to build for no other reason than I could. Again, very few components, self made stripboard layout and I was ready to build it. It had been months since I made the layout, and it only dawned on me as I was putting it together that I forgot to get it verified. It didn't take me long at all to put this together, which is when the nerves started to act up. Was this going to work or not? It worked just fine. The confidence boost I got off of this is better than the boost effect itself. I can translate a perfboard layout to stripboard if I take my time. If you're a stripboard builder like me and you've wanted to build a Caline Purple Smoke clone, here you go. It is now officially verified.

The Joy of Discovering Joy Clark

Since I bought my Peavey JF1 EXP (aka Cherrie King) I've been doing a ton of research into semi-hollow guitar players. I'm looking for ideas on how to get the best out of Cherrie. What effects, what amps, what types of songs sound best with a semi-hollow. While my intentions are blues and rock, I'm also open to finding new ways to help express Cherrie's voice. I'm well aware of Freddie King, B.B. King, Warren Haynes, Larry Carlton, and Trini Lopez, but during one search the Google image results showed a new face that piqued my interest. A woman holding a blueburst D'Angelico semi-hollow, with a radiant presence by the name of Joy Clark. I let it sit in my mind for a couple of days, by which I mean I kind of forgot, before I went searching for some of her live performances on youtube.

What I found was the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival 2022. I settled in and watched, mostly hoping to see if I could capture a glimpse of what pedals she was using. First off, she was using a cherry red Epiphone with P90s that sounded really good. Her pedalboard seemed to be split into a few tiny ones, none of which I could tell exactly what they were. Her amp looks like a Fender tube amp, which also sounded good. What I didn't expect though was for her performance to completely enrapture me. Her energy, her smile, her voice, her playing style, her tone, everything about this performance made me forget what I had originally set out to do. I have to admit two of her songs: Watching You Sleep and Good Thing, had me in tears throughout.

My musical tastes are broad, but I never thought I would become so caught up in a performance. Joy Clark is more than just a singer-songwriter, she's a performance artist. I'm grateful her music came into my life. Just a simple internet search for semi-hollow guitar players became far more meaningful than I expected. I still don't know what pedals she uses, but I don't really care because it's more about her playing style, her energy and her presence to me now. And her garsh dang enchanting smile! Most of her set was acoustic, but she did start off with her Epiphone and brought it back toward the end. The search to find out how she made that Epiphone sing was abandoned the second she started singing. From then on, she had me in the palm of her hand, hanging on every word, reliving my own pain through her words. In a cathartic way that is. This was the joy of discovering Joy Clark.

My Advice to New Guitar Players

We all start somewhere, and I think it's best to start as close to where you want to be as possible. For example: if you want a Les Paul, but can't afford a real Gibson, find an affordable version that gives you all of the things that attracted you to the Gibson Les Paul you want. My first guitar was a Samick strat copy and while I enjoyed that guitar, it was simply an affordable entry to the hobby. I hate to go all "Back in my day..." on you here, but good quality guitars are way more affordable now than they were back in my day. When I started, to find a brand new guitar with anything other than a bolt-on neck you had to look at about the $1000 price range. So if your dream was a Gibson Les Paul you often ended up with a bolt-on neck Epiphone that really only taught you how to tune your guitar every 5 minutes. There were set-neck Epiphones, but that was something you had to beg your parents to help you buy. Their quality was also hit or miss. You either got a good one that inspired you to play, or you ended up looking at it and wondering why you ever wanted to play in the first place.

If you're not overly concerned about buying brand new, there is the used guitar market. There is nothing wrong with a used guitar, but you don't want to inherit someone else's problems. Used guitars can be a great investment, upgrade, or addition to your collection, but they're usually priced accordingly. If something seems like a deal too good to be true, it often is. That's not to say good deals aren't out there, you just have to be vigilant on what you're spending your money on. Check the neck and make sure it's not twisted or overly bowed, the frets are in decent shape, and make sure there aren't any hidden modifications from previous owner. With Rosetta, my Washburn A20, someone used a drill press to route for a Kahler, then filled it with auto body filler once they realized it was a mistake, and painted over that with Krylon Granite paint, before selling it to a pawn store. Another thing is don't be afraid to modify a guitar to suit your needs, but also be aware it could possibly harm the playability, or value of the instrument. In the end it's your guitar and your money, do with it what you will to suit your needs.

Now you've bought your dream guitar, or as close as you can afford, and it inspires you to play, learn and write your own songs. You're going to want an amplifier that inspires you just as much. I've had a few stinkers in my days, but my first real 1x12 combo was a Crate GX-30M, which was fairly decent. Although the clean was nice, the overdrive channel was HORRIBLE. And again, decent amplifiers are far more affordable now than they were back in my day. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of stinkers out there, but there are also a ton of good quality, affordable amps that give the player a lot of options. Whether you want an amp with a ton of tonal options like a Line 6, or a Boss Katana, or you want a tube amp as a powerhouse platform for your effects pedals or processing unit, there are a ton of options out there at affordable prices. We're at a point where so many companies offer really good affordable options for gig worthy amps that can do almost anything you need. It's a buyer's market.

If you're going with something like a Line 6, Boss Katana, or any number of other multi-units out there today, you're probably already good to go. If you're using your amp as a platform for effects, then you're in luck there too! I prefer the DIY effects pedal route, but that's just me. There are a TON of effects pedals on the market today that offer a vast variety of tonal options. Back in my day the "cheap" effects pedals came in plastic housings but were still kind of pricey, and they often times didn't sound very good. Today inexpensive pedals can sound almost identical to the expensive ones. I think the key is do the research on what fits your needs and budget. Get out there and test out some pedals and buy what you like best. Or you could always build them, like myself and a lot of other DIY guitar nerds.

You've got your guitar, your amp and all your effects sorted, so what's next? Basics like a tuner, learning how to do your own restrings and setups are really just about all you'll need. If you're uncomfortable adjusting your guitar you can take it to a tech, but if you're a little more hands on there are a lot of videos on the internet that can help you sort out almost any problem that may arise with your guitar. From the basics to modifications to complete restorations, the internet has it all covered. Choose what you're comfortable with and go from there. Through my years, and many hobbies, guitar has always stuck with me. I'm not the rock star I set out to be, but I have enjoyed my time invested. That's not to say it won't pay off someday, but at this point all that I've learned and all that I've done have been a benefit to my life. Take it as seriously or not as you want, the key point is just like with anything in life, and that is to enjoy your time invested.

Careless Capacitor Calamity

May is more than half way over, and I'm on track with my builds for 2025. I recently put together my third for the month, an Englishman by Lovepedal clone. When I went to test it I quickly realized I had made a careless mistake. With the last three builds I've somehow managed to place an electrolytic capacitor in wrong. With each build I carefully went over the components and realized I was off by a singular spot each time. Once it was rectified the circuit worked perfectly. I'm not sure how I can place everything else perfectly fine, with the exception of one singular capacitor. And to have made the same mistake three times? I'm sure there is some kind of lesson to be learned in there somewhere.

I currently have 135 circuit builds completed, and an additional 13 to finish this year. This leaves me two builds away from my goal of 150 total builds since I started. I'm not going to count the 5F1 build as a built circuit, but I do know I've included some misc. things that might not be an effects pedal circuit. I'll deal with that when I get to it, because I may have to add a few more than just two builds to the schedule. I'm not sure exactly what I'll build to sure up those numbers, but something will cross my path. If I'm being honest I can't wait for this all to be done so I can go back through and troubleshoot the circuits from years ago that still don't work. All in due time. Onward we go! Until next time!