Pickup Predicament Part II: Palpable Progress

In part 1 I was trying to find the best budget PAF style pickups for my Peavey JF1-EXP, yet still sound the way that I want to. Typically when someone reads budget they assume that and sounding the way that I want to simply don't go together, my goal was to find those exceptions. What I want out of pickups is mostly based on my Les Paul, and her Burstbucker Pros. No, they're not the most accurate, but they do give me a good idea of the character that I want from PAF style pickups. Since then I've installed the Tesla VR-60 Classic into my JF1-EXP, and while I didn't love it, I also didn't hate it. After spending some time with it I've grown to appreciate it. The main issue is that a Les Paul is not a semi-hollow, so my tonal requirements for my JF1-EXP had to adjust accordingly.

Since I replaced the bridge pickup the neck pickup, which I actually liked, just wasn't cutting it anymore. The stock pairing of two ceramic magnet, brass covered humbuckers wasn't bad, in terms of tonal output matching. The issue came when the Tesla VR-60 Classic is Alnico 5, and has a nickel-silver cover, which made the neck pickup sound way too muddy by comparison. I've always felt this neck pickup was probably inspired by an old PAF that Hartley Peavey liked, and made in the far east for their import line. With a DC resistance of 7.98k it's on the top end of what's supposedly neck PAF territory. We know DC resistance doesn't dictate tone, and PAF resistances varied wildly in both positions. The main point being it's not a 13k stock neck pickup, like one of my Ibanez guitars had. It's apparent some care was taken to give this neck pickup a PAF feel.

Given that I liked this pickup, I didn't want to simply abandon it. It's within the parameters that I feel have potential to give me the sound that I want. So what could I do to find out what this neck pickup was capable of? Well, the first thing I did after replacing the stock bridge pickup was remove the old one's cover. Curiosity caught up with me and I wanted to see what was underneath. I figured I'll try that with the neck pickup, so I did. What I found was essentially a bar of wax. I had to carefully chisel away large chunks of wax, which I saved for any potential needs in the future. After the majority of the wax was cleared away, and the bobbins were cleaned off, it actually looks really nice. Did it drastically change the tone? No, but it does sound better.

Without the cover there is now a noticeable treble balance that was missing. It didn't transform it from a generic pickup into a boutique PAF style wound on the original machines or anything though. In the middle position there is a lot less woolly bully coming from the neck. There still is some, but it no longer dominates the bridge pickup's tone. All it takes is dialing the neck volume down to 8 and it's decent. On the neck position it's not as open and vocal as I want it to be, but there is a very useable tone. Single notes ring out and sound pretty good, but not chords. Under a moderate, bluesy crunch it's still kind of muddy while playing chords. I think with a few further tweaks this set of stock, uncovered neck pickup and the VR-60 Classic in the bridge position will give me all the righteous tones I'm looking for out of a semi-hollow. No it's not perfect, but I'm not a professional needing impeccable tone either. All I need is a tone that pleases my ears, and doesn't offend anyone within earshot.

TESLA VR-60 Classic Review

For most of 2026 I've been trying to find the best budget PAFs for two of my guitars. One of which is a bridge pickup replacement for my Peavey JF1 EXP, aka Cherrie King. The stock neck pickup sounds fairly decent, but the 15k mud beast in the bridge has to go. Since Cherrie is my ES-335 style guitar, I'm aiming for that PAF blues/blues rock tone. In my research I've listened to everything from Gibson Burstbuckers and Custombuckers, Epiphone Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros, Toneriders, Wilkinson, Roswell, Duncan Designed HB-101s and Seymour Duncan 59s, Donlis, Fleor, GFS, Guitar Madness, Artec, the list goes on and on. Nowhere in the vast market of affordable PAFs was TESLA ever mentioned. That is until my brother happened across some and bought a brand new VR-60 Classic for me to test out.

Being completely unfamiliar with TESLA guitar pickups, I decided to do a bit of research into what all they make. It appears they're a well liked brand, and Harley Benton sometimes even uses TESLA as OEM for their pickups. A lot of their pickups, even some PAF inspired ones, seem to be too hot for my needs. They do make a handful of PAF inspired options that seem to fit my needs, but with some quick research it seems the VR-60 Classic is the closest option to a PAF that they offer. Is that true? I'm not entirely sure, but it's what I've got, and I guess we're about to find out.

I was excited to test this thing out, but the main hurdle is the whole semi-hollow pitfall. Being restricted to working through the F-hole was a nightmare. The first issue was the pot falling into the body cavity, initiating an infuriating game of cat and mouse. I chased the pot around for a while, but I did eventually fish it out. Even though Peavey used 16mm Alpha pots, they still barely fit through the F-hole. Once the old pickup was desoldered I followed the TESLA wiring diagram online. Red is hot, so it goes to the volume lug. Green and bare are heat shrinked together, so they go to the back of the pot. White and black are paired together for our series link, so we leave them alone. Once the soldering was done I plugged the guitar in and tapped on the pickup to make sure it worked, thankfully it did. I adjusted the volume pot to make sure I didn't fry it, and thankfully it still worked.

Going from the 15k mud beast to the VR-60 Classic was a change, but it wasn't as drastic as I was expecting. The VR-60 Classic does have a ton more clarity and harmonic definition, maybe too much. It sounds good, but does it have that PAF magic? I decided to pull out my Les Paul with Burstbucker Pros and tested them side by side, or as side by side as I possibly could. Given they're both Alnico 5, and roughly the same resistance, I figured this was close enough. They sound similar, but not identical. The BB Pro attack is noticeably softer. Is it down to the differing body woods? Maybe. However, the main issue was when I checked the middle switch position I noticed it was out of phase. On my Les Paul the out of phase sound is a feature, not a bug, but I don't want that on Cherrie. This led to yet another frustrating removal of the volume pot, an additional infuriating game of cat and mouse, then a tense removal of the green wire from the heat shrink it was in with the bare wire. Although there is plenty of lead, I was worried I was going to snap the wire and have to keep cutting it back to reveal more and more, until there wasn't enough left. After swapping the red with the green wires everything was fixed.

Now, my only experience with PAF style pickups are my Burstbucker Pros, and while not the exact recipe Seth Lover put together all those years ago, they give me a pretty good idea of what I personally want from a PAF style pickup. Lets face it, there was no QC when it came to PAFs, back in the 50s/60s. Whatever came off the winder was put together and voila, a PAF was born. The magic, or in some cases detriment, was the lack of manufacturing standards; it teetered on the brink of chaos. Most affordable PAF inspired pickups today follow the basic formula, but leave out the chaos that made PAFs what they are. Does the TESLA VR-60 Classic sound like a PAF? Kind of, but not really. It's built to a stringent standard, so the chaotic nature of mismatched winds per bobbin, and chaotic nature of the windings themselves aren't there. It's a low to medium output humbucker with an Alnico 5 magnet that certainly tries its best to be a PAF. It doesn't sound bad by any means, but if TESLA had shown up during my research, the VR-60 Classic would have been lost in the shuffle of mass produced, affordable PAF style pickups.

Small Guitar Amps: Trash em or Thrash em?

I like small amps and I can not lie. There are amps like the Marshall MS-2 and my Lyon AMP3, which are functional but they're really not meant to be taken seriously. Then there is my Fender Mustang Mini, which is small, portable, can be operated by power adapter or batteries, sports a handle that doubles as a kickstand, but was actually built to rock. If I had one complaint it would be that it's not very loud. Don't get me wrong, it's ok if I'm rocking out alone, but it's not compete with a drummer loud. Then comes the BC-08 I was given, which is, well there's something seriously wrong with this amp. It sags under minimal stress, and the tiny speaker is pretty horrible, bit it's a neat little novelty. Then I was given a Silvertone Smart IIIs, which is pretty okish. The Silvertone isn't anything special, but it did help me test some guitar pedal circuits, so if nothing else it's a good pedal testing amp.

Then came a small guitar amp I had been wanting for a while. I had been seeing these "convert your combo amp into a head" mod videos, most of them use a Fender Frontman 15g or 15r. I was hoping for a 15r so I had a reverb tank, but I ended up with a Frontman 15g. Yeah these amps get a lot of poopoo online, but it's decent and it's loud. Still probably not compete with a drummer loud, but loud. Unlike the others this has a full EQ! I didn't know how much I missed a mids control until I had a mids control on this one. The distortion channel is brittle, but I find with the full EQ I can dial in a fairly decent rock tone, and also thanks to the full EQ I can remove all the mids and get a brutal metal distortion. Oh, I'm sorry a shitty distortion is acceptable when it comes from a Boss DS-1, but not from a Fender Frontman 15g?

Another thing about the Frontman 15g that I like is the fact they use the exact same board as the 15r, just omitting the components for the reverb circuit. Meaning you can populate it yourself, add a reverb tank and make a Fender Frontman 15g/r if you wanted. (I DO!) Amongst the sea of head conversion videos for this amp there is another one that stands out to me. The great Johan Segeborn said he thinks this amp (as part of the Squier Affinity Package) sounded great, then proceeded to make this amp sound great, with the Squier Affinity Telecaster. This gentleman has played some of the best rock amps ever made, and said he thinks this little 15 watt pack-in amp sounds great. I would have to say that I agree, with the caveat: us mere mortals can make it sound great, for what it is.

The majority of my small combo amps are just novelty, with the exception, I feel, of the Fender Mustang Mini and the Frontman 15g. The Mustang Mini is just a compact modeler, not much different from its full sized brethren. The Frontman 15g however truly seems to want to play with the big boys. Yeah the distortion can be brittle, and the cleans aren't all that inspiring, but if you spend a few minutes with the amp you can dial in something decent to use. Many have said it's the speaker holding this amp back, and either change it (most use a Celestion Eight 15) or cut it out entirely (aka the head conversion). I truly believe at its core this little amp has potential, so I've decided against converting it into a head. Maybe if I find another for super cheap I will. Maybe I'll even keep my eyes open for one of the red Frontman 25r combos.

It Smells Like a Muppet's Butthole

It's been over a year since I introduced you to my first semi-hollow guitar Cherrie King, and ever since then she's been leaning against some towels in hopes she doesn't fall over and get damaged. Almost all of my guitars have hard cases, or at least some form of protection, so Cherrie deserves something too. The problem wasn't getting her a case, it's more what case would be fitting for Cherrie? Well, shortly after I acquired Cherrie I binged youtube videos about ES-335 guitars. The one that really stuck with me is Gibson TV's famous guitarists favorite ES-335 guitars. When Charlie Starr opened the case and I saw that marigold interior contrasting the cherry red of his ES-335TDC, I knew that was the case Cherrie needed. Then came researching what my options were. A) I could track down an original 1960s Gibson hard case for an ES-335. B) I could buy a modern Gibson Historic version of the original 1960s Gibson hard case for an ES-335. Or C) I could buy a modern Epiphone replica. Well, the issues there are option A is quite expensive, and I'm notoriously cheap. Option B is also quite expensive, and I'm still notoriously cheap. C) The black and marigold Epiphone cases weren't offered for individual sale, so I would have to buy it with a guitar already in it. If I did find an empty one, something horrible must have happened to the guitar.

Charlie Starr's 64 ES-335TDC

For months I debated my options. Even at one point hoping someone I knew would find the case I want at a thrift store or flea market for a few bucks and give it to me. That didn't happen. As my patience wore thinner I questioned if I would stick to my guns and wait for a black and marigold case, or would I settle for any ES-335 case just to give Cherrie protection? When it comes to ES-335 cases there are so many options out there. Almost any color combo, except the black and marigold like I wanted, can be found fairly inexpensively. I was starting to think maybe I should just settle for whatever inexpensive hard case I could get, and that's when a case of mistaken identity occurred.

While cruising Facebook Marketplace I found a listing for an unsuspecting black hard case that I was pretty sure would fit an ES-335. The other photos displayed both the shape, and the marigold interior. I spent a week debating whether it was what I thought it was, while also trying to talk myself out of it, because there's no way this could be true. I eventually told myself even if it's a complete counterfeit the price is still right for an ES-335 case. I asked the seller for more photos, and... HOLY F**K! Are you kidding me? There was the brass Gibson plaque riveted right to the side of the case. I turned to Google Images to further research 1960's ES-335 cases. I was doing a lot of eye shifting, back and forth between the photos from the seller and the Google Images, trying to find differences to prove to myself this wasn't real. After finding a few 1960s ES-335 cases that matched identically I put the wheels in motion to make the purchase.

Here comes the cautionary moral of the story. After getting the case home I placed Cherrie inside and it was nowhere near a perfect fit, although she looks great in the marigold interior. First of all, it smells like a Muppet's butthole inside. Secondly, these vintage cases aren't that great. It's ok for protecting Cherrie around the house from external bumps, but with the interior being worn down I can hear Cherrie moving inside the case when I pick it up. The latches are "Weapons grade useless", I believe is the term. Apparently over time these handles become super brittle, so I'm avoiding using it, which makes it cumbersome to move around. Was it worth what I paid for it? YES! A million times yes! Am I upset it's not as protective as I hoped? Kind of, but I did add a yellow towel for some extra padding in the places where it's needed. I hope that prevents a whole lotta shakin' going on.

Ooh, that smell! Can't you smell that smell?

Vintage cases can still serve a purpose, just not the one they used to. Keep them safe at home, and not on the road. Again, they'll protect your guitars from bumps at home, keep them clean, etc., but they really serve no purpose beyond home protection, and I guess the prestige of having a vintage guitar case. The most ironic thing is I wanted this case so badly to protect Cherrie, but I really miss being able to grab her from where she used to be leaning and play her for hours on end. Now there are a few more steps, and again it's cumbersome to move the case around without using the handle. Worst of all, when I remove her from her case that Muppet's butthole smell she's been soaking up from inside the case is now right in my face. I got this case for such a good deal I couldn't say no, but even so it's a cautionary tale on losing all expectation when you meet your heroes.

My Pickup Predicament

When I first started playing guitar, pickups were pickups. As long as they made noise, they were good. Eventually I started listening to how pickups did their job, which started my journey to finding my sound. My inspirations span a wide variety, so I've decide to allow each guitar to tell me what their voice is. Being a broke bedroom rockstar I also need to find my sound on a tight budget, which wasn't always possible. Back in the day unless you shelled out money for a guitar already equipped with good pickups, or you shelled out money to buy better replacements, you were stuck with the cheapest space fillers it came with. Most of my guitars still have their stock pickups due to that fact, which is fine for some, but others leave quite a bit to be desired.

 

Such is the case with Cherrie, who I genuinely feel isn't reaching her full potential because of  the stock "Peavey Humbucking Pickups". Every guitar has a personality and a voice, in this case I feel her pickups are actively working against her, and not allowing her true voice to come through. These pickups are just your standard import pickups of the day. They were designed to span all genres and allow the player to decide what they wanted to play. Cherrie truly sounds her best when we're playing something bluesy. It feels as if she relaxes and she's comfortable in her element. The stock pickups aren't horrible, in fact the neck pickup is actually pretty nice, after some adjustments. My main complaints are the neck pickup still gets a bit muddy with chords, and the super hot bridge pickup just doesn't feel right. These pickups would feel more at home in a metal centric guitar, but for Cherrie they're just not vibing.

Given that Cherrie wants to be a blues guitar, she would probably benefit the most from PAF style pickups. The problem being PAFs were never uniform, so the term PAF is a fairly broad definition rather than an exact formula. When it comes to modern PAF copies some people want to argue about nickel-silver content, long legs vs short legs, maple vs plastic spacers, all of the different magnets alloys, winds per bobbin, etc. I've heard real PAFs sound like dying cats, and I've heard super cheap PAF clones sound fairly decent, and everything in between. What's most important to me is how do they sound?  I think Cherrie wants a set of PAFs that give her that Burst Killer tone, while also being a refined blues lady.

When it comes to true PAF copies, I guess most people would look at Gibson, as they're the ones who started this whole mess. If it hadn't been for Seth Lover's partnership with Gibson, who knows what music would sound like today. My Les Paul has Burstbucker Pros in it, and it gives me all that raw PAF snarl that I need, and a touch more, so I would certainly consider Burstbuckers, but they're a bit on the expensive side for me. Hot on the heels of Gibson, I think, would be Seymour Duncan. Seymour Duncan makes a myriad of PAF style pickups, but again some of these aren't within my reach. A lot of people would argue Throbak are superior to both Gibson and Seymour Duncan, I wouldn't disagree, it's just you can't touch a decent set of Throbaks with broke, bedroom rockstar money.

Another brand that makes a lot of PAF style pickups are DiMarzio. The sad fact there is I've never met a DiMarzio pickup that I liked. When I bought my Westone Dana, used mind you, it came with a DiMarzio FRED in it, and I hated it. This has been over 30 years ago, so I can't quite remember why. A few years back I bought a DiMarzio HS-3 for my Yngwie on a budget clone, and I absolutely hated it too. I knew it was super low output, but trying to get distortion from a DiMarzio HS-3 is like trying to fart with a speculum up your ass. I'm not against DiMarzio, they've just never given me what I wanted to hear, so I'll pass.

Again, since I'm a broke ass, we're going to skip all of the boutique brands like Throbak, Wizz, Monty's, Bare Knuckle, Vaughn Skow, etc. I'm going to have to look at the import market. There are some import PAFs that seem to have a really good reputation. Epiphone's Probuckers, ToneRider, and even super cheap $30 ebay no name, or Donlis PAFs all seem pretty decently appreciated. The Amazon route isn't something I oppose. The Powersound humbuckers in my RG270DX sound horrible, so I later replaced them with an Amazon DiMarzio style set that look and sound so much better. This is where waters get muddied, but not in a completely bad way. Having more options is a good thing, and a bad thing, if you're like me. I wish I had $30 per set options that sounded decent when I was a kid. 

My problem is I've been researching affordable PAF style pickups for a few months now, and it's become option paralysis at this point. With manufacturing costs being dirt cheap in the far east, decent sounding pickups for affordable prices are all over the place. Yet there are still caveats of knowing exactly what you're buying. Within my brain there is a battle between being frugal and getting the best price on good sounding pickups, or pay extra to avoid the pitfalls of potentially buying junk and just getting a known good sounding set of PAFs. I want the best PAFs I can get for Cherrie, within my budget, but I don't want to miss out on a really good set that could also save me some money. Probuckers seem great, ToneRiders aren't bad, but the much cheaper Donlis sound pretty good too. Heck, I may already have a set of Donlis PAFs. I bought a set of cream PAFs on Amazon a few years back that. They look exactly like the cream Donlis PAFs that apparently are so good they go head to head with the big boys.

So what do I do about replacing the humbuckers in Cherrie? I don't know! For now, the eternal search continues to find that balance of price and tone. Wish me luck!

Finding the Best Twang for My Buck!

I'm going to start this off by thanking John Spinks of The Outfield. Seeing him play a red Telecaster in the music video for Your Love taught me that Telecasters weren't just for country chicken pickin'. Not that country chicken pickin' is bad, it's just the playing style that I mostly (used to) associate with a Telecaster. Then came John 5, which blew the doors open to the Telecaster being used for all genres. Yeah there's Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Joe Strummer, and Bruce Springsteen, but the one that originally made me stop, think, and genuinely want a Telecaster was John Spinks of The Outfield. While John Spinks made me want a Telecaster, it was seeing Gary Moore playing one that put the plan into motion for me to actually obtain one, thus starting my pursuit of finding the best twang for my buck. See what I did there?

The past few years have been a wild ride and, apart from blogging and building pedal circuits, I've spent a lot of my time researching guitars that I want. B.B. King, Freddie King, Gary Moore, and Warren Haynes made me want a semi-hollow guitar, so I bought Cherrie. Joe Bonamassa and Amos made me want a korina flying v, and I always will. Now I'm delving into the world of Telecasters, and just like with the korina flying v, it's an insanely deep rabbit hole. Unlike the korina flying v, however, I don't feel like I'll never be able to obtain the genuine article. Fender have been making Telecasters forever, and there are so many choices, making this such a deep rabbit hole. I'm currently aiming at the sub $200 market, just to dip my toes. While a Fender Telecaster would be awesome, I'm currently not able to justify buying a guitar of that caliber just to play blues riffs in my bedroom.

The affordable Telecaster market is filled with options. You've got your Squiers, Harley Benton, Xavier SX, Mono Price Indio, Lyx, Donner, Glarry, no name Temu, the list goes on and on. I even debated a First Act Overtone, which is a Telecaster shaped body with Stratocaster adornments. I've seen so many brand options that I finally had to decide what features I wanted most. Ideally I want a butterscotch blackguard, string through the back, with as close to a Fender Telecaster style headstock as possible, with vintage style tuners. Narrowing down to these features took quite a few options out of contention, but there are still so many options. Then I figured parts can be changed, such as the tuners, bridge, pickguard, and pickups, which we'll discuss a little bit later. This understanding further narrowed it down even further. Now I essentially had to sift through a pile of Squiers, and that's totally fine with me because even with just one brand left there are still so many options.

Years ago I bought a Squier Affinity Strat neck from the Goodwill Outlet store, and I'm pretty sure I spent under $1 for it. The profile is a bit slim, but it's not uncomfortable, and I was impressed with the wood Squier used for the Affinity series. Looking at Squiers current Affinity series Telecaster you get a really nice deal, they even offer a butterscotch blackguard! On the used market these things are dirt cheap, and I've seen a few floating around, but there's something off about them. Upon further research the bodies and necks are thinner, and they're 21 frets instead of 22. While these aren't deal breakers, again I'm looking for the best twang for my buck here, so we'll sit the Affinity on the sidelines for now and keep looking. There are the Classic Vibes, the Vintage Modifieds and all kind of really great options, but these all come with really great option prices, so I'll keep looking.

That's when it hit me. I'm not looking for anything extraordinary, I just want something standard. That's it! For about two decades Squier made their Standard series, which included an aged blonde Telecaster at some point. Perfect! It fills all of my Telecaster needs, and what doesn't can easily be changed. You get the Fender backed quality of a Squier, a Telecaster body that strings through the back, the Telecaster headstock on a thicker neck than that Affinity series, and alnico five pickups. Which strangely makes me a bit sad, as I was hoping for something with ceramic pickups. A few years ago I bought a set of cheap, alleged, alnico five Telecaster pickups from Amazon and installed them in my cheap Peavey Rockmaster, which never filled that Telecaster shaped void I'm still trying to fill. I was hoping I could upgrade an inexpensive Telecaster to A5 pickups, but in this case I feel it would be a downgrade.

Now I know what I want, and what I'll be looking for. Again, Squier made these things for almost twenty years, so there are still a ton of options. I've already seen a few Squier Standard Telecasters on Marketplace for $200, give or take. I may still try the Amazon pickups to see how they sound, but I think Squier should already have a decent A5 pickup set inside, but we'll see. For now, I'll continue looking and wait for that right one to pop up and leave no doubt in my mind that it's the right one for me.

Humbling Hubris Through Troubleshooting

Far be it from me to think I'm flawless, in fact I'm well aware that I'm faulty. The only problem is while one side of me is faulty, the other side is very much Basil Fawlty. I generally take quite a while to warm up to the idea that I actually know what I'm doing in any given field, however sometimes when things go wrong I dare to blame everything but myself. When it comes to guitar pedal circuits I'm still a newbie, even after six years and 160 builds, but when things go wrong, even though nothing seems to be wrong, well that's when my hubris tank runneth over.

Since this year's weather has been confused I've had very little chance to get outside and solder any of the pedal kits I've put together for the 2026 season. In the meantime I figured a few short bursts of soldering inside couldn't do my brain any damage. Could it? Well, perhaps it does, as I've found even the simplest of troubleshooting tasks to feel far beyond my grasp of comprehension. Firstly I set my sights on the Univox Uni-comp, as it was a super simple circuit, and if there was a will, there was a way. Sadly it took me entirely too long faffing about with AI trying to get it to work. In the end it works, but I have no clue if it's anywhere near what it should sound like.

After that I set my sights on a slightly modified Lovepedal JTM clone I had built, in hopes of creating an always on bluesy overdrive. I subbed in a 2N3904 for the transistor, two 1N60P clipping diodes, and I added a volume control. It doesn't really need a volume control, because at max it's only unity, but it's working now. It's a decent little overdrive, not to say the JTM wasn't already. I then looked into my EQD Zoar clone, which I was super excited about because they sound amazing. When mine was initially finished, however, it was dead as the Dodo. The main issue was the JFET input. I didn't have any suitable JFETs until recently, so I slapped one into the socket and was met with buzzy, farty goodness! Well, that's a start! A little twist of the trimpot and voila! It came to life and sounded as amazing as I had always hoped. This has been sitting in my Needs Troubleshooting box for two years, and all it took was two seconds to fix it. *face palm*

What may be worse is my Zendrive clone. It worked initially, but I was flustered because I thought the Voice control was bad. I downloaded schematics and went through the comments of the layout, finding more people saying the same thing. After hours of frustrated troubleshooting, reflowing every solder joint, and trying almost everything, without having tested the circuit, I decided I should just wire it up and test it. Well I'll be an idiot, it wasn't the Voice control, it was the Tone control! Ok, so what's wrong with the Tone control? More frustrating troubleshooting later and... I used a 330pf instead of a 3.3nf. Once I swapped that out, it works perfectly. THANK GOODNESS because Zendrives are GREAT!

Other circuits like both my 9v and my 18v Katana Boosts just needed biasing. My Eric Johnson Fuzz Face has a very high pitch oscillation squeal to it, but that may be because it needs a 9v battery, instead of the PSU I normally use, so I left it as it. Then my Colorsound Power Boost, I had written down the bass control didn't work, but apparently it does now? *shrug* I still have so many circuits left to go, like my Boss Blues Driver clone, which is apparently another notoriously finicky circuit. Again, I feel if there is a will, there is a way. Depending on how finicky the circuit wants to be, that may just be a way straight into the trash bin. Let's hope the outcome is a bit brighter side than that though. 

NE555 Projects on 5/5

After 160 circuits built I decided I really needed to start adding more utilitarian builds to my roster. Thanks to tagboard effects I found a voltage inverter and voltage doubler that use the exact same layout, but orient the parts slightly differently to achieve different goals. I've avoided building some pedal circuits because they need a negative nine volts, and I've avoided building others as they require an internal charge pump to double the voltage. I figure, why not build these little circuits and have external options for powering pedal circuits? Especially when it saves me having to buy a charge pump specific IC every single time I needed to achieve either of these voltage requirements.

Both of these circuits require the use of the old tried and true 555 timer chip. These projects sat in my box of 2026 kits for a few months, until I realized it would be neat to build them on May 5th. This wasn't purely my own idea, I have to admit. BigClive inspired me with his video posted today. That, couple with the fact that I had so much fun yesterday using my old RadioShack soldering iron, I figured why not!? Again, both layouts are identical in terms of board size, trace cuts, jumpers and most of the parts. The varying voltage output is all down to how the diodes and electrolytic caps are oriented within the circuit.

There isn't much more to say, if you've checked the layouts at tagboard's website you pretty much see everything you need to. Super simple, super low component count, and (hopefully as I've not tested them out yet) super useful. Now I can build circuits that require negative voltage and eighteen volts without having to worry about powering them properly. I mean, I could build these for each pedal that requires them, and in some cases I may. The main idea though is to have a power box with these options, so I don't need to mess with all that in the future. There are a few other 555 timer related circuits I plan to build, but those will come later. These were just super easy builds I felt deserved to be "born" on May 5th.

Using Archaic Technology!

Since my nephew turned one this year I wanted to build him a simple boost circuit for his birthday. As I've done in the past, for a few friends, I build the circuit on the actual day of their birth so they and the circuit share the same birthday. Typically it's just a simple LPB-1 or a treble boost, nothing too complicated as I'm simply building these mostly for non-musician friends as keepsakes. For little Erik I decided to build him a LPB-1. Maybe someday he'll want me to custom build him something a bit more complex. Heck, maybe by then I'll be building guitar amps too. Who knows!

The LPB-1 being as simple as it is, I didn't want to break out my soldering station and make a big mess, as today was a rainy day, making getting outside a fool's errand. Instead I dug through a little toolbox under my bed and pulled out an old RadioShack 15 watt soldering iron I had barely used before. I found it at the outlet years ago and figured it may come in handy someday. Little did either of us know it would be about ten years before it came in handy, but come in handy it did!

This thing takes forever to warm up, but once it's ready it put plenty of heat into the board and the component to make pretty decent joints. I can't say they're perfect, and sometimes the solder creeped through the hole and onto the actual component being soldered to the board below, but all in all this was a fairly good experience. The tip is conical, which I'm not really familiar with as I prefer a more angled, chisel type, like on my soldering station. Even so, I still have to say this little blast from the past did a decent job.

The joints are a little blobby, but they seem solid. I have to say building the circuit for my nephew, and using the old RadioShack soldering iron made this one of the more enjoyable builds I've done in a while. I probably wouldn't want to use it for anything wildly complex, or high component count, but at least now I know for smaller builds, or maybe even troubleshooting, modifying, or repairs this soldering iron is wholly capable. Now if I could find the chisel tip I like somewhere I think this soldering iron would get a lot more use than it currently is.

Univox Uni‑Comp Vero Nightmare Solved!

It's been sitting in my needs troubleshooting box for over two years, and finally I decided to stare the dragon straight in its eyes and figure out what exactly was going on, or in this case not going on. Many years ago I had built a Really Cheap Compressor and I liked how cheap and effective it was, so when I saw the Univox Uni-comp I decided this would be a piece of cake! Little did I know, initially, it was more like a pile of crap. After this little circuit failed to work at all I went to the search engines and found that, what looks like a very simple circuit on paper, seems to be notorious for not being able to get it right. There are multiple schematics and layouts that all differ, with very poor success rates from what I'm reading as well. I'm not a very smart man, but I am tenacious!

The original layout I used

With legends being passed down from generation to generation that this circuit is indeed viable, I decided to sit down and compare all the schematics and layouts I could find. I made 100% sure that mine was exactly like the layout I used (above), and it was. From there I started tracing things back and forth between all of the layouts and schematics, and I noticed a few things. On the layout I used, the 3.3M is going through a jumper to pin 3, as where all the others went to pin 2. I desoldered the jumper at pin 3, stuffed it through the cut trace beside pin 2, and soldered it where I attached the socket beneath. Then I traced both 1M resistors at pin 3 and realized neither went to ground. The lower of the two went precisely where it was meant to go, so the upper required me to move the top leg down one space, which now gave me the correct voltages on the LM741. I also noticed the LED anode and it's components weren't isolated, so I made a cut to do that.

Once those changes were done, I finally had audio, but just barely. The LED was also behaving like it was possessed. Sometimes stuck on, sometimes refusing to light at all, making me think I’d cooked it. Between the weak output and the LED acting like a mood ring, I was stumped. I checked every schematic and layout again, and everything looked right. That’s when I turned to AI (big ups to Copilot!). I showed it the layout, explained the fixes I’d already made, and after some thinking it told me the LDR needed to connect to Q1’s collector. I scoffed. In none of the schematics or layouts does the LDR go to the collector of Q1. In mocking robot voice: “Error, error, cannot compute.” But the AI was persistent. It suggested disconnecting the LED and LDR entirely to see if the volume came back. Wouldn’t you know it, it did! Not only that, but with the Comp and Level maxed, the thing actually turned into a surprisingly cool little overdrive. That’s a project for another day, but it proved the sidechain was the culprit.

I questioned my use of an MPSA05 instead of an 06, and AI assured me the only thing that needs to happen is the LDR needed to connect to Q1's collector. Fine, we'll try it your way. *eye roll* Well, yet again I was wrong. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it actually works. The LED flickers into the LDR, it compresses, but it is gritty. Could this be the 1N4148s? Who knows. The reality is this little circuit now works, again probably not perfectly. What I had written off over two years ago now actually works. So if you're one of the people who had issues with the Univox Uni-comp, here are the changes to make to the layout above to get you started.

• Add a cut at E12 to isolate the LED and it's components
• Move the Jumper from I6 to H6, connecting to Pin 2
• Move the 1M top leg from D4 to E4, giving the opamp proper voltages
• Connect the top leg of the LDR to C11, connecting to Q1's collector

I will reiterate that this is probably not as close to the Univox Uni-comp as it could be, but it's a good starting point, and it makes the layout above viable. I can officially change my notes on this build from "Doesn't work!" to "Gritty, but works!". Hopefully this helps some of you out there. If it does, please let me know.