New Soundclick page

Hey, I decided the easiest thing would be to make a Soundclick page for my music, since they host all the stuff without any size restrictions. So my new soundclick page is found here. I decided that my new "band" name would be bedside rebellion after a visit to my brother's house where they were trying to put rowdy kids down for bed. I thought it had a nice ring to it. I will put up more songs as time goes by, but for now there are several to get started on. Let me know what you think.

My New Stompboxes

Well, I recently finished two of the four or five stompboxes that I have planned. The first one was a design from runoffgroove.com called the Double D. It is a 4049 based dual channel distortion circuit. The first channel is a nice mild overdrive that is extremely responsive to picking dynamics while the second channel is a very high gain channel perfect for hard rock and metal. It is very versatile pedal.

The second pedal is a replica of the Way Huge Red Llama. It too is a 4049 based overdrive that is a modification of Craig Anderton's Tube Sound Overdrive circuit. It is a great overdrive that fits nicely between the two channels of the Double D. It has a little more fuzz to it, but sounds really great. The only issue is that I have some oscillation at high gains, so I still need to fix that, but other than that, they sound great.

To add my own touch to them, I made some boxes from solid ash and put my logo on them. Take a peek and tell me what you think. The Double D is on the left and the Red Llama on the right.

More Guitars

Okay, so it has been a little while since I updated this. Recently I have been refinishing a couple of guitars I built while still in high school. They needed a lot of work, but they are finally done. Here I have some pictures of the beauties.





Here is the group photo of all of them together. The bass is in the middle with an original design on the left and a PRS style guitar on the right. They all play and sound quite nice, in addition to looking awesome (if I do say so myself).

My next projects are a series of stompboxes that I will be making myself. They tend to be more responsive than my Podxt to picking dynamics, etc. since they have a real analog signal chain. I have one almost finished, but I am waiting for a replacement IC chip since I fried the first one by accidently reversing the polarity of my power source. I guess if carpentry's mantra is measure twice cut once, then electronics is use sockets and voltmeters before IC's.

Anyway, I will try to keep this posted somewhat. Hopefully some sound clips will be coming of my stompboxes when they are done.

The Model B Bass

Well, I have finally finished my bass. The finish is cured and this weekend I put it all together. These pictures are not the best, seeing as how my camera is not meant for artistic photos. But that is okay, you get the idea. It plays great. The action is maybe a little high if anything, but no higher than my previous bass. I think it is because there is no angle in the neck pocket. The intonation is not quite perfect (I will need to move the bridge when I restring it). The piezo pickup is louder than the magnetics, but it has a great sound and I can get a range from warm and mellow to really bright and punchy. The controls are P/J pickup blend, magnetic/piezo blend, master volume and master tone. I have a ton of pictures, but here are just a few to try to get the whole idea across.










Well, there she be. Let me know what you think.

More Guitar Building

So building this bass has gotten me back in the guitar building mode. I am currently refinishing and modifying the two guitars I built in high school. One is an original design with single coils and the other is a PRS copy with EMG 81/85 pickups. With the guitar with single coils, I free hand routed the cavities when I built it, so needless to say they are ugly. Well, I decided I wanted to use pickup rings. Turns out the only ones for single coils are really expensive (like 10 bucks a piece, and with a three pickup guitar...). So I have some leftover walnut from my bass and I fashioned some rings out of that. I drew the dimensions in a CAD program and I am quite pleased. I will put some pictures up after I have finish on them.

Another thing I am going to do with that guitar is put a sustainer system in it. It is the same system that is perpetually under development at the project guitar forum. It should be a lot of fun and will give me more options (since I have four electric guitars anyway, may as well make one that is not the best into something unique). I am excited and it will help my electronics skills get better. Speaking of which, I have a nice new xytronics 379 soldering station coming today. I'll let you know what I think of it when it comes.

I really enjoy this whole guitar building thing, too bad I don't have my own shop yet. But that is okay, someday I will. The next project on my list after the guitars is to build a tube amplifier. I will be buying a kit, but that is just because it is cheaper than buying the parts separately. I still have to put it all together and tweak it myself an all. Should be a lot of fun. Of course, that may be several months away.

I guess all I can really say is stay tuned for more woodworking and musical project adventures to come.

Bass Build Progress Report

Okay, so I have been building my own bass for a while now, but haven't put up any pictures. I figure it is time to remedy that. The body is now hanging and the finish is curing, which it needs to do for another week or two to let the finish harden. So here are some pictures documenting progress from the very beginning with a brief description.

Here we have the wood straight out of the packaging from the supplier. The woods are, from left to right, walnut, flame maple and alder. Good looking boards.

This is the body blank being glued up. The flame maple is a 1/4" cap on the alder and the walnut goes all the way through.

The rough body shape has been cut out. You can tell that the figure is going to really be great on this thing.

This shows how I made the neck pocket. A template was made from oak and then I used a forstner bit to get rid of the majority of the material. Afterwards, a pattern router bit was used to clean it all up.

This is the headplate being glued on to the headstock (after ears were added). I did this because the headstock was a hideous shape and color. After it was all dried, I cut out the shape and rough sanded to get what you see on the right. Before gluing, I plugged the original tuner holes with hardwood dowel and re-drilled the tuner holes where I wanted them.

This is what the headstock and body looked like after several coats of finish. They basically look just like this right now, and they are just curing up. Once the finish cures, I will rub it down, install all the hardware, put it together and string it up. Pictures will be coming when that is done in a couple weeks. In addition, the control cavity cover is made of alder just like the back, the jack plate is made of walnut instead of metal and the truss rod cover is an inverted pattern of the headstock wood (walnut, flame maple, walnut).

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. Let me know what you think. In case you are wondering, the hardware is all gold on the body, but chrome on the headstock (haven't had the money to buy new tuners yet).

Back in the Old Saddle

Well, it has been a very long time since I posted anything here, and I think that has something to do with the fact that no one really reads this. But regardless, I am back from Berlin. If you want to see pictures, check out my wife's blog (in the links section).

I spent three months mostly doing sound system design for large stadiums and other large venues. I worked on the new Zurich stadium, Warsaw national stadium, two stadiums for the world cup in South Africa and then several other buildings. It was cool.

Now that I am back, I am going to be hopefully posting more of my music. I have been itching to get back at it. Also, I am going to be building a new bass guitar, so I will post pictures of that as I go along. We'll see how it turns out. Anyway, that is about it for now, but we will see what the future holds.