At this point, I was tired of cleaning up all the sawdust after building guitars and cabinets. Also, the amp wall as well as the guitar line grew significantly and I was running out of space.
The next step was to look into something small, like effect pedals. I thought I might try to build or modify some. While my pedalboard already had more pedals than I usually needed, having something I made myself was a nice idea. I found the Tonepad website, sorted the projects by difficulty, and picked the Range Master booster. Although I already have a booster that never leaves my pedalboard and I would never replace it – Antonin Salva’s Tonewheel Boost, the Range Master looked like an easy project to start with.
I downloaded the layout, drew it to the PCB board with permanent marker and dipped the board into an acid bath. I found some old Tesla resistors and capacitors and bought a few new ones, then built the booster. It worked 🙂 I ordered some Hammond enclosures from Tube Town and then the fun started. I am not sure what was more fun, building the circuit or painting the enclosures. This way I built the Green Ringer, Brian May’s treble booster, a Valve Caster – tube boost, a signal splitter and an Orange Squeezer – a compressor that I still use. The signal splitter – a copy of the Lehle P-Split – was painted by my daughter who also painted the IKEA stool that I use for taking photos. I just love those flowers!
Besides the compressor, which stayed on my pedalboard, the rest of the pedals ended up on the shelf.
Now it was time to make one nicer than all the others. Forget the permanent markers, printing on pages of magazines and transfer the lines with acetone, …
