I’ve got the cure you’re thinking of!

This is the first production unit from Indefinite Pitch. Well, one could hardly call it a series since so far only three have been made and will be sold. It’s also strictly for the local market so I won’t bother you with details. This is Dr. Love in a nutshell:

• buffer/preamplifier/overdrive, chiefly for software ampsims (AmpliTube, ReValver etc.) and DI
• low-cost alternative to dedicated audio interfaces
• 9—12V power supply range

For reference’s sake, here’s a link to the Dr. Love User’s Manual (PDF, Romanian).

You can’t have “boutique” effects without fuzz, right? I actually made the furry enclosure about a year ago, I knew it just had to house some kind of fuzz but I only recently found a circuit that was “worthy”. So here it is, the Big Brown Beaver: a comparator fuzz with hyper-compressed, gated square wave output. Controls are sensitivity and output volume. Features bright blue LED for that extra bit of “boutiqueness”.

Audio sample (.mp3)

Also, as a bonus, a picture of another fuzz project I’ve worked on. It’s like a cross between a silicon Fuzz Face and a Fuzz Factory, just in case I ever need something more “classic” yet flexible.

Would you like fries for that shake? How about phantom power for your active pickups or onboard preamp/effects?

We usually think of phantom power as related to condenser mics but I’m not talking about the 48V you get from a mixing desk here, although it is pretty much the same principle: carry your power on the same cable as your signal so you don’t have to lug around a battery. On guitars with active electronics this system is particularly useful since:

• Obviously, there’s no onboard battery: no replacing, no recharging, no making room for an aftermarket installation.
• You’re not restricted to batteries, yet you retain the option of using them: you can just as well power your pickups from any standard 9V adapter. Or go 12V or 18V if that’s your cup of tea.
• One cable fits all: the system is compatible with any guitar that has been set up to use it or any other (mono) guitar for that matter:
  • phantom-powered active guitars: all that needs to be done to the guitar is to use a stereo jack and tie tip to signal, ring to where battery (+) would be and sleeve to ground. Anyone with basic knowledge of electronics should be able to figure this out;
  • “standard” active guitars: (i.e. those with onboard batteries) if for some reason you need to use one, just short the ring to sleeve, before disconnecting power, of course. Otherwise you’d be shorting out your battery or adapter. This is necessary because most manufacturers use (or should use anyway) the “insert jack to connect battery” scheme, i.e. the battery is floating unless you short R and S together, which is what inserting a mono jack plug does. This could be accomplished with a switch.
  • passive guitars: if for some reason the original TRS recommendation is abided (which people rarely do) power would again be shorted to ground, which is hazardous if not fatal to the supply. To be safe, you could simply unplug the battery or barrel plug from the adapter or again use a switch, possibly the same one as before: a single pole on-off-on switch can choose what the ring is connected to—supply (phantom power), nothing or ground.

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For a couple of years now I’ve been searching for the single distortion unit that can embody the spirit of Indefinite Pitch: “over the top”. Today I give you the Demolator, a kind of Distortus Maximus with a dash of Nigel Tufnel. It can go from a light crunch to scare-your-neighbour’s-kids saturation but if anything, this thing is loud! In fact you could plug it straight into a cab, since it’s based on the LM386 Low Voltage Audio Power Amplifier, two of them actually. This also means it will probably start to feed back before the volume pot hits 12:00, but hey—that’s what it’s for. So in a nutshell:

• high-gain distortion (theoretically capable of 72dB)
• Gain and Volume controls
• 9V operation
• virtually guaranteed to destroy your amp

This is an updated version of the restored Procrastinator, my very first guitar. It’s basically a maple Ibanez Destroyer copy shape-wise, which itself is an Explorer rip-off. This version features improved bridge and tuners and a single humbucker with coil tap. I’ve actually made the pickup from two vintage Schaller single-coils. The neck is also fretless after the 9th fret for whenever I feel an atonal solo coming up. Thinking of making it fully fretless, though.

Amber is basically a Little Gem/Ruby without gain control but with switchable “channels”. It came about after I salvaged a nice and nasal speaker and found the time to build it one day. I kind of doubt I’ll ever use it but it’s a cute thing to have around, with its retro look and sound.

Specs:

• LM386 amplifier (about 0.5W)
• clean and overdrive channel
• integrated supply and power cord

Ah, yes, the Razorwire, the baby I’ve ben planning for a couple of years now, my own custom body shape and configuration. This guitar has two controls: a volume pot and a rotary switch behind it that switches between neck pickup (active)/bridge pickup (active)/bridge pickup (passive, hardwired straight to the jack).

I would call this a “utility amplifier” because it’s not voiced for a particular sound or configuration; instead my goal was to develop a transparent amp that could be used with guitar, bass, stompboxes and even ampsims and other line-level sources. It’s pretty simple as heads go but it does pack quite a few features for its size:

• 12AX7 preamp section
• 20W solid state power section
• FX loop (preamp out, poweramp in), plus the preamp and power amp can be powered off independently, to be used as needed
• 2 channels: second channel removes preamp negative feedback
• switch-mode power supply for light weight and high efficiency
• controls: gain, master volume, channel, preamp on/off, poweramp on/off

I’ve been tweaking this guitar for years but I think I’m finally done (oh, really?!). Not much to say about this one; it’s obviously a Les Paul copy, certainly has that vintage vibe, with a dash of insanity, topped with Gary Busey’s psychotic grin. Controls are: pickup selector (neck/both/bridge), tone switch (normal/high pass), volume pot and gain pot for the onboard preamp.

If we’re to talk tech then it’s vital we all speak the same language, so here are some quick initial issues:

If there’s one word guitarists (and musicians in general) misuse, it’s gain. Gain, as you’ll find in any dictionary, means the ability of a circuit to increase the power or amplitude of a signal. Or as a parameter, we can define it as the (mean) ratio of an amplifier’s output signal to its input signal. So if we feed a 2V signal to an amplifier with a gain of 10 (which equates to 20dB), we would measure an output signal of 20V amplitude (provided there’s enough headroom, which is another topic).
For some strange reason, when guitarists say gain they really mean saturation! As in “A Dual Rectifier has more gain then a JCM800.”, which might be true, certainly is something we can determine but is not what the guy is thinking about when he says it. A Recto might sound more saturated then a classic Marshall but we’re really getting into subjective territory: a fully saturated sound is a square wave, and I’m sure people would agree that doesn’t sound as “gainy” as a cranked stack. So it’s not even the level of signal distortion but the specific harmonic content that results. A shrill sound that emphasizez the pick attack might sound more “gainy” then a dull “bluesy” sound, even if it comes from the same amp, at the same gain setting, being just a matter of EQ (or filtering, to be correct). Read the rest of this entry »