Inspired by my recent successful foray into Strat mods, not to mention IG’s great “Gator Muff” Pedal Build Project, I’ve decided to tack a new department onto Electric Guitar Review––the EGR Chop Shop.
Heck, I figure if I’m gonna’ get my hands dirty poking around inside various guitars, amps, stompboxes and the like I may as well invite you all to join me, right?
The way I see it, I’ll let you know in advance what projects will be coming up, and then if you’re interested in participating (and sharing a bit of the pain,) you can get the supplies you need to join in the fun. I’ll be documenting my work as I go, including photos, diagrams, and mp3s as required.
So Let’s Get Started
To make things easy, I’m kicking this off with a little pedal project: the B.Y.O.C. TriBooster. I chose the TriBooster as my first project because:
- It comes in a kit with all the parts you need (minus the soldering iron and basic tools of course.)
- I’m in bad need of a Boost pedal for my rig… I mean bad.
- This pedal is getting rave reviews over at Harmony Central.
- The TriBooster is actually three pedals in one––a classic Dallas Rangemaster treble boost clone, a silicon based Linear Power Boost clone, and of course a MosFET based Clean boost clone.
The entire kit runs just over $100 with shipping, which is a steal when you consider that you’d pay nearly twice that much for a pre-built Rangemaster clone alone.
OK… any takers? I’ll be starting the TriBooster project in about a week.
- It’s Chop Shop Time! Building The BYOC Optical Compressor
- Chop Shop: Building The BYOC Optical Compressor
- Building The BYOC TriBooster: Step One – Get Your Stuff Together
- Tube In A Box: VOX Debuts Cooltron Duel Overdrive Distortion Pedal
- Speed Linking: Build A Big Muff With IG, Alexi Laiho Signature Guitar
- Chop Shop: And So Begins EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment Of 2008
- Reader Poll: What’s Your Favorite Pedal Board?
- Building The BYOC TriBooster: Part 4 – Finishing It Up
July 20th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I’ll be watching closely. I need a boost for my rig as well. BTW, your Harmony-Central link doesn’t go to Harmony-Central – it goes to an unrelated page on your site.
dm
July 20th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Oops! Thanks for the heads-up Don :)
July 20th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Cary, man, I may just take you up on the offer. I’m gonna see if the appropriations committee will allow me to take out $100 bucks out and see about ordering it the kit. That would be a nice change of pace for me. I am used to building them from scratch, and takes a while to do, especially when it comes to laying out the board. It should be nice and easy to work from a kit. Thanks for the idear.
Laters!
IG
July 20th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Excellent… it’ll be good to have a partner in crime or two.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:14 am
I’d love to jump in on this project but I’m totally ignorant of electrical diagrams and those angular icons they use. What’s a dumb A to do? -anyone recomend a good site to learn the basics (crayon font please)?
thanks
PS- those video demos on the BYOC site are very helpful
July 24th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Hi Poul,
I can’t guarantee it, but if you download the PDF I’m pretty sure you won’t even need to read the electrical diagrams.
According to BYOC’s website, these kits are literally like “paint by numbers.”
Heck, half the reason for doing this as an online project is so we can help each other out if we get stuck.
July 24th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Super cool idea Cary!
Kiz