What pedal / electronics related present did you get for Xmas? :)

[HOTTUBES]

I got one of these ..... and it's awesome !!









I actually bought for myself ... Ha !
My own Xmas gift i guess ....

[Jdansti]

^ Yeah. That's the kind of thing that doesn't magically appear under the tree! 

[deadastronaut]

@hottubes:  you traitor..no diy?..

i gave up on digital boards, they had really nice dirt sounds , but always had to be gated, which kinda killed any sustained notes...(high gain)

i still have them though, just in case.. .

korg ax300g

korg ax1500g

lovely reverbs/delays..

[HOTTUBES]

@hottubes:  you traitor..no diy?..

i gave up on digital boards, they had really nice dirt sounds , but always had to be gated, which kinda killed any sustained notes...(high gain)

i still have them though, just in case.. .

korg ax300g

korg ax1500g

lovely reverbs/delays..

This one is heads & tails above any multi Effect box i have owned .... ( Mostly Boss one's )
I run this in my f/x loop , and only really use the time based stuff , all my other dirt boxes are diy
and run in the front end ... etc !!

[petey twofinger]

i was concerned about the squier sharp fret end issue as well . we bit the bullet and ordered a squier cyclone (indonesia) for my kid , frets are fine , everything abut it was really nice , well , the pickups were crud , but ... the finish and set up , everything else was much nicer than expected , but ymmv .  its at the shop now , i put saddles on it , replaced the pick ups and some smaller things . we did bring it over there pre-modding , the tech gave it a good once over , measuring things , testing things and claimed it was all fine . the action was a bit low , it did fret buzz a BIT . the only thing was the trem was really stiff . eagerly awaiting its return .

Deet was blown away , she LOVES this guitar , and she deserved it , playing with the family band , she is doing very well , playing lead stuff a bit , and i am amazed at how quickly she can learn , so proud . after 6 months she had honestly outgrown the mini strat , which after mod-ing out stayed in tune and really wasn't too shabby at all . keeping that around to use in fuzzlab ( my work area ) . its nice having that lil guy around instead of getting a full sized instrument out , laying around all day , the tiny size is a huge plus for test runs at the bench . you get used to it though , pick up a real guitar and its like " wow ,  this is BIG ... " ha .

going to see if i can score this 30 dollar micro-cube and hack that together with a tda "power amp" for her outdoor amp this spring , * crosses fingers * , its been on craigslist 2 days already ...

[deadastronaut]

^ cool, i have a micro cube for camping, its a great lil battery amp,

i bought a squier for my grandson this xmas, and an amp and built a pedal for him too...he's having fun now, his dad plays too , and his mum has a nice strat as well....

happy families..

[Jdansti]

Thanks for the notes on the Squires guys. I'm thinking the same thing on the pickups as Pete, but I'll have to see when it arrives. I'm not crazy about spending a whole lot on mods since it's a very inexpensive guitar. Any suggestion on inexpensive (~$50 or less) Tele pickups that would be better than the factory ones?

[Perrow]

Thanks for the notes on the Squires guys. I'm thinking the same thing on the pickups as Pete, but I'll have to see when it arrives. I'm not crazy about spending a whole lot on mods since it's a very inexpensive guitar. Any suggestion on inexpensive (~$50 or less) Tele pickups that would be better than the factory ones?

I've heard good things about these:

http://guitarfetish.com/Strat-and-Tele-Guitar-Pickups_c_8.html

[Jdansti]

Thanks Pelle. Those will probably be the way I'll go. Now to decide on which ones...

[mac]

Mother said: "Here is some money for you, son. Merry Xmas. Buy that used guitar you told me about. God bless you!"
Like a good son, I put on my "puss in boots" eyes and gave her a big hug. ( yes, italian descendants boys love our mothers  )

But taxes had piled up by the end of the year...

So Merry Xmas, Government... @&%$#%#&$ !!!!!

mac

[Govmnt_Lacky]

So Merry Xmas, Government... @&%$#%#&$ !!!!!

Hey...Hey....Hey.....

It's not my fault!!! 

[Jdansti]

^^ Ouch!!!  That sucks!!!

But when you consider the options, if you had bought the guitar, the gov't probably wouldn't allow you to have it in your jail cell anyway.

[petey twofinger]

i actually replaced both stock pick ups with guitar fetish ones .

a fat paf and a "hot rail" , well the hot rail i ordered from a different site , i think it is made by the same company (artec) , but i paid 12 bucks for it ... i did a lot of reserch before all this , most folks are very satisfied with those gfs pick ups . so far , i am very impressed , but , i havent really tested it out properly , what i did hear was a huge improvement , even though it was thru  a really crap lm386 amp ( lyon ) . we are going to jam tomorrow so , if its bad i will post up . the stock pickups were just beyond bad , i was awestruck .

i got lucky on the microcube . it was an odd deal , kind of rushed . turns out the pot for the efx control was bad ! ha . no big deal it works now . i completely  gutted it , and i am using the back metal panel with all the pcbs on it in a lil larger cabinet with two 6.5 inch jenson mod speakers , then a 50 watt stereo chip amp to push it  , 12 sla battery . i will be doing amp videos at some point . have a few more days left to finish it up , takin it slow . not feelin so hot .

we like to jam at the forest preserve in summer . use a lil drum machine , my wife plays bass , then we cook a lil bbq there . man its fun , something about makin music outdoors , it just seems funner ... ? thats why i am always monkeyin with battery amps . i have proper amps for indoors as well , but those are boring store bought .

deet LOVES her cyclone . best christmas ever .

[Jdansti]

Thanks for the Artec tip, Petey. I found a comment on another forum by Jay at Guitar Fetish regarding Artec:

Thread: Are Artec pickups similar to GFS?
We use 6 different factories in Korea and China for pickup fabrication and assembly- Artec does some of the stuff, 5 other houses do other stuff.

Many of the brightwork- the shells and baseplates make their way from one factory to another- I've seen our Retrotron shells on other people's stuff and even some of our baseplates with GFS logos!!

Always tough to police this kind of stuff.

As with anything- I'm sure some of the generic Artec stuff is great, some not so great--You might also want to look at our "Blowout" clearance stuff- which I think is equal or better than most of the "generic" ebay stuff out there.

[deadastronaut]

i got lucky on the microcube . it was an odd deal , kind of rushed . turns out the pot for the efx control was bad ! ha . no big deal it works now . i completely  gutted it , and i am using the back metal panel with all the pcbs on it in a lil larger cabinet with two 6.5 inch jenson mod speakers , then a 50 watt stereo chip amp to push it  , 12 sla battery . i will be doing amp videos at some point . have a few more days left to finish it up , takin it slow . not feelin so hot .



deet LOVES her cyclone . best christmas ever .

cool, glad you got it,  i look foward to your vids on that, and any mods too..cheers.

[chromesphere]

GO GET ONE NOW      I had more to say in the video, but my father walked in and I already find it awkward to talk to a camera. There's a million and one more uses than cutting pcbs.

Hey Mike, Thanks for sharing!  not sure how i missed your video on youtube considering im subbed and all. 
Although i can see cutting pcb's to be somewhat easier then a hacksaw (let me say, im a PRO with the hacksaw on PCB), Dremel still looks...somewhat easier, but i think there are still probably a heap of uses for it then PCB cutting. One off jobs.  I'll have to look into it.  Might be a bday present im thinking
Thanks again!
Paul

[haveyouseenhim]

Hey Mike, Thanks for sharing!  not sure how i missed your video on youtube considering im subbed and all. 
Although i can see cutting pcb's to be somewhat easier then a hacksaw (let me say, im a PRO with the hacksaw on PCB), Dremel still looks...somewhat easier, but i think there are still probably a heap of uses for it then PCB cutting. One off jobs.  I'll have to look into it.  Might be a bday present im thinking
Thanks again!
Paul

Yea, there's tons of things that can be done. It's all up to your imagination and ingenuity.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=99113.0

[Perrow]

Mike, there are probably a bunch of ways to cut PCBs with a Dremel, that way has to be one of the most dangerous. I'll make a video of my way, which isn't the safest either, but way ahead of yours

[haveyouseenhim]

Mike, there are probably a bunch of ways to cut PCBs with a Dremel, that way has to be one of the most dangerous. I'll make a video of my way, which isn't the safest either, but way ahead of yours

Of all of the pcbs and light plates I have cut I have never even scratched myself. It really just looks/seems dangerous.  It is magnitudes safer than my old boxcutter method

It's high speed, low torque. In my video where I stopped it with my hand (which I only did for the video to be able to move the video along a lil faster) it didn't even come close to even scratching me.

Like you said its probably not the best method, it's just how I do it.

[Jdansti]

Ok, I understand that the Fender Affinity Squire Tele isn't the most expensive guitar I could have bought; but did they have to put a sticker with the international symbol for "Do Not Throw in the Trash" on it?



btw- I ordered my Guitar Fetish Calibrated Set "Modern Vintage" Lil Puncher pickups (could they have thought of a longer name? ) and a Wilkinson compensated bridge with brass saddles.  The stock gear isn't bad, but I think these mods will make it closer to a real Tele.

The pickups are rail type humbuckers, but are wired so you can split them and use them as single coil. I'll need to get some push-pull pots to take full advantage of the split coils.