Awesome lack of knobs

[chokeyou]

so where would I find those pots?

and how would one mount them?

[tungngruv]

I remember reading an interview with Pat Travers where he stated he cut the shafts of the potentiometers off almost flush with the pedal top, then cut a notch in the top of the shaft so he could adjust it with a screwdriver. The reason being he wanted to have his effects "set" and not have to worry about a roadie bumping the knobs. Don't know if  he really did this but I know he said it in a Guitar Player Mag. around 80' -81'.

[petemoore]

  I put a pot sorta like that [without the slot] on a Green Ringer. Thumb turn.
  It's not too sensative to slight adjustments, so the mark works easy, it's a knob I don't mess with for the most part, makes for interesting octave demonstration if I ever have call to show how balancing the -/+  halves of the waveform alters the effects.

[choklitlove]

there are a lot of pots (usually older) that have a flat-head slot in the bottom.  i think the most recent i saw was on my old little big muff.

[chokeyou]

notice the lack of a nut though, thats extremely clean looking. i dig x10

[jimbob]

I think it make a lot of sense. Seriously. I like knobs at a certain place and expect them there every time. It's irritating when they been messed with. I just know how I like things.

[chokeyou]

I think it make a lot of sense. Seriously. I like knobs at a certain place and expect them there every time. It's irritating when they been messed with. I just know how I like things.

precisely.

I like some knobs here and there for real time tweaking for some fun at practice or at a gig...but for my set and forget boost pedal or something to that effect...who needs knobs?

[choklitlove]

i started a thread  a while back asking about a diy solution for those tone-lok knobs or pots.

i didn't get anything, but am still very interested.  keeping eye on this...

[petemoore]

  I have a few knobs I like to 'foot-twist'.
 Two are Volume knobs [FF and DIST+].
 The third is Phase 90.
 Pretty much all the other knobs I want set just 'so.

[Gilles C]

I suppose they use this kind of pots.

http://www.surplussales.com/Potentiometers/PCM-SlotAdj/PCM-SlotAdj-1.html

Gilles

[Noplasticrobots]

That's a trick lookin pedal. Retro look without looking horribly retro. Supremely clean too.

[squidsquad]

BTW....I've been using the Blackstone for a couple of years....it's my *desert island* pedal...the only one that goes to every gig.

[stankyfish]

BTW....I've been using the Blackstone for a couple of years....it's my *desert island* pedal...the only one that goes to every gig.

I've been eyeing this pedal for a while.  I went so far as to go to order one a couple weeks ago and saw that he's out of stock and won't be resuming shipping until the end of June.  DOH!

[soggybag]

This is a great design overall, very well thought out.

[Stompin Tom]

So, I was listening to the samples on his site and this pedal sounds pretty sweet... Does anyone know what's going on in there? He says something vague about 4 mosfet stages... Is the basic idea to run 4 mosfet boosters in series?... each saturating the next?

[Gilles C]

I like the technical look the slotted pot shafts give to the box. The whole thing looks very professional.

I reminded me that I have a ton (more than 150 is a ton for me...) of mostly 20K with some 50K trim pots on some boards that I salvaged from some old equipment at work.

I think I will put them to use. As long as I can use these values... It's not metal shafts, but for the price I got them, they will do the job.

Gilles

[aron]

There is a heavy duty pot with a locking nut on it. I suppose we could use those, but they are $$ and I use them for bias pots.

[squidsquad]

A few more words about this pedal: 
Looks:  can't be beat. 
Sound:  from clean to big to crunch to singing.
Mojo in your ax volume knob.
However:  pricey ($200 US)
I tweaked a LOT to be happy...so much that the treble trimmer inside is now intermittent. 
On more than one occassion...my cord popped out mid-solo in front of thousands. 
His site gives good info on the working/theory.
But nothing that would allow back-engineering.

[kvb]

This is a really great pedal, because of its great sounds.  It has two voices, and it sounds excellent with both single coils and humbuckers.
As far as the price is concerned, it is less than some others. Plus, this is a pedal that one can use all the time. It is not just an effect, it is great tone.

The Blackstone isn't fizzy. One can add some fuzz with another pedal. The Blackstone, > plus a boosted Electra distortion = an awesome 
and authentic sounding metal tone.

[squidsquad]

Also...I've never torn the thing apart...but I believe them slotted heads are the tops of trimmers mounted on the circuit board.