How does this thing work? Can I make one?

[rosssurf]

 It is the Dragster pickup load correcter. How does it work? Can I make one of these?

http://www.tonebone.com/tb-dragster.htm

[slacker]

It's probably just a pot wired as a variable resistor between the signal and ground, this basically lets you dial in "tonesucking".

[theehman]

That was my 1st impression, too.  High value pot (1M or more) in a box.

[Ronsonic]

I'm not sure what's in the box, probably some pot / cap network.

The principle is valid. I've heard too many brittle bright buffers.

[CynicalMan]

It's ironic how people worry about "tone sucking" from cable capacitance and poor bypass configurations, and then come out with a box that basically emulates these effects.  An expensive one too! With that kind of pot, there can't be more than $10 worth of stuff in there.

[Taylor]

Well, it is only $60. Once the manufacturing plant and dealers take their cut, it's not like Radial's making insane bucks on this thing, any more than any other pedal. If you want to roll your eyes at parts-per-dollar, there are better directions to aim it.

And all people are different. Some people like tone sucking cables. Some companies even intentionally make cables with more tone suck than usual, and call them "bass" cables or "jazz" cables. I don't think it's ridiculous for such a thing to exist, I just wouldn't buy it. I have 4 ring modulators. Most guitarists would roll their eyes at that. Ring mod is as useless to an Eric Clapton or Eric Johnson wannabe as a "bass" cable would be to me. And I play bass.