Tag: electronics

Preamp pedals: ELI5 [Reddit]

From my reply to a discussion in r/guitarpedals on Reddit.

A preamp pedal is very simply a pedal that amplifies your signal at the start of the signal chain. Because it makes your guitar signal louder, it affects how the guitar sounds both with other pedals that come after the preamp, as well as the actual guitar amplifier. There are a lot of reasons you might want to use a preamp pedal, but ultimately it comes down to liking the way it makes your rig sound.

By way of example, you probably already know that adjusting the volume knob on your guitar will change the sound coming out of the amp. Now what if you could keep making your signal louder when your guitar volume knob was maxed out? Turns out you can, with a preamp.

You can get a sense with how this works, if you have an EQ, boost, or even a distortion pedal that stays clean at lower gain settings. Put it at the beginning of your signal chain, connected immediately into your guitar, and then see what happens when you engage it. You may notice your later distortion pedals sound more driven, or your amp is pushed further into overdrive. If you like that effect, a preamp may be for you.

Then you get to dive down the rabbit hole of what different preamps can do, because in addition to volume, they usually also have tonal controls. With that, a preamp can be very useful in getting solos that cut through a mix, or taking the mud out of your rhythm playing.

Apple Music Displays the Wrong Album Art

So my iPhone SE was displaying the wrong album art for a number (though not all) songs. When I checked these albums on iTunes, all the songs had the correct album art. I tried deleting all the songs and then resyncing the playlist, but that didn’t fix the problem. A quick web search turned up the following tip from Reddit.

First delete the playlist, but before starting another sync from the computer, also turn off wi-fi and cellular communications. The easiest way to do this is to place the phone in Airplane mode. Then start the sync, and the correct album art should appear on the iPhone. Apparently this happens when syncing playlists.

What an annoying bug.

Thoughts about Clipping and Distortion

Working on an overdrive pedal, here’s a few resources about clipping and distortion:

And a more general resource about the TubeScreamer circuit:

And a good compilation of general breadboard techniques:

BYOC Pedal Build

I love BOSS compact pedals. Of all the various guitar effects, they are my favorites. There are detractors to the line, of course, but I think BOSS stompboxes are brilliant.

To start with, they are masterpieces of industrial design, ingeniously solving so many problems that all guitar pedals face. The casings are robust. The large, raised footbed makes them easy to operate without accidentally hitting the control knobs with an errant step. The battery is housed in a separate compartment which is opened via a single thumbscrew. Simple bold colors make the pedals easily identifiable on a darkened stage, and a consistent form factor makes them easily interchangeable.

Say what you will about tone suck, but the electronics inside are also remarkable. While the pedals may not utilize the highest grade of electronic components or deliver sound nuances capable of satisfying every artist, BOSS stompboxes find a balance between affordability and quality output that work for most people, including many professional musicians. And if it’s good enough for the likes of David Gilmour or Eric Clapton, it’s probably good enough for me.

Recently, when I decided I wanted to add another overdrive effect to my pedalboard, I knew that what I wanted was something Tube Screamer flavored. I’m not going to enter into the debate about whether the vintage ones are better or whatever. Most people can’t tell the difference between all the different varieties, and I’ve got better things to do than worry whether an effect gets me the precise tone color I desire. Among those “better” things? Build the effect myself.

The final product
The final product

So I looked at the kits offered by BYOC, and settled on their Classic Overdrive. Rather than put it into a standard case, however, I decided to mod the whole thing slightly to fit it into a BOSS enclosure from a dead pedal that I found on eBay. The biggest problem was getting the footswitch to fit, for which I had to make a modified latch for the battery/switch cover plate. Other components, such as the jacks and the AC adapter were taken from the broken pedal because they fit into the case better. I painted the whole thing, and using bake-on waterslide transfer decals was able to emulate the trademark BOSS font and appearance. After a few coats of polyurethane, the thing is ready to play. The effect works very well, and was easy to assemble thanks to the kit. I think I’m going to be very happy with it as a second OD on my board, and I can foresee experimenting with other pedal builds in the future.

Here’s a soundclip.

Here’s some pictures of the process.

The BOSS pedal disassembled.
The BOSS pedal..
Closeup of the hinge latch mod.
Closeup of the hinge latch mod.
Closeup of the footswitch mod.
Closeup of the footswitch mod.
BYOC kit parts.
BYOC kit parts.
The board.
The board.

Everything fits!
Everything fits!