My Effects Board

I mentioned my "modest" effects board, so I thought I would post it here:

Pretty basic. Wah/volume pedal, MXR Phase 90, Boss distortion, Behringer tremolo, and a Boss echo.  I like to keep it simple.  (The blue & white A/B box sitting sideways above the volume pedal switches the signal between the tuner and the pedals/amp.)

If you look closely you'll see that the distortion is cranked pretty low.  That's because lately I want as much Tele tone to come through.  I don't want to bury it behind a wall of fuzz.

And here is my effects carrying case:

It's an old hard-shell Samsonite suit case.  I was going to look for one at garage sales, but one day I saw this on the curb waiting for the garbage men to take it away, so I rescued it.  I got it home and it worked perfectly!

There are two things I really like about it.

1. No one else has one like it.

2. It looks like a piece of ancient garbage, so I feel like no one would be tempted to steal it when I leave it in plain site on the back seat of my car in a parking lot.  It has no street value as luggage, and who would want to steal my toothbrush and underwear?  I could make it "cool" by putting all kinds of music-related stickers on it, but that might give a clue to its contents.

The only thing it was lacking was a way for me to tell which side was "up."  But I fixed that problem by taking a monkey sticker off a banana and putting it on the top.

For Your Viewing Pleasure!

Here it is.  The object of this blog's attention:

Spreading its Wings

June 8

Had rehearsal last night and was playing through my old solid-state (mos-fet) HH amp.

This guitar is really starting to come out! It just wants to break loose and SING!! It is not content to politely lay low, it really wants to boldly soar. And I don't mean heavy metal shredding. Even clean rhythm playing is making it want to explode. I feel bad that I have to hold it back in this setting. (This wasn't rehearsal for the Rock and Roll service.  It was for the Don't Scare the Old People service.)

I’m starting to learn how to work the Magic Tone Knob. I’ve never really touched them on guitars, but with the tone all the way up, I have a nice country twang, and with it rolled back a little, the guitar was screaming as we jammed on Mississippi Queen. That knob is very responsive, and I'm amazed at all the different sounds I can dial with it. (I know, I know... that's why they call it a TONE knob. I'm clearly late to this party.)

Sophomore Outing

June 5

Played the Tele again at church last night and had a totally different experience than I last described.

For starters, I’m getting used to the guitar.  At first the shape, the Wilkinson bridge, the neck… everything… felt awkward.  Also, I was handling it like a Strat or Les Paul.  But I’ve been spending a lot of time with it, and I’m getting used to it.  I’m also falling in love in the process!

As for that “Telecaster twangy squank” that I said it didn’t have... well, I was wrong.  It was in there.  I just had to find it.  It’s actually got a nice twang.

The neck pickup is kinda muddy, but both pickups together sound deliciously full, and I’m very happy with the tone and bite of the bridge pickup.  

Last night I ran it through my (modest*) pedal board, but I was very tempted to plug straight into the amp for totally unadulterated Tele tone. But this is church, which means  a U2-style echo is often required.  I rarely stepped on the distortion pedal because I didn’t want any distraction from the great clean tones. Overall, the band was WAY too loud, but I was told that the bridge pickup really cut through the mix.

I had an Allen wrench with me and kept fine-tuning the bridge saddles throughout the night. I also did some fine-tuning on the intonation afterwards.

*DOD Wah/volume pedal  >  MXR Phase 90  > Boss DS-1 Distortion  > Behringer Tremolo > Boss DSD-2 Delay > Amp

Maiden Voyage!

May 22

Tonight at church I plugged my recently assembled Telecaster into my MESA/Booge Mark III and a borrowed PRS 4x12.

It sounded bright, crisp, and full.  Very clear.  As a “guitar”, it sounds great. It’s just not the sound I’m looking for.  It almost sounds like I have humbuckers in it.  My strat with hotrail pickups has more twang. 

I’m not surprised or complaining, though.  Right now I have Jay Turser pickups in there.  There is a certain Telecaster twangy squank that I’m looking for that I really wasn’t expecting from these.  I have a set of Squire tele pickups that I can drop in and see how they sound. (I would have done that, but instead of two leads they have one lead with grounding wrapped around the hot lead, and I just didn’t feel like messing around with them when the Tursers were ready to go.)

But it is all part of the fun of this guitar.  It is my first build, and I’m looking forward to always be swapping parts and experimenting.  So for now I’ll enjoy it for what it is.

Intonation

May 21

I set the intonation on Saturday. It wasn’t even close!  I'm now embarrassed by my last post.  But it’s good now.

Setting it up

May 20

I’m sure the intonation is out.  I adjusted it by ear and it isn’t noticeably off.  But the strings are brand new and not staying in tune yet, so I’ll wait a week to really go at it.  The pickup heights aren’t adjusted yet, either.

I’m playing at church this Sunday night.  At the moment my plan is to play it at rehearsal, but have another guitar ready to go for the service just in case I’m having tuning/intonation issues.

BTW, I’m having a hard time adjusting to the vintage ashtray style bridge.  I have a flat six-saddle bridge that I can put on it, but I want to give the 3 compensated brass saddles a whirl.

I have a feeling that this guitar will never be “done”, and that I will always be modding, updating, swapping, comparing, etc.  

Let the fun begin!