Category: Music

Effects

17 Feb, 2011

Boss AB2 Power Jack Mod

IMG_1673

The Boss AB2 is a relatively inexpensive and readily available buffered A/B footswitch. It suffers from one critical problem: it cannot be powered by a pedalboard supply. Boss decided to make this pedal run only from a pair of AAA batteries stored inside the unit, which must be disassembled to change. And if the batteries die, no sound gets through because it’s a buffered pedal. Because of these problems, the AB2 is a rare sight to see on pedalboards, but that can be fixed with just a few parts and a few minutes of work.

Amplifiers

5 Aug, 2010

6BM8 Hi-Fi Amp

Final amp

This came up because I decided to start a little hifi project – something to push my bedroom TV’s audio to something better than the built-in speakers. So I thought, why not try to add adjustable compression? Warmly-biased triodes can compress one side of a soundwave, so what about sticking two in series to compress both sides?

Amplifiers

30 Jul, 2009

The EF-Bomb

IMG_1062

Once upon a long time ago I built my own version of an AX84 Firefly and fit it into an old Frontman 15 cabinet. It was okay but not good enough for me to want to play that amp. So one day I decided I wanted a true low-power Marshall and built a 1959/1987 type design into the same Frontman 15 cabinet… That turned out to be one CRAMPED workspace!! To me, the real magic of the JMPs and JCM800s was the quad-output section in the 100-watt models. I wanted to get the same richness but in a package that’s...