What is it? Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes Nano. Made in NYC, 2013. Some time ago i stumbled on to a schematic of this CD4049 hex inverter based OD/Dist unit. Played around with the design and noticed it had some real potential. There are numerous drive designs with hex inverters on the wild and while the CD4049…
Marshall EH-1 Echohead
What is it? Marshall EH-1 Ehcohead delay/echo. Made in china around early 00’s. My relationship with these effects isn’t anything too special. I just simply like them for their heavy construction and fine tones. Most of the units in this series (which i like to call “small metal series”) are relatively low on their price…
Digitech XHR Hot Rod
What is it? Digitech XHR Hot Rod Rock Distortion from X-series. Made in china around mid 00’s. It says Rock Distortion on the top. What to expect from its tone wasn’t anything short of obvious. But. The disappointments of shared digital board designs for the several other units of the series made me rather weary…
Colorless writings, part 20 – Repair statistics
At first, i’d like to say WoHOO! It’s been about 18 moths, and there are now exactly 200 different pedals covered and i’ve also posted 20 of these unintelligible texts about preferences and gut feels. Anyway. Back to business. So we’re talking about repairs? Yes. Can’t exactly recall when i did my very first pedal…
EHX The Mole Nano
What is it? Electro-Harmonix The Mole Bass Booster from Nano series. Made in NYC in 2013. As the one transistor, simple boosters in the EHX family go, here we have the “Bass Booster”. Circuit has pretty much the same topology as all the other simple boosters (LPB-1 and Screaming Bird). The component values are the…
MI Audio Blues Pro V3
What is it? MI Audio Blues Pro V3. Made in australia around 2013 or so. Smaller brands with good reputation in the tweaker community? The vast number of brands vs. the reputation leave quite a few out of the equation. There are these smaller brands that may have had one of theirs as a flavour…
Digitech XDV Digiverb
What is it? Digitech XDV Digiverb from X-series. Made in china around mid-00’s. Hmm. Something familiar? Digitech X-series doesn’t fail to disappoint. At the top of the price list for the series, the reverb and the delay are usable units with decent set of features. Actually, these units take on Boss and other mass produced…
Catalinbread Merkin Fuzz
What is it? Catalinbread Merkin Fuzz. Made in USA in 2010. One of the first more “boutique” pedals i sourced and deemed as a keeper. Before getting the unit, i had already played around with the circuit as the traced schematic has been floating around for years. You should be able to find at DIY…
Digitech XSW Synth Wah
What is it? Digitech XSW Sythn Wah envelope filter from X-series. Made in china around late 00’s Deeper green on the color than the bass version, the Synth Wah Envelope Filter takes on the battle for autowahs with slight synth features for a guitar. Decent set of features will let you play around for hours….
Boss FZ-5 Fuzz
What is it? Boss FZ-5 Fuzz. Made in taiwan, may 2007. Since we are on a roll with sounds coming out of digital circuitry, here’s one to add. Some may have wondered why there isn’t a schematic or any hint of a DIY project for a pedal with this reputation. The answer is simple. The…