So I spent the better part of this past Saturday swapping all the parts of my bike back to my old Kilo TT frame. The difference of the geometry between the white frame and this one is slight, but I like this one a bit more. It’s getting warmer and I can’t wait to ride again.
diy - electronics - music gear - pedals
JHS Pedal Mods – Sloppy (complaint)
JHS Pedals are one of my favorite guitar effects companies. They make some of the most sought-after pedals and offer some of the most unique and innovative pedal modifications. I don’t have any experience with their original products, but I have had a few of my own pedals modified by them – Boss TR-2, DD-5 and MXR Dyna Comp. Now, with that said, I do have one complaint…and it’s about the quality of their workmanship. It. Is. Sloppy…
diy - music gear - pedals
RC-2 Stop/Tempo Switch Mod
Here’s my RC-2 that I modified. I found the instructions here and got this switch to install. The reason why I used this switch is because it was the strongest option for a momentary switch that was normally closed (NC). IMPORTANT: it MUST be NC in order for the switch to operate correctly with the RC-2. The wiring portion of the mod was fairly simple. I would say that the toughest part of the mod was cutting the square hole underneath the lid (not visible in photos). I’ve always wanted the simple functionality of killing the looped phrase with one […]
diy - electronics - music gear - pedals
Easy Mod
bought a pack of LEDs of varying colors off of amazon (3mm & 5mm) and decided to swap the LEDs on a couple pedals. for the Maxon chorus I had to do this because under the stage lights — with the stock diffused red LED — it would sometimes appear that the pedal was on when it was not. for the DD-5, I just did it for fun. coming soon: most recent pedalboard arrangement and new Pedaltrain case from Brady Cases.
diy - electronics - music gear - tech
New Knobs
found these beautifully machined knobs at Mar Vac Electronics. the original ones were flimsy plastic – i had already kicked one off. Maxon made some pretty nice pedals back in the day (i think their pedals are still nice, but i haven’t tried them) but used unusually weak parts for some components. to make it worse, these parts are impossible to find. i already had to have special 1/4″ jacks sent from Maxon in Japan (!) to replace one that had cracked. replacing these knobs weren’t easy either. the shaft wasn’t a full 1/4″ cylinder. it was a freakin’ 1/4″ […]
diy - iphone
iPhone Macro
as i said i would do, i’ve pretty much completely disassembled an old (and broken) ex-s600 to acquire a few lenses to make my macro attachment for my iphone. after much unscrewing, prying and a bit of superglue, here’s what i have for now – it’s that little black batarang-looking thing in front of the rubble. i haven’t quite figured out a way to attach it to the iphone yet. right now i need to use both hands to keep it on. but the results are what i was looking for. here are a few:
bicycles - diy
DIY: toe strap doubler
i like DIY stuff, especially when it’s fairly easy to do and the results are pleasing. here’s a DIY toe strap doubler that i put together (instructions found here). i had to go to 3 places to get all the ingredients. home depot: hole puncher 39th street (lots of fabric/crafts stores): rivets rivet tool james (neighborhood belt guy): sheet of leather *i already had a straight edge, blade, and cutting mat the original instructions called for 12 rivets for each side, but i think the rivets that i bought were just a tad larger than what was pictured so i […]
diy - music gear
handle transplant
about a year ago, the handle for my guitar case broke. i guess that’s acceptable since i had literally taken that case around the world and back. but i don’t know why i resorted to buying another case altogether instead of trying to fix it. i think nowadays i tend to consider the latter first whenever something breaks. anyway, below is the handle for the case i bought to replace my original case which had broken at the handle. i wish i had taken a picture of the actual broken handle before i proceeded to tear it off the case. […]
diy - music gear
tap-tempo make-over
one very important effect combination in my line-up of pedals is the boss dd-5 delay coupled with an external tap tempo. below is a picture of that isolated set-up back when i realized how much i liked it (think where the streets have no name). the fs-5u did its job and did it well…but it took up more space than it needed to. so one day as i was browsing around ebay for pedals i came across a seller who offered a tap pedal that would occupy a much smaller footprint – it was $20 so i snatched it up. […]