Rescued!

A few weeks ago, I found a nice looking guitar in a trash heap outside my neighbor's apartment.

There was only one thing wrong with it: the headstock was broken off.

Where others see tragedy, I see potential!

A little clamping, glue, and magic putty later, and it was solid as a rock.

It didn't look too pretty at first, but a friend lent me some acrylic paints...

I got the ugly sticker off the front...

And now it looks (almost) as good as new!

My new beauty!

For $2 worth of parts, and a little patience, I have a nice guitar to play for the last few months of my stay in Seoul. I'm very happy for myself, and for this   gorgeous guitar; may it live long and sing many a tune!

Review: Boss CE-5 Chorus Pedal (Pink Label version)

This is the Boss CE-5 Chorus Pedal. I bought it a few months back, not even really on purpose. It was part of a package deal with my Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner. It sat in the cupboard for a few months, and then I started to do some research, to see if I should sell it. Here's what I found out:

There are in fact three versions of the Boss CE-5, though the second and third ones are virtually identical, apart from having different colored labels on the bottom. All three are made in Taiwan, and all of the features are the same. The (BIG) difference between the first version (the Pink Label version) and the subsequent ones, is that the first issue of these pedals used analog circuitry, where the second and third issues used a fully digital, board-mounted circuit. Because of this major difference in design, these pedals sound radically different, despite looking exactly the same on the outside.

The first edition of the CE-5 (the Pink Label version), made in the early 1990s, uses an analog BBD circuit to produce a delayed effect. BBD stands for "Bucket Brigade Device", and essentially works the same way. The signal is fed into a capacitor, and then emptied into another capacitor, along a line in the circuit. This effectively slows down the signal because of the time it takes to complete this process. When the signal comes out the other end of the BBD, it is combined with the original signal to produce the "chorus" effect after which the effect is named. This type of circuit is used in many popular analog chorus pedals, including the Ibanez CS9, the Boss CE-1 and CE-2, and the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man.

I have always preferred analog effects to digital ones, and this distinction is why the first version of the CE-5 is so much more highly rated than the ones that followed.


Upon testing the pedal, I found the effect to be very subtle compared to most Chorus effects I have used. In the past, I have used a Boss CE-2, an Ibanez CS10, and both the vintage and reissue Ibanez CS9s. While the CE-2 produces a richer, more noticeable effect, the CE-5 adds just a touch of chorus sweetness, and preserves the original signal better than any chorus pedal I've tried. There is also the added feature of the High and Low Cut/Pass control knob, which allows a little better control of the signal path.

As with all the Boss pedals, the construction is very solid, and there are no issues whatsoever with reliability. I am not usually a huge fan of Boss pedals, but this one is a winner!

Highs:
-Solid construction
-Warm analog sound
-Good controls

Lows:
-Hard to find this version
-A little weak if you're looking for deep chorus

Rating: 8/10

New Guitar! Burny LP Custom Copy

 

This is my newest acquisition: A 2002 Burny Les Paul Custom copy.

I bought this guitar at the Nagwon Musical Instruments Arcade in Seoul, Korea. It's 10 years old, and starting to show the signs of a nice aged guitar. The playing feel is fantastic - right up there with my 1989 Gibson LP Standard. The sound is quite extraordinary as well, thanks to a Fernandes Sustainer System. It literally sustains forever, and the tone is immaculate. I'm not usually a fan of gold hardware on a Les Paul, but the blue paint job really makes it look great. The tuners are smooth and hold tune quite well, and the tune-o-matic bridge is as accurate as the real thing. Since 2002 was the year that Fernandes moved production from Japan to Korea, and later China, there is some dispute as to where this guitar was made. The playing feel and overall construction quality suggest that it was made in Japan, but Korean-made guitars from the early 2000s are notoriously well built. Regardless, the current Chinese-made equivalent model retails for over $1000, so at 350,000 Korean Won ($309), I think it was a pretty good score. Rock on!

Update III: Broken Sigma Guitar

Sadly, our friend the Sigma guitar is gone. This can only mean one of three things: 1) Someone thought it was worth fixing, and took it home to give it the proper care and love it deserved. 2) Someone was making a campfire, and looking for free wood to help it burn. or 3) Someone finally realized it was garbage, and made the necessary steps to ensure that it would end up where it belonged - in the dump.

Whatever happened, it is a sad day for bloggers everywhere (especially me), since I have that much less to write about. Since being in Korea, my guitar and pedal acquisitions have tapered off, and I am forced to relive old glory or go out and buy things at full price just to add some content to my blog. This is sad. If you have any ideas for things I could write about, please comment, or email me at bbb.caldwell@gmail.com. All the best!

Review: Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner

This is the Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner Pedal.

Just to be clear, I'm old school. A big proponent of analog equipment, I never thought I would be converted to using a digital tuner. I've been using a Boss TU-6 Stage Tuner (analog) for the last eight years - something about the little needle makes it seem like it has to be more accurate than any digital tuner could ever be. How wrong was I!

A few years ago, I had a Matrix 3000 digital tuner pedal, and it gave me nothing but grief, until I sold it for $60, which was actually a $20 profit for me. Ever since, I've been told repeatedly that the TU-2 is the pedal that would change my mind. Now that I have one, I thoroughly regret switching every string manually like a chump on my TU-6 for so many years.

This is a fantastic pedal! I can't stress that enough. To quote Ferris Bueller, "if you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up". The Boss TU-2 definitely joins the Ibanez Tube Screamer on my must-have list.

Price Range:
$50-75

Highs:
-Sturdy Boss construction
-bright, easy to read LEDs
-Bypass output
-DC power output (can power another pedal)

Lows:
-None

Rating: 10/10

Mini Amplifier Showdown!

This is a comparison/review of the Fender Mini Deluxe and the Epiphone EP-1.

Both these amps are rated at 1 watt of power. This means that they are appropriate for practice, but not for performance. As such, I will be reviewing them as practice amps - not judging them as compared to "real" amplifiers. That said, there are many plug-in style practice amps that do not come close to the quality and sound of these little beasts.

As you may know, I am currently living in Seoul, South Korea, and I brought these babies along with me from Canada so I wouldn't have to play acoustic guitar for a whole year - what a great decision!

First, the similarities: Both amps are 1 watt, solid state, single speaker amps. They are both quite portable, and feature a single input and a headphone jack. Both can be powered by either a 9v battery or a 9vDC adapter (a standard Boss pedal adapter does the trick). However, this is where the similarities end. Despite being designed for the very same purpose, these little guys are actually quite different in their features, their construction, and their sound.

First up, the Fender MD-20 Mini Deluxe. One of the neatest things about this portable tone machine is its appearance. It is essentially a miniaturized Deluxe Reverb (though obviously without the reverb). The casing is made from plastic, but the chassis is metal, and there is even a little handle on top!


The controls on this amp are pretty simple: Volume, Tone, and Drive, and all of them go up to 12! The clean sound is decent, but it is a little tinny, and if your guitar has bad pickups, the tone is almost intolerable. Conversely, if you have good pickups, especially humbuckers, the sound is totally tolerable. Where the Mini Deluxe really shines, though, is with the drive cranked all the way up, and the tone around 3 or 4.

Another cool thing you can do with this amp is use it as an overdrive pedal. Just plug your guitar into the amp, and run a patch cord out from the headphone jack into your amp (I actually saw Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead do this at a show back in 2007). Probably the best thing about this amp is its portability; it is pretty small (about 4"x6"x2.5") and weighs less than a pound.


Next up, we have the Epiphone EP-1, a solid, quality practice amp. It is about twice the size of the Fender Mini Deluxe, and much more ruggedly built. With its tweed-covered wood enclosure, and a larger 3" speaker, this amp has better acoustic qualities than its Fender counterpart. It is also much louder; again, most likely due to its larger size.

The controls are slightly different; there is a Volume and a Tone knob, and a 3-way switch to select between Off, On, and Drive (there are separate clean and overdriven channels) The clean sound is far superior to the Fender, but the drive channel leaves much to be desired. It is not very saturated distortion, and tends to sound a little like a chainsaw. However, if you put the amp on the drive channel and turn the drive down really low, it does fill out the sound quite a bit. The EP-1 is also more forgiving to low-quality pickups, and takes pedals much better than the Mini Deluxe.

The Verdict: Both amps are pretty nice, but which one is better really depends on what you want to use it for.

Fender Mini Deluxe                                                  Epiphone EP-1

Highs:                                                                                     
-Great lead tone                                                       -Great clean tone
-Super portable                                                        -Very solid construction

Lows:
-Tinny clean sound                                                   -Bad drive tone
-Plastic parts (jacks, casing)                                   -No separate drive knob

My First Homemade Pedal: Loop Bypass Box

This is my first attempt at making a pedal of my own. I decided to go really simple, and make a loop bypass box. This is essentially a pedal that makes your whole effects rack true bypass (if you step on it, your signal doesn't go through your effects, it goes straight to the amplifier).


I started with a simple wooden keepsake box I bought for $0.99 at the local thrift store.

Next, I removed the lid and hinges from the box, and saved the lid to close the bottom of the pedal once I was done building the insides. Nothing too complicated yet.


(Missing a few pictures here - I got too excited about the build and forgot to photograph the in-between stages)

 The only parts I used for this project were four (4) 1/4" input jacks, and an SPDT switch (Single Pole, Double Throw). Before installing them, I used copper shielding tape to insulate the insides of my enclosure. Using a metal enclosure would make this step unnecessary.



I used some orange spraypaint to cover the enclosure, and made paper stencils for the symbols on top. If you want to go low-fi, a Sharpie would work equally well, I think.




The finished product: a fully functional, and actually pretty useful pedal (and it's my favorite color!)