Next up on the DIY pedal front....

[SuperSwede]

It looks great DVM! I bet that it will sound brilliant as well.

[duhvoodooman***]

OK, here's the last one from this summer's pedal-building extravaganza. This is a highly modified MXR Phase 90 (a.k.a. "script phaser") clone, with a whole bunch of added functionality as described as the top of this thread. Consider the fact that the original pedal has ONE KNOB, and you'll understand what I mean! I still have to clearcoat it, but it's all together and working.

Frankly, some of the mods are a little underwhelming, but the main phaser circuit itself works great. This is one of those pedals where you have to dial in a trimpot to get the maximum phasing sound, and it's amazingly sensitive. The trimpot has an adjustment arc of maybe 300 degrees, and there is absolutely NO audible phase effect through all but maybe 10 degrees of it! And to get to max. phasing within the working range requires really fine tweaking. But once there, it sounds very good.

The 90/45 and phase/vibe mods are pretty subtle, and I don't know if I'd have bothered with them if I'd known that beforehand. Switching to "Phase 45" mode just makes the phase effect less pronounced and darkens the tone a little. The "vibe" mode gives the modulation a little different sound--it makes it somewhat irregular--but really sounds nothing like a Univibe, to my ear. Also, you have to readjust the trimpot to get maximum effect, which is a big PITA. I may drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the pedal enclosure over the trimpot, so it can be access without having to remove the bottom cover plate. The other two mods--a wet/dry mix knob and a "feedback" pot which makes the phase effect more or less pronounced--work pretty well and are worth doing for added control of the effect.

Here are photos of the top and the obligatory "gut shot". I'll try to get an audio clip up in a couple of days:

[duhvoodooman***]

Here's a couple of short clips of my home-built Rabid Rodent distortion and Phaze Craze phaser pedals in tandem. Tone2theBone and I started trading ideas and clips on using distortion and phaser pedals in combination to generate Hendrix or Trower tones. Jimi was famous for his use of the Arbiter Fuzz Face and UniVibe, and Trower used the UniVibe (an early phaser with a vibrato mode) on almost everything on his classic Bridge of Sighs and Twice Removed from Yesterday albums. I'm not sure what he used for distortion, but he clearly used it in combination with the UniVibe quite extensively--one of the reasons he took a lot of criticism for being a "Hendrix wannabe".

In any case, since Tone and I both have relatively new phaser and distortion pedals (he recently acquired an EH Little Big Muff and an MXR EVH model Phaser), we were comparing tones. I recorded the following two clips with my Rabid Rodent modified ProCo Rat clone pedal placed after the Phaze Craze modified Phase 90 clone (see more detailed descriptions of both pedals at the top of this thread). The first clip is a straight Bridge of Sighs emulation played through the Tweed 4x10 model on my Vox AD30VT with a bit of reverb, using the neck pickup in my Strat. I had posted a similar clip here some time ago to demonstrate the Danelectro Chicken Salad vibrato pedal and used my ZYS pedal for the distortion, but this combination gets much closer to the original Trower tone, I think. Plus I've learned the song to a greater degree!

The second clip is exactly the same dual pedal and amp set-up, but switching over to my el cheapo modified Fullerton ST4 HSS, a.k.a. "Fat Fully", played through the Seymour Duncan Custom 5 humbucker I have installed in the bridge position now. Just a made-up fast blues boogie. I'm pretty happy with how that guitar sounds, given the fact that I have less than $100 invested in it, including pickup & hardware upgrades!

Here are the clip links at Box.net:

Bridge of Sighs

Phaser Boogie

I'll try to get a couple of clips posted in the near future with the two pedals played individually, but I love the sound of them together....

[250Keith]

Wow thoughs sound great, whats next?