Fender Hotrod Deluxe - The Road Warrior

As hard as we might try, and as much as they might deserve it, some amps refuse to die. Aniela's Fender Hotrod Deluxe is one of those amps. It's battle scars were many and deep. Some mold from a wet New England basement. Blue duct tape holding the speaker connection together. Someone had replaced the input jacks in an "interesting" way, and left a magic marker roadmap on the rear of the PCB. Oddly they also set the bias pot to it's lowest position. Defying the odds, this amp still played. I corrected it's many issues and you can hear Aniela in Super Gold Life Friends or in her new band Happy Times Sad Times.

Xmas Pedals - Always Something Broken

This page has been pretty quiet over the holiday, but the same can't be said for the shop. No shortage of broken toys over the holiday. Rather than post each of these on their own, here's a collection of little maintanance issues. Bad pots, broken switches, new jacks, and my personal favorite.... items sold as "new" from a major big box store that show obvious signs of previous repairs.  Fun times!

Hot Cake Overdrive - Mmmmm... Cake

New Zealand! Home of fine wines, Tolkien themed holidays, and..... scorching hot overdrive pedals? For Julie D and her Guest Directors only the finest effects, imported from far-flung exotic locations will do. After its journey across the globe (and much stomping on) a good cleaning of the potentiometers was called for. A warm thank you goes out to its builder for trying to hide the details of the design with hot glue and a chunk of cardboard. Thank you sir, for making a simple job just a little bit sillier.

Custom Pedal Case - Samsonite!

When the ladies in Whorechata travel they need to look as good as they sound. That's why more and more emerging rock stars choose Samsonite! When given this oddly shaped hatbox to convert into a custom pedal case I did what any good electronics tech does when presented with a carpentry project... Measure twice, cut once? Nope! Totally eyeballed it. I put together the base and fitted the case with lift away hinges. The top has storage space to tie down any extra cables. I was skeptical at first, but the teardrop shape actually fits nicely into the base of a tripod mic stand. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of vintage luggage in the world, and they look a whole lot cooler than anything you can buy at Guitar Center.

PRS Starla - Toggle Like You Mean It!

For a guy that doesn't work on guitars I sure seem to be fixing a lot of them lately. The pick up selector on this PRS Starla came apart like an indy car doing summersaults down the straightaway. I though about trying to put it back together (for a second) but decided that replacing it was the way to go. You can marvel at its smooth toggle action tonight when Whorechata opens the show at the Hard Rock Cafe.

P-Bass Copy - Something New

I don't typically work on guitars, but appearing to have been simultaneously on fire and under water, this old P-bass copy presented a worthwhile challenge. And, to be fair, I couldn't really make it any worse. I replaced the shattered pick guard, replaced/rewired all of the electronics, and rebuilt the collapsed pick-ups. I put on a new set of my favorite flat-wounds and the result is surprisingly playable. If you want proof you can listen at www.perishtheisland.bandcamp.com  or check out the podcast at www.tootiredtosayanything.com .

Hot Bottle 5e3x2 Kit - Fireworks!

This Hot Bottle 5e3x2 kit put on put on quite the fireworks display. The hardware that kept the main board isolated from the chassis was missing leaving all of the solder points exposed. Missing hardware on the rectifier tube socket wasn't helping either. Two out of three of the control pots were also completely not functioning. Thankfully, there was no major damage done to the amp or the musician. I reinstalled the missing bits and added a localized negative feedback mod to the second preamp tube to increase the clean headroom and tighten up the overdrive. Did I remember to take a picture of the mod? Of course not! I'm an amp mechanic not a photographer!