What You Should Know About Using Guitar Pedals With Other Instruments
Ready to try cutting guitar tracks as a freelancer on your DAW? You’re joining a rich tradition, and a trio of domestic shredders are here to help you sound your best.
Do-it-yourself recording is a great musical tradition. Machines for capturing sound were available for home use as early as the 1930s. Famously, in the late ’30s and early ’40s, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, a lover of folklore and American music, followed in the footsteps of his father, John Lomax, and drove a 1935 Plymouth sedan across the United States with some tapes and a recording machine in the trunk. In August 1941, he captured musicians on their front porches and in living rooms across the American South, including one 28-year-old McKinley Morganfield—better known by his stage name, Muddy Waters. When Waters heard himself on tape, he was deeply moved. “He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house, and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records,” Waters told Rolling Stone back in 1978. “Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice.” Lomax’s field recordings (trunk-recordings, perhaps?) are a significant jewel in the American Folklife Center’s treasury at the Library of Congress.
The apartment-ready 4-track tape recorder changed the game in the ’70s, then the next decade’s digital advancements blew the doors clean off the studio system. Suddenly, artists could handily create their own recordings from home, and they weren’t half bad. Check out Morphine’s 1993 radio hit “Cure for Pain,” for an example. The horns were recorded on a 4-track in frontman Mark Sandman’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, loft. (Listen closely and you can hear the effect the slightly stretched tape had on their sound.)
“They were really experimenting with unorthodox recording techniques to get previously unheard sounds onto records, and you can still incorporate that philosophy into digital recording.” - Rich Gilbert
As time went on, some went all-in. Venerated alt-rock outfit Deerhoof, who had used a 4-track to record their 1997 album, began making records with laptops and Pro Tools starting in 2000. “It seems like you can either go to a medium- or high-budget studio for one day, or you can use the equipment you have or can borrow from friends, and do it as long as you want,” drummer Greg Saunier said in a 2006 interview. “I realized there was no comparison—the time was so much more valuable than the fanciness of the equipment.”
Home recording equipment for guitarists has basically moved at the speed of light since 2006, and now many of the pros don’t even leave the comfort of their own nest to lay down award-winning tracks. There are plenty of reasons for that (besides the ability to do it in your pajamas). Recording your own guitars in your own space can be incredibly empowering: It’s an exercise in self-sufficiency and independence, both of which can be rare commodities in the world of recorded music. Perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t require a stack of cash to get recordings that you like.
“Sometimes, recording in a DAW, it can sound like you’re on top of the music if you’re recording in a collaboration.” - Ella Feingold
Of course, there’s a spectrum of approaches. Some rely on big-money gear to get the job done, but just as many will swear by cobbling together a home-brew sound setup that matches the project. And besides, it’s not all about the equipment. Recording guitar parts on your own in your dwelling is a unique process with its own complexities, not all of which can be captured and explained in instructional YouTube videos. That’s where battle-tested insights come in handy.
So, I asked three guitarists—a studio heavy-hitter to the stars; a “legendary” long-time independent punk; and an alt-rock up-and-comer—how they cut record-worthy 6-string tracks at home. Here’s what I learned.
Ella Feingold
Flanked by records from Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, Ella Feingold clutches her home studio’s secret weapon: a ’60s Maestro EP-2 Echoplex.
When Ella Feingold started recording at home in 2002, the Digidesign Digi 001 was the tech of the day. Feingold always wanted to figure out how guitar parts and overdubs worked together, be they on a Barry White record or a Motown guitar section, so she set to recreating those layers with the recording system. It wasn’t long before she was working on overdubs for other artists with her new rig, and the practice turned into a career. Now, she’s known for her work with Silk Sonic, Questlove, and Erykah Badu, and on Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Feingold began her career when everyone still gathered in the studio and recorded to tape, so she’s familiar with the feeling and energy of creating something together rather than in isolation. The key to avoiding Lone Musician Syndrome, she says, is to find a way to get inside the music rather than playing on top of it. “Sometimes, recording in a DAW, it can sound like you’re on top of the music if you’re recording in a collaboration,” she says.
There are technical remedies for this, like plugins and impulse responses (IRs) that can help mimic atmosphere or certain room sounds. But there’s a philosophical angle to it, too. When Feingold gets a project, she first listens to it over and over with no instrument in her hand. The idea is to rein in your instincts. Sometimes, they’re helpful. But other times, they let you drift to familiar sounds, progressions, or timings. Feingold will jot notes based on what pops into her head on those first listens, but only later will she pick up a guitar to arrange a part, and see how those initial reactions actually fit with a patient, considered read on the music.
Ella Feingold's Home Studio Gear
Guitars
- 1981 Gibson ES-345 Stereo
- 1967 Vox Super Lynx
- 1967 Goya Rangemaster
- 1950’s Kay Thin Twin
- 1981 Ibanez GB10
- Fender Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster
- 1972 Fender Telecaster
- Fender MIM Stratocaster (strung for inverted tuning)
Amps
- 1966 Fender Princeton Reverb
Effects
- Maestro EP-2 Echoplex
- Maestro Boomerang BG-2 Wah Pedal
- Maestro PS-1A Phase Shifter
- Maestro FZ-1A Fuzz-Tone
- Maestro FSH-1 Filter/Sample Hold
- Zoom 9030
Interface, Mics, and Monitors
- Acme Audio DI WB-3
- BAE 1073
- Ableton Live
- RCA 77-D
- Electro-Voice 635A
- Yamaha NS-10
- Dynaudio BM-15
Feingold’s biggest gripe with home recording is engineering for herself. When she records direct into her interface, it’s no issue, but miking, listening, and tweaking mic position ad infinitum is a major drag—especially if a client has revisions on your work. Say you recorded a lead part in 8th notes, and they tell you a week later that they want a portion of it redone in 16ths. If you recorded those parts on a miked amp, there’s a good chance it’s not set up the same way anymore, and you’ll spend a nice chunk of time replicating the exact sound you got the first go-around. “If I could, I would never engineer for myself,” she groans.
Feingold lives in the mountains, so background noise isn’t a concern these days, though she uses the Waves NS1 plugin for apartment dwellers looking to erase unwanted background from their recordings. But what’s her biggest piece of advice for guitarists recording from home for someone else’s projects? Communicate. “Ask them what their expectations are of you,” she says. “It’s always important to know who you’re working with. By asking, it allows you to help them and not waste your own time.”
Finally, if you’re miking your rig, Feingold suggests checking out good preamps for everything you record. They can add something to the signal that will make your life easier at every turn down the road. “Getting ‘the sound’ before it touches the computer is really where it’s at,” she says.
Rich Gilbert
Lifelong DIYer Rich Gilbert sold most of his home studio gear last year, but with just a couple key pieces, he can still cut album-ready tracks from his new casa in Italy.
Photo by Liz Linder
Home studio whiz Rich Gilbert sold off most of his recording toys when he moved from Maine to Italy in late 2023, but he’s cool with it. All he needs these days is a good laptop with Logic Pro, an interface, and some half-decent nearfield speakers to get comfy with. He records most of his guitars direct these days, and writes and programs his own drums in EZdrummer.
Gilbert has been playing in rock bands since the late ’70s, including Boston art-punks Human Sexual Response and the Zulus, Frank Black and the Catholics, and Eileen Rose (whom Gilbert married). He always loved recording, and soaked in everything he could learn when his bands were in the studio, even if it meant pestering the engineer a little. When Pro Tools became affordable in the early 2000s, he loaded it up with a rackmount interface and MacBook Pro. He devoured issues of Tape Op magazine and started building up his collection of microphones and plugins. He still doesn’t call himself a pro, but that’s part of the point. “This whole digital recording revolution is fantastic in that it enables people like me to make good-sounding records,” he says. “At the same time, it’s kind of a cheat because I don’t really have to know as much.” Over the past 20 years, Gilbert has home-recorded LPs for his solo project, Eileen Rose, and his old band, the Zulus. He also has a practice of cutting tracks for indie artists—for one example, St. Augustine, Florida’s Delta Haints—at $75 per song.
Rich Gilbert's Home Studio Gear
Guitars
- Peavey Omniac JD
- Amps
- Line 6 POD Farm
Effects
- Slate Digital plugins
Interface, Mics, and Monitors
- Pro Tools
- Mackie HR824
- Line 6 POD Studio UX2
- Shure SM7
- Shure SM57
- Shure SM58
- Audio-Technica AT2020
- Audio-Technica AT2035
- Blue Spark
- Monster Power PowerCenter PRO 3500
Gilbert says any aspiring at-home engineer ought to go right to the source for solid information. Study how other engineers have recorded things through history. If there’s a particular sound or feel you’re going for, look at the equipment used to capture it. These days, chances are good that basically any piece of gear you’d lust after has been turned into a plugin.
“Read as much as you can,” says Gilbert. “Read interviews with other engineers as much as you can, ’cause you’ll learn.” In Gilbert’s decades of reading and research, he says he’s seen one sentiment crop up again and again: There is no right or wrong way to do it. “All these things we do are just techniques that someone else did, and then passed it on to someone else,” says Gilbert.
That ethos, he explains, actually comes right from the 1960s and ’70s golden recording era that most of us are trying to ape. “They were really experimenting with unorthodox recording techniques to get previously unheard sounds onto records, and you can still incorporate that philosophy into digital recording,” says Gilbert. “Don’t be afraid to experiment. If it sounds good, it is good.”
That said, another important piece is to know when to walk away from a session. If every frequency seems to be just out of whack with your ears, there’s a good chance you need a break. Remember: At home, you’re juggling the jobs of guitarist, engineer, and producer, and sometimes, the producer has to tell the guitarist to take a walk and come back with a fresh perspective.
James Goodson
James Goodson launched his home-recording project Dazy as an outlet for his “demoitis,” and his song “Pressure Cooker” exploded into an alt-classic.
Photo by Chris Carreon
James Goodson never meant for his band Dazy to be a home-recording project, but after years of tinkering in GarageBand, he’d gotten attached to the rawness of the demos he made with drum machines. During the great shutdown of 2020, he decided to release them into the wild. Now, his single “Pressure Cooker,” a collab with the punks in Militarie Gun, has racked up more than 500,000 streams.
Goodson says he’s not a technical person, so he tries to keep it simple and trust his ears. “If something sounds cool, then that’s that,” he says. “I’m not worried about ‘the right way’ to arrive there.” After almost 20 years on GarageBand, he recently switched to Logic, into which he runs his 4-channel Behringer interface. He uses two mics—a Shure SM57 for his vocals, and a Sennheiser e 609 for recording guitars. He prefers the 609 for its simplicity: Slap it right flush with the grille and start playing. It’s usually on a Vox AC15C1, but Goodson’s secret weapon is a lineup of battery-powered pocket amps that sound “truly wild” when cranked. This combo is how he achieves most of the lush, varied guitar sounds on Dazy’s recordings, with the odd “weird DI tone” in the mix as well. “There’s something cool about the tones from a real amp colliding with some wack digital tone,” he says.
James Goodson's Home Studio Gear
Guitars
- Fender Vintera ’60s Jazzmaster Modified
- Fender MIJ Telecaster
- Fender Marauder
- Fender Highway One Jazz Bass
- Fender Villager 12-String Acoustic
Amps
- Vox AC15C1
- Fender MD20 Mini Deluxe
- Fender Mini ’57 Twin-Amp
Effects
- Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
- Electro-Harmonix Op Amp Big Muff
- Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz
- Big Knob Pedals I.C.B.M. 1977 Op Amp Muff
- Permanent Electronics Silver Cord Fuzz
- Electro-Harmonix Soul Food
- Boss SD-1
- Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter
- MXR Phase 90
- MXR Micro Chorus
Interface, Mics, and Monitors
- Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD
- Sennheiser e 609
- Shure SM57
Goodson says his biggest challenge is managing volume levels. Feedback, for example, is difficult to capture unless you push an amp to its limits, which generally involves a lot of noise. Space is limited at Goodson’s house, so he’s generally in close quarters with that squall for extended periods of time. “Thankfully, my wife is incredibly patient about the racket,” he says, “but I’m not sure if my ears are as flexible.”
“There’s something cool about the tones from a real amp colliding with some wack digital tone.” - James Goodson
Those downsides do have proportionate offsets, though. Goodson says the creative process that one can chase at home is incomparable to its studio counterpart. This ultimately comes down to time and money. “I love being able to just sit around for hours rearranging pedals in search of the ugliest fuzz or playing a part over and over trying to make the screechiest noise—the kind of thing that no one is gonna want to put up with when you have two days in a studio to record ten songs,” he says.
Pushing the boundaries of good taste is one of the sweet joys of life, but Goodson says it's important to know your limits, too. When recording at home, it’s critical to know when to tag in help, he says, and he always sends off his tracks to be mixed by a professional engineer.
The Wrap-UP
There’s a lot of technical overlap between how Feingold, Gilbert, and Goodson work, but the crucial thing they all have in common is reverence and excitement for whatever they’re playing on. Recording guitar from home works best if you really, deeply care about the sounds that you’re creating—even if they’re not for your own projects. Getting the best possible result out of your stay-at-home studio is a matter of experimentation, patience, and genuine respect for the music. You don’t have to drop big money to get those things, but you do have to practice at them. If you ever get frustrated with the process, just remember: Being a work-from-home guitarist is a pretty sweet gig.
Watch as Gabriel Bergman outlines five essential topics you need to level up your playing.
How Do I Learn All the Notes on the Fretboard?
The guitar fretboard can be a very tricky instrument to memorize, but understanding how to visualize the notes on the neck is absolutely essential no matter what style you play. Start by learning your octave shapes and then moving them all over the neck while saying the name of the note out loud. Pretty soon, your eyes, ears, and fingers will start to connect and you'll understand the fretboard on a deeper level.
How Do I Learn the CAGED System?
The CAGED system is simply a series of shapes based on the open-position chords we are learn when we are starting out. These shapes can help you not only understand chords, but also scales, arpeggios, and pentatonics. Start with our in-depth CAGED lesson and really develop seeing these shapes all over the neck.
How Do I Learn Triads on the Guitar?
Having a deep understanding of triads all over the neck is the foundation for a well-rounded view of the fretboard. Start simple with a few shapes on the top three strings and then move those through a few keys. Once that feels good start slowly moving those shapes to other string sets. Not all of them will be comfortable or useful in all situations, but soon you will develop a vocabulary of shapes.
How Do I Learn Arpeggios on the Guitar?
What's an arpeggio? It's when you play the notes of a chord one at a time. Arpeggios can take many forms, so don't try to tackle them all at once. Start with triads on adjacent strings and then slowly expand to 7th chords.
How Do I Learn Pentatonics?
Pentatonics are the bread-and-butter of blues-rock guitar. The shapes are easy to get under your fingers and learning some stock pentatonic licks is relatively easy. One tip: Learn the scales horizontally up the neck in addition to the vertical positions. It will make shifting patterns much easier.
Never kit-built a stompbox? It’s easy—if you let pro pedal maker Alex Guaraldi of CopperSound be your guide. Here, he takes you on a step-by-step tour as he assembles a Build Your Own Clone Classic Delay.
For this DIY adventure, we’re going to be walking through the steps of building the Classic Delay pedal from Build Your Own Clone (BYOC), a company that has been a big player in the pedal-kit game for quite a while. This is a little more complicated than building a fuzz or overdrive, so I’m going to explain the process with great detail. Let’s get started.
Tools You’ll Need for This Project
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- #2 Phillips screwdriver
- Wire strippers
- 8 mm (5/16") nut driver/wrench
- 10 mm (25/64") nut driver/wrench
- 1/2" nut driver/wrench
- 14 mm (9/16") wrench
- Flush cutters
- Small needle-nosed pliers
- Third hands
These tools are available via a variety of suppliers, including StewMac, Allparts, and Amazon.
Step 1: Review the Instructions
The kit as it arrives (Photo 2).
Each BYOC kit comes with a detailed set of instructions in the form of a PDF that can easily be printed out. The Classic Delay’s instructions can be found at https://www.byocelectronics.com/classicdelayinstructions.pdf. They are 32 pages long, and I suggest following their steps as you read this article. Here, I will refer to specific page numbers that correspond with the steps. I’ve also taken photos to coincide with the steps. Within the instructions, we find a table of contents, pictures of the fully assembled pedal, a list of parts included, and step-by-step instructions from internal population and soldering to external assembly. With any kit, always read the instructions carefully before you start building.
Step 2: PCB set-up
Photo 3
A lot of pedal builders use PCB jigs that are specifically designed to hold several printed circuit boards so that they can be easily populated and soldered. These jigs are great tools. However, they’re not something a casual DIY enthusiast will often have. Essentially, all we really need to do is elevate the PCB off of the working surface so that the leads of the components can pass through the bottom side of the PCB. This is most helpful with components that can be soldered from the top side of the PCB. “Third hands” or “helping hands” (Photo 3) are a good tool for this job. So, what can we do to elevate the PCB if we don’t have access to third hands? Simply turn the enclosure upside down and place the PCB perpendicular (Photo 4). This will elevate the PCB enough to allow the component leads to easily pass through.
Photo 4
Step 3: Populating Resistors and Diodes (instructions page 9)
Photo 5
When populating PC boards, we typically like to work lowest to tallest in regards to the seating. Seating is how far above the PC board the component rests. Resistors and diodes sit pretty low to the PC board, so populating them first makes sense.
Resistors: Remove the resistor from the paper ribbon, bend the leads (Photo 5), and place them through the corresponding pads (Photo 6) as directed. (A pad, by the way, is the term for the designated surface area of a component’s electric contact point.) A good practice is to populate all resistors of the same value before moving on to the next value. Populate all 1k resistors, then all 10k resistors, and so on.Photo 6
Reading resistor color bands can be confusing, so don’t forget the reference guide on page 7 of the instructions. Here, you will find a detailed breakdown of each value and its corresponding 5-band reading (i.e. 1k = brown/black/black/brown/brown). Once all the resistors are placed, we can go on to the diode.
Diode: Next, we need to place the diode. Just like resistors, remove the diode from the paper ribbon, bend the leads, and place them through the corresponding pads. Diodes are polarized and need to be oriented a certain way (Photo 7). Be sure to match the diode to the outline on the PCB, as shown on page 10 of the instructions.
Photo 7
Step 4: Solder Resistors and Diode
Photo 8
Fire up the soldering iron! Once the iron is up to temperature (650 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on how fast you work), it’s time to get to work. Resistors and diodes can easily be soldered from the top side. So no need to flip the PCB over. Place the solder tip to the pad and feed the end of the tip a bit of solder. What we’re looking for here is solder that covers the entire pad, encapsulates the lead, and has a nice shine to it. Think of it like a shiny Hershey's Kiss shape (Photo 8). Repeat this step for every part. If you’re new to soldering, you should consult our concise guide to soldering, online or in PG’s October 2015 issue.
Soldering tip: Shut the iron off between population steps. Use a small, tabletop fan to blow the solder fumes away during soldering steps. Quick tutorial videos on YouTube are also of benefit here, for builders new to soldering.
Step 5: Trim the Leads
Photo 9
Next, place the PCB upside down to expose the leads (Photo 9). Using flush cutters, trim the excess leads (Photo 10).
Photo 10
Step 6: Soldering IC Sockets (page 11)
Photo 11
Place the 8-pin and 16-pin IC sockets into the corresponding pads on the top side of the PCB. We need to solder the IC socket pins from the bottom side. This means flipping the PCB over without having the IC sockets fall out. For this, I like to use a small piece of foam (Photo 11).
Photo 12
I place the foam on top of the PCB (Photo 12), then flip the foam and PCB simultaneously so the foam is below the PCB and the bottom side of the PCB is facing up (Photo 13).
Photo 13
For this soldering step, we’ll want to solder ONLY 1 pad and then flip the board over to ensure that the IC sockets are sitting flush. If the IC sockets are not flush, go back to the bottom side and reflow that solder pad while pressing the PCB downward and keeping it parallel to the work surface. Solder the remaining pads (Photo 14).
Photo 14
Step 7: Soldering the Voltage Regulator (page 12)
Photo 15
Place the voltage regulator into the three corresponding pads, while keeping mindful of the orientation. The flat side needs to match the outline on the PCB. Now, we’re ready to solder. This can be done from either side. Flush-cut the excess lead and we’re done here (Photo 15).
Step 8: Soldering the Trim Pot (page 13)
Photo 16
Place the trim pot (Photo 16) into its corresponding pads. For the trim pot provided, I found it easiest to solder the two exposed legs from the top side (Photo 17) and then the remaining leg from the bottom side.
Photo 17
Step 9: Soldering Ceramic and Film Caps (page 14)
Photo 18
Place all ceramic (pill-shaped) and film (red) caps into their respective locations. Again, use page 7 of the instructions as a reference for identifying the correct capacitors (i.e. 100n film cap, which may say “104” or “.1” or “u1” on the body). We’ll need to solder the pads from the bottom side. So, once again, the piece-of-foam trick can be your friend here. Flush-cut the excess lead and we’re done (Photo 18).
Tip: An alternate method would be to bend the leads away from each other so they stay in place when the PCB is flipped over (Photo 19).
Photo 19
Step 10: Soldering Electrolytic Caps (page 15)
Photo 20
Let’s do the same thing here as we just did in Step 9. One thing to note is that electrolytic capacitors are polarized and need to be populated in the correct orientation. This is denoted on both the PCB and the component itself. On the PCB, the positive pad is denoted by the square pad. On the electrolytic capacitor, the positive lead is the longer leg. Additionally, the negative lead of the cap also corresponds to the white strip on the body (Photo 20).
So, let’s go ahead and populate the caps and solder them with either the foam trick or by bending the leads. Flush-cut the excess lead and we’re done (Photo 21).
Photo 21
Step 11: Battery Snap and Hook-Up Wire
Photo 22
This DIY kit offers a battery option for those that feel so inclined. (See page 17 of the instructions.) For this step, we’ll need to connect the battery snap to the PCB. Before soldering, we’ll want to first feed the two wires through the holes directly below the solder pads. These holes act as strain relief for the battery snap and have + and - signs next to them (Photo 22). Then, simply solder the red wire to the positive (+) pad and the black wire to the negative (-) pad (Photo 23).
Photo 23
Next, we need to cut and strip the included wire (page 18). We need four 2.5" pieces of wire, and one 1.5" piece (Photo 24).
Photo 24
Place the 2.5" wires into the top side of the solder pads for in, out, and the two courtesy grounds—all handily marked. Then, solder from the bottom side. Do the same for the 1.5" wire going to the ring pad (Photo 25).
Tip: If painting the enclosure is desired, this is the last chance you’ll have to do it. After this, there will be components mounted to the chassis.
Photo 25
Step 12: Install DC Jack (page 19)
Photo 26
Place the DC jack into the large hole on the back heel of the enclosure and tighten the nut using a 14 mm (9/16") wrench (Photo 26).
Step 13: Potentiometers and Status LED (pages 20 and 21)
Photo 27
The included instructions for this next part have you mate the PCB to the inside of the enclosure. This will help line up the pots and LED. However, afterwards it will make soldering the remaining wire more difficult. Here’s a trick we can do that gives us the benefits of using the enclosure to help with pot alignment without needing to take the PCB out afterwards to solder the remaining wires. What we’ll want to do is simply use the face of the enclosure to hold the pots and set the LED height. Additionally, we can use the flush cutters to help balance the PCB (Photo 27). Be sure to have the long lead of the LED mate with the square pad, then solder away!
Step 14: Final Hook-Up Wire
Photo 28
My steps continue to vary slightly from the instructions throughout the rest of the build, so you might want to do a side-by-side comparison. Let’s finish the wire for the DC jack next. Cut and strip three 1.5" pieces. These need to be placed into the three power pads at the top of the PCB marked -, +, + , as in Photo 28.
Photo 29
Next, cut and strip five more 1.5" pieces. Place these in the footswitch pads at the bottom of the PCB marked 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 as shown in Photo 29.
Photo 30
Last wire! Cut one 1.5" piece. Only for this one, strip half an inch off of one side (Photo 30). Place the short-stripped side into the footswitch pad labeled 4.
Step 15: Footswitch prep
Photo 31
For the footswitch, we need to jump lugs 3 and 6. To do this, we’ll use the remaining wire. Place the footswitch into the correct hole on the face of the enclosure. Then, cut a 1" piece of wire and strip half of it. Feed the exposed wire through lug 3 and into lug 6 and then solder both (Photo 31). Cut the excess wire.
Step 16: Insert the IC
Photo 32
Now, we’re ready to insert the integrated circuits into their respective sockets. These need to be placed in the correct way, and there are two ways to identify them. Pin 1 is the top left leg of the IC—which is the rectangular black object in Photo 32. These legs are marked with a small dot in the top left corner or the upside of the IC is marked with a debossed half circle.
Step 17: Mounting and Final Soldering
Photo 33
PCB: Now for the real fun! We’re ready to start inserting chassis-mounted components. Let’s start with the populated PCB. Place the PCB with the three pots lining up with the drilled holes, place the pot washers on the shafts, and then tighten the pot nuts using a 10 mm (25/64") nut driver/wrench, for the results in Photo 33.
Photo 34
Footswitch: Now that the PCB is securely tightened, let’s go ahead and do the same for the footswitch. Remove all hardware from the footswitch bushing except for one nut and the lock washer (Photo 34).
Photo 35
Feed the footswitch through the footswitch hole, making sure that the footswitch has the two poles that we soldered together facing the bottom left (Photo 35).
Photo 36
Next, place the plastic washer onto the bushing (optional), and tighten the hex nut with a 14 mm (9/16") wrench (Photo 36).
Photo 37
Lets go ahead and solder the footswitch wires to their respective footswitch poles (Photo 37). See the instructions’ page 26 for pole-numbering reference.
Tip: Solder from the top row down—i.e. 1, 4, 7, then 2, 5, 8.
Another tip: Remember that the wire for pole 4 also connects to pole 9.Step 18: DC Jack
Photo 38
Next, we’ll need to solder the three wires that go to the DC jack, as explained in page 22 of the instructions. Start with the middle wire, since it sits the lowest and will be easier to get at without the other two wires in the way (Photo 38).
Step 19: Audio Jacks
Photo 39
The last chassis-mounted components are the two audio jacks. Let’s do the stereo input jack first. Go to page 24 of the instructions to see how these jacks are oriented. The lock washer goes on the bushing first, then gets placed into the hole to the left of the DC jack. Then, place the washer onto the bushing and tighten the hex nut with a 1/2" nut driver/wrench.
Follow the same steps for the mono output jack. And then, it’s the final soldering step: Solder the wires to the appropriate lugs on the audio jacks (Photo 39), as on instructions page 28. Then, finally, place the knobs on, tighten them down, and we’re done!
Taipei Houston’s Myles Ulrich joins us in naming the pedals we can’t live without. Plus, musical obsessions!
Question: What are your “always on” effects? Aka, pedals that fit and sound good for most things you play.
Myles Ulrich: Taipei Houston
Photo by Mallory Turner
A: I almost always have a ZVEX Mastotron or Woolly Mammoth on, and I have an EarthQuaker Devices Tone Job on a lot of the time for boost. The ZVEX pedals really make for such a unique and dense fuzz sound that makes the guitar sound very alien and bizarre. The Woolly Mammoth has crazy-big low end as well, if left unchecked.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica [Full Album]
Current obsession: I’ve been really, really deep in Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz! Definitely been revisiting Captain Beefheart while I’m writing material because the way he composed is so original and illuminating to a certain approach to music and band-leading. It’s Blitz! is one of my favorites because Karen O’s voice is just on fucking fire. She has such a unique and exciting vocal style. Hooks for days.
John Bohlinger: Nashville Correspondent
A: They say you can’t polish a turd, and yet when I have my Keeley Halo shimmering between my guitar and amp, my sour notes sparkle like diamond-encrusted unicorn poo. There are six presets; I spend the entire gig scrolling between subtle and not-even-remotely subtle levels with my feet as needed. I rarely turn it off.
Current obsession: Reportedly, Jeff Beck’s advice to aspiring guitarists was: “Play what you haven’t already played.” That’s the obsession working into my playing these days. I try hitting the first note blind and watch where it leads me. Sometimes embarrassing, sometimes rewarding, always exciting.
Nick Millevoi: Associate Editor
A: The second pedal I ever bought was a Boss BF-2. I was 12 and had no idea what to do with it or why; I just thought it was cool. A few years later, I traded it and haven’t owned a flanger of any kind since. Last November, I found a BF-2 at an estate sale. I’m making up for lost time and haven’t turned it off since.
Current obsession: There’s a Dr. John song I heard a lot when I was a teen. I don’t even remember how it went. I’m obsessed with going through his catalog and hoping I’ll recognize it when I hear it. The only thing that’s come close to ringing a bell is “Shut D. Fonk Up,” but I feel like I would have remembered the Anthony Kiedis guest spot.
Dr. John feat. Anthony Kiedis - Shut D Fonk Up [RARE, 1994]
Michael Whyte: Reader of the Month
A: I have two Xotic EP Boosters. One or the other is almost always on. One has the switches set to the default setting, the other to the vintage setting. The vintage booster is especially great for guitars with single-coils.
Current obsession: Lately, my lifelong obsession with motion picture scores has been rekindled. I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s with a dual passion for music and the movies, and just as the language of film was changing during that era, so was the accompanying music. Henry Mancini’s theme for the film Experiment in Terror was the first to catch my young ear as unique, but the bug really took hold when I saw Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns in the theater at the age of 9 or 10. Ennio Morricone’s scores for those films were a revelation, not least because my childhood love of movies and the electric guitar came together so powerfully. It’s been great fun revisiting soundtracks I’ve loved, as well as unearthing new discoveries. Visit our home these days and you’re as likely to hear something like Bruce Langhorne’s spare, beautiful music for Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand, or pieces from a soundtrack by Luis Bacalov or Tōru Takemitsu, as you are anything by the Clash or the Rolling Stones.