Developing good, clean workshop practices will help you save time and money.
Who doesn’t like a sweet, sustaining, saturated guitar sound? I know I do, but I also love a clear and full clean tone maybe even more. Dirty or clean, to me a guitar sounds like a million bucks when the tubes are glowing and the playing flows. But most of the time I’m in the workshop making lots of dirt, and I don’t mean the overdriven amplifier kind. Making guitars can be a dirty business. Carving wood, plastic, and steel into a majestic instrument creates a lot of mess, and eventually you have to sweep your way clear.
Half a century ago, a mentor passed on this advice: The best way to clean up a mess is to not make one in the first place. Maybe this sounds quaint, but I assure you that it is good for business—any business. It doesn’t matter if you make pedals, guitars, amps, or even music, mess is money down the drain. Not only that, it’s a psychological strain on you that saps your energy and makes you careless.
When I worked at Fender, I was part of a team that was charged with revamping departments for efficiency, safety, and worker well-being. I can’t say that we made a huge difference, but I learned a lot that I could apply to my own shop and a host of other businesses. One thing there we didn’t have to fix was cleanliness. Despite the gargantuan scale of the enterprise, all of the factories are incredibly clean, especially considering the amount of materials that get processed. It reminded me of the race cars and shops of Roger Penske, who understood that a clean, organized workplace sets the tone for excellence. It’s also difficult to pinpoint problems when areas are cluttered, and you can’t see what’s going on clearly.
Beyond the obvious advantages of keeping things organized, there is another benefit created by keeping things clean, one that I’m surprised that more shops I visit (and see in videos) don’t understand. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to stop making your product and clean up. When you’re buried in debris, straightening up is time-consuming, and time is money. When you determine your cost per unit, whether it’s guitars, amps, or even rehearsal time, do you factor in the hours you spend cleaning up? It may not seem like much, but it can really add up. Regardless of if you own a shop or are in a band, if you create a tangle every time you work, the time you spend undoing it is time you could have been with your friends, family, or doing anything else.
A well-designed work area that reduces clutter will save your health and save you money. You don’t have to be a big organization to justify some basic cleanliness improvements like a good dust-collection system, either. It doesn’t have to be a huge investment. There are a slew of affordable mobile dust-collectors/vacuums with adjustable arms that can be rolled from task to task.
"When you determine your cost per unit, whether it’s guitars, amps, or even rehearsal time, do you factor in the hours you spend cleaning up?"
Stop blowing dust off your workbench or machinery onto the floor—picking it up later is like throwing profit away. Everybody benefits because cleanliness improves efficiency that reduces passing unneeded costs on to your customers. Over the course of a year, cleaning up 60 minutes a week adds up to almost seven days’ worth of time you could be using for something better, and who doesn’t want an extra week?
I’ve found that if you build cleanup time into your daily routine, it reduces stress as well. It’s important to create procedures that promote a constant state of improvement and order. After a gig, pro techs have a mandated way of breaking down and stowing gear that avoids confusion when the next setup happens. Daily routines of maintenance and cleanup catch problems before they stop the show or cripple production. If you habitually clean the spilled beer off your cables and amplifier, you’re making it easier for yourself in the long run. I know this all seems pretty obvious to some of you, but I’ve learned from master Kaizen practitioners that there’s always a higher level to reach for. If you are a one-person shop or a weekend warrior musician, those steps can really make a difference.
I suppose the reverse is true for me. If I apply this multi-tiered improvement regime to my guitar playing, I’d probably be a lot happier with my proficiency. An old dog can learn new tricks, and that’s exactly what I mean to do. So when I step on that distortion pedal, it will be the only dirt I deal with.This boutique pedal from Electric Eye Audio is designed to offer sophisticated tone shaping capabilities with two gain controls, Clarity and EBM controls, and a three-knob EQ section.
The pedal has two different gain controls in its unique signal path. The Gain1 knob adds volume and a bit of overdrive to your guitar’s innate tone before the signal is tightened with the pedal’s Clarity control, which fine-tunes the amount of bass frequencies. Your signal then reaches the Main Gain control, allowing you to add even more aggressive clipping. Finally, your signal is shaped by a three-knob EQ section offering Bass, EBM, and Treble controls. EBM stands for Everything but Metal – a 530Hz mid control that you rein in, solidifying your sound to get that mean, brutal metal tone without losing presence in the mix.
Cannibal Unicorn: Sludge, Brutal but still sharp as a Razor
Cannibal Unicorn features include:
- Two separate gain stages with dedicated control knobs
- Special Clarity and EBM controls for tightening your bass and mid-tones
- 9-volt DC operation using external power supply (no battery compartment)
- True bypass switching
- Made in the USA
Electric Eye Audio’s Cannibal Unicorn carries a $199 street price and can be purchased on Reverb.com or the company’s website.
For more information, please visit electriceyeaudio.com.
A tribute to the classic MT10 MOSTORTION, the Mofetta features MOSFET clipping for authentic tones.
The Mofetta is a supercharged MOSTORTION, reborn and amplified that delivers the classic, amp-like overdrive, massive headroom, and versatile 3-band EQ that made the original so famous. Wampler wanted “more” and added a Texture Switch that introduces actual MOSFETs into the pedal’s overdrive section for a bolder, more articulate tone. The Mofetta preserves everything you love about the early ‘90s legend with a powerful new Wampler dimension.
Wampler Mofetta: A Modern Twist on the Mostortion MT10 Pedal Circuitry
The MT10 MOSTORTION
The original MT10 MOSTORTION was released in 1990 as part of a budget pedal series to meet the demand of a growing market. Despite the pedal’s “cheaper” qualities, guitarists began to take note of its amp-like low-gain tones, attributing them arguably incorrectly—to the onboard MOSFET Op-amps. Though the pedals were discontinued a couple of years later, used ones command insane prices today and are extremely hard to find. The Mofetta is Wampler’s way of bringing it all back and re-creating those singing tones while diving even further into the amp-like world of MOSFETs.
Musical, Responsive Overdrive
Paying tribute to a pedal called the MOSTORTION, it’s easy to assume the Mofetta would be a high-gain beast. But like its predecessor, it’s the circuit’s low-to-mid-gain voice that the original circuit is most known for. From edge-of-breakup to fat, vintage amp-style crunch, the Mofetta blooms with tube-like compression, always retaining its musical warmth. And with its high-headroom output, it easily pushes your amp or modeler into harmonically-rich breakup.
3-Band EQ
Part of what makes the Mofetta so versatile is its unique 3-band EQ. While many overdrives before 1990 relied on a simple tone knob, the idea of a dirt pedal like the MOSTORTION with bass, middle, and treble controls was darn near revolutionary. It lets you dial in the Mofetta for a full-range drive or achieve transparent grit that complements your clean tone. If you dial up the mids and treble a bit, you can even use it as a focused boost to push your amp’s breakup, or stacking with another gain pedal, tightening its response and enhancing its character.
Is it truly MOSFET?
One of the original MOSTORTION’s little-known “secrets” is that it doesn’t actually use MOSFETs for its overdrive. It uses a “MOSFET based op-amp”, but in reality uses clipping diodes to produce distortion. This left Brian thinking, “What if I built one that could actually use MOSFETs for the clipping, using multiple gain staging like a tube amp?” That’s what the Mofetta’s Texture feature is all about - it takes the pedal from smooth overdrive to fiery distortion with the flick of a Texture switch.
MOSFET clipping delivers a bolder, more articulate voice – louder, tighter, and slightly more aggressive than the original’s diode-driven dirt. While still not “Brutal High Gain” the Texture switch gives you a wider range of overdrive and even distortion that’s even more responsive to your playing dynamics. Is it better than the OG? That’s up to you, but for Wampler, it’s what the MOSTORTION was always meant to be.
The secret is out on the original MS10 MOSTORTION pedals. Their blend of responsive, amp-like gain and flexible EQ make them some of the most elusive yet sought-after dirt pedals out there. With the Wampler Mofetta you get that same tone and performance, now with a pure MOSFET enabled-version of the famed original.
Technical
- Built in the U.S.A.
- High-grade components selected for superior sound and response
- Independent three band EQ (Bass, Mids, Treble), Level and Gain controls
- Texture switch activates cascaded MOSFET gain stages
- Battery connection and 9V power jack
- Top-mounted input and output jacks
- Includes limited 5-year warranty
- Dimensions: 2.5” x 4.8” x 2.3” (64mm x 125mm x 60mm)
- Power draw: 10mA, 9V DC Do not exceed 9V DC
The Wampler Mofetta carries a street price of $199.97.
For more information visit wamplerpedals.com