In the pedal-building communityāas in Alcatrazāsharing is caring.
When I have a conversation about business with someone outside of the music industry, I often find it leads to a discussion of competitors or competition. These terms tend to place a comedic smile upon my face. Both of those words are almost always used by the person not in the music industry. As natural as the concept of competition is, the response I give is often received as unnatural. This could solely be because folks are not used to hearing how our industry actually operates internally.
We have the immense pleasure of working alongside inspiring and creative companies. The word alongside often falls short of fully illustrating what is going on. This brings me to the part of the conversation that tends to catch people off guard. As for the aforementioned ācompetition,ā there really isnāt any. At least not in the traditional sense. If anything, that is almost solely something perceived by consumers. Years back, a colleague was curious about how a certain pedal manufacturer achieves a specific feature in its design. This company is a big player in our industryāa household name in effects pedals. After my colleague sent an email inquiring about the feature, this company replied and attached a picture of a schematic. I have difficulty picturing the designers at Ford sharing engine diagrams with Chevrolet.
Another example of the collaborative nature of our industry: There are a handful of pedal manufacturers out there that have their circuit boards designed by other pedal companies. I am one of them. Smaller companies that are starting out have hired me to bring their ideas to life on the inside. This can lead people to ask, āWhy are you helping the competition?ā My main reply to that question centers on one word: respect. Let me elaborate on that. A start-up company might seek my services because they enjoy the products we make, they like my circuit board design work, and they know it will not directly conflict with one of our products. Our community has a deep, ethical respect for other pedal companies. I often find myself recalling late nights on the slopes of New Hampshire, skiing past a sign that read āRespect Gets Respect.ā Outside of the monetary value and experience gained by working with other companies, this also reinforces and strengthens our community ties.
I often find myself recalling late nights on the slopes of New Hampshire, skiing past a sign that read āRespect Gets Respect.ā
The idea for this monthās column goes back a year or two. However, the root of the idea extends back decades. It is inspired by the 1996 film The Rock, in which Sean Connery uses his extensive knowledge of the Alcatraz prison infrastructure to both infiltrate and escape it. In one scene, he and Nicolas Cage are locked in two cells. He manages to open the cell doors by tying together sheets from his bed and tying them to a wheel from the bed frame. Then, heās able to swing the wheel over a release lever that opens the cell doors on his block. After opening the doors, he walks by an awestruck Cage and says, āTrade secrets, my boy.ā
Trade secrets? Those two words have confused me since I first heard them together. I think the lack of deeper context is the culprit here. Was it, āThese are trade secrets I will not share,ā or was it, āLet us trade secrets with each other?ā It is, by definition, the former. However, in our little corner of the world, it is almost exclusively the latter.
I often file information sharing into the philosophical drawer, followed by community reinforcement. Let us play out a scenario: A person reaches out to me about starting a pedal company and inquires about several aspects of the start-up process. First, merely reaching out shows an important level of ambition. Once Iāve learned about that personās knowledge and aspirations, I proceed to answer any questions they might have. Armed with the information and tools, the ball is in that entrepreneurās court. It is all going to come down to an investment of effort and persistence to achieve their goals. I would argue that whether the inquirer follows through or not, I was not the deciding factor. That person was or was not going to do it regardless of my involvement. It is also likely that they will develop their own processes and go on to share their findings with othersāthus becoming another co-author of our communityās open book.
I wonder if other industries share a similar open-book policy? Also, if anyone has those Ford engine diagrams, send me an email.
Note the two trimmer screwdriver slots, surrounded by blue, in the middle of this phase shifter.
Aisha Loe explains how to cure mushy modulation with a screwdriverābut you need to know what youāre doing.
Potentiometers are used for most of the controls on pedals and a lot of other electronic equipment as well. A potentiometer (also known as a pot) is defined as a 3-terminal variable resistor in which the resistance is manually varied to control the flow of electrical current. A potentiometer acts as an adjustable voltage divider. Any control on a guitar pedal that has a knob will typically be controlling a potentiometer, or sometimes a rotary switch.
There is a type of potentiometer called a trimmer (also known as a trimpot) that lives inside of some stompboxes. It typically doesnāt have a shaft that sticks up like a regular potentiometer. Trimmers usually have a slot on top for making adjustments with a small screwdriver. They are meant to be set correctly when installed in a device, and mostly never seen or adjusted by the deviceās user. Trimmers can be variable resistors, variable capacitors, or trimmable inductors, and they can perform many different types of functions within a circuit.
āI know what an epiphany it can be to unlock that little extra bit of magic out of an already beloved pedal.ā
I get a fair amount of questions about trimmersāoften: āIs it okay to mess with that?ā There are many pedals on the market that have internal trimmers that can be adjusted by users, to tweak to personal taste. It is handy to be able to dial a sound in all the way, almost like fine-tuners on a guitar. Typical user-tweakable micro controls are for modulation speed and/or width, gain, and sensitivity.
Conversely, there are trimmers built into circuits that I would not consider easily user-adjustable. These include things like bias for time-based effects and setting proper voltages so circuits can function as they should. Iāve repaired quite a few analog delays and flangers, for example, that were perfectly functional! The bias had simply drifted out of its sweet spot. Perhaps the user had gotten too curious and decided to tweak those irresistible little trimmers? Or, more often than not, the trimmers had simply drifted a bit away from their set positions over many years of use, not to mention jostling from being transported to and from gigs. A qualified pedal tech has the right meters and test equipment to get those effects dialed right back in. However, bias can be a nightmare to get back to where it needs to be without some expertise. I understand why these folks thought their pedals were broken. A modulation effect that isnāt properly biased can sound absolutely horrible!
Internal timmers, aka trim pots, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Look for the slots.
Itās only natural to be curious about the guts inside pedals. Trimmers can add so much extra versatility to a device. If youāre ever unsure which ones are okay to tweak, a good rule of thumb is to ask the builder or the company that makes a particular unit which of its trimmers are okay to fiddle with before you twiddle. In some cases, your warranty could be voided if you do adjustments, so itās always a good idea to check first.
I know from my own playing what an epiphany it can be to unlock that little extra bit of magic from an already beloved pedal, and I enjoy sharing any knowledge that can help guitarists get the sounds that are most pleasing out of their effects. Perhaps that pedal you planned to trade could be transformed into something you really love with a little twist of a trimmer.
A Deeper Dive
I mentioned resistors several times in this column. A resistor is a passive, 2-terminal electrical component that controls electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses.
- Does your favorite stomp have an adjustable trimmer? You can find a list of popular guitar pedals that have adjustable trimmers here.
- To read more about voltage dividers, and how a potentiometer works, check this article out.
- And hereās some great information about trimmers, for further exploration.
Electrolytic capacitors are your stomps' first line of defense against bad current. Keep them healthy and your tones will be, too.
Feeding clean power to guitar effects is really important. We do our best to buy the highest quality power supplies that we can find for our precious pedals. Once that clean power is fed into the unit from the wall outlet, it often goes through something called a power filter, inside the power supply. This ensures that the pedal's power needs are being met, and allows each pedal to function properly. It also mostly gets rid of ripple.
Ripple (specifically ripple voltage) in electronics is the residual periodic variation of the DC, or direct current voltage, within a power supply using an AC, or alternating current, source, like the electrical outlets in your home or studio. If you're curious, you can read all about DC versus AC current at electrical4u.com/dc-current.
Ripple is wasted power, and has many undesirable effects. It heats components, causes noise and distortion, and may cause digital circuits to operate improperly. Ripple can be reduced by adding the aforementioned electronic filter into the circuitry, to ensure that the pedal is getting the proper juice. There are parts called electrolytic capacitors that do a lot of the heavy lifting in this section of a circuit. You can learn more about capacitors at a variety of websites, including Wise-Geek.com, Techcircuit.org, Beavisaudio.com, and coda-effects.com, and you can see what they look like above.
Ripple is wasted power, and has many undesirable effects.
Those of us who love and cherish old amps know all about capacitors. The first thing I do when I acquire a gem from yesteryear is take it to a qualified amplifier technician to have it thoroughly inspected, and to have the power filter capacitors replaced with new ones. The reason for this is that over time these capacitors can dry out and cause the amp to not function properly, or to just simply stop working. In a worst case scenario, it can even cause electric shock.
When an electrolytic capacitor is going bad, it can appear to be deformed, sometimes bulging out at the ends. If the power filter capacitorsāor really any of the electrolyticsālook like this, it's a sure sign that it's time to take the amp to a tech for them to be replaced. In some cases, there might not be any visual indication at all when a cap goes bad. Most amp technicians I have dealt with say that a good rule of thumb is to replace these capacitors every seven years or so.
For reference, here's what caps can look like when they're blown:
The electrolytic capacitors in effects pedals also wear out over time. As in amps, caps in pedals are used for multiple purposes. Coupling capacitors let AC pass through them, but not DC. And RC (resistor-capacitor) filter caps cut off frequencies above or below a certain threshold. But the classic role is the one we're discussing here: smoothing out ripples in the power supply. Capacitors have what is known as an "end of life cycle." This means that the manufacturer only guarantees them to remain fully functional for a certain amount of time. That time frame can typically range anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 hours.
There have been a few occasions when I have purchased a vintage pedal I had been trying to find for ages, only to get it plugged in and find it unusably noisy and/or dull-sounding. I usually re-cap these old circuits before I do anything else to them. This usually brings the pedal's power back to its former glory, ensuring that the unit will behave as it was intended to for another decade or so. I would say nine times out of 10, replacing these capacitors creates a massive difference in clarity and sound. Take a look at one of my recapped circuit boards:
Keeping your pedals healthy internally is a great way to ensure that they will last lifetimes. Having them re-capped is one way to help maintain the integrity of the circuits inside. I am so glad I discovered this when I was early in my career as a pedal user and builder. It has certainly given a few of my formerly fallen soldiers a new lease on life.