Stuff on eBay

So my buddy sez, "ya gotta put your stuff on eBay."

But I don't like eBay. Not for new products. I dislike the atmosphere. You see more willful ignorance on the part of the sellers than in an entire Gucci of Defense Attorneys. "I don't know much about this so I couldn't test it, but I know these are real collector items." You see old electronics with the power cord cut off, the fuse holder missing, a piece of tape over the power switch with a skull and cross bones drawn in Sharpie over it and the guy goes "it probably just needs a simple repair."

Anyway, that's not fair and just because there's losers and thieves down the road doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of decent stuff and honest sellers. I will still not sell "My" pedals there. But I have got a ton of odds and ends, leftovers, uncollected repairs, oddball parts. It's gotta go somewhere and I'm not interested in cataloging and inventorying everything. So onto eBay they go. There's a link to whatever is current on the left and I'll keep moving stuff until I can make room in the shop and music room.

For today, there's a cute little Green Ringer Clone. It's the tiny little thing you see in my post about rehousings. I made a couple and here's the extra one.

Update from the Bench

Things have been quiet on the blog here lately. Pedal and amp repairs are the priority, I don't get to play when I've got someone's gear setting there on my bench eager to go home and make music.

Tbe Big Bad Buffer with no name is coming along nicely. The design has made it off the breadboard and the prototype PCB layout is coming together. I still need a name for it, was thinking "Diesel Drive" but still looking for ideas. This is a fun project for me since it is one of the few where the published specifications are meaningful to the design. Most of the time with pedals we are torturing and abusing the technology to create interesting sounds. This is one of the few cases where we really want things like low distortion and huge, clean headroom.

On the back burner are the parts and drawings for my recreation of the legendary Roland AP-7 Jet Phaser. If you remember the Isley Brother's song Who's That Lady, you know the sound. It's a combination eight stage (yes, 8 stages, like double Phase 90s) phase shifter with an integrated distortion circuit (the "Jet" part of the name) to push it into a completely new range of sound. This is a remarkably complex device that has never been reissued or reproduced since back in the day. This is one of those things that I wanted and couldn't afford when I was a kid and for the collectors price they sell for now, well it's time for my clone. Here's another example of what this pedal can do by the great Larry Graham and a great wrap up to this post:

Fancy Cables

This is a fairly hot subject and I've gotten into some ill-advised arguments over it in some forums. The arguing part seems unnecessary and I'm going to try to explain my opinion clearly and in a way that avoids stepping on anybody's toes.

A solid basic guitar cable made of reliable, quiet and relatively low-capacitance cable with reliable, high-quality plugs can be had for about $30 from any number of sources. This is all you need. Look for cable with Mogami or Canare wire and Neutrik or Switchcraft plugs. There are other brands, but these are the standard. And again, this is what you need, quiet, reliable, low-capacitance. Without that basic functionality a cable is not worth considering.

You can pay more and get additional features if you like, pretty jackets that do actually help protect the cable and gold plated ends are both popular and pretty. No reason to not have them if you like. But look at these as optional features that are added to what is essential; quiet, reliable, low-capacitance. If a cable lacks those things there is no added feature that will make up for it.

There are "premium" cables out there that are objectively, measurably, statistically and factually inferior in reliability. Some have terrible failure rates and a few have terrible failure modes.

Quick example that hit my bench, a customer using one "premium" cable had the tip of the plug come off inside the jack of his amp. Being a PCB mounted TRS Cliff jack there was no way to remove the tip without destroying and/or replacing the jack. The customer ended up with a repair because of this inferior cable with inferior plugs that had been sold to him for five times the cost of a cable that would never have had this problem. Sure the "lifetime" warranty of the cable got him a brand new one, just like the old one, but it sure didn't pay his repair bill or make up for the time without his amp.

This is unacceptable.

I don't want to hear the argument that these cables sound better - broke cables do not sound good. This industry has had reliable cables for about 30 years now. If someone presents a cable as being an improvement it must do everything those cables did, plus. Not instead.

That is all. Make sure that you are getting something that will get the job done. Then, if you can afford it and it sounds good to you upgrade however much you like. Just don't get suckered into thinking that because something is more expensive that it is automatically better. It has the potential to be better, but not all of them are.

That $30 cable I was talking about is better than what you heard on your favorite albums of the past. It really, really is good enough. And if someone wants you to pay more insist that he give you everything that you get in the low priced cable plus whatever added features he's advertising. There is no excuse for accepting less.

There are a lot of guys out there building fine cables at all price points. These are good guys selling a legitimate product. I am not criticizing them for offering something better and more expensive. On the other hand there are companies with nothing but a huge endorsement / advertising budget who sell unreliable gold-plated crap. You deserve better than that.

Rehousing Pedals, When I Do It, When I Don't

Almost every pedal builder does this at some point. Take a commercial pedal built in a cheesy, oversized enclosure with poor quality controls and jacks and rebuild it with boutique grade components. Usually smaller, but almost always more robust and reliable. Very often the electronic switching and buffering circuits are bypassed or removed as well and the pedal is recreated in a true bypass version.

I've done a few myself and have developed some opinions on the subject. Imagine that, me, with opinions. My experience has been that for simpler, analog pedals the player is better served to have a reproduction built or buying an original. Here's my breakdown on that. A decent rehouse will cost somewhere upward of $75. That plus the cost of the original pedal will cost very nearly as much as simply having most reproductions built. If we take something simple like the Dano French Toast, the cost of a pedal plus the rehouse is about the same as a clone of the Foxx Tone Machine of which it is a copy. And a Transparent OverDrive rehouse is outright silly (and borderline accessory to intellectual property theft) you can just order a Timmy for that money.

Yes, you can find a hobby guy who is just happy to have someone pay for the parts he experiments with. And that is definitely a good thing. Enjoy this hobby. That's what it is for, having fun. But, if you need a professional build quality, or if that pedal breaks down, as all things will, the pro build is going to be far better.

Some rehouses make more sense. Things like the Dano Chicken Salad, that are more complex give the player an option that he might not otherwise have. While a commercial Univibe clone like the MojoVibe (a personal favorite) would be better, it will be about twice the price of the rehouse. So it does let you get your Vibe on at a lower cost than a boutique clone, and sounds better and runs more reliably than the factory pedal.

Here's an example of not rehousing. A friend and regular customer called and asked about having me rehouse a Green Ringer into a foot-toy format for him. Instead, I suggested a scratch build that included some improvements and a much smaller footprint than could ever be possible with a rehouse.


No indicator LED. Thought about it, but things are a bit tight in there and there's never a question whether this little screamer is on. Oh, and this cost the same as just a rehouse.

On the Drawing Board - The Buffer

Got a couple of projects in the works I'd like to talk about a bit.

First, is the new buffer. This is actually a triple buffer designed to go onto a pedal board and fill all the buffer / driver / splitter needs anyone might normally have. The basic idea is, guitar goes in, there's a separate, isolated output for the tuner. This keeps the tuner off the signal path, some tuners are tone suck disasters, even when used in a branch off the signal path. This fixes that problem. There's a buffered output to the pedals, and a return. Then another buffer to drive the line to the amp.

Here's the jacks:
Guitar input
Tuner Out
Buffered Out to pedalboard.
Return from pedalboard.
Buffered Out to amp.
The stomp switch can be internally selected to either mute for tuning or bypass the pedalboard.

Technologically, this thing is a monster. It runs well on 9VDC, and even better at 18, and is safe anywhere up to 24 Volts. It uses some very serious modern IC technology instead of the usual buffers and antique opamps you see in other pedals. The dedicated Tuner Out uses a typical FET buffer stage since we don't really care what the tuner sounds like, we just want to isolate it from the rest of the signal path. Truth be told, you could run the Tuner Out into an amp or pedal and it wouldn't sound any worse than the other buffers on the market.

The design challenge now is developing this pedal to the point that we retain all the features in a compact format. Yes, this all fits in a standard "MXR" type box. And, I'm trying to keep the price under $100! as low as possible, right now we're looking at $129. There are other pedals with similar features, they are larger and vastly more expensive. Oh, except none of them give you the option of having a mute or bypass switch.

Raw Vintage Strat Spring Review

I recently read about some Strat springs that are allegedly designed according to the ancient specs, sold by a company called Raw Vintage. They claim awesome tonefulness, the springs are larger diameter as God and Leo intended and yadda yadda.

What got my attention is that they advertised them as being less stiff than the common, modern springs. My Warmoth / Squier mutant with 10-46 strings on an American Standard bridge took two standard springs and even then they were so stiff that when I loosened the claw enough to get the bridge level the springs would stack limiting lift on the bar. I tried every spring I could get my hands on; cheap Asian knock-offs, various Fender products, nothing really balanced well.

The Raw Vintage springs are indeed much softer than the others. I used four to replace the two with only a minor tweak of the claw and the arm is far more supple and much, much more effective for subtle effects. It is well enough balanced that I can dive bomb and come back to tune as well as could possibly be hoped (locking sperzels and a clean nut help) excellent tuning stability. Oh, and now I can pull up some, Hooray! In vibrato function these are brilliant; from slight wavers to slams the bar works much better than ever before and is much easier to modulate.

As for tone, I'm still a bit skeptical. I'm inclined to feel that the guitar now has more chime unplugged and plugged, but since I wasn't looking for that I wasn't paying enough attention before I made the change to give a fair comparison. If I had expected it, I would have listened close before or done a recording for a before and after demonstration.

I may yet do a tone test on these, it doesn't take much time to swap springs. They clearly don't hurt the sound and the improvement in trem action is so great that is reason enough to keep them. Oh and they're $20 for a set. Other than your first setup and intonation job, this is the biggest bang for the buck I've ever seen in guitar function. No, I do not sell these. Yes, I am considering it. Let me know if you aren't finding them at a price you like and I'll see what I can do.

Regardless, they are highly recommended. If you EVER use the bar, you want these. Even if you have a six-screw bridge, set to rest on the body with five springs you want the bar to come down with a reasonable effort, enough spring to come back solidly, but still relaxed enough that you can modulate the arm. These will help. Yeah, I'm a fan.

Bottom Line: 5 star improvement in Vibrato bar function. Jury still out gathering evidence on tone.

Pedal Repair

Among the goods and services I offer is mail-in effects pedal repair. People often feel a bit odd sending their stuff off in the mail so the clearer everybody is about how it all works the better. Like Ben Franklin said there is no contract that a crook won't break, the purpose of a contract is so that honest people can avoid misunderstanding. So this is just trying to make sure that everything is covered and you know what to expect.

Typical effect pedal repairs are done for a flat rate of $50, $55 (shipping has gone up) payable on completion when the pedal is ready to be shipped back and includes parts, labor, shipping and paypal fees. This covers repair, general reconditioning and preventative maintenance. I test the pedal and correct any problems found in addition to the complaint.

If a pedal is in extremely poor condition, has suffered from corrosion or requires exotic or rare components an estimate for the actual repair costs will be prepared and sent by email. This is not common, but does happen. I haven't had to send an estimate over $100 for a pedal yet. If an estimate is declined the charge for the diagnosis, estimate and return shipping is $10.

Email me for the shipping address and phone and to let me know when you send something. When I receive the unit I'll reply to let you know it's here. You'll get another email when the pedal is either repaired or if parts need ordering. This usually takes about a week. Some parts orders can be slow and can take a few weeks. Most common parts are on-hand and ready to go. Some older pedals used components that are almost impossible to find like the SAD1024 IC. When there is a problem like that I'll keep you informed of the hunt.

Short version: Email me. Ship the broke thing. Get an email back when it's here. Get another email saying it's fixed. Paypal $55. Get your fixed, clean and healthy pedal back in the mail.

Please include your name, address, email and the problem on paper with the pedal.

Thanks for reading. I've repaired a lot of pedals over the years and am looking forward to taking care of your gear.

Welcome to The Ronsonic Blog

Welcome to my blog.

I'm here to talk about the guitar effects and other electro-musical gear I build for my own use and for sale. We'll have ongoing descriptions of the pedals I'm producing and a few words on what's being planned. Comments will always be open and I'm eager to hear your opinions.