Looking for a project?

Fun and very well documented!

Thanks!

Ricochet, you always seem to be the goto man for modding and such like. I've always been interested in that side of things (always seem to get distracted from actually playing the guitar and just like talking about it...) but I wanted to do a bit myself and I was wondering if you could give me a quick run through of where to start. Eg. Any essential tools? - I assume a soldering iron, etc.

I put this here because whilst I have a Ds-2 and it seems tried and tested by many top guitarists, I can't believe they haven't modded it because it sounds far to harsh and cold to me, so I was thinking of giving this project a go. Personally I'm not afraid of safety aspects or whatever, but more about the fact it could be a waste of time and money and end up as a mess.

So any pointers for learning a bit about modding/building guitar stuff? (Or any websites?)

Ricochet, you always seem to be the goto man for modding and such like. I've always been interested in that side of things (always seem to get distracted from actually playing the guitar and just like talking about it...) but I wanted to do a bit myself and I was wondering if you could give me a quick run through of where to start. Eg. Any essential tools? - I assume a soldering iron, etc.

I put this here because whilst I have a Ds-2 and it seems tried and tested by many top guitarists, I can't believe they haven't modded it because it sounds far to harsh and cold to me, so I was thinking of giving this project a go. Personally I'm not afraid of safety aspects or whatever, but more about the fact it could be a waste of time and money and end up as a mess.

So any pointers for learning a bit about modding/building guitar stuff? (Or any websites?)

http://www.geofex.com and http://www.generalguitargadgets.com are two good ones for guitar effects and there's a bit of amplifier information, if you're interested in things like custom guitar wiring, there's information on http://www.stewmac.com and http://www.guitarelectronics.com .

One thing I should add, it's definitely a good idea to get a soldering iron and get quite a bit of practice, there's good soldering work and BAD soldering work. As for actually building pedals, you'll have to get yourself familar with constructed printed circuit boards and electronic components, I'm currently finishing my second year of an Electrical Engineering Technology in college so I have a decent amount of knowledge, however there is alot of information on each of these sites that will give you a good start on printed circuit boards and electronics.

Anyways, I'm by no-means a pro, I'm actually in the process of just starting to build a pedal myself! I just have researched this quite a bit and thought I'd let you know what to expect.

Heh, thanks!

I'm still dreaming of making my own effect!

Hey Ricochet, ever been tempted to build one of these?
http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/trainwreck/wreckxpr.pdf

Hey Ricochet, ever been tempted to build one of these?
http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/trainwreck/wreckxpr.pdf

Just out of curiousity, are those pre-amp circuits?

Steve-O i wouldn't know a preamp circuit from a meatball sub.
I have been facinated with how amps do what they do and it's mostly because of folks here like Ricochet who try to put it in terms that dummys like me can grasp.
anyhoo, some of the other posts that I've read here and a small tube project amp of mine have set me on a quest to either fix my amp or knock out the power on my street (whichever comes first)

this has led me to a bunch of different sources for info and one of them is this forum
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php
the topic revolves around the Rev Billy Gibbons and the secret of his earlier tone.
a mention of the trainwreck express led me to search the web for info and i came up with another forum and these schematics.

pretty facinating reading.
http://thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=239051

more info on the wreck here
http://ampgarage.com/forum/index.php?sid=89a253012bb22744ba2a1db4f7add55f

Hey Ricochet, ever been tempted to build one of these?
http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/trainwreck/wreckxpr.pdf

Just out of curiousity, are those pre-amp circuits?

They are entire amp chains -- preamps to output power stages.

Thanks, i've always been curious to see what entire (guitar) amplifier circuits were like.

Thanks for the links too, TwistedLefty.

sorry for hijacking your thread Ric.
i think the project you found looks like something i would like to investigate once i'm more familiar with this stuff. thanks for the link.