Galleries

So, I’ve been wanting to mess around with pedal building for a while now and decided this holiday break would be the best chance I had for a few days off to spend learning.  I ordered a beginner level kit from BYOC, a clone of the Marshall Bluesbreaker Overdrive.  It wasn’t a bad build, although I did run into a few issues and enlisted some help from the pro’s on the BYOC forum to help me out.  I had to double back a couple times to clean up solder joints and messy wiring, but all in all not too bad.  Two days later and several strange glances from Kelly in the other room… and it finally fired up!    Not my favorite pedal, but this definitely got me going.  Now to decide what the next build should be…

Christian Frederick Martin, the founder of Martin guitars, moved his luthier shop from New York City to Nazareth, PA in 1839.  This past week, I had an opportunity to visit that original shop as well as the modern Martin manufacturing plant down the street.  While I wasn’t busy staring in awe of my surroundings, I did learn a few things and even snapped a few pictures with my handy iPhone.  Although there are quite a few automated processes, plenty of machines to handle big jobs, and even a few robots on the premises, a surprising amount of work is still done by hand at the Martin plant.  Everything from final touches on the neck and fret jobs to the fine tuning of the braces still receives personal attention from a real live person.  Favorite part:  I gotta be honest… seeing Clarence White’s D-28 with the expanded soundhole in the Martin Museum on the premises was pretty amazing.  

D.G. Yeungling & Son:  the oldest operating brewing company in the United States, out of Pottsville, PA.  

Two favorite facts… a) the generations of owners are required to buy the brewery from their parents, in order to retain a strong work ethic in the family business.  b) the current owner, in times of heavy snowfall, plows the streets behind the brewery himself at 2:30 am in order to keep the trucks coming and going, and without wasting manpower on the plow duties.  

Wired up 50’s style circuit… (neck w/ cap, neck w/ tone control, bridge w/ tone control), and threw in a no-load pot for some cool options and settings.  Plugged it in, played and sounded killer!  Not too bad for a first build… A few minor steps to completion and No. 1 will be in the books.  Sound clips and video in a couple weeks… final specs will be up soon.