Wednesday, October 16, 2024

HGE Contraptions Greer Amps Lightspeed Organic Overdrive clone (154th pedal built)

HGE Contraptions Greer Amps Lightspeed Organic Overdrive clone (154th pedal built).

An amazing transparent overdrive design on some settings, the hype for this is justified IMO.
Youtube samples:

The parts used are of good quality:

  • Kester EU eutectic 63/37 solder
  • Teflon coated silver plated copper wiring
  • 1% tolerance metal film resistors (Vishay/SR Passives)
  • Gorva Mechano 3PDT softer touch true bypass switch
  • Nichicon lytic caps, Evox Rifa & MKT caps
  • NOS variant of 1N4148 diodes
  • BB2134 IC
  • Lumberg input jacks and DC in










HGE Contraptions Cornish TB-83 Brian May Treble Booster Clone (153rd pedal built)

 HGE Contraptions Cornish TB-83 Brian May Treble Booster Clone (153rd pedal built). 

A great treble booster for “that” particular tone.

Sample on youtube: https://youtu.be/b3rUlJDvONc?si=E6unoQTgivfZwKBC

-Made with multiple capacitor brands: ERO, Evox Rifa, Nichicon lytics and Vishay 1% tolerance metal film resistors

-Japan jacks, Lumberg DC in jack, quality parts in general

-Soldered with Kester EU Made eutectic solder 63/37

-True Bypass version, non buffered










Original Floyd Rose - New Brass L Block (with customizations)

 Changed the small brass block on my Carvin’s Original Floyd Rose trem, and replaced it with a big L brass block, but it needed adjustments and sanding to properly fit and move in the cavity as intended for my particular guitar.

Fits great now!










Pickup magnet swaps (Carvin C22T & C22N)

 Decided to swap the alnico V magnets in my 90s US Carvin DC200.

I used roughcast Alnico 4 for the bridge and Alnico 2 for the neck. I quite like the sound now more, as this guitar is inherently bright anyway.







Friday, July 19, 2024

HGE Contraptions Ceriatone Mini Kleinulator FX Loop Buffer Clone (Dumbleator clone with Fets, 152nd pedal built)

Exceptional for correcting the FX Loop of an amp that has a simple break between the pre and power, with enough signal to drive the send and return efficiently. Has a voltage doubler which gives 31V from the 9V supplied. Bias is at 22V for the J201 Fets. More details after the pics below:











Mini Klein-ulator Buffered FX Loop – The Rig Doctor Inc. (therigdr.com)

Nik from Ceriatone:

''In early spring of 2007, I decided I wanted to build a certain rare, expensive, and Californian amplifier, and I began to go through the previous years of research I had done. Pictures, schematics, even conversations I had read became fair game. Keep in mind, this was before I discovered some of the great internet forums dedicated to building these types of amplifiers. In any case, I came across a design for tube-driven effects loop interface. It was designed for use with the passive serial effects loops in these incredible amplifiers. I quickly decided that I too needed to build one of these tube effects loop buffers. Unfortunately, design parameters plagued the process. I couldn’t find a transformer of the same size and mounting, and the unit’s power supply was still a mystery. About a month after I decided I HAD to have one, the project was temporarily shelved. A few weeks later, I realized that I might be able to come up with a solid-state version that performed similarly, but was much easier and inexpensive to build. After some brain-storming, I posted a schematic and layout of a working Klein-ulator in the public domain. While the freeware unit works great, I knew I could make it better. I redesigned and tested new ideas over the next year, and even had the opportunity to compare it to a Dumbleator-based tube effects loop buffer I built (thanks to various individuals who helped me procure parts). Once I was able to compare it to an “actual” unit, I was able to change a few things to improve the design further. Upon careful testing, it became clear that the two 3 designs (one tube and one solid-state) performed shockingly similarly. Both units smoothed the tone in a very pleasing manner, and added a perceived “3D” effect to single note lines. Both could be used to overdrive an amplifier’s phase inverter for lush and very complex tones. I was also able craft the solid-state unit’s frequency response to the same as the tube unit. Most importantly, both units allowed the successful use of effects in an amplifier’s passive effects loop. While the Klein-ulator is not meant as a “replacement” for the tube-driven units, I think you’ll find it performs quite well. I hope you enjoy it''

Friday, June 7, 2024

HGE Contraptions Colorsound Overdriver 70’s Clone (151st pedal built)

I made it with original 2x Siemens BC169B and 1x CDIL BC184B transistors. The original pedal has variants of both B and C hfe combined of those transistors, but I also tried BC109C and they are too much, so I went with the “B” hfe transistor variants. Sockets are installed so one can always play with different types, there is no right or wrong, just preference. This also sounds better at 18V vs 9V to me 😀 

Probably my favorite boost/drive so far on an already lightly overdriven amp. It’s like the “tone of the gods” with great sustain and makes playing a breeze, like you have a bunch of compressors with sustain full almost. Very chewy yet raw/organic and precise tone when boosting. It does go into a fuzz tone if needed on full and it’s ungodly loud on a clean channel haha, but for drive boosting it’s amazing. The switch is just toggling 3 types of high end cut.










Charvel San Dimas trem swap

 While I don’t do stuff for others as a business anymore, a friend had a brand new Charvel MIM San Dimas which had tuning issues and I decided to help, mostly because I was curious. The original FR1000 posts were destroyed stock(they appear to be a brassy like crap metal alloy), and the previous trem was doubtful to me, although not destroyed (same strange metal brassy color base) on the knife edges and we decided to go with new OFR Germany pivots and also a good late 80’s OFR Germany real deal trem.  Fantastic stability now, as expected. A really cool guitar! Enjoy it Sebastian






The 80s good original German trem cleaned and swapped on the guitar: