Thursday, October 1, 2020

Crate Blue Voodoo 120 Full Tube Head - general cap changes and modding




 * Finally finished the Crate Blue Voodoo 120, after a lot of recapping and modding.
It sounds decent now even for other styles not just that all round gain fizz as it was.

I added a choke and changed about 22 component values (installed sockets, will solder the chosen parts directly on the sockets), and redid a lot of solder spots + changed the very tarnished PCB jack-in connectors. Added four toggle switches to change some gain structure and high end content, nothing fancy, but usable and makes the amp from a very slight cleanish od/stoner rock/fuzzish od to 80s rock, the gain knob is now usable in all its range. Also added a white led to the clean channel and a blue one on the overdrive one.

A warmup video with some compiled takes here, the more 80s + smoother side (will make another video the more aggressive side at some point when the amp is boxed up again):

 

Woolier+Higher gain samples and fuzz type tones here:

Some other vids here on FB









Before:













Dod 250 Gray Variant Clone (139th pedal built)

 * 138 pedals done so far, and not even one for myself...

 
 I finally built myself a DOD 250 Grey clone and instead of leaving it stock, I mounted sockets EVERYWHERE to play with values haha, so it's a constant work in progress. I applied resin on the board wires so that the constant socket tinkering doesn't allow them to break. It offers that punchy shred/neoclassical 80's like tone, very chuggy/fat but with enough presence, even on an almost weak/clean channel. Everything maxed of course.

In the end I decided to leave it stock. This DOD 250 Gray Clone features:

  • the typical 741 IC
  • an external switch to choose between values of the capacitor on the feedback loop of the IC (this is useful in preventing oscillations in the pedal when it is on "full", depending on the guitar and gear you use); this can make the pedal more open or more dark. has 3 modes
  • true bypass with a white LED

Pics and videos:













 

 




Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V Bass - broken internal EQ

 * Bought an Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V bass for a very good price because it had a burnt onboard EQ circuit. Unfortunately it was covered in hard black resin, so I couldn't properly repair it, and I had to use an equivalent bought on eBay and rewire everything to the original pots.
A little hissy because it's not a top quality one, just something that I bought off ebay for it to work so that I can have some fun with it, but...works great!

Video and pics: