Pedal won’t power. What to do? The most common reasons for a pedal not powering, in no particular order. check polarity check continuity over each PWR pin check continuity over each GND pin check if there is a short between PWR and GND If the PWR is  less than desired this gets nasty really quick, but likely one of the …

As someone passes, there is a sudden blast of memories that flashes through you. When these memories come, they typically rush in with the magnitude of  the impact, that the memories from that person had on you. Its almost like their soul exhaling the impact they’ve had on people. The memories a person have, can be represented in a distinct …

The most common issue I see in guitar pedals and electronics are typically grounding issues. I feel like its one of the most looked over fundamentals  and most complex portions of electronics. At a collegiate levels it’s assumed that everyone knows what ground is, but its never talked about or explained. Don’t get me started. Before watching this video I’d …

Part 1- This is simplified technical explanation of buffers for guitar players. Topics covered: – What a buffer does – Why to use a buffer – How to determine if your pedal is true bypass or buffered bypass.   Part 2- Is a more technical explanation on how to design with buffers as builder Topics covered: – Where to use …

  Objective and implementation: Building a simple guitar pass through LCD audio visualizer, from new MCU based guitar pedal PCB. At this point I had bread boarded, programmed the code, and tested the concept, so I next wanted to transfer this into a stand alone device. To build this LCD visualizer, my plan was to leverage one of my more …

Wife:“Hello Honey, how was your day at work?” Me: “It was okay, I got to save the world again” Wife: “ Oh whoa! Really that’s amazing, how did you that?” Me: I found a space

After a year, our website was completed. Great, now what? Why won’t my website show up in google? This is fucked. Search engine optimization (SEO). While this is super anti anything I believe in, my curiosity took over. How does SEO work? What do I have to do to have a search engine know who I am? If I could …

The pedal started out with an over voltage burn out. Two components had burnt out. One of them was the reverse polarity protection diode which was designated on the board. The other was unknown. Following the trace path after the diode that led into an electrolytic, which then ended up at voltage regulator IC, I wasn’t sure what this was …

10/25/20 A Boss DF-2 pedal has been brought to me to do some troubleshooting on an LED indicator that remains on. I have not done any repairs in a long time, and sometimes it’s good to get under the hood and see if you get any design inspiration. I thought this would be a simple fix, after playing the pedal, …

This custom pedal built for a Peavey 5150 amp was created to incorporate the channel select switch with an FX loop . Combing these two switches into one allows you isolate your pedals with your clean and dirty channel. The design included here is for the original 5150, however the design can be tweaked to fit just about any amp …