Back in town I went to the next guitar shop and bought an entry-level Ibanez E-guitar with an HSS pickup configuration (humbucker/single-coil/single-coil), a 5-way switch and a whammy bar. The amp I got was an inexpensive Vox modelling combo (combo = pre-amp, power amp and speaker(s) all in one box). I also booked a set of guitar lessons with the guy who sold me the gear.
I always liked the feel and looks of the guitar, however, over time, I grew less and less impressed by the way it sounded. So one day, after some internet research, I decided to completely replace the electronics and pickups with new parts. The original single-coil pickups I replaced with GFS Pro-Tube lipstick pickups. The humbucker I replaced with an Artec Classic (CLS) pickup. I also got a new amp: a Fender Blues Junior III.
Other modifications to the guitar included the complete blocking of the tremolo mechanics resulting in a fixed (aka hard-tail) bridge and an additional toggle switch, allowing me to play the two single-coil pickups electrically in series. All of the mentioned modifications noticeably improved the tone. The most drastic improvements being the the upgrade to the new single-coil pickups and the new in-series wiring.
Working on my old guitar (with a soldering iron rather than my finger tips) triggered a big general interest in guitar related DIY projects. I realized that there was a huge amount of information readily available on the internet on the subject. A a consequence, when I decided to replace the overdrive pedal I used a the time, the first thing I did was to look for suitable DIY effect projects.
That was last summer. Today, 9 months later, I'm the proud owner of my own guitar overdrive effects pedal: The Blues-Box - designed and built from scratch with the aim to get a warm tube-like overdrive tone with a lot of dynamics and transparency. In the next few posts I will show how I got there.
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| BluesBox - a tube overdrive guitar effects pedal |
