jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

oh shoot, you're probably talking about me... I try not to be like that but I know I can be overbearing in spite of myself. Sometimes I am just trying to be witty and it doesn't come across in print, so sorry if I've offended you being a knowitall or mouthy-bastard. At any rate I just want to moderate the submissions (because I find I am really good at IDing gear in small pics and we are super-backlogged here), not the forum. I've been a forum mod on many sites, it sucks.

I have this pet peeve with gear discussions where super young guys with very little experience give strong opinions that they later admit are based on youtube demos... gets me all hot and bothered. If my opinion isn't based on direct personal experience and I venture to give one I generally say "I was very impressed with the demo" or "though I only tried it briefly at a music store my impression was..." and I wish other people would do the same because I get a lot of wrong impressions of gear I am thinking of buying from posts like the ones I am describing. Even recently I have purchased some stuff through the web based on internet opinions that turned out not to be based on real experience and I actually took a bath on a few items that weren't what was promised. People's gear opinions on sites like ours can involve other people's money, so ya shouldn't blow too much smoke!

as far as being a slightly bitter, washed-up professional musician? guilty as charged! I should try to remember how much fun I had getting here. All of us older guys should really... sometimes in life we just focus on how it all turned out and not the fantastic journey. Maybe I wouldn't beat on the young guys if I could see the forest for the trees while I am formulating my posts, but there was a real 'journeyman' attitude amongst me and my peers when I was coming up that seems to have disappeared since then. I don't suggest people shouldn't figure it out for themselves, merely that when I was learning I did more asking than telling. I still contact a few friends with even more extensive gear/electronics knowledge via text all the time trying to learn when I encounter a hazy spot in my udnertanding. Furthermore I still always try to find musical situations where I am the worst player in the room so I can hopefully listen and learn while having fun playing within my capabilities.

I don't even think we HAVE forum moderators! So you are safe.

That's like my third long-winded post today, boy am I bored. I ask ya, what's the point of having a whole day just you and your son when the weather stinks and he just wants to play with his wooden railway while you watch? This independent play thing is classic 2 year-old, but I enjoyed our days together more when he was less independent :-(

we're in a huge crisis over here too... when it hit, it hit the USA first and our problems infected your part of the world...the economic crisis is what caused me to get out of full time music and pursue a healthcare career, but I am not making what I ought to be lately (though some of that's related to wanting flexible hours for a workplace very near to my house for Dad reasons, but generally my industry is downsizing and salaries are shrinking or at least not increasing with the added responsibilities stemming from the 'streamlined' staffing)

as far as your situation, I am really surprised to hear there is no summer work of any kind for someone your age, those are the jobs that never seem to disappear here (sweeping up shops, stocking shelves, lifting packages, inner city bike messenger work.... all for shit money, but those kinda gigs are around and small businesses love to hire the kids under the table for less than minimum wage)...

some of my first jobs were a bit unconventional back when I was your age, I think my 1st job was designing/building sets for a local theater company that ran a summer acting workshop when I was maybe 13ish and I went on to work for those people building sets for their adult productions as I got older... I eventually took over from the adult who supervised me in the beginning, particularly as I got good with power tools and not just the decorative aspects. I also learned a lot doing it, knowledge that's been incredibly useful to me as a techy type of guitarist. I think I found that thru my school or a youth center and then talked my way into a paying apprentice gig, but these days the internet is a fantastic resource. The electrical skills I learned wiring working outlets and such in 'living room' type sets actually wound up landing me my 1st recording gig in my freshman year of college. Its a long story, but I saved the day at an event put on by a guy who owned a small studio and indie label... I ended up being the office manager, personal assistant, cleaning man and repair guy for him and I got to sit in on his sessions and learn eventually becoming the assistant engineer.

Take a minute and think about what kind of unusual skills you have that you might be able to market and then search craigslist or your European equivalent for opportunities. Just don't oversell yourself :-)

another thing to consider is jobs with weird hours.... for a while I was the doorman/bag-checker at an all ages nightclub which fit with my teenaged night owl tendencies, required no skills whatsoever and provided an excellent opportunity to meet people involved in local music and arts... all the networking I did at the door allowed me to setup a thriving graphic design business creating flyers, posters and t-shirts for local bands and music events...

of course I worked at a starbucks over the summers in highschool too, music can be an expensive mistress and I was always trying to double or triple up my revenue streams, but even if there are no legit jobs to provide you with that smallbut steady income, I guarantee you that if you are clever and industrious you can make money all summer... no matter how bad the economy gets (and in the 90s we were in a nasty recession here that lasted into my college years, it took me a long time to get that steady starbucks gig as the competition was fierce for unskilled work) BUT there are ALWAYS to make a little money here and there as long as you make it a priority to find them. There are creative types out there servicing the entertainment and artistic needs of the 1%ers in every country and those creative types might need an apprentice. Work cheaper than a guy who knows what he's doing and state you are eager to learn! Your help might involve sweeping the floor for a local luthier in his home shop or maybe just moving equipment for sound reinforcement companies or wedding DJs (I've done this one, shit money but a great opportunity to learn about live sound).

I dunno, I'm rambling at you, but in a bad economy you may need to think outside the box to have an income as a kid, but it can be done. Just don't get discouraged if you get shot down a few times... and don't be greedy. Take whatever you can get and try to learn along the way. Ask lots of questions so that down the line you can start trying to make more money with the skills you will acquire or refine....

I haven't done visual art in earnest for some years so no, nothing hosted on the old interweb...

plus I am an 'all-analog' guy with visual art just like with my guitar sound so t has always been a pain in the ass to get larger format pieces on to the web, especially mixed media stuff with an insane amount of texture or a 3d sculptural element... I never took to photoshop even though it was getting insanely popular and was a course requirement already when I was in school... with music and art I am in an age bracket where there was a lot of overlap between the old way of doing things and the digital way when I was ratcheting up my skills in both areas, but when I was a green recruit in illustration, guitar and electronic music there was very little use for the computers of the day in the arts other than MIDI, so I have a serious attachment to tape machines, tube amplifiers, bulky old keyboards, paintbrushes, razorblades, india ink etc that can make my artistic endeavours harder to share thru the web than would be if I used more computer earlier in the process creating them

the only thing I oughta have around somewhere in maybe jpeg format are those flyers I did between '98 and '04ish when I was embracing photoshop a bit more, but they very well be backed up to an antiquated storage format like zip or jazz drive LOL

although a lot of my punk rock flyers and posters were done without a computer, I used to like to hand cut silk screens for shirts and posters and then print a few sloppy test runs myself one color at a time before sending the screens off for a pro screen printer with mechanical equipment... yes CUT them, not draw something and then transfer the image chemically... I just used to freehand them with an exacto knife from my sketches...

but I embraced photoshop for rave flyers (particularly around '00 when promoters sprung for really nice stock and full color digital printing), though almost everything started out as a freehand drawings done with a sharpie or some other ridiculously unprofessional marker that were scanned and colored in the box with text added from fonts I created freehand... time consuming and I don't know why I bothered since I wasn't getting paid more to be so meticulous

I feel like the real story of ducktales was meant to be how scrooge learns from his adventures that money isn't everything and that keeping your money in a bin is hurting the economy. If scrooge wasn't going to take to philanthropy he should at least have invested hus fortune to keep those assets fluid.

I still love the idea of a money bin that needs to be guarded by a cyborg though.

Aww hell, and I was going to stalk you. I only asked because I took illustration in school though I never worked profesdionally apart from rave and punk flyers when I was a student.

I always just assumed after reading carnegie's story inmy tweens. Penniless scots immigrant boy turned wealthy industrialist... then after he made hisforyune he turned around and became the prototypucal philanthropist... i am not sure uf he had 3 crazy nephews but i am fairly sure he didn't have a crazy test pilot hanging around like his sidekick. I'mnot so sure about Flintheart Glongold either.

not even the fanciest pedals will work all of their magic on solid state practice amps

if you want to spend money on gear buy a tube amp, even a lowly ac4tv

as for not having money? when I was your age I had a JOB in the summers... basically when my guitar obsession started my parents would not cosign it (my dad tried toa ctively discourage me for a while, I didn't even get any guitar stuff for Christmas until I had been playing for years, and they didn't have a lot of random money to throw around at my interests anyway) so I started working in the summers to purchase strings and gear. I suggest instead of continuing to spot for EB when you are off from school you find a job and then you can buy whatever you want.

you don't owna proper amp? but your board shows a fucking SOLDANO?! one of the fanciest, boutique channel switching amps out there (even I couldn't swallow the price tag on the Hot Rod 50+ I was thinking of buying a few year ago for an amp that was a bit modern for me, though great sounding and hella flexible)... why is it on your board if you don't own it? I am totally bummed out because I was going to ask you about the Soldano as I've not tried that model

VT40s are way less expensive than an 800... they've gone up in price since the whole QoTSA connection went public, but they were so cheap in the 90s that they are still worth way less than a grand. If you can't for the rapid rate of inflation the last 20 years then the price jump really isn't that severe. The REAL drawback of the VT40 for the working musician (apart from the excessive weight) is the cost of maintaining it, which is driven up by the following issues:

1) cluttered circuit assembled on a consumer-grade PCB that is hard to work on if something goes wrong

2) designed around the 7027a power tube, a high voltage 6L6.... the VT40 and V2 have the highest plate voltages of the V/SVT series too so regular 6L6 tubes do not do well in this circuit, though JJ makes a 6L6 that hacks it pretty well and JJ has also come out with a dedicated 7027a (though I suspect its their regular 6L6 that they are trying to charge more for)

3) the cathodyne phase inverter and driver tube uses an out-of-production pentode/triode called a 7199 that's like an EF86 in the same bottle as half a 12au7... this tube was used in popular hifi amps and is very expensive for new old stock as the supply is drying up... this is why I got rid of mine, the only option if you don't want to spend $100+ on a 7199 every time you need a new one is to mod the socket to take a different triode/pentode that's more readily available (but other triode pentodes will sound a bit different as both sections of the tube will have different mu and impedance characteristics that will change the gain structure and frequency response) or to add another tube socket so you can use an ef86 or 5879 in one socket and a 12au7 in the phase inverter, but this wastes one of the 12au7's triodes and is a pretty severe mod involving a chassis punch that will devalue the amp even though it will make it more user friendly

now for the rest of the tube amp dissertation:

honestly, the single channel JCM800 is a much better design on so many levels and is a lot more road worthy... the JCM800 bass amp actually has a very similar tone section to the ampeg V series of amps. Like a VT40 it has an inductor driven active mid with 3 center frequencies, no presence control and no master, the gain structure is a bit different, and it features a long-tailed pair phase inverter rather than the ampeg cathodyne style, but a lot of the tweakability is the same and most JCM800 bass models were fitted with 6550 or KT88 tubes which have a more 6L6-like sound than Marshall's usual el34... single channel 800s with vertical inputs are PCB construction, but the boards are military grade, uncluttered with well spaced parts and thick traces and the whole amp is built like a tank compared to a 70s ampeg... a JCM800 is an excellent choice for 'desert rock', particularly the bass model which is rounder in tone due to the 6550 tubes and larger coupling caps between gains stages with the ampeg style 'baxandall and inductor" tone stack

on the cheap I find that any old traynor with a baxandall tonestack will do a pretty good ampeg impression and they are generally way better made than the big 70s ampegs... the nice bit bout traynors is the ones without baxandall tone controls are pretty much plexis or twins, so that works too, but be warned, traynors are LOUD AS FUCK, they have huge, high quality Hammond output transformers that really throw some dynamic power far above their RMS wattage, even at full tilt

pretty much your short list of doom/stoner/desert rock amps is:

ampeg V series

Matamp (any model but the minimat)

Orange 'ormat' models, pics only, pics and text models, hustler, CS50, retro 50, AD200, OR50 (though this amp seems to be heavily based on the JCM800 but with a more Orange voicing), and some younger bands like the rocker and thunder series amps though they are more like revoiced marshall/soldano/recto type circuits

Marshall JTM, JMP or JCM (non-channel switching)

Laney Supergroup, Klipp, AOR or GH amps

Hiwatt or Sound City (any 50 watt+ vintage model, though the mk4 series sound cities are weird designs and I don't recommend them as a 1st tube amp)

Sunn Model T (or any other all tube sunn, but the two 70s versions of the model T are the favorite of doom-heads)

Traynor bassmaster, voicemaster, reverb master, guitar master etc (I REALLY like my version 1 voicemaster PA head for sludgey riffing, but its the loudest 50 watts ever... version 2 is maybe louder and definitely cleaner and you mostly see those for sale, the pre-1969 circuit is very similar to an Orange as it turns out)... the bass and guitar mate amps are awesome lower wattage traynors that rock like fuck but lack the snappy 70s power amp response required for this genre when they are turned up to suitable volumes thru a big cabinet(though anything can be right in the studio)

as you can see its all about loud, non-channel switching, low-to-midgain amps made between 68 and 85

apart from a brief period where I kept a pinecaster in Keith Richards 5 string G tuning I haven't bothered with alternate tunings ... its a lot of trouble to re-intonate every time I decide to do play Kashmir or a swervedriver tune or whatever and I enjoy playing all of my guitars so much in standard that I have trouble setting them up to be permanently in a wonky tuning.

DGGGGD? sounds double wonky.... no, quadruple wonky!

even for a so-called 'drone' tuning, wouldn't DGDGGD make more sense? you could keep a standard string set on apart from needing 2 plain G strings for the 'drone pair', use a gauge up from whatever you usually play to keep the tension close to normal with so many strings down a whole step

I generally used to forbid my students from open tunings, they are a real impediment to beginners and even intermediate players. A lot of the 1st 5 years of guitar playing is building muscle memory and if you change tunings you are introducing a whole new set of fingering patterns in each hand position so you're not building muscle memory as effectively. Unless you plan on playing alone and not with other musicians, almost all of the playing you will do in your life will be in standard tuning or some close variation of it like drop D (which is 80% the same if you think about it). Tunings like Eb standard and C standard don't effect your muscle memory, you just need to remember what key to transpose to I your mind if not everyone in the band is re-tuning (or if you have a keyboard player).

Its said the Andres Segovia was responsible for really locking in the standard tuning for guitar (almost 100 yeas ago now). Previously tuning was discretionary and the guitar was not taken seriously as an instrument. Thanks to Segovia and the excellent luthiers who perfected the design of classical guitars in the 19th century the guitar finally started getting the respect it deserves. I don't know if you listen to a lot of classical guitar, but if you listen to Segovia some time you will be too intimidated by his formidable musicianship to question the wisdom of standard tuning!

however, there is a more modern tuning developed by Robert Fripp that you could look into. He felt it was more logical than standard and some people still use it. Its really designed to replace standard, but hasn't managed to gain much ground. Do a google search if you are interested. SInce you are young it would not be too difficult for you to switch gear and make the Fripp tuning your standard, but you'll throw off anyone you jam with who is trying to follow along by looking at your hands (as young guys tend to do).

do you have any formal music training, electronics knowledge and/or experience setting up and maintining your guitars?

Then its 2 pints of blood. Wait, you're European... make that 946.352cc. Hell, just send Michael an even liter in case some evaporates in transit. And remember, its gotta be YOUR blood. Don't try to pawn off your mom's blood or buy a few ml here and there from desperate drifters, they'll know when they taste it.

its just a slammed amp set very bright, maybe with a near-unison tuning or something to gie it a chorus octave thing... you can probably confim its the Johnny Marr tuning or something else with a google search. Also, whatever marr did with his tuning the big thing on how soon us now is the use of an AMS harmonizer thats freaking out trying to track a constantly changing note. Marr has been pretty open about what he used to make the slide dive sound so synthy. The smiths used the hell out of those primitive harmonizers particularly under morrisey's vocals. They were really into them.

While Homme is secretive about his tone you can usually find tabs and such for his stuff no problem thanks to the guitar rags that transcribe it left and right do if its an alternate tuning that will likely be referenced in a thorough transcription.

want to reproduce this sound? I stand by boost or compressor hitting the input of a VT40, the VT40 can do this and josh wns many, it was his first amp when he was a kid and he's more loyal to it than I have been to the Princeton reverb... but get a big multi-speaker 70s combo amp, dial it in for hellla bright, hit the front end just ahrd enough that its compressing and then play her so loud that the power tubes and speakers freak out

Also, wtf is A#? I assume you are saying its tuned a half step down... thats Bb.

maybe he gave them spare Cornish boosters he had laying around LOL... its not a Fryer box as his boxes are not bare metal with dymo labels, but then again I thought his Cornish boosters were built into Cornish boards... these days BM uses the greg fryer circuit revision turned subminiature and built by some other company to clip on his guitar strap... in your video you can actually see it in line between his guitar and wireless unit, that it is very sensitive to receiving a high Z signal directly from the guitar this was pretty much the only way he could go wireless... treble boosters are awesome but a total pain in the ass, I love mine but its easier not to use it... the one I designed doesn't do the same thing precisely even though it is not as sensitive to its placement in the FX chain, I could probably add a little more circuitry like maybe a 2 pole resonant low pass to simulate the impedance loading of the brian may unit.... hmmm... I need to finish up tweaking that booster, I was really digging it last tie I used it with my Matchless, my cranked tone with an SG was vicious set for max treble and a nice kick in the pentode

but yeah, that looks like a Cornish TB or maybe a Fryer prototype before Greg started powdercoating the boxes (althought the model may used didn't have a gain knob)

they will need your drivers license and a birth certificate or passport

and a pint of blood

oh, and I see the footswitch to a NYC big muff PI too... positive

on the boss I am thinking CE5 cause of the really light blue color, the previous 4 CEs were a bolder blue as are the CS series of stereo choruses

the PM might be cool to sell and swap gear... I know a lot of the big forums like gearpage, gearslutz and my les paul commonly use the PM to close deals

I aim to entertain.... but seriously, effects are like seasoning. Strong flavors go a long way and the only flavors every dish needs are salt and pepper.... I strongly believe in getting as much as possible from my amp(s) before putting anything in line but utility boxes like ABYs or boosts... and that involves getting every bit of the amp cooking even for a clean sound, not just gaining up the first couple 12ax7s

in your pic, there's a couple obvious 'big name boutiques' like the 2 deathby audio boxes (interstellar overdriver deluxe on the top shelf, robot on the floor) and also a green rhino 2....there's the Peter Frampton signature ABY box on that shelf next to the overdriver too... I spy the bottoms of an EVH phase 90 and a keeley java boost too... I see an MXR CAE box on the bottom shelf, appears to be boost/drive, but tis could also just be the boost as its mostly obscured as is the blue Boss pedal that's obviously one of their million choruses

the little 1 knobber looks suspiciously like a pete Cornish brian may treble booster... or tis homebrew (mine is, though I used the slightly different greg fryer circuit)...

the mxr sized 4 knob one with the blue led is a keeley, but you will need to check his website as I am not familiar with all his new stuff, the fuzzhead turned me off to Keeley and apart from wanting to try his Double Tracker in my multiamp rig I stay away from Keeley pedals now

the 2 knobbie is a Smart People Factory Ego Boost

obviously there's EHX shit galore, a memory man, a POG, and on the shelf a holy grail verb...

there's a TS808 on top of that deluxe reverb amp, probably an RI as its too clean to be vintage

did I miss anything? I am still drinking my morning coffee so my brain is like, "wooooooo,argh"

aww heck, I like posting all communication in the forum or in the reviews... keeps everyone civil for starters

he just submits day and night and he keeps a running thread going to get help IDing the gear in the blog, flickr and facebook pages he trawls... hes determined to be number 1 on EB and I for one see no reason not to help him achieve this dubious honor, I mean, someone ahs to be the reigning monarch of correct gear submissions and I've got better things to do most of the time, plus I've enver ehard of most of the people this dude digs up, but they are all legit artists by EB standards! good for Walrus, he has a purpose in life which is more than most of us can say

I'll shoot you an email when I dive back into your articles. The biggest thing is that the big muff and the 2 muff-type boxes on the list are not really fuzzes in stock form... they are most definitely distortions deriving most of their grit from back-to-back pairs of diodes to ground to produce hard clipping between gain stages like a Boss DS1 (... while there is a little transistor clipping from the big muff, there are 2 pairs of diodes with very low clipping thresholds and you really aren't hearing the 'fuzz' component unless you run the gain at 1 or less with a low output pickup or you start clipping diodes out -pun intended- with your string cutters, but then the pedal is turning into a Colorsound Supa Tonebender ;-) I think this whole myth has been perpetuated by the Mudhoney record "Superfuzzbigmuff," but the superfuzz is actually a univox pedal that they sued in addition to the big muff, and the superfuzz is a bit more of a fuzz as the little bit of diode clipping is used for halfwave rectification to provide some octaving and a great deal of the distortion is from the high quality tranistors slamming eachother jailhouse style earlier in the circuit...

there's a lot of other myths in there though and I'll pick 'em out and email you.... your other pedal roundups are a lot better, though there's a mistake in the chorus article too... it doesn't really effect the conclusions, but getting it right could really help beginners to understand their rig better and make more informed decisions between the runner up pieces in the reviews

y'know, I find myself with a lot more free time when I am home now that me son is a bit more independent at 2+ years old, I could do some moderating while he's playing with toys, ignoring me completely (he's at that stage where he only cares that I am in the same room and prefers to play solo)... I can't get involved in anything more serious than laudry or cooking a meal when hes playing on his own, so I am kinda bored for huge swaths of my days off, cruising EB and puttering with my classical guitar anyway... might as well moderate your stuff while I have the time

I was also thinking of submitting an editorial articale to you guys. I have discovered I am not such a great reviewer, but I if you are interested in some other sorts of gear articles, loaded with useful tech info and practical opinions I would really like to try writing a "Jim's gearbox" columns covering guitars, amps, effects, synths in a general way with practical suggestions for stage and studio

EDIT:

I am contemplating a tube amps 101 article to start with the basic topologies of classic preamps and power amps and what players who are in the market for a 1st professional amp can expect to hear when they plug into different platforms and WHY

I review submissions LEFT AND RIGHT, assuming I readily recognize the gear in question

http://equipboard.com/posts/best-fuzz-pedal

no offense guys, but this article was loaded with misinformation just within the big muff section (which by the way is not really a fuzz, its a distortion just like it says right on it, but everyone seems confused)... I stopped reading so I didn't have a guitar-nerd-fit

this article is not up to the high standards set by your EQ pedal roundup (easily your best guitar article to date)... your distortion pedal article was a lot better

that said, in my pretty much failed attempt to review the Vox handwired range for you guys I have discovered I am not terribly good at composing concise reviews, so maybe my opinion isn't the best when it comes to shootouts and reviews, still, the fuzz article has a lot of extra info apart from the actual reviews and some of it is misleading at best even if the bottom line will be helpful to newbies

it was just a joke, I it seems crazy to build a small champ-style amp when your company is named Hiwatt, they should rename amps under 50 watts Lowatts

also,? lame with an additional lameXinfinity for its lilly livered, preamp-centric wimpiness

I personally know teenaged girls with manlier rigs

if guitar-rig badassery correlated to penis size? well, I wouldn't feel woefully inadequate! I NEEED S A SPORTSCAR!!!!

but seriously, tubes need to be slammed from v1 to the power amp. anything less should be relegated to jazz noodling...

my toddler pronounces excessive pedals (particularly dirt boxes) and an amp played below 5 to be lame... Lucian is manly enough to bang away at my LP thru a 50 watter at half-to-full-tilt

blood poors from our ears and he's like "LOUDER DADDY!"

https://youtu.be/SyBBkcdmaoE?t=28s

wimps

it seems okay to you, but Iam a grown up with road experience ad I pronounce it to be lame. Work the amp or die. I will eat the lot of you for tone as well as soundman friendly volume.

lamelamelame

all of you regular forum posters can all get together as a team and I will still eat you viz-a-viz hand technique, amps, speakers and my sparing use of effects, you will run wimpering wishing you could rock and if you don't? well, its purely tone confusion which is a lot like gender confusion... only less cool

electronic forum?

pedal 2 is a strymon flint or el capistan, last edal is an xotic SL or compressor mini pdal, next to last is some kinda rat reissue

dude, is this guy's setup lame and unrockin'

also, what youposted is NOT a schematic, its called a layout, a schematic will be harder to read bot will better explain the flow of electrons so you clearly know which toggle position on the DPDT will be open or closed... if you can read it.... for reference here's a legit SCHEMATIC (though for something a lot more complicated, but I have it handy.... if you can read it, the power supply, signal flow and ground scheme should be clear as day):

http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/yvm-1.jpg

if you are the least bit confused about what to buy and how to wire it JUST BUY the boss box or the loopmaster NC box with 2 switches, don't be a tool who solders every terminal trying to figure it all out

if you don't yet have it pictured in your head and know who makes the most durable parts for the most stressfull applicatons of this simple logic circuit then quit and buy what you need... in the long run it'll be cheaper than fucking it all up and trying to correct things

if you don't GET IT don't fuck around.. with a modicum of respect, you are a young guy with the attention span of a gnat and a very questionable attention to detail... the reason to build stuff is NOT to save money, though it CAN be cheaper, if that's your only goal surf flEaBeay and ignore my suggestion you build the 2 button switch...

if your goals are mainly educational then proceed

make a complete parts order thru small bear or mouser electronics, don't pussyfoot arund, but understand what you are buying! a quality momentary SPDT footswitch should be 2 to 4 dollars, a jack should be 1 or 2 even if its a good switchcraft (the only jacks I approveof in both male and female, though neutrik makes a solid male)

belated congrats, well played (or well programmed)young sir

where did you go to art school?

no clones I know of, buy a used one (they are not worth a ton on the used market from what I've seen, maybe $80-100?) or build one.... its pretty straightforward, no serious electronics knowledge required, here's the vero board layout and parts list:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/MikeyJazz/media/fuzzwar.gif.html

maybe not the easiest 1st build, you might wanna build a silicon fuzzface or a treble booster to cut your teeth on discrete transistors before attempting this, but if you have good attention tod etails and follow the layout with the right parts you should have a fuzz gun in about an hour....

the price? nothing expensive in there, a shit ton of readily available discrete transistors, some cheap caps, diodes and caps... the box, pots and jacks are probably the msot expensive part as is the dedicated PCB.... you are paying for the original circuit, which admittedly is rather unique, though it owes a serious debt to the Colorsound Supa Tonebender, univox superfuzz, foxx tonemachine and to a lesser extent the big muff... it is probably not cloned because over the top fuzz is a niche market for small builder and small builders don't rip eachother off unless someone discontinues a popular product (like the Klon Centaur)

are you sure Josh is just using the solid state checkmate and 50s Gibby? while it could be the checkmate the breakup is awfully pleasant for early solid state and its definitely not murky enough to be a gibson from that era. Josh spread a lot of lies about his gear and that tone reminds me of the ampeg VT40 I used to own in the late 90s, particularly that cloud of un-fendery reverb under it. Josh is known to favor them.

Any gear info from Josh Homme should be assumed to be a gag. Ever since his use of ampeg V series amps and Ovation Ultra GPs got out of the bag these former pawnshop prizes have become collectable by fanboys and I think Josh likes to see if he can get the followers to buy old junk like the teisco solid state amps. I suspect he is laughing while he peruses the ebay app on his phone watching the values on this old junk shoot up based on him associating himself with it.

I am going to put my bet on that sunburst 60s tele Josh played in the guitar moves video from Vice, a compressor pedal used to even the slide tone and as a subtle boost to V1, annd an ampeg VT40 with the active mids dialed out in the muck region a bit and the ultra-hi on, reverb turned up to get that subtle reverb sound with a short decay... ampeg always used short-pan Hammond reverb tnks in the vintage era and the V series is no exception, plus the reverb circuitry in the V series is really unique compared to fender circuitry, but not a cheap cop out like other 60s fender compettitors' verb circuits... ampeg has the most badass reverb, and I hate reverb

but yeah, that's my bet, but I could be way off-base as I didn't listen loudly or on good speakers

EDIT:

listening at volume through slid speakers now... that's not octaving its just a really big bright cap and mostly power amp and speaker distortion, I reiterate my claim that its an ampeg, the ultrabright setting would definitely produce a hard, high harmonic drive like that if you slam the 7027a's hard... I sued to set mine to be midrangey using the switches and impressive EQ section, but my buddy Zach owned a couple VT40s and used to get sounds like that using the ultrabright and dialing in midscoop at fairly high columes with the sensitivity switch set low so the clipping was all downstream of V1

the Josh Homme thing is to play STUPID LOUD through amps that were designed to stay clean.... you want to drive the power amp and speakers to doomsday levels so your transients start getting crunchy and crazy in a way preamp tubes being overloaded just don't, then you can add dirt out front of the amp to taste for even more grime... which is totally my approach too and has been since before I knew of Kyuss even... fenders made after 63, voxes, ampegs, suns, some traynors, hiwatts soundcities, early oranges, simms watts, aney supergroups, the low input of the JCM800? they are good for this sort of thing... you need to be badass to carry it off

you paid almost 5 bucks for a female jack?!

on a side note, I wish orange would reissue the modified OR80/120 RIs Noel helped to tweak (I think the short lived production model had its own name, I wanna say ORST, but that's not right as that's the 50 watt early 70s model Matamp handwired)... you can't find those amps anywhere and they aren't even that old... I have a sneaking suspicion Noel added a little ass-whomp to an already thick tone

if I were going to purchase a new fender tele I would go with one of these and upgrade the saddles to hipshot compensated brass and later on get a new set of pickups for it:

http://intl.fender.com/en-GB/series/classic/classic-series-50s-telecaster-lacquer-maple-fingerboard-white-blonde/

if I didn't want to spring the extra 200-queen-bucks for the old school finish I would go 60s as many 60s fenders were coated with fullerplast prior to being shot with acrylic rather than nitro anyway, so its not a historical solecism)... I would probably get some steel compensated saddles right away and again purchase some bespoke 60s style tele pickups down the road:

http://intl.fender.com/en-GB/series/classic/classic-series-50s-telecaster-lacquer-maple-fingerboard-white-blonde/

but really the fender classic pickups, though not remotely period correct (ask me, I know more about tele pickups than any other pickup), sound pretty good and the classic series usually get decent CTS dish pots and carling switches, or at elast that's what fender put in my esquire, but tis a really early classic series, older than you I think

totally stonewalled on my joke

Can somebody make Noel Gallagher a singer?

Sorry, only Noel can do that and its clearly not high on his list of priorities right now.

there's nothing complicated here, parts list looks right to me

to skip those toggles just wire the DPDTs using the lugs that are NC directly together and to the sleeve of your TRS jack completely ignoring the third terminal on the schematic... al those little toggles ae doing is selecting between those 2 sleeve lugs on the DPDT to change the switches state.... honestly you could get cheaper SPDT momentary switches for this project if you omit the toggles... save a few pennies and a lot of hassle checking that you soldered the right lugs if the thing doesn't work first shot.

EDIT: Personally I would go with the SPDT momentaries and buy the nicest switches available, they will probably be about the same price as cheaper DPDTs. You are going to stomp on these switches, cheap on the TRS jack since your pedalboard is going to be hardwires, but spend on nice stomps....

unless its old, reclaimed pine it is very porous and takes finish poorly, though there are different species of pine suitable for building things like furniture and guitars and they are all a little different... new pine is also very soft and prone to denting with the slightest tap, though it is not prone to cracking like basswood... hardware should be attached with oversized wood screws as small screws with fine thread have a tendency to rip themselves free over time. Though Leo's prototype solid body was made from sugar pine he went with a more durable wood once production went into full swing around 1950 which was pretty good idea given his method of attaching necks. Even the tele I had that was made from really dense and heavy pine reclaimed from a 200 year old barn ahd the neck attacked with a more modern bolting system: using threaded inserts and heavy duty bolts so nothing was biting into the malleable pine.

Pine has a cool sound though, tough to describe as the sound varies a bit from species to species and with drying method (kiln versus a really old chunk of pine that's been left to dry out naturally for years)... the drying method seems to make more of a difference with pine than with more traditional tone woods.

If you aren't worried about durability try the Fender pinecaster, just baby it. Also, expect a thick finish that will deaden the guitar a bit. Gloppy, self-levelling modern finishes are easiest to apply quickly to pine so I would expect that's what you will get on a factory guitar at this price range.

Pick ups and amp will decide how heavy your tone is gunna be. I've seen people in death metal bands with basswood bodied Ibanezs' and people playing rock etc with them, like the dude from the offspring. I personally don't think wood affects how heavy a sound you can get, maybe the tone of the guitar unplugged but plugged in, to my ears there's not a huge difference when you have the same hardware, wiring and pickups

well, there are frequency dependent dynamics unique to each wood, but using hot pickups, particularly overwound humbuckers, will tend to homogenize these characteristics even playing clean due to midrange-focus and compression character or a more powerful inductor... basswood does not have a snappy attack, while other woods do (the main difference I hear between basswood and mahogany is the attack in similar designs)... I think basswood is popular with some for bolt-ons because the bolt neck tends to produce a snappier attack than a set neck (for reasons I can outline if you insist) not to mention the fact that bolts tend to be fender scale which is snappier and richer in high order harmonics with a fast decay by its very nature. Basswood evens this out to an extent

this is all subtle stuff in the realm of heavy music with silly, hot pickups and you will notice more than your audience and that's only if you have the ears for it

put some classic strat pickups ina basswood axe, an alder one and a swamp ash one and be amazed when you plug into a grown up amp without any effects in line... there will be more than just a difference in frequency response... switch to hot humbuckers and a gain-bangin' modern amp and then? as I said, who cares? the difference will be so subtle on hose of us with excellent ears will ehar it and then it will be apples and apples, maybe a slight change in punchiness and articulation from guitar to guitar

everything you add electronically from more winds of wire or a different magnet powering your transducer to effects, gain in voltage, RC filtering, loudspeakers voiced for a lot of extra presence or to provide a little of their own distortion? it homogenizes the acoustic properties of solid guitars... I have a great love of minimalist stuff from pickups to speakers because I can really hear 'the wood' when I plug into a single fat gainstage with a little filtering right into an open-band cathode biased power amp, its minimal coloration of what my guitar is kicking out acoustically... there is something to be said for the matchless ef86 channel driving a super flat speaker like an EV 12L or E series JBL, you are really going to HEAR things with the input set to 2 and the bass caps set wide open for a really flat response... heavy guys don't play like this, its not heavy. Their sound relies on a large peak to peak from the guitar which introduces a lot of artifacts right from the jack and from there you are looking at tone of gain and RC filtering to get THAT sound. Really look at some pedal and amp schematics, even something basic like a tubescreamer and fender twin rig and pick out all the spots where the bass, treble and mids are being attenuated at specific frequencies, I could go on and on. You chain up all these RC stages between gain and clipping stages and the wood stops being a major factor.

but in general, Liam, I think you are confusing 'can't hear it' with 'doesn't matter from the back of the theater'

if you like a guitar then buy it and play it, my only qualm with basswood is the poor durability... if you've seen my alder strat you can see what over a decade of heavy gigging, much of it in crappy dive venues w/o road crew, has done to it... if it were made of basswood I woulda needed a new body by now. But if you can keep the guitar safe and you enjoy playing it then it WILL sound good because lets face it, a guitar that you feel comfortable with and have fun playing always sounds better than a guitar that's uncomfortable and not fun to play because your PLAYING is better and that's really what its all about. Your tone is secondary to how well you play as long as you don't sound like a blizzard of nails! Just remember to baby basswood guitars, they are NOT durable. If I had a nickel for every older basswood superstrat I've seen with chnks broken out of it and heel cracks stopped up with superglue.... well, I would buy myself some more cool guitars.