Riding the Boss Renaissance

[crazyzeke]

You can link with text using the web browser version, or do what I do and manually do it by hand with [url=LINK HERE]TEXT TO DESCRIBE HERE[/url]

Omg that looks and sounds awesome GotA! Fat, powerful gain tones. Love it. What else do you build and where can I see it please? Do you do custom orders? Because I always have wonderful ideas for pedals that are technically possible to create, just not by me as I'm terrible with electronics.

One little suggestion if I might though, as a massive Nirvana fan (it's why I play guitar at all, and partly why I avoided playing offsets for years as I didn't want to be compared to him) - you gotta bend that F# in Dive a lot more! On the main riff it's not the first time, but it is the second time and the third time, which is the same as used for the chorus when he's on the F# as well I believe.

[GotA]

Omg that looks and sounds awesome GotA! Fat, powerful gain tones. Love it. What else do you build and where can I see it please? Do you do custom orders? Because I always have wonderful ideas for pedals that are technically possible to create, just not by me as I'm terrible with electronics.

Thanks for the kind words. I recently put together an album with all the boss pedals I've built so far because they are my sound and IMO the best out there. You can see them here:
https://ibb.co/album/M8c6Rd?page=5&seek=64gzV2Q
I've built lots of other pedals like most vintage ehx circuits as well as the classics like most vintage fuzz, wahs, filters and modulation/delay. You can see some in my Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/guardians.of. ... N1amx1Nw==
I'm actually towards the end of my pedal journey as I don't have much left to build and am kind of burned out from a decade a of building and selling. The journey has been fun but I don't have many places left to take it. Im trying to finish building the boss compact series analog designs and I'm sooo close. Then I can just write and record instead of soldering lol.

One little suggestion if I might though, as a massive Nirvana fan (it's why I play guitar at all, and partly why I avoided playing offsets for years as I didn't want to be compared to him) - you gotta bend that F# in Dive a lot more! On the main riff it's not the first time, but it is the second time and the third time, which is the same as used for the chorus when he's on the F# as well I believe.

I hear what your saying but I always put my own spin on things. After 30 years of playing (God that makes me feel old haha) Im not trying to emulate anyone's playing exactly but just the general vibe. Kurt never played anything the same twice but I know I played it different, it was a deliberate choice haha

[crazyzeke]

Thanks for the kind words. I recently put together an album with all the boss pedals I've built so far because they are my sound and IMO the best out there. You can see them here

Wow I can't believe how slick and pro finished they all look, boards and boxes - this is high grade work. The one that most caught my eye was BLUESHIFT - I was trying to figure out what it was as it was all switches and then it clicked (pun intended) - Dimension C clone, right? Would explain why I like it; blue is my favourite colour and the DC-2 is one of my all-time favourite pedals.

Must be pretty hard to solder components that close together; I'd never do it, my hands shake too much. I would say from years of heavy drinking, but I think they used to do that before I did (and I basically don't drink at all now).

I'm actually towards the end of my pedal journey as I don't have much left to build and am kind of burned out from a decade a of building and selling. The journey has been fun but I don't have many places left to take it. Im trying to finish building the boss compact series analog designs and I'm sooo close. Then I can just write and record instead of soldering .

Ah okay I won't pester you to make something for me then. But if you ever fancy selling that BLUESHIFT and can decide on a number

I hear what your saying but I always put my own spin on things. After 30 years of playing (God that makes me feel old haha) Im not trying to emulate anyone's playing exactly but just the general vibe. Kurt never played anything the same twice but I know I played it different, it was a deliberate choice haha

well as long as you're not offended I'm happy. Nirvana's music is very dear to my heart - I've been listening to In Utero on vinyl a lot recently, and also have Nevermind on it, both nice reissue pressings I think. I'd probably pick something like Aneurysm as a favourite or close to it, which is technically on the same "album", and there's some great rarities like Token Eastern Song/Junkyard, Sappy/Verse Chorus Verse and I Hate Myself I Want To Die I'd list in a Top 20. Funnily enough Teen Spirit wouldn't even break the Top 10...

[GotA]

Wow I can't believe how slick and pro finished they all look, boards and boxes - this is high grade work. The one that most caught my eye was BLUESHIFT - I was trying to figure out what it was as it was all switches and then it clicked (pun intended) - Dimension C clone, right? Would explain why I like it; blue is my favourite colour and the DC-2 is one of my all-time favourite pedals.

Must be pretty hard to solder components that close together; I'd never do it, my hands shake too much. I would say from years of heavy drinking, but I think they used to do that before I did (and I basically don't drink at all now).
Ah okay I won't pester you to make something for me then. But if you ever fancy selling that BLUESHIFT and can decide on a number

I decided in the fall of 2023 that the BOSS collection was my swan song in building and it was a personal quest to do my best work and have the most complete diy collection. It's been a lot of fun, extremely rewarding and I've pushed my technical abilities. A pedal like the blueshift isn't hard to build but is hard to build this clean. The DC-2 is amazing and the diy version has more settings available because it uses switches versus the buttons. Still cost around 100 dollars to build so not exactly cheap.

well as long as you're not offended I'm happy. Nirvana's music is very dear to my heart - I've been listening to In Utero on vinyl a lot recently, and also have Nevermind on it, both nice reissue pressings I think. I'd probably pick something like Aneurysm as a favourite or close to it, which is technically on the same "album", and there's some great rarities like Token Eastern Song/Junkyard, Sappy/Verse Chorus Verse and I Hate Myself I Want To Die I'd list in a Top 20. Funnily enough Teen Spirit wouldn't even break the Top 10...

No offense taken, I love the music as well, life is too short to take things too seriously lol. I have always felt the b-sides and unrealsed tracks were always better than album tracks and singles. there are exceptions though like drain you...

[crazyzeke]

I decided in the fall of 2023 that the BOSS collection was my swan song in building and it was a personal quest to do my best work and have the most complete diy collection. It's been a lot of fun, extremely rewarding and I've pushed my technical abilities. A pedal like the blueshift isn't hard to build but is hard to build this clean. The DC-2 is amazing and the diy version has more settings available because it uses switches versus the buttons. Still cost around 100 dollars to build so not exactly cheap.

Yeah that's one of the things I like about the Behringer clone, you can jam all the switches down at once if you like and have useful for noiseniks metallic wobbly flange. It's not a dead match but it's similar in spirit, the Behringer, and to be honest I've discovered this neat trick where you run it in mono with only the B output, fed into another chorus pedal that runs in stereo, with a big distortion/fuzz sound before them in the chain and it sounds pure Killing Joke... love it. Or I guess, somewhere between Small Clone and Rotovibe style Kurdt.

Is that 100 bucks before you include your labour time though, I'd guess?

No offense taken, I love the music as well, life is too short to take things too seriously lol. I have always felt the b-sides and unrealsed tracks were always better than album tracks and singles. there are exceptions though like drain you...

Omg yes, Drain You is worth adding for the middle section alone, with all the goofing around with rubber ducks and aerosol cans, Kurdt creating his own foley and probably ruining studio mics in the process. Cool af

Like a lot of the best music, the main takeaway from Nirvana is itself one of the best messages - anyone can do this, try it, it's all about expression, you don't need to be a virtuoso to express what's inside of you, learn enough and see where it takes you. Even Steve Vai praised Kurdt for his approach and to my extreme surprise and delight so did Brian May, one of my favourite players. They identify what's below the technical standard of the playing - the soul, the feeling of it. Anyway I'm getting carried away here but I'm sure you know what I'm waffling on about.

The Nirvana Companion is still the best book I've ever read on the subject and I recommend anyone with even a passing interest in the band who hasn't read it to go do that. It's an old book now (I've had it since new; Xmas present, thanks gran, you ruled) so could be had for cheap.

[GotA]

Is that 100 bucks before you include your labour time though, I'd guess?

Thats a 100 just in components. having two stacked boards stuffed with close to 300 components like and lots of off board wiring means it's a really time consuming build. I wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot this pedal. Luckily calibration on the oscilloscope is easy.

[crazyzeke]

Thats a 100 just in components. having two stacked boards stuffed with close to 300 components like and lots of off board wiring means it's a really time consuming build. I wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot this pedal. Luckily calibration on the oscilloscope is easy.

So it's true what they say then, considering the tech of the time especially, the BOSS engineers who turned SDD-320 rack into DC-2 pedal are kind of insane mad scientists who achieved something special? From your description it sounds like it, 300 components is no joke. May I ask how long that took to build?

[GotA]

Thats a 100 just in components. having two stacked boards stuffed with close to 300 components like and lots of off board wiring means it's a really time consuming build. I wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot this pedal. Luckily calibration on the oscilloscope is easy.

So it's true what they say then, considering the tech of the time especially, the BOSS engineers who turned SDD-320 rack into DC-2 pedal are kind of insane mad scientists who achieved something special? From your description it sounds like it, 300 components is no joke. May I ask how long that took to build?

I didn't keep track of time to precisely, but a rough estimate would be 5-6 hours. the majority of it was measuring capacitors on my meter and populating the board making sure the right value went into each spot. audio probing this would have been a nightmare had I goofed something up. Most builds are very quick for me, under 3 hours total but that took years to streamline and know what works for me. plus I'm uusually watching TV while I build and taking my time lol

[sal paradise]

The devil makes work for idle hands.

[zhivago]

The devil makes work for idle hands.

Holy crap! Things are getting out of hand!!!!

I like it!

[Quitter]

The digital metallizer goes so hard. It's overengineered in the best way.

The devil makes work for idle hands.

[sal paradise]

The devil makes work for idle hands.

Holy crap! Things are getting out of hand!!!!

I like it!

Yes. Getting out of hand nicely describes the last few months for me

I’ve had the best time searching these out & testing them. I started by buying the big hitters as recommended in this thread & that led me to wonder if every pedal might be undiscovered gold. So I went and picked up lots of reasonably priced Boss pedals.

Taking this photo made me realise that I’m not really in the business of collecting every single mij pedal. Think I’ll stick to the hits & gently work towards a collection of whatever silver screw units I can find for sensible money. Expect a fire sale of the ones I’ll never use soon.

The digital metallizer goes so hard. It's overengineered in the best way.

It is v silly. I actually really like the base sound - want to try out the doubling effect in different spaces to hear how it might sound at a gig

[JVG]

Yes. Getting out of hand nicely describes the last few months for me

What’s next? I’d be thinking PH-1r, OC-2, CS-2…all very useable pedals.

[crazyzeke]

The devil makes work for idle hands.

Oh wow there's some favourites of mine in there...

DM-2 is legendary, PH-1 is cool and underrated, BD-2 has always been one of the better sounding drive pedals and I think the Waza one fixes a few issues I had with it, CE-3 is also underrated, DC-2 is one of my all time favourite guitar things, FZ-2 is crazy fun and the DD-2/3s are classic for a reason.

[sal paradise]

Yes. Getting out of hand nicely describes the last few months for me

What’s next? I’d be thinking PH-1r, OC-2, CS-2…all very useable pedals.

They were all on my list… but I’m done now. The thought of not having a complete collection is really stressful. I’ll probably sell half of these in the near future.