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RAILhead Effects TUA Finalized

Holy crap on a land mine, I have created a serious monster. For over a year now, I've been working on a massively heavy metalcore distortion box — The TUA (Total, Utter Annihilation) — and I finally got it to where I was ready to fabricate a board. It started out as a modified version of the Dual Rectifier circuit, but I did loads of tweaking to get it to sound exactly how I want it to — and mother, is it AWESOME. After biasing the transistors, I just stood there and played and played and played — eventually stopping in a fit of mischievous, childish laughter. This, Pedal. Rules. There is nothing nice or pretty about the TUA — it's simply the sounds of Perdition trapped inside a metal box.

My mics and mic stand are in my truck, and since it's as hot as Perdition outside, I can't record anything right now — but I'm planning on taking care of sound samples this week, so stay tuned on that front. In the mean time, here's a look at the finalized exterior and interior layouts, and be sure to check out my effects site, RAILhead Effects.

Posted at 5:01pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (9)

Mid-Week Randomness

Today will be a tough, but — we're confidently praying — a good day. I don't want to post names here (and I ask that those of you that know what I'm talking about don't either), but if you're the praying type, please send prayers to our family today. We're finishing-up some business, and we need for things to come out well — and we look forward, with confidence, to sharing good news with everyone very soon. Pray for 100% clean results. Thanks.

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I haven't even fully opened my guitar effects shop, RAILhead Effects, and I already have someone that wants to be my exclusive dealer in Japan. How cool is that? I'm going over details with them now, and this could be really, really cool.

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Speaking of my effects, the final boards for the io, PURE, The Peach, and TUA will be arriving today and tomorrow, so I can't wait to start building en masse. My wife has come up with some new artwork for PURE and Switcha-Rooski, too, so I'm dying to get some painted enclosures in her hands. That's one of my many goals for this weekend, then I ned to get prepped for recording demos, etc.

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Stay tuned for wonderful news, and remember us today — especially around noon and the hours that follow.

Posted at 7:24am CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)

A Gut Shot and a Preview

I thought I'd post a gut-shot of my RAILhead Effects io Distortion box, even though the PCB used in this pedal isn't my final version (those won't arrive until next week sometime). Regardless, it sounds dadgum awesome, and I'm happy with the layout — and the final version will be even better. Here it is:

I thought I'd also post a preview pic of my newest circuit, TUA™ — or the shell, at least. This little jewel will kick your butt six ways to Sunday, and it will destroy all small mammals in a 200 foot radius. TUA: Total, Utter Annihilation™ — coming soon!

Posted at 8:02pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Progress: I Am Making It

Yesterday was a big step forward in getting my guitar effects store, RAILhead Effects, up and running. The main issue I’ve been dealing with was determining which boardhouse I was going to use for mass producing the PCBs that make all my stuff work. After a couple of months of searching and waiting, I found the place I’ll be using, and they got me my boards in just 9 business days. SWEET. I assembled an “io” with one of these boards last night, and everything works like a charm. So until they do something that makes me change my mind, I have my boardhouse selected — and PCBs for my effects are on order as I type this.

A second step forward was the delivery of a clearcoat my wife found online. While no one should expect a guitar pedal, whose purpose is to be stepped on, to have an everlasting finish — it’s nice to have a rugged exterior to fend off blemishes as long as possible. Supposedly, this product beats the pants off automotive clearcoats, even, and it dries to a “deep clear” — and it’s been hammer-tested for durability. Of course, I can’t find what PSI they hammer tested with, so that’s somewhat moot. That said, this clearcoat is typically used on marine vessels, so it’s designed to protect the surface while maintaining the appearance of your fancy boat. My concern is that it won’t cure-out 100% clear — which will be totally noticeable on my boost, PURE, because it’s pure white. I’m hoping to give it a go tonight or tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed…

The step is to begin mass board population and shell painting, then I’m ready to open for business full-on.

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Speaking of pedals, I’ve decided to give ribbon cable a shot for pot connections — and I have no clue as to why I’ve never though of using flat cable for pots before. So, I ordered myself a spool of 24 AWG cable today, and it should arrive tomorrow. The good thing is that it’ll make wiring a LOT cleaner, a lot less breakage-prone, and the 100 foot spool should be good for around 1200 pot hookups. Looking at it that way, this will be a lot less expensive than buying basic cable in the long run.

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It seems that almost every time I’m supposed to lead music on a Sunday, I get a sinus infection. It’s so nice to worry all week about whether or not I’ll have a voice for Sunday — especially since I have to use said voice on Thursday at practice. Couple that with not enough sleep, and things are looking interesting for our big Father’s Day Sunday. At least I’m only singing 2 of the songs, so I won’t be too vocally stressed. I think I’ll hunt the medicine cabinets for some antibiotics, just in case…

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The Watson Twins have a new album coming out June 24. Hopefully it will be good.

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A new pet-peeve: people that place their sunglasses on their forehead to hold them in place while indoors. I don’t mean on the top of the head, like ladies do to help hold back hair (or whatever type of illustration makes the point) — I mean placing them on your dadgum forehead, like you have 4 eyes. WHAT IN THE CRAP? This “technique” has eclipsed my previous sunglasses pet-peeve of people putting them on their neck, backward. With behavior like this, I am still amazed that we, as a species, ever managed to land on the moon (or have microwave macaroni and cheese).

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Did you know that it’s incredibly difficult to find metallic black spray paint? Luckily, our local “Mom and Pop” hardware store was able to order me a load of it — along with some other colors you’ll soon see…

Posted at 10:40am CDT | Permalink | Comments (3)

TUA Board Updated

This is really not much of a post, I just like how Viewplot makes Gerber files look when you load them for verification — so I thought I'd post a screen shot: This is slightly different than the Eagle pic I posted earlier, as I've tightened-up the layout even more. So, if all goes as planned, this will be the board for what I hope will be one horrible, guttural, gut-churning metalcore distortion box. Keep your fingers crossed...

Posted at 3:09pm CDT | Permalink

Living Sacrifice Concert

After finally going to sleep at 1:30am, then waking up at 5:50am, I'm not too keen on typing much. So, I'll just say this: Living Sacrifice still rules. You can't tell they've been on a 5 year hiatus, that's for sure, and Bruce was as spot-on as ever. Seeing these guys took me back over a decade, and I'm gad they're still doing their thing. A new album is in the works, too, and Im quite certain it will be as good as their other work. I didn't get many pics because my little camera's battery was dying — but here are a few...

Posted at 8:38am CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)

While I Wait: A New Circuit

While I'm waiting for my prototype boards to arrive, I went ahead and built a new circuit in Eagle CAD. This is another "port" from Photoshop, and it took quite a while, but it was worth the effort. If this circuit works out, it'll be horizontally oriented, and sport a whopping 6 knobs — but it'll be a while until I'm able to build one as I'm going to have to use a double-sided board, so I have to incur the build time. Here's a pic of the layout:

Posted at 2:52pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sunday Catch-Up

I need to clean my office. Man, it looks like a bomb went off.

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Tomorrow is the Living Sacrifice concert, and I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll stink if the guys aren’t as good as they were back in the day, but I somehow doubt they’d be back doing shows if they weren’t ready for it. I’d prefer the show to not be on a Monday, but what can you do?

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Things are really rolling with the pedal building business. Pieces are falling right here they should, right when they need to — and I’m now buying bulk components to get myself set for decent haul. Startup capital be praised, I’ll only have to sell around a dozen and a half pedals to begin making profit. That, my friends, is good news. Of course, I may have to build a shed in the back yard to store everything…

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Our worship leader is on a mission trip, drilling water wells in Bolivia, and I’m leading this coming weekend while he’s out. I’m taking the opportunity to teach everyone a new song, and I’m pretty pleased with the run-throughs we did the other night. I had flashbacks of our band back in college and all the practicing we’d do for hours on end — but we don’t do that with this group, since there’s just not enough time. Any way you slice it, though, there’s no better way to get a song down than playing over and over and bloody over, back to back. Rinse, repeat.

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My nephew just graduated from High School, and his brother will do the same next year. My niece is now old enough for Driver’s Ed. How nuts is that? Why can’t we all just stay where we are?

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Redkin saw my pictures. Redkin liked. =)

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It’s wonderful to have friends you can go to, talk to, and ask them to pray. Friends from church, friends from the “old days” — brothers and sisters in Christ. I love you guys.

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I still haven’t found the perfect summer hat…

Posted at 8:57pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (6)

Wednesday Miscellany

There's nothing like finally getting around to placing an order for 100 guitar effect pedal knobs, getting them in, and finding out you ordered the wrong kind. Ugh. Returning them is only a minor hassle, but it's still annoying. The correct ones have been ordered — and I double-checked my part number this time.

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My wife found what seems to be a totally awesome clear coat, and I'm going to try it on my pedals. It describes itself as being "super clear, super glossy, and an unbelievably tough yet flexible coating that dries to a clear-as-water, rock-hard finish that won't crack, chip, peel, or yellow in sunlight." Of course, I'll probably have to wear a hazmat suit to apply it, and animals under 5 pounds will drop dead within a 20 foot radius — but it'll be tough once dry.

We shall see.

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I need some new books to read. I head rave reviews about "Day by Day Armageddon," so I grabbed it. It was a good read for that genre — and it really was a "page turner." There aren't many books out there that can really make you stop what you were planning to do so that you can read just a few more more pages, but DbDA did just that. It's also ranked 4.5/5 starts after a whopping 171 reviews at Amazon.

And you never know: when zombies begin to walk the Earth — and assuming you aren't one — you'll be glad you read a book that let you know to fill a bug sprayer with kerosene for use as a make-shift flame thrower. =)

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Man, I don't have much to say or post, mainly because most of my waking, non-work moments have been filled with working on my guitar effects (or watching Frasier). I really need to finish my San Francisco vacation pictures...

Posted at 12:21pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (5)