DIY Mod Kits

Maybe I'll do a blog about it.

My kits should be in on Friday.  Cant wait!  I rewired my SG with RS Guitarworks modern short shaft kit today and the sound difference is amazing!  Really didn't think a 500k pot could brighten up the sound of that sg.  I had a 1 meg cts pot in the bridge by itself, and a neck with with the same configuration no tone control and it was loud but not very bright sounding.  This tone is thinner and feels more classic rock to me.  Its sound quite a bit better to my ears.

Oh I also tried to install my clapton mid boost... Ran into a few snags.  The guitar works in all but all the pots seem to be loud when you turn them snap crackle pop.  My hunch is I didn't put ground wires on the 3 pots because they were mounted to a metal plate.  I'm thinking they are loud because their not well grounded.  As you can see though its 3am and I'm tired so it will have to wait for the morning.  night.

Cool! Ahhh, the infamous non mic'ed gigs..get ready to be the cause of why the cops are going to be called! -S

Here is the Thunder Drive Deluxe http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0110.jpg
Here is the back side of it.  I added the feet they didn't come with the kit. http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0112.jpg
Here is the wiring... It looks a lot harder then it really was.  http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0108.jpg
Here is the piledriver http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0111.jpg
Back side of the Piledriver http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0113.jpg
Piledriver wiring http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0105.jpg
Piledriver closeup of wiring http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0107.jpg
Both pedals with covers off http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn38 … G_0104.jpg

I'm really liking the pedals, but I haven't tried them together yet because we have a 9 volt batter shortage in our house.  I'm 100% happy with the Piledriver and think its the best booster pedal you can buy for the money, even it it was $100 it would almost be worth it, they could stand to upgrade that crap Alpha brand pot its a little noise when you turn it.
The Thunder Drive Deluxe I finished it very late at night and wouldn't dare to wake my house up at 1am... its now 2am.
So far though its a pretty good pedal but you have to have the volume of the amp up quite a bit before you can truly enjoy this guy.  The toggle is a clean sound that's got a bit of some dirt to it but is WAY LOUDER.  If I was bare foot I could flip the switch no problem to boost the sound but the tone changes to something different, makes a great lead sound though.  Tomorrow I'll try to get some sound clips of the pedals with a strat, a sg, a les paul, and a telecaster.  My 4 basic tone groups.

Nice work dude!!! How do they sound? They look great. It's very rewarding building your own gear. I started building pedals and now I'm building amps. Here's a gut shot of my JCM800 2204 project.

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i41 … CN1871.jpg

Ok I recorded some sounds tonight but doubt I get them online tonight as they are on my computer in my basement where my music room "Studio" is.  I use studio loosely.  At first glance I really liked both pedals, but as they settle I'm totally in love with the Piledriver.  I can use it to boost signals or I can use it as a overdrive pedal either way it takes your tone you already have and amplifies it 38db!  If your amp is distorted already it will just compress your sound.  Not what you want to do.  Semi clean sounds and boosted kill!  The Thunderdrive Deluxe however is starting to disappoint me.  If you run the gain wide open it gets into fuzz land barely but its enough to wish I had more distortion and less of a fart sound.  When you back it off the gain on the pedal the farts go away but you really wish you had more distortion.  I like it better as a boost or a lead drive sound.  Playing chords the farts start to take place.  I really only notice it on Humbuckers.  Telecasters and Strats sound very good with the pedal and I would really suggest this as a tone pedal for a strat player or a telecaster player because its kind of a bass heavy pedal.  So if your looking to thicken your single coils up the Thunderdrive Deluxe would work well for you.  Together these pedals are great together.  I think the piledriver is great with anything.  I could see if you had a high gain amp and running the piledriver in the effects loop it would blow people way.

I plugged the pedals up in my mixing board to see what they sound like on their own and like suspected the Thunderdrive is very muddy.  The piledriver maxed my board out on 38 db and I quickly worried if I might have hurt my speakers to my monitors... It got really loud!  It was louder then my amp when I was playing around with it, and it hurt my ears they are still ringing.  To do it all over again I would pass on the Thunderdrive Deluxe, and only get the piledriver.  I might try a pedal with a preamp tube next time.  Or maybe I can get a tone control mod for it to add a little brightness to the circuit.  That would help I think.

Hey man thats some really nice work on that amp you got there.  I was away on vacation and didn't reallyt get a chance to see what you had going on there.  But you got some really neatly laid out wire there.  Give us a demo if you can!  What type amp is that?

I've also found the 6,6,6 on the modded blues jr with presence cranked is a good tone. It makes me feel like I'm not using my EQ but who cares?

I've found the reverb wetness dependent on the Master vol too for some reason.

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping.