To celebrate the beginning of my Easter season college vacations, and following an
article at
Beavis Audio* that I had in the "to- do" list for a while, today I decided to give it a go an build my own
Matsumin Valve Caster :
*Beavis's is probably the site I like the most regarding guitar and audio gadgetry
A single ended, battery operated (for those who can allow themselves a new 9V block every 1/2 hour)
12AU7 based guitar booster/mild overdrive...
Still on the prototype/sound check stage, here's how the thing looks after an hour of soldering and scrap box raiding:
The sound? Well, like all simple valve operated things, IS GREAT. Don't expect full-on Rocktron Rampage like distortion though... It's more like and ACDC "clean" sound tone, with a bit of adaptability, courtesy of the very-simple-but-rather-effective sigle capacitor tone control...
It does a marvelous job in adding some grit to my Fender Champ which is, by the way, also modified
(more on this off-topic
here)
In fact the this is so damn good for a one-hour-or-so project that I even gave myself the work of recording a small clip, which I don't normally do while still under the "Leave me alone! I wanna play with my new gadget" effect...
Here it is (mind the rubish radio sound of my video camera and the mediocre show-off skills) direct throught the "high" channel of my Fender Champion 600
Here's a portuguese supplier of 12AU7 tubes, so my country mates out there can't argue that tubes are hard to find in Portugal...
Further developments later on!
