Solution Audio

Prototypes arrived! These are smaller versions of the large Big Box of Chicken compressor. The changes are the power supply has been redesigned, the bypass switch is now controlled by a soft switch and a relay (still true bypass) and of course it’s SMD based. Otherwise the controls remain the same and the components directly related to tone and compression are the same. I had to dig through a lot of data sheets to match up some of the components to the hand soldered version. We will see if I made mistake in the design or layout when the potentiometers arrive tomorrow!

Today is a very special day! FFoF Day! First Flannel of Fall 🍂Bring on the cool mornings 🍁🍃

Lightning hit the shop the other day and fried the motherboard of my laser etcher. It usuallg gets unplugged when I’m not using it, but i just forgot that day.

That machine is 22 years old and parts are not easy to find! I looked all over every web site that could possibly have parts. I called everyone I knew in the laser repair business from California to Illinois. I finally found one donor machine in Louisiana and one in Ohio. I went with the one in Ohio as it was coming from a reputable shop that was able to test it.

I was able to do the swap myself and through the help of Epilog support, load my original settings into the donor board.

Back up and running thanks to Steve at Airway Laser in Ohio!

The struggles of using ancient machines ⚙️⚙️⚙️

I’m loving this machine for humbucker bobbins. It really has increased productivity and does a great job every wind. I’ve always been proud of my humbuckers and this has stepped up my game.

This weekend I wound up a handful of Tele style pickups. Each one of these is made from beginning to end by me only. I enjoy having control over everything from choosing the vulcanized fiber I cut to the wax blend I use. I’ve been winding for 13 years now and I make each one of these pickups to be the best one I’ve ever made. My volume is low, but my quality is high. These will go into high end custom guitars and maybe a few will be sold to people looking to upgrade their current guitar. What are some things you might look for in a pickup upgrade in your daily driver guitar?