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Welcome to DIY fever – site dedicated to building your own guitars, amplifiers and effect pedals. Use the site map below or the navigation menu above to find your way around and enjoy your stay.
- Home
- Blog - quick tech tips, news, announcements and concert reports
- Guitars
- Bancika JPM - modern shred guitar inspired by Petrucci's Ibanez JPM
- Bancika MK1 - shredding guitar with Floyd Rose and hot DiMarzio humbuckers
- Bancika MK2 - hand painted guitar with more of a traditional feel
- GS Mini Upgrade - trying to make this little gem even better
- Headless Telecaster - Richie Kotzen inspired full scale headless mini telecaster
- Ibanez RG Upgrade - upgraded with new DiMarzio pickups, Tremol-no and pots
- Mini Les Paul - travel sized guitar based on Les Paul Studio
- Shredneck - warm up and practice tool
- Squier Strat Upgrade - how to turn a cheap guitar into a decent instrument
- Staining Guitar Tops - how to get the best out of figured maple tops
- Amps
- 1x6" Astoria Cabinet - Mini speaker cabinet with a 6" speaker and open or closed back
- 1x10" Guitar Cabinet - my new cab that hosts a Celestion Vintage G10 speaker
- 12K5 Flea-Power Amp - tiny hybrid amp with JFET preamp and 12K5 tube output
- 2W Trainwreck Express - 2W version of the famous Traniwreck Express amp
- 2x6W Stereo Amp - Hi-Fi spec'd stereo power amplifier based around TDA1521A
- 3W Tube Power Amp - 6AK6 power amp with 6021 submini tube and LND150 stage
- 5W Soldano SLO - 5 watt version of the famous Soldano amp, with EL91 output tubes
- AX84 Firefly - self split 12AU7 amp with cascode boost
- Blackstar Fly 3 Mods - cool sounding miniature battery powered amp
- Deacy-Style Amps - salvaging vintage audio devices into cool little guitar amps
- Deacyfunken - built from scratch using Telefunken parts
- Ei RR 220-T - 50s transistor radio made in my town
- Minerva Funkberater - radio with silicon preamp and AC187/AC188 Ge output pair
- Neywa 402 - compact Russian push-pull germanium radio
- Panasonic R-12 - cool speedometer-style Japanese radio
- Tele-Merc 70 - single-ended class A germanium phone amplifier
- Telefunken 302TS - German-made reel-to-reel tape recorder
- Toshiba 8TL-463S - push-pull germanium radio with splitter transformer
- Fender 5F2-A Princeton - classic small combo with a few mods
- (Hairy) Pink Taco V2 - my take on Friedman's take on modern hot-rod Marshall tones
- Kalamazoo 1 - head version of Kalamazoo Model 1 with EL95 output
- Little Gem MK2 - Smokey inspired tiny amp based around 386 opamp
- Mesa Mark IIc+ Pre PCB - PCB based two channel IIc+ with relay switching
- Mesa Mark IIc+ Pre PtP - famous preamp with a couple of mods
- Matchless Hotbox - all-tube preamp based on Matchless Hotbox
- Soldano Preamp - Soldano inspired all tube preamp
- Soldano Preamp MK2 - legendary 3 channel preamp with simplified switching
- Effects
- '69 Fuzz Face - FF derivative based on Fulltone '69 fuzz
- Dallas Rangemaster - legendary germanium treble booster
- Dr Boogey - Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier JFET emulator
- Friedman BE-OD - DIY clone of the cool BE-OD distortion
- Fuzz Face Revisited - Bonamassa inspired fuzz with massive changes
- King of the Brits (KOTB) - J201 based marshall-in-the-box
- Lehle Buffer/Splitter/Re-amp - flexible utility box for recording
- Marshall Cab Sim - Marshall 4×12 cabinet simulator for direct recording
- Mr EQ - simple discrete equalizer with 12 different EQ curves
- MXR ZW/GT/Classic OD - mod that takes you from GT-OD to ZW and back
- Rebote Delay 2.5 - DIY digital delay from TonePad
- The Ultimate Overdrive - transparent overdrive with configurable clipping
- Tube Screamer 808 - Tubescreamer clone with a couple of mods
- Misc
- Air Brake Attenuator - scaled-down version of the well known attenuator
- Audio Probe - very simple contraption that helps with debugging audio circuits
- Circuit Layout Tips - making a quiet and reliable amp and effect layouts
- Component Selection - some suggestions for parts and supplies
- DIY Sustainer - how to make your own sustainer from scratch
- Crappy Desktop Speaker Mods - trying to make cheap speakers act as semi-decent monitors
- DIY Vespel Picks - home made Blue Chip/Gravity pick cross
- Dummy Load - simple device that lets you run a tube amp without an actual speaker
- Fake Capacitors - how to spot fake electrolytic capacitors and avoid them
- Flexi Clip - adds many different clipping options to any circuit that uses clipping diodes
- Guitar Wiring 101 - instructions and common wiring configuration dissected
- Isolation Cabinet - place to store my gear and record silently
- JohnH M2 Attenuator - great sounding reactive attenuator
- L-pad - probably the simplest and cheapest way to attenuate output of an amplifier
- Panasonic WM-61A Mic - great sounding but cheap and simple to build electret microphone
- Pickup Slant Test - testing how bridge pickup angle affects the sound
- Power Supply - pedal power supply with regulated 9VDC and 12VDC outputs
- Power Supply MK2 - simple variable voltage regulated power supply with sag control
- The Ultimate Power Supply - heavy duty isolated power supply for all my effects
- Tips & Tricks - collection of random stuff that I wish I knew earlier
- Tremolo Spring Noise - finding and solving the issue with noisy tremolo springs
- Value Statistics - charts with the most common component values for effect pedals
- Zog-zog - lightbulb attenuator with line out tap and dummy load
- Software
- Digital Modeling - series of articles on software digital modeling
- 1. Hardware - choosing and configuring hardware for modeling
- 2. Common Use-Cases - ways to integrate guitar, pedals, amps with an interface
- 3. Reaper - DAW - how to pick good a DAW software and make use of it
- 4. VST Amp Models - some of the good amp models that I came across
- 5. VST Effects - some very cool effect pedal models
- 6. Cab Impulses - what are IRs are where to find them
- 7. IR Loaders - some of my favorite convolution plugins compared
- 8. My Presets - a couple of my favorite presets
- DIY Layout Creator - DIY Layout Creator software and layout collection
- EVH Pattern Generator - generate your own random EVH pattern
- Pickup Resonant Peak Calculator - calculate and visualize guitar pickup resonant peak based on input parameters
- Treble Bleed Calculator - guitar volume treble bleed circuit calculator and visualizer
- Digital Modeling - series of articles on software digital modeling
- Reviews
- Effects
- Boss BE-5 - ancient but very useful multi-effect pedal
- Boss DD-20 Giga Delay - twin pedal digital delay with some advanced features
- CMAT Mods Deeelay - "boutique" digital delay pedal based around PT2399
- Crybaby 95Q Wah - switchless wah pedal with built in booster and Q control
- Dean Markley Overlord - vintage tube powered overdrive/distortion pedal
- Dunlop DC Brick - glorified daisy chain inside a bullet-proof enclosure
- MXR 6 vs 10 Band EQ - affordable and yet great quality graphic EQ pedals
- Palmer PDI-09 Junction - versatile speaker simulator and DI-box
- TC Nova Repeater - stripped down yet potent version of TC Nova Delay
- Tech 21 Fly Rig 5 - super compact multi-effect pedal
- Guitars
- Cort AS-E4 Acoustic - top of the line dreadnought from a budget brand name
- Ibanez RG 2550 EGK - shredding guitar with Edge Pro tremolo and DiMarzio pickups
- Taylor GS Mini - travel-sized acoustic with great tone and feel
- Music
- The Winery Dogs - amazing old-school rock trio
- Parts
- Bourns Guitar Pots - premium sealed guitar pots with polymer element
- DiMarzio Pickups - reviews of various DiMarzio pickups I've owned
- Hipshot Headless System - high quality streamlined headless system
- Hipshot Tuners - high quality and great looking aftermarket tuners
- JJB Prestige 330 - soundboard mounted piezo acoustic pickup
- Tom Brantley Pickups - custom humbucker set inspired by EVH
- Tremol-no - tremolo blocking device
- Picks
- Chicken Picks - uniquely shaped picks made from very durable termoplastic
- Dragon's Heart Picks - unusual 3-tip picks made from high quality materials
- Gravity Picks - boutique hand-made acrylic picks
- Graphtech Tusq Picks - guitar picks made out of synthetic ivory
- Jazz III Pick Family - Jazz III Regular vs Ultex vs 2.0mm Ultex vs Petrucci
- Jazz Pick Roundup - explore all jazz picks I've came across
- Pick Compare Tool - compare Jazz picks head to head
- TuskBuffer Picks - custom hand made mammoth ivory picks
- V-Picks - boutique hand-made acrylic picks
- Winspear Picks - British-made boutique Jazz picks
- Studio
- Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro - 32ohm closed-back monitoring headphones
- Boss Micro BR - portable digital recorder and processor
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo (1st Gen) - bare-bone USB interface for home recording
- Panasonic RP-HTX7 - great sounding budget headphones with cool looks
- Tascam DP-008 - small but potent digial portable studio
- NI Komplete 6 - USB interface w/ 4 analog ins/outs, digital in/out, MIDI
- Sony MDR-7506 - famous studio monitor headphones
- Effects
- Clips - search through my DIY related video clips
- About - About me, my rig and my taste for guitar tone
- Links - DIY related sites that I like to hang around
