Roger Mayer Page-1

I wrote to Roger Mayer, and asked him why the Page-1 pedals (which are really fantastic... that and my Way
Huge Red Llama are together on my board... with tons of BJFE pedals) are no longer in production... I mentioned
that I had heard online various rumors, including the 'lack of NOS parts to make them' and 'Jimmy Page doesn't
want his name used on the pedals'. Roger (on the far left in the photo above) wanted me to post this reply...
As usual the story is wrong.
We will be producing another run of the Page-1 soon.
It was only ever meant to be a limited edition anyway.
Please feel free to let people know this on the various blogs etc and to set the record straight.
There was never a problem with JP and we have plenty of NOS.

Custom BJFE Pedal

Bjorn at BJFE Pedals (also known as the Mad Professor) cooked me up this little number... it is pure Punkrock for my mind. Somber and yet satisfying... tons of crunch. My favorite setting is volume cranked (11), distortion cranked (11)... and the treble set around half way (5). Absolutely no pretensions... just like Sid or Johnny would have wanted. What the doctor (professor) ordered, and more! This is all not surprising of course, since it did come from the mind of the Mad Professor, who has lots of practice working in his lab with his soldering iron. This is seldom true when purchasing other pedals though... how many times have we all been on Ebay, and seen some amazing looking pedal... maybe it has some acid etched design, or possibly it is sandblasted or even done in some groovy paint scheme. Such pedals are always described with superlatives such as 'Amazing Jimi Vibe', or 'Stevie Ray in a box'... or possibly 'Amazing metal crunch meets Slash of Guns and Roses'. So we order it, and wait the long days for our EBay purchase to arrive. And you guessed... we plug it in and .... that standard generic distortion that so many pedals out there have. Not so with this little black box. It's a 'keeper'... and is going next to some of my other pedals that are irreplaceable to me... like BJFE's LGW, his BBO (Baby Blue Overdrive), and of course my Red Llama, by Way Huge.... oh, and too many other BJFE creations to mention... but I might be doing so in future posts. (Almost certainly for sure!).

Mad Professor/ BJFE Wah Wah Interview

FCSG: Wonderful to speak with you again Mad Professor. I heard the other day that you are modifying Rocket Ride Wah pedals for Custom Sounds in Finland. I have heard that having Tropical Fish Capacitors in Wah's is one of the ingredients to getting that Jimi Hendrix Wah sound right.

BJF: Tropical Fish... yes, those were known as 'Bon Bon' capacitors due to how they look (just like Candy). They were originally used in all types of consumer-grade electronics, including Wah pedals. If they are in your Wah it would indicate when it was made, judging from when this type of capacitor was an 'off the shelf' item. One thing to consider is that Tropical Fish capacitors are fragile at the ends where the legs join the body. Considering the way Wah's were generally used they could also lead to unnecessary noise, hum, radio interference and because of this they can also be troublesome.
Oh, I've just designed the modification for the Rocketride Wha aswell as other Rocketride Effects while I don't preform the modifications www.rocketride.com

FCSG: Wah's are discussed online, and apparently there is more than one way to build a Wah pedal... including a Vox Style Inductor-based Wah, a Twin-T Circuit, Multiple Feedback Opamp Active Filter Circuit and 'State Variable' Style Circuit like the Mutron 3.

BJF: Yes, there are many ways to make a Wah. We can get the Wah effect by a moving low pass filter with resonance (this means a filter that cuts frequencies above a corner frequency at a certain rate per octave, but at the corner frequency there is a peak... or a moving midnotch filter can also be used. The point of using a low pass filter would be to keep content below corner frequency relatively intact, or the sound can become thin. A similar sound can be achieved with a phase shifter since those operate by moving midnotches up and down and resonance can also be introduced. There are of course many Wah variants and circuits that don't use inductors. Avoiding the use of an inductor would of course be attractive since they are expensive, and are also a bulky component that is actually highly sensitive to magnetic fields.

FCSG: Of course I love Inductors. I personally would prefer a Wah to have a good inductor, and... of course... FISH!

BJFE: Yes, in fact... inductors of suitable sizes are rarely used these days in any electronic equipment anymore... as a sidenote, Aleksander Neimand of Tubewonder amplifiers told me they used tape recorder heads for inductors in Wah's many years ago in Poland since there was one head that had about the correct properties, and inductors were hard to find. These days though, if you want an inductor you can order a suitable one as there are specialty suppliers for this.
If you are looking at a Wah cicuit, and are wondering what parts to make an effort to put in, I'd recommend looking at the gain of the first transistor, and this can be adjusted via the emitter load, if necessary. Also look at the components around the feedback network of the first transistor.

FCSG: I was looking at Teese Wahs... but read somewhere that they can develop dead spots at either end of their travel... what can you say about this please?

BJFE: Dead spots along the travel of the pot indicate something could be wrong with the pot and this is also the part that wears out in the Wah first. Replacing the pot properly requires placing the cogwheel and the tooth bit so that there is a tiny/ minimal gap so there is no pressure to the rotor from the side, or the pot will soon break again. One can also place a small amount of grease in the gap to make the Wah run smoothly.
I think Teese would be most helpful in assisting anyone with such a problem. There are about ten Teese Wah's here in the shop, and none of them here have any signs of the dead spots you mentioned... with the internet, this type of thing can become overblown.

FCSG: My dream Wah would have been a brand new Clyde McCoy-like Wah... with tropical fish, and NOS inductor for instance... but now I might be inclined to consider making some changes (after all you have said...).

BJFE: Have you ever played a McCoy Wah?

FCSG: Yes, a friend of mine who spent his life playing the Blues with a Les Paul swore by them ... and I think he got one of the 'good ones' (I know it was hit and miss)... he let me try it out... I was a kid at the time, and thought one Wah sounded like another...

BJFE: Once more thing about the tropical fish... some 25 years ago or so, I'd walk down the street and buy some from the local radio repairman... I thought they were pretty...but if I built a Wah today, I would certainly use some other type of plastic caps/ films. They can do all Fish can do, and more. Fish were meant to be easy to read due to their color coding, although the last band sometimes got hidden. And as I said, the leg joint to the body is a bit fragile and some of those Bon Bon's therefore have expander bends on the legs, to absorb vibrations. Phillips made another capacitor that was orange but built in a similar way... but I haven't seen those in many years. The legs can come of these capacitors near the body due to vibrations in transportation.
The most common problem with Wahs though is worn down pots and switches. Of course, these are mechanical parts that see heavy use/ stress.

Most old effects for guitar use Pertinex circuit boards... which can also crack with time, and due to vibrations.
In the 1970's, glass fiber boards were twice as expensive, and only used in expensive equipment in those days... meanwhile, you hardly ever see anything anymore with Pertinax boards anymore unless it is something with very low life expectancy.

FCSG: Yes, when I was a kid in the 70's I had some Walkie Talkies, that had the glass boards in them. Is there anything else that breaks down in Wah's that you come across?

BJFE: I think, other than what I mentioned, maybe some jacks and battery clips, and sometimes electrolytic capacitors... and there is one specific one that if it dries out it turns a Wah into a swell pedal (!).
to build a Wah to someone's order is a very personal thing. It can be a very personal effect. There are many way it can be done... of course Aleksander lived near a factory that made the tape recorder heads, and there are none of those left anymore!
I can see that would work very well, due to shielding and also that the inductance was right spot on too.
I was at a guitar show a few years ago, and was asked to Demo some Wahs. I had to take a second to recall when I had last played a Wah publicly... and maybe it had been 15 years! Often I'd use a Bud Wah with a Strat due to the fact it is 'middy', but this particular day, I was sitting with my Les Paul*, and found the Wah's at my disposal were the Mollon Wah... which was more pleasing because of the tone... more Vintage, and thinner... as you can see, what guitar you are playing with the Wah can have a big effect.

*Oh and if we are going to be exact it wasn't my own Les Paul but one supplied by the distributor I was representing ;)
as a sidenote
I used the same guitar to demonstrate the LouderandMore amplifier at the same show, while that's neither orderable through Custom-Sounds. Harri has one though.
I mention it only because I do see it would seem that anything I design or make would be orderable through Custom-Sounds but that is not necessarily the case.

JM Rolph Pickups

So what are the best pickups that I have found to date? I just put a JM Rolph humbucker into my Charvel guitar (yes, the EVH style single humbucking version). It (as Gearmanndude might say)....'Rocks my socks off'. The tone difference between those standard pickups that come with every middle of-the-road Les Paul is truly earth shattering. Why? I spent over an hour having a wonderful conversation with Mr Rolph, who gives his knowledge and his time freely, to those sincerely interested in what he does. He sources his own magnets (yes, the ones that go between the two single coils in a humbucker). He sources his own wire (he chooses a specific gage, which he has coated a specific way), and then winds them the way 'they used to', many years ago. A "way's back" there used to be magnet makers near where he lives, and that is just one of the secrets to why the old PAF's sounded so great... Mom and Pop companies making magnets (I guess in smaller batches than big companies do now). Well, JM still has a company to do that. Apparently, winding a humbucker takes planning, proper sourcing of materials, and then some hands-on attention to details. This means how the coils on those pickups are wound, the tension put on the wire during the winding process, and how you stack the coil with the wire. I am certainly sold on his pickups, and I know I am not alone. For me, they are the only ones for me... unless I find some old PAF's lying around in my attic somewhere...

Not the Same Bl**dy Piece of Wood...

I was just reading a fantastic interview in 'Analog Man's Guide to Vintage Effects' By Tom Hughes. If you don't have this book, you should get it. Roger Mayer (Creator of Roger Mayer Analogue Guitar Effects) is discussing the problem with pedals and guitars, and how hard it is to achieve 'that' sound someone else (usually, famous) has. Have you ever purchased a pedal that was described as being 'Pure Jimi'… got home, plugged it in and… you guessed it… no goosebump effect. It might even be a mildly entertaining pedal, but almost certainly will be headed for EBay soon. Well, Mr Mayer (on page 235) says it all better than almost anyone you will ever come across. Mr Mayer used to play in bands and came to know people like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. He also ended up 'setting up' Jimi Hendrix; tweaking his pedals, guitars and amps to achieve that Jimi sound (but he says you still needed Jimi too, or no sound). He also did Bob Marley's guitars and bass. He makes some fantastic points… (to quote): "One of the things you might stress to your people is that when they hear a sound on a CD, that's a recording; it's got nothing at all to do with the live sound…not to mention that the sound you're actually hearing and trying to emulate is being heard on hi-fi loudspeakers. So someone hears a record and says 'I want to sound like Jimi'. No, what you are saying is you want to sound like the record'. This guy is great, because he mentions (amongst other things) that a reissue 'Jimi Hendrix' guitar might be aged to 'look' like Jimi's guitar… but it is a different piece of wood (he says 'It is not the same bloody piece of wood'), and the player will never play exactly like Jimi. He also mentions that a pedal that sounds great with your amp, with a mike in front the amp, which is going to a PA system, is going to be a totally different setup to getting that sound out of an amp alone… or the amp at a lower volume (for instance). He points out that making sound and effects is a lot more than just buying a box…it's a total package of Guitar, Amp, Pedal(s)… etc.. and the whole set up, and anyone who thinks otherwise is lost. Also, anyone who thinks one guitar can sound exactly like another guitar is also lost… the second guitar might sound fantastic, but… as Mr Mayer says…'it's not the same bloody piece of wood!" Anyway, buy the book, read the interview.. and learn a lot more.

Interview with The Mad Professor (BJFE)

A few questions for Mr Bjorn Juhl....

FCS: I just bought a Little Green Wonder, and noticed that the circuit board is not
'Gooped' like some of your other pedals circuitboards.

BJ: Little Green Wonder never came with a gooped pcb for the very simple reason that I didn't think it much of a tradesecret and besides I wanted it to be possible for the user to change the chip and further more as a fun note at the time LGW was launched, there was another manufacturer that was known for making a gooped tubecreamer;)


FCS: I also notice that my LGW (Little Green Wonder) has no serial number written inside.

BJ: There is at least one LGW that did not get a serial number and I can still track down approximately when was made, even so I believe I once did one for a guy who collected 8 LGW's outof which one did not have a serialnumber. I have that somewhere......


FCS: I love the early MGMV (Mint Green Mini Vibes) you made.

BJ: Well, only the first two MGMV's were made in that shape of that box and using that type of knob.
Those boxes had to be manually sawed down and new holes drilled and new threads made for new type screws and the knobs were surplus from a factory that was closed and the widow of the late owner might possibly open the doors but only if there were orders for something like 100,000 knobs of one type or there would be no point in starting the machines again......
I believe I mixed the shade of green from tints and just as an experiment........
I believe both of those are in Finland... one bieng Harri's (Custom Sounds)and the other belongs to a guitarist of Finland's biggest band ever, Eppu Normali, which by an odd coincidence means something like Abby Normal or Abnormal and that is also is an inputchoice on the MP amplifier model CS-40.

Anyway, a perhaps fun note about the MGMV is that the demoguitarist for Dr Z amplifiers asked on what was the PRS forums and what is now TGP about MGMV and I sent him then a pm that there were no members that could answer his questions and there were too few units made but he ordered one and wrote the first review and then all MGMV's made up unitil 2003 were made in the same mintgreen as LGW and then later changed to become Mighty Green with gold letters and then various custom colours and also DLX versions.
Someone once ordered a mintgreen MGMV DLX which is possible to make.

FCS: I see you are also modifying Wah Pedals for sale. From my own studies I see that
some of the older McCoy Wahs are inconsistant, and it's not all about one or two parts in those pedals, but many things. In addition, those pedals are older now, and some are in need of repairs.

BJ: Yes it's a sum of many parts but it's a function of gain. Some of the old ones may use electrlytics that may have dried out so they have become volume pedals- I played one such once - a very boring experience- I got it on loan for a rehearsal  and while it was the oldest Wah I have ever played it was also the weakest.

In my years as a servicetechnician I have come to see that Wah's are very personal to musicians and next to my workshop there's a store that carries all kinds of gear and the owner brught down all whas at one point since a customer had brought in a particurlarly good late 60's wha to compare and so I asked the owner how he played the Wah and he told me he'd grab the edge and prefer a rapid change towards the last 173 of range and a rather vocal response so I asked if he had a cheap Wah in his range and I'd do an experiment with that and see how he'd like that.


FCSG: Why do you prefer Wah prior to Fuzz (when stacking pedals)?

BJ: Regarding this question I personally prefer Wah prior to fuzz -I know those who definately prefer Wah after fuzz and there is no hard rule.
The reason I prefer Wah before fuzz/ distortion/overdrive is that then I still have a full range of sound while changing the resonance in the midrange and then in a mix the guitar takes about the same space.
I know many prefer Wah after say fuzz and mainly then because these two effects may not play well together dependeing on the makes of either and that can dictate Wah after fuzz while this is never the case with distortion pedals while then the distortion effect in itself can be so dense that the Wah effect drowns it if place ahead of the distortion.......

Again I'd tend not to use that amount of distortion though.

A trick to cut down noise when using Wah with heavy gain is to use an overdrive or compressor ahead of Wah and then a little less distortion after the Wah and thusly level through the Wah is higher above its noise level and amplification of noise after it is lower - this can be of importance at live high level settings and also with recordings and it wil reduce microphonics in the Wah as in sound coming from the shoe touching the rocker.

FCS: Why did Hendrix put his Wah somewhere in the middle of his pedal stack?

BJ: If we'd look at Hendrix' system then he'd have a fuzz that would with in conjunction with his guitar form a filter that would cut high frequencies this due to the low impedance of the fuzz and the high impedance of the guitar.....if he would have put his wha here then the fuzz would have loaded the wha which would have made the wha travel faster and the sound brighter and also the volume lwer when the wha was engaged..........likely this was not desireable-unless amplifier was allready distorting and making up for this loss.......
It is highly possibly that many times Jimi may have run his Fuzz Face first for the above reasons- however he was not a technician but a musician and as such believed in magic and to some extent it is good to believe in magic because magic may also be the spirit that carries the notes and guides what sounds we actually like to hear.



FCS: I went to see the Black Crowes the other night at the Nokia in Los Angeles, and certainly was watching Rich Robinson's foot on his Wah... and noticed the range he used. This was after reading about how Jimi (Hendrix) liked his Wah's set up. On another note... have you ever thought of building pickups?

BJ: At ayoung age I made pick ups too but I could not afford to get a winding machine. I had as a friend a girl who's father made an invention of constant load on coilwinding that could be used for this and he sold it- You know at that age I wouldn't ask if I possibly could have a coil or two wound but I wound them by hand instead myself. Yes, winding is very time consuming and nothing I'd ever consider doing ever again but I was young once.
As a service technician though I have repaiered more guitar pickups than I care to remember. One day I decided  I wasn't going to do anymore guitar repairs but only electronics so I sold all guitar parts. I think I may have a couple of spare pick ups but that's all- still come to think of it I have several guitars I have not finished setting up- thank you for reminding me of that.


FCS: I recently went on EBay looking at MXR pedals. The very early ones have become collectible and expensive.. and the circuit boards were silkscreened and prepared in fish tanks in small batches. Some of the originals are having problems with rotting foam inside too. I read in my Pedal Book (by Analog Man) though that someone picked up a lot of old MXR pedal parts, and has been selling assembled pedals on EBay, that may not even function properly. The book warns that if the pedals don't have proper pots you can date, then don't buy the pedal. Any comments?


BJ:

A Phase 90 would have a 500K Reverse Log pot. Yes well I remember MXR they were in many ways tanks in terms of guitar pedals when they came and many fine details like you could stand on the knobs- but the damned foam. The Ebay problem, well that's maybe because after MXR folded and a just a few years ago unused pcbs and boxes and what not was sold on e-bay and some people may have put those together.
One guy wanted an MXR envelope Folllower and had bought a pcb and it was damaged and therefore not used but you know I had not heard one of those in 20 years..I put that in an ecloser that looked nothing like an MXR and with no markings and it does not exist other than to the joy of the owner but there are those that make fakes from rejected parts like this and they may not even know how to get the circuits working correctly but they concentrate on getting it to look correct and like an original so they can get the most money for it .As far as the padding inside, I use neoprane as it makes a no tension no friction mounting. I don't know how well it will hold over 30 years but I'd think better than foam anyway that is what studies of the inner structure of the material shows. Neoprane is the same material as used in divingsuits btw.

Ah you'd laugh I eatch my boards in tupperware.. it's something I asked someone who went to such a party to get me but the tank has held since 1991.

I think MXR in some ways was an inspiration in terms of being indestructable- something they abandoned later in the Command series.
But BOSS took on that I felt though that sound was........well the more fun sounds came from things that were more on the edge of breaking down....

FCS: Yes, the Analog Man book mentions one of the Doobie Brother's MXR pedals was run over by a car, and still survived intact.
You also make MP (Mad Professor) Amps, that are played by some very well known artists. I love the idea of also one day owning a Dumble Amp. He is apparently still alive, and very picky about who he talks to.

BJ:
Right, well the only Dumble amp I ever worked on I serviced just one part or rather I rewired a reverb but promised I would not look at no other part in the am which I also didn't. Somebody asked me if I wanted to have a look but I told I would fix it if it was broken otherwie I was not interested and never heard back.
As a fun note I can tell you that two Dumble owners I have spoken with here each keep their amps one in his kitchensofa and the other in a wardrobe noneof them using them only having them for investment these days
It does seem a waste of equipment.
On another note the other day a guy came by and told he had the sound of his life but it was to heavy so he had to let it go.......
And so he asked me if I'd make him a pedal with this sound.
Considering a sound being so heavy that you would have to let it go when you have it I'd call that a challange......
What he had was a Riviera head one of the early multi channel types that weigh half a ton but he had read on records with artists he liked that played songs he liked with sounds he liked that those were recorded with Dumble amps so he got himself a Twin Reverb and searched for pedals...
This guy is a fun guy with a broad a quick smile and roaring laughter and maybe it is also much for fun a search but the sequence I just told above shows just how myths complicates things where sound would instead easily lead- like get the speaker that fits and the try blasting that with a poweramp and then add preamp- this specifically for this sound that was so heavy that one would have to let it go....
You know I thought maybe at one point I'd like to speak with Dumble and then I'd like to be able to say I never peaked into his amps nor copied him.

FCS: Well, thank you so much Bjorn...

Velcro-Be-Gone

Ever wondered how to remove that unwanted velcro from your beloved pedal? Needle Nose Plyers... does the job every time! Carefully grab the edge of one corner of the velcro in the end of your plyers, and then begin rolling SLOWLY (I have found the edges of the velcro always have a little corner that is easy to grab to get started). Voila!

Cute Lepers

(Hey... Ronnie Wood's a fan too)

Vintage Post from The Past....with all the Typo's

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2007

Mike Nesmith

Met and spoke with Mike Nesmith yesterday. Also had Jury Duty. Live in LA, so rather than deal with the 1+ hour drive from West LA to Downtown the next day (for 7:30 roll-call)... I decided to get a towncar and stay overnight at the 'Standard'. Car came 8:15pm, and nice guy; 50-ish looking guy in a suit, tie, with short greyish hair, helps me get bag into car and drives me off. First off, I ask him if he has ever done Jury Duty... he says yes... he did it four times, once only had to call on the phone only, another time had to go to court, but was not called on a panel, and twice more went in.. but not chosen...even though he really tried to get on a case, and be agreeable. He is driving, and we go by Mary J. Blige's house, and I happen to mention that the car outside waiting in the road is for 'Mary J. Blige', at which point he mentions he used to be in a band in the 60's. I say... ok.. which band (expecting the usual... sax player for 'Mountain'...actually, Mountain are great... try 'Blood of the Sun'). He says...'Have you ever heard of the Monkees?'... I say...'The NEW Monkees?'...he says... 'No, the old ones...'65,'66 etc. So now I am worried.. I am being driven around in a car by a man with a identity disorder. 'Which Monkee?' I ask... and he replies...'Mike Nesmith'. Ok, next great question from me (a man being driven around in a Towncar by Mike Nesmith)....'Why are you driving a towncar?'. As we all know, Mike Nesmith's mother was the 'Liquid Paper' inventor, so unlike other '60's bands, he has no need to drive a car for a living. He also invented 'MTV', is a great success in Video production, and is the originator of Country-Rock as a genre...etc, etc, etc. He also wrote some of the most amazing songs of the past century. He replies...'My son lives in a Condo downtown, so my friend who owns the car company lets me take a car of his and do a run for him on the way downtown at the same time'. Now I am becoming convinced it is Mike Nesmith...sure as heck looks like a slightly older version. Fit and healthy though for his age... hmmmmm...old waves of doubt creep in again. Fate listens to you at all sorts of odd times... I prayed every night to get out of Jury Duty...still got it....meanwhile, three months ago, I told my session player friend on a whim (as we listened to Mike's song 'Joanne' on my iPod player)... 'Boy... if there is really someone I would like to meet..it's Mike Nesmith..but guess I never will.... I am still not telling him how he is one of my favourite musicians... because I am sure it is not really him. (Was there an episode of the Monkees/ Head, where Mike dresses up as a chauffeur). (I also later read about how he has been a prankster since childhood, and I also verified once I got done with jury duty, that this man was indeed Mike Nesmith). More tomorrow....and the end of the story...by the way... he is a really nice guy...

Alligator Arms

Tell me this is not the best thing ever! I went to a Black Crowes concert last night at the Nokia theater in Los Angeles... and this little box was sitting on top of an amp, right behind Rich Robinson. And even if Brian Setzer is not your thing (he achieves the same sound this little box provides), this is a must-have Christmas request from Santa (but he has to have deep pockets... not alligator arms... when it comes to buying it), since they run around $1080.00.