[sdiy] Marginally OT: Boss Pedal question

[charlie lamm]

First, Stephen, if it's really a CE-2 for $70, buy it, I'd say.  Don't
worry about where it was made.  Vintage dealers charge a lot more for
this, I think.  To my ears, the CE-2 is a very good sounding FX, and I
always like running my MiniMoog and Prophet 5 through it.  I believe it
hasn't been made for quite a long time.

The newer ones (CE-5 etc) don't sound as good to me and have too darn many
knobs.

Jhaible, I agree that the newer EH stuff is very poorly made.  The older
("collectable") EH stuff wasn't the greatest either--the 117V plastic
on/off power switches they used were really terrifying...what were these
guys thinking?  But they usually had interesting sounding stuff in spite
of the poor fabrication.

The group is aware that there are schematics on the web to knock off small
stones, small clones, and some of the other EH classics; you don't have to
use crappy parts or poor fabrication if you are building it yourself.  EG:

http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=11
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/smalls.html

Also, I have a MP3 demo of the small stone on my own web site along with
build notes.  If I can build this, I guarantee everyone else in this group
can too!


On Sat, 7 Sep 2002, jhaible wrote:

> > I've noticed that people always point out on ebay if their boss gear is
> from
> > japan, and I'm wondering what difference it makes?
>
> I don't know.
> But I once bought a EH Small Stone by mailorder (had to return it because
> the jacks were broken), and was shocked about the mechanical construction
> of the pot. They didn't cut the pot shaft, and it was way too long for the
> chickenhead knob they put on top of it. Looked more like a chicken than
> anything else, but seriously, this was made to break sonner or later.
>
> Now I'm in a similar dilemma because I want a Big Muff. The Russian
> version has the same ridiculous chicken-on-sticks pots. The US version
> looks much better (telling from a picture), but it's much more expensive.
>
> I guess I will rather build this myself now. Then it will be even more
> expensive than the US version (;->), but it will at least have true bypass
> and a mains power supply.
>
> That's why I was thinking aloud about Stompbox bypass circuits recently.
>
> And no, I'm not learning to play the guitar now. I just want to run my VL-7
> thru a smoother distortion than the HiFli.
>
> I really, really love what you can do with a physical modelling synth
> when you treat it with analogue effects (just like you would with
> a real phsical guitar).
>
> (Sorry to stray so far from your question.)
>
> JH.
>
>