Man overboard

Here's a frustrating thing... the Black Flag is probably never going to see the light of day.

I'm a firm believer in not selling anything that I'm not completely in love with, or that doesn't inspire me to create music.  Right now, that's where the BF resides.  I'm having all sorts of technical problems with it, which is frustrating because it's a pretty simple circuit, and I'm not sure that I'm really interested in committing more time and resources into resolving issues for a pedal that I'm not in love with anyway...  

Something to chew on I guess.

I've also been dabbling in building tube amps over the last month, which has killed my desire to pursue the BF even more.  My first build is a hand-wired, deliciously tone-full version of the classic Fender tweed Princeton amp (5F2A for the valve-nerds).  I sold my tweed Fender RI within days after completing this.  It's that good.


Here it is with my La Cabronita







On the other hand, there is good news in BaddyOneShoelandia - we're slowly moving toward producing PCB's for the existing line, and the first one in transition is the Honeycomb Overdrive.  Previous runs of all B1S pedals have been on vero-board (otherwise known as stripboard) which is a good way to produce low count runs of solidly constructed circuits with excellent conductivity, and a relatively low rate of future problems. 

On the other hand, it takes longer to make the circuits because each circuit has to be hand cut and carefully constructed to avoid problems.  PCBs are a step forward in this regard, and because they make better use of space allowing for smaller builds.  For instance, I'm hoping to get the Honeycomb OD into a small 1290 enclosure (like the Infinity Drive) with this improvement.  

Speaking of the Honeycomb OD, there has been some question as to whether or not it's a clone of another honey colored boutique box.  It's not.  It is a close tonal relation, but there are significant differences in the IC, the voltage structure, the gain structure, etc... that address issues that I had with the other pedal of a similar name.  I've considered changing the name to avoid confusion... maybe I'll put it to a vote here in the near future.