Category: Electric Guitar

Eurorack-Modular for Guitarists and Beyond

For the longest time I’ve always been a traditional effect pedal fanatic for guitar, keyboard, bass and vocal rig setups. Recently I was intrigued by my friend Tada at BPNYC, explaining to me the flexibility, compact size and capabilities found in today’s modern eurorack-modular options. For a list all all boutique gear across the board including eurorack-modular please visit http://www.boutiquepedalnyc.us/ As a pedal board layout enthusiast, I was always faced with the problem of manufacturers custom sizing their brands of effects pedals. This always became challenging to find the correct layout for transport and live situations. For many years we have used standard 19″ racks in studios to stack our expanding collections of gear. The Eurorack format calls for modules of 128.5mm (slightly over 5″) height. Horizontal width is measured in “horizontal pitch”, where 1 HP = 5.08mm (exactly 0.2″). 3.5mm mono phone jacks are used for interconnection.

The physical specification is based on the Eurocard standard of:

  • 3U (133.4mm), where height “U” is measured in rack units, rounded for a lip.
  • 1HP (5.08mm), where width “HP” is measured in horizontal pitch units, rounded down. A card width is integer multiples of 1HP.

Eurorack modules may be further characterized by depth: shallow modules (2.5cm to 4cm[1]) can fit into “skiff” cases.

So through the past couple of years, musicians have been migrating away from laptops on stage using VST plugins to complex stompbox pedals in various shapes and sizes. Now that Eurorack-modular suppliers have grown and the new smaller standard has been adopted + quadrupled in complexity will we soon see musicians wearing their controls for live gigs into the expanse of this ever changing music technological period?

Below is a video clip of Tada from BPNYC demonstrating the possibilities of a eurorack-modular guitar rig setup. It was exciting to see the ranges and depths with just a few of the possible units that one can aquire to expand their musical inspiration. http://www.boutiquepedalnyc.us/eurorack-modular/

Custom Ampeg 5 PIN XLR V-7 V-3

This is the Ampeg V-7 Guitar Amplifier. The footswitch is a powered three channel XLR 5 Pin Configuration.  On the Main Board of the V-7 it controls what the switches modify. Located at the bottom of the schematic you will see where I labeled the 5 Pin XLR. Most of the time I wire my pedal to only have one button, for distortion. This unit above has the reverb and channel 1 as kick switches, pedal should be securely mounted to kick “ON” function.

Washburn Tour 24 Chicago

This is a restored Washburn Tour 24 Chicago electric guitar. The pickup rings were reconstructed in solid machined plastic by http://www.fretsonthenet.com and the original bridge was replaced by a vintage Ayers Rocker II.  The tremolo was blocked and professionally set up to stabilize the tuning. Guitar has a nice grinding play and clean tonality, made in Japan & issued 1985.