Well, I’m back in the land of the work week and weekend. SXSW was an amazing experience, to say the least, and it taught me a thing or two about my ideas. I met lots of people, played 11 shows in 10 days, and saw some incredible performances.
I’ve already got a list of improvements to make to my prototype. Here are a few of the big ones:
- Standardize the enclosures. Making boxes for pedals to fit in is hard to do right. They have to fit like a glove, take lots of abuse, work right, and look good doing it. I’ve been working on this problem for a while, and I have approached it from a few different angles. My plan is to find a partner in crime who can build me some awesome enclosures, to the specs I need. More on this to come.
- Fix switching behaviors. I figured out that the switch which determines whether the pedal is operating in manual or program mode is hooked up backwards. It all still works, but that just means that when the Spectrum is disconnected from the Colorbox, the Colorbox can’t work on its own. That’s a major part of the design – the idea that the Colorbox can work like a simple multi-effects pedal – so I have to get this part working right. Fortunately, that should be an easy fix. Also, I learned that vintage Fender reverb circuits are switched opposite from the tremolo circuit. This means that the reverb is engaged when it’s not grounded, rather than being engaged when grounded. Another easy fix, but important.
- Build, test, rebuild, retest. I had a lot of positive feedback on my ideas, and I hope to release my product for sale soon. However, it’s going to take a while to get this ship ready to sail. Add a week or two for me to get set up with my workbench again (I just moved to Oakland), and it’ll be a bit. Rest assured that when I do hit the market, my products will be shipshape.
Until next time, here’s a photo from the last show of the tour, at the White Barn in St. Helena, CA. Enjoy!
Playing through Sonic Wizard prototypes with Buckeye Knoll
