AMZ Mini-Booster in an Old Clock

What time is it? Time to play the geetar!

I recently built a version of the AMZ Mini-Booster based on the vero board layout on Guitar FX Layouts (best blog ever, and quite possibly the reason the Internet was invented).

It looked like a very quick build (I was determined to finish it in one go), and I had most of the parts on hand, but I did not have a small enclosure. However, I did have an old digital clock that stopped working, and I had set it by my workbench intending to take a look at it sometime. It wasn't the perfect size, but it was on hand and it had a battery compartment. 

I removed all of the clock's innards and glued in place all of the buttons (snooze, hour, minute, etc.) that had been held in place by those innards. My super glue was hardened and useless, so I used Gorilla Glue, which expands when it dries, hence the mess.

I drilled two holes in the back for input and output, two on top for the switch and level knob and wired them all to the little vero board held in place by stiff wires coming from the pot. I put the battery in, and it was ready to go.

Sounded good (see video demo below), and I ended up selling it on ebay for $30. The enclosure is pretty sturdy—fine for home, but I doubt it would last long at all under regular stage use.

If I were to do a similar project again, I would drill another hole in the top for the LED. I was trying to be clever and have it shine out through the display lens, but the LED wasn't in a great location and the red plastic is darker than I thought.

The pot, switch and jacks were all salvaged. Poor choice of glue.

Battery compartment already built in

Simple Fix for a 1976 Morley Pro Flanger

Last year, I repaired a 1976 Morley Pro Flanger (PFL) pedal, doubling its value in the process. 

It ended up being a simple fix, so I thought I'd share my brief repair notes.

Morley Flanger Repair Notes, 031713:

• Pot codes: 1377621 (May 1976)
• Pedal passes a signal in bypass
• Passes a signal when engage, but no flange effect  
• Checked switches – all worked fine.
• All solder connections seemed very solid.
• No obviously burnt out components.
• Because everything else looked fine, I started adjusting the trimpots, one at a time (I marked the original positions first of course).
• The 25k trimpot next to the 100k trimpot seemed to do the trick. When I adjusted it, flange became apparent in the signal.

Pedal worked fine in foot and auto modes after that.

For those that are not familiar with Morley, this pedal works by way of a black fabric at the far end that covers and uncovers a photoresistor as the pedal is moved forward and backward.