A Drawing from Sid Couchey

Back in 2009, some facebook thing was going around where everyone was invited to share things about themselves that no one knows. One of the things I shared was that I had Richie Rich's autograph. When I was 10 or so, I had written to Harvey Comics to let them know how much I liked Richie Rich comics. The response I received was signed Richie Rich and Casper.

As it turned out, one of my facebook friends was friends with the daughter of one of the original Richie Rich artists, Sid Couchey (some of his artwork). I don't remember exactly how it all proceeded from there. My friend put us in contact, then I think Sid's daughter* asked if I would like a drawing from him (for which I am still very grateful). So I gave her my address, she talked to her dad, and a couple of weeks later I received the drawing you see below.

I was at the time 40-ish, and no longer a Richie Rich fan (although I still followed some of the artists). But Sid was at the time 90 or so, and I was glad that he was still drawing and very touched that he took the time to create this personalized drawing for an old fan.

Sid died a few years later, and ten years on, I'm still touched by his very kind gesture.

* I remember her name but am respecting her privacy

Ibanez MS10 Metal Charger: Low Output by Design

I got a non-working Ibanez MS10 Metal Charger for $40 recently. I was glad that it was an easy fix (See Fig. 1), and pleasantly surprised that the switch works (these are often spotty in the old Ibanez pedals), but I was disappointed in the pedal itself. The main issue was the level. The pedal was not as loud as the bypass signal (unity) unless I had the distortion and level cranked. Below that, the distortion sound wasn't that interesting or particularly usable. At first I thought the pedal was defective, but after a bit of poking around online, I found this post on killall -9 humans effects blog, describing the same issue. (I am a fan of mirosol through his significant contributions to Guitar FX Layouts, and was grateful that he posted this particular tidbit).

My first thought was that this pedal is a collectible, but after not being able to sell it for $50, I'm skeptical. It very well could be a collectible, but not necessarily one in high demand, at least as of this writing. At any rate, since I couldn't sell it, I figured I'd mess around with it and see if I could make it not sound bad.

Several years ago, I bought (and have thoroughly enjoyed) Brian Wampler's book, How To Modify Effect Pedals, which includes a mod for the MS10. This mod corresponded with what I had already seen in forums here and there, but included a couple of other tweaks that I hadn't seen. Brian's awesome, so I went with his suggestions.

I started by removing D5, D6, and C12 and changing R11 from a 4.7K to a 1K resistor. I zipped it up and noticed a bit of an improvement. The pedal seemed a bit louder and the distortion sounded a bit more pleasant. I then removed D3 and D4 and think I noticed more of the same. I judged only by ear, not with an oscilloscope or anything, so it's hard to tell. I can say that I plugged in and actually enjoyed playing with the pedal for a while, which was not at all like my initial experience with this pedal.

Fig. 2. D3, D4, D5, D6, and C12. D1, D2, and R11 are up near the ribbon cable.

I might try replacing D1 and D2 with a different configuration (Brian suggests 4148-4148 in D1 and 4148-1n5001-4148 in D2 for "better clipping, fuller and thicker." I will probably put sockets in so I can try several different diodes without ruining the trace. But for now, at least the pedal is usable: