Friday, March 28, 2014

Pedal of the Month for March: Austone Vibrostomp

Texas likes BIG!!

This Austone Vibrostomp is one of the bigger pedals out there, with a footprint of 4 inches by 4 inches. The pedal contains both TREMOLO and VIBRATO. For my March show I pulled off two pedals from my board, a tremolo and a chorus pedal, and replaced the two of them with an Austone Vibrostomp.

A toggle switch selects between the tremolo and vibrato modes. Another switch selects a HIGH or LOW range in the LFO (high and low speeds). The LED glows with the rate of the modulation - COOL!

The inside of the enclosure was signed by Jon Bessent. RIP. Austone products are no longer in production.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Replacement buttons for Crybaby 535 boost switch

The Dunlop Crybaby 535Q has plenty of bells and whistles. The wah has a nifty little boost switch that lets you control some gain from your wah pedal.

A client had a 535 with a missing button for the switch. But where to find one? I was looking all over the interwebs but wasn't having any luck. And I wanted to give the dude a working pedal so he could do a gig.

So I went all old school and made a trip to the hardware store. I got some thin wooden dowels and some nice birch buttons. I cut and whittled down a section of the dowel. Then I drilled a small hole in the button and glued the section of dowel. Bam!! New replacement button in natural wood color. With a little spray paint these would look just like the original.

Later I finally discovered some authentic Dunlop plastic replacements at www.newoldsounds.com - they cost more than the wooden ones.