Pamparo in Toronto

Well, I just changed the crappy little capacitors on my Les Paul Studio with these “Sprague Orange Drop Cap” and now I think that the tone knob is a lot smoother … talk about placebo effect!

Sprauge Orange Drop Cap .022uf

Also changed the 3-way switch with a “tall” Switchcraft as supposed to the standard size direct-replacement. Well, it barely fits! So, boys & girls, always second-guess what you read on the internet! And lastly, I reverted the wiring on the bridge pickup to the “modern wiring” but left the neck pickup for the “50′s style wiring” … woah, I feel like a real geek

I like taking photos and I like a good camera. That’s really all there is to say … and I don’t consider point-and-shoot real cameras! haha *** EDIT: just kidding, i’ve had a few P&S and still have/use one ***

My very first real camera ... a Nikon FM2-N SLR

My trusty and rugged Nikon D50 DSLR

My latest ... a beautiful Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1

Full review of GX1 with sample shots coming soon … I’m still having too much fun shooting!

So I sold my Strymon Timeline recently. Philip thought that it was surprising while Larry kinda agreed that it was a little overkill for a few presets (he kept his unit, though). Don’t get me wrong, I love the sounds from Timeline and I really wish I could keep it. Unfortunately, the price tag for the 20% of the features I used was the main factor of finally getting rid of it. I’m sure I’ll have another opportunity to get one later on … here’s hoping the used prices drop down significantly soon!

Strymon Timeline before parting ways

I’ve also been doing some work on my guitars. I swapped my Tele’s stock bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro. I’ve had this pickup for a while but never had the change to do it. Now I’m basically kicking myself for not doing it right away! There’s a little bit of getting used to not rolling the tone-knob when switching but otherwise, everything is working good! For $30, this was a great upgrade!

SD Alnico II Pro for Telecaster

My Les Paul Studio also got some action. I re-wired it using the “50′s style wiring” where the capacitor is moved from the “input” to the “output” so that the treble is not affected much when rolling the volume knob down. Again, I am kicking myself for not doing this before. Well, I guess I should be thankful as I probably wouldn’t have ventured getting a Tele if I’ve known of this before. Still some work to be done as the internal wiring looks awfully cheap and my 3-way switch is broken. So there you go, everything happens for a reason, at least that’s how I justify my gears! hehe

Les Paul 50's Style Wiring diagram

Lastly, I’ve been trying to work on some DIY projects. And I managed to start with just a very simple unity gain amplifier circuit, aka “Buffer” for those guitarists out there! Here’s the circuit I followed

Unity Gain Amplifier circuit

My ambitious plan is to use an Arduino UNO board to control 2-loops an A/B/Y or a regular looper. The Arduino board will digitally control a CD4053 chip with an option for buffering/boost. I got the idea from this link.

Using CD4053 as a bypass switch

That’s a lot of things to accomplish. The good thing is that these things are keeping me occupied and preventing me from buying more effect pedals!