major surgery on a @digitechfx Vocal 300 courtesy Justin Anderson #🎛 love the #2001 back to the future LED display. xlr jacks were dead, but they just needed to have the solder re-melted (whew i feared one of the little opamp chips on the board with them died) had to replace most of the pots because the numbers super-jiggled, AND the little dome switches for the pedals were shot. i only had 4-pin buttons so they had to replace the old 2-pin ones diagonally. No autotune on this old fella, and hella termite whammy pedal style pitch shifting. #🎚
do u remember these Audio DNA chips? this thing was made in my graduation year and it’s such a sick color so i feel a bond with it. plus it’s nice to have a dedicated thing to eq, comp, delay, and reverb my garbage vocs before the looper. my evolving hardware performance rig is all about as many mastering layers as practical on a live arrangement.
oh also the foot control wah kinda pedal on it uses a Hall Effect sensor instead of a pot to wear out, that’s really smart, magnet sensor time.
aaaaand i used center-detent pots, that click in the middle, which didn’t end up lined up with the exact middle, more like between 49 and 50, so i don’t recommend this. 😂

CONTINUEDigitech Rebuild

#1987#Aphex#AuralExciter Type C #teardown and reversible mod to add aux jacks. I used the same holes that held the transformer and moved it away with doubletape, so this can go back to stock, don’t sweat it.
#🎛 This is basically a warm tuned overdrive, like the Saturator in Ableton.
#🎚 The original could only be rented at great price, but this later consumer model can be had under a hundo.
#🎶 Made in North Hollywood CA. Unlike my ‘drill’ pictured if you swipe left, with revolutionary Tape Chuck™️
#🔊 Notice the knobs and jacks are not mounted to the chassis, and all force is transferred to the weaker circuit board, which is held in with plastic clips. The knobs can wiggle in a way that doesn’t inspire confidence.
✔️ Always scratch an old surface up before trying to solder to it. High heat short duration on these old jacks, no time to melt the cheese plastic.
#🎧 High harmonics trick you into hearing more loudness and presence. Like tube clean, or tape saturation, but it’s own kinda aluminum 80’s version. Some volume compression occurs too, so when the Mix knob adds back the dry signal we get a lil bit of New York compression for free too.

CONTINUE1987 Aphex Aural Exciter Reversible Mod

#mackie m1400i #poweramp repaired for a diversely downhome dude @davidreedwatson one of the coolest folks i met at @radiovegasrocks#🎛#🎚 this fella fortunately had a couple parts in the temp protection circuit that commonly fail which people reported on several message boards, so i had a lucky time.

CONTINUEMackie Poweramp Fix

unbalanced ins n outs added to my @tcelectronic m one – now its not just a magic cave in a box, its also a di! thanks @ozziepresents for today’s subject device

CONTINUEadding ins n’ outs