Took a bunch of DIY projects to Invisible Sound's Tone Geek Sunday ...

[midwayfair]

Here in Baltimore, there's a studio called Invisible Sound that's something of an amp and gear museum as well as fully functional studio. They do an open house every few months to let in gearheads, and do some show and tell. So people bring in fancy guitars and amps, and local builders like the guys from Budda (now East Amps) and Tone King will/would sometimes bring in their new creations for everyone to play. And they have things like a working, real '47 Deluxe and they let you play with them!

So I took a few DIY pedals last time, but this time I had a real collection to take with me.

The big hits were:
Runoff Groove Tri-Vibe ... everyone loves this when they hear it, and I had to turn down a lot of requests to make one out of respect to ROG's DIY-only policy. Definitely one of my favorite modulation pedals ever.

Engineer's Thumb and Afterlife/Flatline. Both dead silent even with questionable power (two-prong plugs with adapters) in the iso booth. A lot of people were really interested in MerlinB's design, especially since they can't buy it anywhere.

MadBean Fatpants: ... before they even knew it was based on the input of an Echoplex. Then they really liked it!

I also got to look inside a rack-mount MXR modular phaser (holy vactrols, Batman! 8 of 'em!), Morley delay from the same time period, and a couple other cool things.

[Bill Mountain]

So...you're in B-more?  We should meet up and talk pedals.  I always told myself that if I ever created a bitchin' orginal design I'd take it to one of those.  I'd also give one to Magpie Cage so maybe it would end up on a Clutch record!

[midwayfair]

So...you're in B-more?  We should meet up and talk pedals.  I always told myself that if I ever created a bitchin' orginal design I'd take it to one of those.  I'd also give one to Magpie Cage so maybe it would end up on a Clutch record!

Sure, any time (almost)! Just send me a PM.

[B Tremblay]

I'm really happy to hear how well the Tri-Vibe was received.  Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[AudioEcstasy]

I'm glad to know that's still going on! I love Baltimore, and grew up quite close. 

[gtr2]

It's cool you have stuff like that in your area! 

Josh

[Paul Marossy]

It's cool you have stuff like that in your area! 

Josh

I live in the wrong place for just about everything. Argh. 

[reveal]

According to their web page Run Off Groove will license their designs.  Ask, the worst they can say is no. 

[midwayfair]

According to their web page Run Off Groove will license their designs.  Ask, the worst they can say is no. 

Yup, we discussed it by e-mail (it's 10% of the pedal's "retail" sale price per pedal). My main reason for turning people down at the studio is that it took me 6 hours to build mine (on perf) and I'm just not terribly interested in charging a "fair" price for the amount of work involved. This is still 99% a hobby for me and I'd like to keep it that way. And though I could get someone to etch me a board (Haberdasher), that would involve using John Lyon's circuit board art for commercial purposes. I might make one for a friend, but not necessarily for a stranger (unless they made me an offer I couldn't refuse).