Recent Articles

The Repair Bench: Build Your Own Clone 5 Knob Compressor
In this episode of The Repair Bench we are troubleshooting a clone of the famous Ross Gray Compressor called the 5 Knob Compressor and sold by Build Your Own Clone (BYOC). We received this pedal from a customer who had purchased it, already built, on eBay. Apparently it had never worked for the original buyer/builder, […]

Kit Review: The Persuader Tube Drive Pedal
The Persuader is a tube-drive distortion pedal kit sold by Amplified Parts of Tempe, AZ. Amplified Parts is a relatively new entity that is part of Antique Electronic Supply, which has been operating for more than 25 years. The focus of Amplified Parts is on the musician who is not an electronic technician and who […]

Homemade Guitar Collection from HarpAxe.com
Here’s a fun video from Scottish musician and guitar builder John David Coupland. The video features a number of homemade guitars, commercial models and some guitar part art. We’d swear that some of these instruments were played by Mr. Spock in his room on board the Enterprise. John is a self taught guitarist and church […]

Gear Review: Xytronic Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner
We recently picked up a handy item that works exactly as advertised – the Xytronic Model 460 Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner. For many years we have used a damp sponge for tip cleaning, just like many electronic builders. However this usually meant making a trip to a sink to moisten the sponge when getting ready […]

The Repair Bench: Roland Cube 100 Bass Amp
Learning how to troubleshoot electronic circuits is one of the handiest skills to have if you are building or modifying amplifiers or effect pedals. At some point you’ll power-up a circuit and find that it doesn’t work, and then what? For this reason we write “The Repair Bench” section of Guitar Kit Builder about our […]

Amp Maker SL-18 18W SuperLite TMB Amp Demo
Here’s a video demo of the SL-18 18W SuperLite TMB (treble, middle, bass) amplifier kit from Amp Maker. The SL-18 kit combines Amp Maker’s PP-18 18-watt kit with the SE-5A preamp to deliver a kit with more preamp gain, treble, middle and bass controls, and a master volume for balancing preamp vs amp overdrive. The […]

The Repair Bench: Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
Learning how to troubleshoot electronic circuits is one of the handiest skills anyone can have if they are building or modifying amplifiers or effect pedals. At some point you’ll power-up a circuit and find that it doesn’t work, and then what? For this reason we write “The Repair Bench” section of Guitar Kit Builder about […]

DIY Two-Button Guitar Amplifier Footswitch
Here’s a simple video demonstration of a do-it-yourself guitar amplifier footswitch, designed to replicate a Vox VFS-2 (2-button, no LED) model. While this footswitch model is intended to be used with Vox amps such as AD15/30/50/100VT, AD100VTH and V9168R, it should work with many other guitar amplifiers as well. The project uses a 1/4 inch […]

Dan Kelley Discusses the Res-O-Glas Guitar Kit from GuitarKitsUSA
The Res-O-Glas guitar kit from GuitarKitsUSA is a fiberglass body guitar that recreates the vintage Supro, National, Atlas, Valco, Airline and Tonemaster brands of the 1960s. See our earlier GKB article, Res-O-Glas Electric Guitar Kits, for reference. In this update we present a set of four videos featuring Dan Kelley of www.guitarkitsusa.com. In the first […]

The Repair Bench: Carvin SX200 Guitar Amplifier
Learning how to troubleshoot electronic circuits is one of the handiest skills anyone can have if they are building or modifying amplifiers or effect pedals. At some point you’ll power-up a circuit and find that it doesn’t work, and then what? For this reason we write “The Repair Bench” section of Guitar Kit Builder about […]