Joyo Ultimate Drive Made Better
My craigslist $30 Joyo Ultimate Drive just got even better! It was a great sounding overdrive right out of the box for sure. It’s been compared to a Freakish Blues Alpha Drive, or more precisely they are the same drive with a few different component values. I found a mod that is supposed to make the Joyo sound more like the Alpha so I figured what the hell let’s give it a go. If you know the Alpha Drive then you know it cost right at $160 and the Joyo Ultimate runs approx. $40. The key difference is that the Joyo has more volume on tap with a fatter bottom end and the Alpha has a tighter bottom end and more chimey highs. They use the same PCB so the Alpha Drives appear to be re-branded Joyo’s. So with $1.50 worth of components I went in. This is about as simple a mod you’re likely to find so it’s a good first mod for a beginner. You have to pull the board out of the housing to get at the top to remove one component while the other 3 can be done from the back side. Here’s the mod.
1. Remove the 1uf electrolytic capacitor located at C9.
2. Flip the board over (see image below)
3. Insert a 0.1uf polyester cap in C9. I prefer box caps.
4. Solder a 330k resistor across Drive pot lugs 1 & 3.
5. Solder a 1k7 resistor across Tone pot lugs 1 & 3.
6. Solder a 470k resistor across Volume pot lugs 1 & 3.
Button it all back up and test drive it.
The difference is startling. It tightens up the bottom end and makes the tone knob much more responsive and adds a bit more in the high end. Before the change the Joyo was border line muddy but was controllable with the tone knob and backing off on the volume knob. With the mod it gives the tone and volume ability to go full on without losing any clarity. And it loses none of the pre-mod volume boost. So what I considered to be a great overdrive right out of the box is now a truly awesome dirt box. Now here comes the disclaimer: all results were achieved using humbuckers. I have no idea how single coils would perform so as always YMMV.
click for larger image
What’s the easiest mod you’ve ever done? Leave an answer in the comments below
Sperzel Locking Tuners
I’m the type of person that resists change. In anything. I hate moving, changing jobs, rearranging furniture, or changing tuning machines on my guitars. In fact I’ve never tried “locking” tuners and there really is no good reason for that except I like the old traditional post type. Until now. I picked up a set of brand new Sperzel Trim Lock Tuners for a good price just to try them out. Holy Shit! I wish I’d have tried them years ago. These are awesome! Not just because they make changing a string the easiest it’s ever been, but they look great and they’re silky smooth and accurate. They beat Grover and Kluson hands down IMHO. And Sperzel is a company that believes in customer service. You see, the set I got was satin black and my Hamer has gold hardware. So I got to looking and found that Sperzel has several options and one of them was the buttons which are available direct. So I emailed for a price on 6 #2 gold plated buttons. To my surprise I got an email back that same day with the price plus shipping. I really thought they would cost more than $15 and $3 shipping. So I emailed my card info to place the order but I had an auto pay hit 8 days too early and my card didn’t have enough to cover the sale. So I 
coordinated with Ron Spercel so I could add the money then call him so he could run the card right then. He was totally good with it. My new gold plated buttons arrived yesterday. He definitely went the extra mile for me, and all for an $18 sale. A lot of companies wouldn’t have done all that unless it was a substantial order. But they treated me like it was a big order. And the icing on the cake was that the order was paid for on Friday morning and it was delivered on Monday. Not a big deal you say? They’re in Cleveland, Ohio and I’m in Phoenix, Az. Pretty freakin’ fast if you ask me. Bottom line is they’re a great company to deal with, they build a top quality product that does what they say it does, and it’s all done right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. Nothing gets farmed out to another country. They’ve now got a loyal customer in me from now on.
And in case you were wondering how they look with gold buttons and the rest of the unit all black? Awesome! The effect is best described as similar to a Browning Hi-Power 9mm with a stainless frame and a blued slide (or vice-versa). I love this look.
What tuners do you use? Leave an answer in the comments below.
One Overdrive Pedal Just Ain’t Enough
VHT V-Drive, Joyo Ultimate Drive, Way Huge Saucy Box
Sometimes it’s hard to find a deal on an item you may be looking for, and sometimes the deals hit one after the other. Such is the case here. I was looking for a good overdrive since I hadn’t tried anything new for awhile and was eyeballing a Way Huge Saucy Box. But I was hoping for a deal when I cam up on a VHT V-Drive at a killer price. Waiting on a response from the seller I found a Joyo Ultimate Drive for uber cheap and bought it. A few hours later I heard from the VHT guy and bought it too. Then I realized I had a gift card from Guitar Center that I hadn’t used so I said “screw it” and got the Saucy Box too. It turned out to be a good thing because these three overdrives are each pretty unique. Of the three I couldn’t pick one over the others.
The V-Drive is pretty versatile as it has volume, tone, drive, depth, texture, and the diode select knob with multiple clipping diode types in 10 different configurations and one bypass/clean boost setting. The depth knob brings in the lows and the texture knob works with the tone knob for a dizzying number of tone shaping options. It can go from clean to saturated and chimey to heavy grind and everything in between with a fair amount of volume boost too. Another unique feature is the voltage control. It goes from approx 5v up to approx 15v. Lower gets you kind of a loose sagging tone and the higher voltages tighten everything up and add headroom. Very useable
Next we have the Saucy Box. This one has just 3 knobs but it uses them in a different way. It reminds of a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive in the way it mixes the clean signal with the drive signal, but the two signals are hard set in a very pleasing way, so the tone knob does th mixing. Full counter clockwise it acts as a clean boost, and full clockwise your getting all the drive it can deliver (which is a lot). The magic happens between 10 and 2 where it’s giving you some of both circuits. And it’s a smooth overdrive even at the highest settings. It’s not as full sounding as the V-Drive but it’s a lot tighter in the bottom end and it puts out a slightly syrupy kind of tone which sounds great.
The Joyo Ultimate Drive was the biggest surprise out of all of them. This little dirt box sounds like a higher priced boutique overdrive. It has a lot of volume and drive on tap which can take you into distortion territory easily, and the tone knob has a huge affect through the entire sweep. Overall it’s a heavier tone than the other two pedals, but still smooth like the others. Highs are easily controlled too which is good but it will also pile them on if you want it to. All the controls seem to be interactive with each other but that may just be a perception on my part.
Keep in mind I was using my Hamer Studio with a 57 Classic + in the bridge position and a Burstbucker Pro in the neck position and these boxes seemed to play really nice with them. All in all it’s hard to pick a favorite because they’re all so different and useable for different things. So I’m going to pick….ALL OF THEM. Yep, I’d hate to have to decide to keep one and sell the others so to avoid anxiety and mental stress and confusion I’m gonna keep all 3. Much healthier that way. As always YMMV.
Hamer Studio
Once again I scored on craigslist. I found a Hamer Studio that was so cheap I’m not even going to tell you how much it was except to say I paid more for the new pickups than I did for the guitar. This isn’t a Hamer USA model , it’s Korean made. But the first thing you notice when you pick it up is the quality of the build. It’s flawless. It’s a mahogany body with a carved maple top. Not just a veneer, this is a thick flame maple cap lightly stained Aztech Gold so the flames show through and it has cream binding on the body. It has a 14° radius C profile neck but not a super fat one, it’s somewhere between a 50’s and a 60’s Les Paul type neck. Access to the upper frets is painless with the double cutaway body style. The electronics were ok but needed attention. Not because 
there was anything wrong with them, but it came with Duncan Designed pups and I prefer something else so a change was in order. 57 Classic Plus in the bridge and Burstbucker Pro at the neck
Hamer Studio
along with a vintage VitaminQ capacitor. This has become my favorite configuration. Then the last detail was the tuners. They were some no-name brand and I like like the Gibson Grover Classic tuners. It had gold hardware to begin with and I stuck with it because that gold hardware perfectly compliments the Aztech Gold finish. Chrome would have looked totally out of place. It’s what I would call a medium weight guitar, between a solid Les Paul and a weight relieved model. The tone is like a Les Paul only more clear. And it has sustain for days. Looks like Joel Dantzig must have been rising shotgun on their over seas builds and it shows. I’m really amazed these guitars weren’t more popular. They have a great rep among guitarists in general and they have the looks but who knows. I guess I shouldn’t question it because it is what it is, and it got me an awesome new axe for stupid cheap. So yeah, I’m cool with it.
Coming Next: Another new dirt pedal. Actually 2 new dirt pedals.
Blackstar HT-1RH Low Wattage Tube Amp
In our quest for tone we all try different things. I do it, you do it, we all do it because it’s in the blood. We couldn’t stop if we wanted to. You find things that you think, at the time, are just what you were looking for only to find later there’s something even better. My quest has bounced from mega-high wattage amps like my Ampeg SVT monster (300Watts) down to Mesa Boogie (100Watts) down to a 50watt Soldano then 30watts, then 20watts (my beloved Jet City), then a 15watt Orange, a VHT Special 6, and then an Ampeg GVT5 watter. I gotta say that all of my previous amps were great sounding units with the amps below 15watts were able to deliver tone at reduced volume. It’s nice to be able to rock out without having the cops called on me or blowing out an eardrum. The crazy part is the tone was better and better as the amps got smaller and smaller. And this has led me to a truly awesome little tube amp that’s perfect for getting an enormous range of tones at really low levels. The Blackstar HT-1RH. I got the head and run it through a 1×12 cab. It’s a 1 watt tone monster! I believe it’s due to Blackstar adding a patented technology in the controls. It has a clean channel and an overdrive channel that’s switchable from the front panel along with the usual Gain, Volume, and Reverb but instead of a tone stack it has what’s called an “ISF” control which stands for “infinite shape feature”. Instead of me rambling through a half assed explanation I included a video from Blackstar to tell you all about it below. The first thing I did is what we all do: open it up and probably change tubes to my favorites. Not this time. I mean, I opened it up alright but when I saw it was already loaded with Tung-Sols I just closed it back up. That’s another thing: the topology of this amp is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It uses a 12AX7 preamp tube and a 12AU7 for the power tube in push-pull configuration. This lets the amp produce the harmonic overtones of a 100 watt unit while reining it in at 1 watt. Clever idea that just happens to work. This amp can go from sparkling, chimey cleans to crunch to grind with ease. And it does it all at levels that everyone can live with. It can get loud when you crank it but you don’t have to do that with this little gem. It also takes any speaker from 4, 8, or 16 ohms so it’s damn versatile in that respect. There are only two minor negatives: It has a digital reverb that sounds pretty damn good to my ears although it gets a bit slushy at higher settings, but I rarely play with a clean tone and that is a big part of it. I also find it a bit trebley until you crank the ISF past 12 o’clock, but that’s controllable from the guitars tone knob so it’s no big deal. In fact it could be my pickups causing that condition. Uh oh! Now I’m gonna have to start my pickup search all over again. AWESOME! All in all I am more than happy with this little acquisition, especially since they are retailing at around $250 and I got this one for $125. I actually found another amp that I was going to buy from a pawn shop but when I went to get it the place had closed early so I said “fuck it” and called this guy on craigslist and got the Blackstar. For some reason it doesn’t feel like a random thing. Almost like it was being orchestrated by someone with some influence that wanted me to get the Blackstar. What do you think? Leave a comment below.
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Les Paul Project Guitar
Over the years I’ve had a few Les Pauls that were fairly heavy (in the 9.5 to 10 lb range) but they never gave me any grief like I hear some dudes talking about. You know, back problems, hip problems etc. from playing a Les Paul. I couldn’t relate because lately I’ve been playing weight relieved models (7.5 to 8.0 lb) Until last week. Now I know what those dudes are talking about.
I started looking for an Epiphone Les Paul that I could mod and refinish just for a project and i found a decent 1993 Korean made Epi L.P. for a decent price. It had been de-glossed so a refinish was in order and most Epi LPs have questionable electronics which need replacing, perfect for my needs. I bought it based on the picture in the ad figuring anything that could be wrong with it won’t matter since it was going to get a total rebuild. It has a nice vintage burst on a flame maple top that begged for a glossy finish. However, after putting it all back together I had another idea: what if I changed the yellow part of the burst to a translucent red? So I tore it all back down and without any sanding I used Dupli-color anodized red spray paint. The same stuff I used on some pedal builds. Laid on 4 coats of the Dupli-color and 4 coats of Urethane over that. Worked better than I could have wanted. I’ve now gone through the electrics and rewired the whole thing (the pickups are Duncan 59’s so I left them alone. Well, I may have swapped the magnet in the bridge pickup from an alnicoV to an alnico4 just to see what it would do), and added new Gibson/Grover tuners and replaced the bridge and stop tailpiece with new ones. Got all the work done and it came out great. Up to this point I hadn’t put a strap on it nor slung it over my shoulder. I did so the other day and played for about half an hour. Holy shit! This thing is freakin’ heavy! It weighs in at 11.5 lbs. By
Les Paul Project Guitar
the end of the half hour my shoulder and back were starting to feel it. There are two factors that affect weight which are obvious on this axe: It’s non weight relieved or chambered (like the newer ones) and it has this fantastically fat neck. I mean FAT! Baseball bat fat! Never knew Epi made them this way. Add it all up and you get 11.5 lbs of great tone and sustain which I didn’t expect from an Epiphone. Seriously, this one is better than my Gibson (whoa! did I say that out loud?). I’ve heard that some of the Korean made units were good players and I reckon it’s true. The neck is taking some getting used. Not because it’s fat, I like that, but because it has a 15″ radius fretboard which is pretty damn flat compared to the 12″ radius I’m used to. As for the weight, I’ll live with it. Counting the materials used and the price of the guitar I have less than $375 in the whole thing. All-in-all it turned out to be a great purchase. The only thing left to do is figure out my next guitar project. Maybe an exotic wood 2×12 speaker cabinet for my new Blackstar HT-1RH tube amp head. (which will be the subject of my next post, but you already figured that, right?) Right now I’m gonna go play.
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Grand Theft Parsons: Movie
Stars: Johnny Knoxville, Michael Shannon, Marley Shelton
Robert Forster, Christina Applegate, Steven Macht
Director: David Caffrey
Writers: Jeremy Drysdale, David Caffrey
Released 2009
Running time 1hr 28min
You just can’t make up a story like Grand Theft Parsons
click to watch full movie free
Before I tell you about this movie let me give you a little background. If you’re not familiar with the name Gram Parsons, you’ve heard his music I can almost guarantee it. Parsons was a musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist.. He’s best known for his work with what he called “Cosmic American Music” in a few bands like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. His music is a melding of country, blues, folk, and rock. Parsons has been acknowledged as a major influence by a host of musicians from different genres and is credited with helping to found both country rock and alt-country and influencing bands like The Eagles and Pure Prarie League. He spent a lot of time with, and became fast friends with and was a big influence on Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. (Parsons can be heard on the studio tapes performing Wild Horses with Keith). And his duets with Emmylou Harris are legendary. He is also # 87 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time“. Sadly Parsons died in 1973 at the age of 26 from an alcohol and morphine overdose. And here is where the story not only takes a bizarre twist, it’s also where the movie Grand Theft Parsons comes in.
Grand Theft Parsons tells the story of how Parsons road manager and friend, Phil Kaufman, made a pact with Parsons that whoever died first, the other was to take the body out to the place they both loved, Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert and cremate the body to set his soul free. The film stars Johnny Knoxville (from the Jack Ass series) as Kaufman who had to steal the body in order to keep his promise. Also in the film are Christina Applegate as Parsons lunatic ex-girlfriend, Robert Forster as Parsons father, Marley Shelton as Kaufmans girlfriend, Steven Macht as Parsons, and a truly inspired and hysterically funny performance from Michael Shannon as Larry Osterberg, a yellow hearse driving, totally burned out hippie. I’m not going into details about the movie because I don’t like spoilers and don’t want to ruin it for you, but I will say this is without a doubt one of my favorite films ever. It’s funny and a little sad. Knoxville was born to play this part and knocks it out of the park. Even if you’ve never heard of Gram Parsons or heard any of his music you will enjoy this movie, because the movie isn’t really about Parsons so much, rather it’s about Kaufman and his determination to keep a promise to a friend. This line from a review on IMDB sums it up perfectly “a story so extraordinary that if it didn’t really happen, no one would believe it. Two men, a hearse, a dead rock star, five gallons of gas, and a promise. And the most extraordinary chase of modern times” This movie is available to watch on Amazon. Below you can check out some clips. (this review is an original work)
Lower String Height on Ovation Celebrity
Saddle after removing about 10lbs of material
My previous Ovation
Yes I know, this series of Ovations doesn’t have a big fan club,. and I get it but I used to have a CC 247 Sunburst that was one of the best acoustics I’ve ever owned. When I found out my daughter was going to learn to play guitar I gave it to her. I did that because the Ovation had the easiest playing neck of any acoustic out there and I figured if she was going to learn that was the guitar to do it on. So a few weeks ago I decided to find another one but that turned out to be impossible. I did find a Celebrity but it has no model number it just says “Celebrity”. It doesn’t have the “grape cluster” sound holes and it’s not a burst. No, this one has the usual center sound hole and it’s jet black. Kinda pretty though. The worst was the action. About a mile high and hard to play, but I got a smokin’ deal on it and I knew I could fix the action. But I didn’t realize how extreme I would have to get to fix that action. Started out by straightening the neck because it had too much relief. When that was done the action was a little better. It was down to 9 10ths of a mile high. Everything else looked good so I just took that saddle and started sanding it down. It took 5 tries to get it low enough for my taste and there ain’t much left of it, but I got the damn action down to where I wanted it and it plays great now. There is only about 1/8th of an inch of saddle sticking up above the bridge and I’m sure a luthier would have a stroke if he saw how little is left of it, but damn I love the way it plays. If it had been a more expensive guitar I probably wouldn’t have gone to such extremes but it isn’t a more expensive guitar so what the hell it worked. 
The intonation is spot on, no fret buzz at all and it has sustain for days. If given a choice I prefer the tone of a Hummingbird and this guitar doesn’t have that kind of tone at all. It’s more focused in the upper mids and highs, obviously due to the Lyracord back. But it’s unique in its own way. So for a few bucks and a little elbow grease I came up with a decent guitar that plays great, so no regrets on this one. I guess the moral is, sometimes, to get what you want, you just gotta say WTF and go for it.
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Blackberry Smoke & Gov’t Mule Touring
Looks like Blackberry Smoke and Gov’t Mule are hittin the road together, and it oughta be one helluva show. This will be a guitar lovers dream concert. With Warren Haynes of the “Mule” and Charley Starr and Paul Jackson of “Smoke” it’ll be a for real tone fest. I’m shit outa luck cause they won’t be in Phoenix (at least it isn’t on the schedule yet) but you should click the tour logo above to see tour dates and see if you’re town is on it, and also to check out the new Blackberry Smoke single and video. Good stuff man.
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A 2×10″ Speaker Cab May be Better Than a 2×12″
I’ve always been a dedicated user of 12″ speakers, be it a 1×12, 2×12, or 4×12. Years ago I had a Musicman 210RD that was 100 watts with 2 10″speakers. It was loud but was lacking that full rounded sound and it didn’t project near as well as 12″ speakers would have. That was my last outing with 10’s until now. (with the exception of an Ampeg SVT with an 8×10 cab, but that’s a completely different animal so it doesn’t count here) . I stumbled across a 2×10 cab that sounds every bit as good as a 2×12. 
Better even. It’s a Panama Boca Series Oversized 2×10. Speakers are British Ceramic 10’s, and the cabinet is oversized with a floating baffle. The whole thing is made from “sustainable exotic tonewoods” (oh fuck, here we go again). So does any one of those details make it sound as good as it does? Is it all of them together? Don’t know, don’t care. All I know is it has great tone. Firm bottom end, punchy mids, and smooth highs. Slightly later breakup than V30’s and they never sound farty. Somebody put a lot of thought into these cabs that’s for sure. Aesthetically they nailed it. The cab is designed like Orange cabs with that wide picture frame style which I love. 
The grill cover is made of perforated steel which allows the exotic wood baffle to show through. Overall build is solid and meticulous. It’s a 16 ohm cab with a jack for daisy chaining another cab if needed. I can’t find a single bad thing to say about this little beauty. I got this one on craigslist for $140 in “as new” condition. Amazon did sell them but they are no longer available from them except in the Panama Neodymium Road series which is a lot more money. However, you can get it direct from Panama Guitars by pre-order only. If you ever get the chance to try one you really should. I think you’ll be surprised. Oh and they also come in 1×10, 1×12, 2×12 etc. All in all this was an amazing find. As always ymmv.
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