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by Guest Author August 26, 2022 3 min read
Garth from Whimsy Machines looks at the impact of parts shortages in the the guitar pedal industry as supply chain issues bite...
Hi, I'm Garth from Whimsy Machines, a small, family-run electronics manufacturer specialising in analogue audio paraphernalia based out of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
We started working on a line of guitar pedals in 2016, then went public in 2020 with our first 3 designs - Short Stack, Jeff & King Spark - and we're quite proud of them!
In that time, we learned many painful lessons and made quite a few eye-watering mistakes. But the response has been amazing and we're lucky enough to have branched out to a small collection of retailers spread across four countries.
All in all, we've learned which variables we can control and which we cannot. One of the biggest variables we can't control is the availability of parts...
Some parts were hard to find even before the chip shortage we're currently experiencing. The supply chain issues are affecting the entire electronics industry, and that includes us guitar pedal builders.
For example, the MMBFJ201 - the twin sister and surface-mount version of the ever popular (and over-hyped) J201 is non-existent right now. Our "Jeff" uses 5 J201's and our yet-to-be-released "Sweet Tooth" uses 8...
All the pedal builders are squirrelling away their nuts. With a 51-week factory lead time for the J201, the wait is incredibly long between batches. Electronic components distributor, Mouser claims they should receive 250,000 J201s in September - but who knows whether this will happen on time.
Take a look at this screenshot from octoparts.com. Octoparts is a search engine for individual electronic and industrial parts, providing retailer stock and price info for whatever thingamabob you're looking for.
No, this isn't your friend's NFT portfolio, this is the availability of MMBFJ201 transistors over the last 12 months. Yep, down 100% availability.
I've always disliked sourcing parts and for me this was the moment I realised I needed to change things up. At least in regards to Sweet Tooth, using eight of these transistors. Sweet Tooth started out as an over the top multi-stage preamp featuring those pesky transistors along with a complex two-knob tone control circuit. Tinkering led to one thing and one thing led to another, and now Sweet Tooth has morphed into a weird and heavily modified Klon Centaur drive stage with a Pultec EQP1A inspired two-knob tone control stuffed inside.
The need to “adapt or die” led us to design an even cooler circuit, something we really think is special. Before, Sweet Tooth was just another “nice sounding preamp”, however, after some tinkering and playing around we now have something really special using 100% easy to find parts. We're way happier with the circuit and how it sounds. We'll take it as a win!
[product=whimsy-machines-jeff-v2]
The Whimsy Machines Jeff V2 is a Muff-style fuzz - but not as you know it! For a start, the JFET gives this some beautiful amp-like overdriven sounds, but it can get incredibly Muffy too. The V2 builds on the first version with some truly unique features. There's a switchable pre-amp oscillation control, a clipping boost, and a Sweep control to focus your EQ.
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[product=whimsy-machines-the-great-fantabulizing-whatsitdo]
The Great Fantabulizing Whatsitdo is a recursive octave fuzz that can generate over 300% harmonic distortion in a fantastically musical way. The harder you dig in, the stronger the effect.
[/product]
Whimsy Machines are stocked exclusively in the UK by Boost Guitar Pedals (well, the pedals which Garth actually has the parts to build...!)
by Jim Button April 18, 2023 12 min read
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 5 min read
by Guest Author February 14, 2022 9 min read
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.
Pre-ordered the Tapescape through Boost Pedals. Great pedal, great order experience
I'll be away from my pedalboard from 6th - 18th April...but you can still browse!
I'll ship all outstanding orders on Friday 19th April.
All the best,
Jim