Guitar Gear

A couple of months ago, I wrote that I had burned out the pedals on my mini-board. I used the wrong power supply on the board, and when I plugged it in, I immediately smelled electrical smoke, so I played my gig without my effects. When I got home, I plugged in the power supply to the board, and nothing worked. I was heart-broken because that board had been a mainstay of my sound: A hand-wired Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay analog delay.

Fast-forward a couple of months and I was doing some recording. I needed a more “spatious” delay and was getting a little frustrated with my BOSS DM-2w. It’s a fantastic analog delay, but after playing with it for the last couple of months, it’s really best used as a subtle slap-back delay, at which it excels immensely, so it will stay on my board.

But while I was recording, I found that getting the DM-2w to a setting where it wasn’t too subtle or just too much was actually incredibly difficult, requiring super-precise, minute adjustments on the intensity knob. I knew I could get there easily with my old Deep Blue Delay.

So here’s where the title of my post comes into play…

I’ve always been deathly afraid of electricity. Not sure why. I’ve jumped out of airplanes, free climbed rock walls, skied super-steep, icy pitches and even bungee jumped off a bridge. I don’t do that stuff now, but they still don’t scare me. Professionally, I design complex big-data software systems. But despite all that, I’m terrified of getting electrocuted, so I’ve generally stayed away from working with circuits and such.

If something burns out, I either have someone else fix it, or replace the unit. So I admit it. I’ve chosen to be ignorant about working with electrical stuff. And I also admit that that ignorance also makes me have knee-jerk reactions when I think something’s gone wrong with some electrical gear.

Back to when I first burned out my board, what I didn’t think to do was test the pedals individually. I just thought all the pedals on the board died. But when I was getting frustrated with getting the right setting for my DM-2w, I remembered that I didn’t check the pedals individually. So I went to the storage box that I put my Deep Blue Delay into, brought it back to my workstation and plugged it in. The freakin’ thing lit up and worked!

I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed. But on the bright side of things, I did score a new BOSS DM-2w, and I have no remorse over that purchase at all, despite my frustrations.

Long story short, I was able to lay down my tracks and I was a happy man. The real positive thing that comes out of it is that I now have two great analog delays that actually complement each other quite well. The DM-2w is about the best slap-back delay I’ve played. When using a slap-back delay, I don’t like a heavy pulse. It just kind of has to be there, and the DM-2w satisfies that requirement implicitly.

On the other hand, when I’m playing finger-style or solos, I like to have a slow delay that has a longer pre-delay on it so I get the articulation of the notes, then this cool, smooth delay effect that tails a phrase. For that, there is none better than the Deep Blue Delay which, by the way, the DBD doesn’t do slap-back as well because of its longer pre-delay. So now I have two great delays that I can use for specific purposes!

Yeah… I’m still ignorant about electronics, but this time, at least something good came out of it.

As for the rest of the pedals, I’ll be damned – they ALL worked again! I explained what happened to my electrician son, and he said that I may have heated the circuits to the point where the devices didn’t function at the time, but not enough to completely damage them (I did tell him that I unplugged within just a few seconds). Once they cooled down, they worked again.

When he explained that to me, I just shook my head and chuckled. Then he chided me that here I was, this seasoned veteran of software engineering and I was an absolute pussy with electronics. I shrugged and laughed in response then said, “Well… I’d rather admit to my fear and ignorance than be dead.”