First off, thanks
for your interest in GST Electronics!
We are a small, family ran shop consisting of myself, Greg,
and Sarah, my wife.
(I'm trying to get our daughter into it, but she's NOT
interested.. yet)
I do the tweaking and building, Sarah does all of the real work.
In 2011, I ordered a mod kit from an online retailer that claimed
his mod would make
the pedal I had sound like a "Marshall amp in a box"..
well, I like Marshall Amplifiers just
as much as the next guy.. but that's just it.. I didn't want
to BE just like the next guy.
I wanted to sound like ME. I wanted MY Tone..
I got the kit and performed the mod.
It was a pretty good improvement over what it was before.. but
it didn't match what I had
in my head.. and certainly not a Marshall amp in a box.
I knew at that point that I would need to do it myself if I
was ever going to be satisfied.
For the next 6 to 8 months, I studied all forms of amplification,
tone stacks, PCB design, etc..
The main goal I was trying to reach was understanding the basic
concept of an analog
transistor amplifier circuit. Once I understood that I was able
to focus on HOW I wanted that amplifier
to sound.
Tinkering here and there with a couple of pedals I already owned,
I purpously went to "GC"
to purchase a used Boss DS-1 with the idea of either making
it the sweetest DS-1 ever, or a
piece of shit in the bottom of the parts drawer.
Once satisfied that modding was only holding me back, I purchased
a breadboard, soldering
station, and an assortment of resistors, capacitors, diodes,
transistors, etc, etc..
I located a half dozen schematics from various sources on the
web and proceeded to build any
circuits that I had enough parts for to figure out how it all
came together.
Why did this one sound different than this other one?
Then I got to thinking, what if I were to take this portion
of this circuit, eliminate part of
THIS one, insert a cap here, on and on until I was confident
enough to apply what I'd learned
to paper and see what I could come up with.
The absolute first full circuit built on my breadboard was the
Electro Harmonics "Big Muff".
The circuit that has been beaten to death by every single pedal
maker on the planet, and it
keeps on ticking. (the "AsSiD Boost" and "Roach
Clip Custom" are based on this design)
I spent the first few weeks testing different single transistor
boosters. I purchased
capacitence and resistor decade boxes to make swapping parts
easier.
Then I found a "cheap" Oscillioscope that worked.
I'm not sure how I survived without it.
A visual representation of what I was hearing.. yep. I'm doing
this.
Each pedal design is a direct
result of the dedication and time spent learning this craft,
and
applying it to the best of my ability.
They are a reflection of my personality, my passion, my attitude
towards music in general, and
my love of Rock-n-Roll.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Thank you,
Greg Braun
GST Electronics
greg@gstelectronics.com
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