I could not believe this when I read it. durhamelectronicsDOTcom seems so serious, but then again they don't seem to be able to wire a true bypass without pop, and even think it's not technically possible or something.
What a nice guy, repairing all those pedals for just the shipping, but all nicely paid for by the suckers who do fall for a $220 booster pedal. The below quote is from thegearpage, the place to read boutique madness, I find.
Also the company does not seem to be much older than April 2006 maybe beginning of the year or so. Very few comments on diy about this one. His homepage is really cool though, he knows the outside is important.
Resonator_Duke 08-27-2006, 06:59 PM wrote:
Brick, I work for Alan and build pedals for Durham Electronics. Due to the difficulty and expense of getting Carling Switches, we started using TPDT switches. We also found a way to possibly extend the life of these switches. Due to customer demand and comments, we started wiring the Sex Drive and Mucho Boosto to true bypass, back in April. By the mechanical and electronic nature of these switches, every one of our pedals had that loud POP when engaging or disengaging. Granted, part of it is the nature of the beast. I've encountered this with other pedals as well. Granted, it does offer some benefit. But, to us, this sort of backs up the s ... l benefit. After all...look at our list of users, and ALL of their Sex Drives and Mucho Boostos are NON true bypass. Again, be it the nature of the beast, The Crazy Horse will continue to be wired as true bypass. But I'm happy to announce that we have gone back to wiring both the Sex Drive and Mucho Boosto in non true bypass form. We will still offer true bypass on customer request. So...if you want it to pop really loud when you turn it on, we'll wire it in true bypass. Otherwise, you'll get a very quiet on/off response with non true bypass. I've already converted several back to non true bypass, and Brick, I probably was the one that wired yours back. And that IS why yours is quiet now. We have a few more on their way to us, as the users would rather have theirs in non true bypass form.
I do want to add, just by what I've read, that the Sex Drive has not changed in ANY form, other than the addition of the true bypass feature....which of course, is now a dead issue. A Sex Drive you bought yesterday will sound identical to a Sex Drive built three years ago. Don't want people to think that something electronically or tonally drastic was changed with the Sex Drive, when Durham got it right the first time. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Thanks y'all, and should you own a true bypass version of one of Durham Electronics' pedals, and don't like the loud pop, just contact us. We'll be happy to convert it back to non true bypass, at NO charge to you, other than shipping. We appreciate your support and comments.
Apparently not every boutiquer reads Jack Orman's pages, but they should. Alan Durham does have an account at thegearpage himself, so he can use a computer. He is at a loss about what is inside his trusty EH Muff though:
Originally Posted by sandman wrote:Great description Alan!
another question: how did you set the overall EQ voice flat or a bit scooped in,say, Muff vein?
I honestly don't know how the Muff is designed. So I can't really say. The Crazy Horse is flat at as close to 12:00 as I could get it. I am a big fan of the Muff though. I had one on my board for years and years, before the Crazy Horse was built. The thing I like about the CH over the Muff is that you can get Muff sounds, and more traditional Fuzz as well. More versatility. I like the idea that Electro Harmonix have though, "take everything to the extreme".
__________________
Alan Durham
Durham Electronics
durhamelectronics.com
Austin, Texas USA
Here some stuff from a feature article:
Together with the Mucho Busto, the Sex Drive's more aggressive counterpart, Durham figures he's averaging about 60 sales a month; both pedals retail for $219. He's currently designing a new model called the Crazy Horse. "I don't want to use that guy's name," Durham says, "but you know how that sounds." The incredible demand for his pedals, each built by hand, leaves Durham a lot less time to play gigs, but even that has its advantages.
A bit strange that at 60 boxes/month the Crazy Horse pedal, here announced in the summer of 2005, has only sold 70pcs in Aug 2006. Still quite a lot though
What do you expect? A booteeker who knows how to properly wire anything?
I listened to the clips and I didn't like the way the pedals sounded anyway. The different boosts sounded weak and tizzy with an unflattering overdrive characteristic, and Crazy Horse fuzz just sounded like a mushy, splattery mess with no definition of the notes.
Basically, those pedals sound like the opposite of my pedals, therefore I am absolutely not interested in them.
One thing I'm beginning to learn is that starving the power is THE new gimmicks kids want on their boutique box. It sounds different because it just sounds really bad, but different indeed. Like no harmonics at all...
Yeah, maybe I'm getting old, but when the batteries start to die, I replace them with new fresh ones. I have no desire to "dial" a shitty dead battery sound into my pedals.
In some very few situations, I could see use for a small amount of "sag" where the volage dips a little bit with loud dynamics to add a slight little compression effect - like what you experience with some low powered tube amps that use tube rectifiers..... but this is not the same as the stupid voltage lowering knobs people are tacking on pedals, what I'm talking about is trying to mimic the dynamic sound of a small tube amp. I guess the "Punisher" circuit is sort of along those lines, but I would try it a little differently.
soulsonic wrote:
and Crazy Horse fuzz just sounded like a mushy, splattery mess with no definition of the notes.
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I guess that the idea is to capture that oversaturated fuzzy and mushy splattery guitarsound that Neil Young & Crazy horse had on the Rust never sleep or Live Rust album...at least that is what the name of the pedal imply and also the "hey hey my my (into the black) reference in the sound clip on the product homepage .
It must be a small niche and far from everybodys sound. A bit strange choice but if that was the intention, then I think that the pedal (at least in the sound clips) does a great job to get there if thats what some people really want.
Well, it does sound like that, so I guess they accomplished what they wanted. I suppose if someone wants the sound of Neil Young destroying a Fender Deluxe... well, there it is.
I never understood the obsession with copping famous tones. It sounds cool when Neil Young does it, but I'd rather not hear every jackass in a cover band trying to get that same tone. But I guess that's what the whole booteek thing is about: spending lots of money to get a tone some famous guy got with standard off-the-shelf gear. I know it's been said before, but the real tone lies in the the performer's talent, not some $300 box. Neil Young didn't use a boutique fuzzbox to get that tone, he just turned everything up to 12 and killed it. If any fuzzes were used, you can pretty much guarantee it was something common.
soulsonic wrote:Well, it does sound like that, so I guess they accomplished what they wanted. I suppose if someone wants the sound of Neil Young destroying a Fender Deluxe... well, there it is.
I never understood the obsession with copping famous tones. It sounds cool when Neil Young does it, but I'd rather not hear every jackass in a cover band trying to get that same tone. But I guess that's what the whole booteek thing is about: spending lots of money to get a tone some famous guy got with standard off-the-shelf gear. I know it's been said before, but the real tone lies in the the performer's talent, not some $300 box. Neil Young didn't use a boutique fuzzbox to get that tone, he just turned everything up to 12 and killed it. If any fuzzes were used, you can pretty much guarantee it was something common.
True
But I think that a rather large consumer group of the boutiqe stuff spend 9/10 of their time just talking about their gear at the gear page and such places and in the best case the remaining time actually using it
I think the Boutique industry relies on the fact that all the stars used "Tweaked gear" and that the new stuff doesn't sound the same... People buy into that so quickly.
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