Customer Reviews

How to Modify Guitar Pedals: A complete how-to package for the electronics newbie on how to modify guitar and bass effects pedals

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have a educational background in electronics (thanks to the USAF) and MA in Education (Secondary Ed.). I can honestly say this book is designed for all levels of electronics ability. The opening pages give great descriptions of how different components physically appear, are measured with a multimeter, and interact with each other. The modifications are detailed with schematics, pictures, and component values in easy to read tables.

I personally gig with my modded BOSS CS-3 (compressor), DS-1 Distortion, BD-2 (Blues Driver) every weekend. It is so nice to have gear that sounds good for the fraction of the cost of some boutique items. I was so impressed with the quality of this book, I purchased his advanced DIY effect building book. I recently built my own "boutique" fuzz-face from his written instruction and my own ideas.

Mr. Wampler has an wonderful gift for writing technical information in an easy-to-read, fun, and inspiring way. You will not be disappointed with this purchase.

This book took me from being afraid to open a pedal to modding, tweaking, building my own, and opened the door to modding amps. I cannot recommend it enough. Has all the basics to get you started from having nothing to what tools to buy, where to get them, components, basic theory, how to tell a resistor from a diode, etc. So many pedals to choose from, you might find yourself buying used pedals just to mod them and see how you can make them sound more to your liking. Most pedal mods have multiple selections for indivudualized tweaking. And most have descriptions of which components change which parts of the sound so you can really get things to your liking. With the discussion forums online all questions not covered by the book are answered. Highly recommended!!

Hi everyone and prepare yourselves for sad news about these 332 sheets of paper pasted togher...
I'm not calling it a book, even if this item is sold in cathegory "books".

Do not be mislead by the number of pages (334!), the same amount of information could have been well set on 100 pages. The author just prefers to leave about 50% of every page empty. Add to this a completely awful editorial layout and poor quality black and white photos. Still if you are not confused by the mentioned above info and want to use this "book" to modify pedals you'd better get yourself a big magnifying glass because all the electric diagrams are barely traceable and every simgle one seems to be a reprint of some bad qality bleached photocopy of a scheme which in its turn had been printed by an old dot-matrix printer, and with all this quality the author had the conscience to downscale every scheme to fit a single page. Could you imagine anything worse?
Alas, Brian is the man who can make things even worse yet: some of electric diagrams are in freehand which shows first of all that he author doesn't descend on using a ruler and doesn't care in general to make the lines right and straight and the overall scheme inviting to the eye... Who needs computer graphics these days when there is a pen and trembly hand?!

The text itself is very jerky: first the author tries to make an introduction of electric components rudimentals but in a very hurried and patchy manner, then for some reason he gives a detailed description of what electronic parts could be found in this or that internet shop (a small embedded advertising?) and then he finally goes to the description of guitar pedal mods.
A small surprise: there is NO general info about modifying, there is just a collection of mods to some particular pedals which reader could even not have. No referencies to the mods' authors, but sometimes the author gets honest in his own way and writes laconically "found on web".

Conclusion: we all want to earn money, Brian Wampler is not an exception. He piled together some guitar pedal mod recipes found on web (a process that could take some time indeed), retrenched editing expenses by not having any layout designer at all, inflated the book's volume for a better presentability by adding as much useless space as he was able to (things that could happen innocent of wrong intention when your print your book using some simple text editors not suitable for book editing), and then Brian desided to sell this all for a price that is much higher in comparison with many other books of considerably better quality sold on Amazon.

Dear Brian, no hard feelings, but this was the most expensive and hardened toilet paper I have ever bought.

Dear guitar pedals' mod fans, you'd better spend some time on the Internet and you'll find much more info and for free!

PS I wanted to send it back for refund, but the very delivery of it from Russia costs about 80% of the book's price (yeah, that is what we have about regular post service prices here), so this review is the only way I can renumerate the author with.

Think twice if you buy this book, if you can call it a book , it is only a bundle of mods from the net , with a lot of bad english and lousy pictures.

A lot of money , I hope Amazon post my review in front and not the highly rated one in front so they can sell more of this book.

I knew nothing about modifying, repairing, or building a guitar effects pedal. Brian's book from the start lays everything out with pictures and something written beside the picture to explain how to use it. For example it shows where to buy a soldering iron, it shows how to solder, and where you can buy your other tools that you will need to get started. The book also gives a great list of other sites of DIY authors and builders in this unique world of pedal building and modifications. Also included are email addresses that you can visit if you want more information.

He explains what a resistor and a capacitor are, and pictures showing how to remove the guts of your pedal to modify it. My only complaint is that I wish all the pictures would have been in color.

A must have book if you are into modifying your existing pedals or want to experiment with designing your own pedal.

Good book that, in no uncertain terms, will help you get beyond a basic understanding of guitar electronics mods and wiring. If you own 1+ pedals described within, you will be able to tweak your tone and do it forth-with. The production values and editing leave a bit to be desired, but if you look at the supplied pix, and read the cause-and-effects bits as broken out at the end of each chapter, you will begin to understand how guitar FX circuts function and how you can tweak your own pedels (like one's not mentioned within) to your own satisfaction.
Don't think of this book as the ultimate 'how-to' bible, but rather an information source in how to tweak current to guitar effect.

Brian does a great job of teaching you everything you need to know to make your stock pedals sound amazing! You don't need an EE degree or a bunch of specialized equipment either. This is a quick and easy read, and once you get the hang of it, it is a blast!

Yes you can search on the internet for pedal mods- which I did. And find material to modify your pedal. But is the information accurate? If it's not - you have a problem. Your pedal will sound like crap or better yet it won't work at all.
You can take it apart and figure out what you have to do from A to Z and by the time you do that you can waste hours. And no it doesn't cost money - but it cost valuable time.

Or --- you can buy this WELL, RESEARCHED, AND ORGANIZED book and do it right the first time.

I'd rather buy the book - which I did. And everything is laid out in simple layman's terms on EXACTLY what to do from start to finish to modify your pedal. And my DS-1 sounds GREAT!

Brian mentions in the book HIS SOURCES if he has used other people's ideas and gives their name (if an individualand/or company of the source) and then explains what he did differently to come up with his particular modified sounding pedal. I was impressed that he would do this which conveys to me that he is a very upright and honest man.

His book is well laid out, with pictures that are very helpful which show where to place the new component for the mod, and organized. If you are a beginner or experienced with a degree I see a purpose for both with Brian's book.

I am a guitar player and have personally talked with Brain on the phone, ordered his book's AND have had excellent and fast service each time I dealt with him.

The negative reviews on here I doubt they have bought the book and have no idea what they are talking about, and obviously, neither do they.

Written by a guitar player who has modded one of my own pedals using Brain's book and built and designed my own unique sounding boutique pedal - again using Brian's book.

After reading all reviews on this book, I still decided to purchase it. Whereas the price is a little high for what you get, it does provide good information. As a beginner to the electronic world of pedal modifications, this book does provide a general overview of information that you need to know. It does provide a great amount of different pedal modifications(over half the book), so that is a plus. The book is in black and white. For anyone who has dealt with modifying pedals, color documentation is key. That is a down side to the book, again for the price. However, the values for each component is listed, so one can determine the correct resistor, cap, diode, etc.
This is a good entry level book for anyone who wants to start modifying their existing pedals. It is a must for those who do not have an electronical engineering degree. It reads very well and keeps you reading onto the next page. Is it the "bible" for modifying pedal, no. But it does help the entry level person starting on the long journey of moding pedals.

I found this book useful because the author explains things in non-technical terms that make sense without needing a degree in electronics. I have looked at many electronic books from libraries etc. but most of the stuff is way beyond my understanding.
I have messed around with electronics, put an effects loop in my Vox AD50VT amp several years ago and built a couple of home brew pedals over the last couple of years but learnt good tips and techniques as soon as I started reading this book.
It is not the flashiest book as some pages have been photocopied but hey the info is the important thing. !!!!!!!!