CalSonics
Do you love guitar tech? Learning more about what goes on under the hood will help you perfect your tone. The CalSonics channel is for serial pedal and amp modders. Covering pedal and amp tech - from transparent Tube Screamer, Klon drives, to crazy good Big Muff or Fuzz face fuzz. High gain, high headroom tube amp mods, plus speaker, power soak and IR hacks.
We also love to meld the old with the new - and document mods such as power supplies and inductive buffers that allow you to use vintage pedals alongside your newest rig tech.
Mark, your host, loves analyzing circuits and making measurements and spent his whole career measuring electrical signals at Tektronix, Keithley Instruments and Keysight Technologies.
California Sonics design, mods and builds everything in San Francisco, California.
Designing Dirt Pedals - Understanding Op-amp Distortion and Overdrive
Designing Dirt Pedals - Understanding Op-amp Gain in the MXR Micro Amp and ProCo RAT
Boss Plugout PX-1 vs DS-1 technical shootout
Curated Gain Stacking: ThorpyFX 2000AD Judge Dredd Lawbringer Teardown and Mod.
Guitar Boost tech talk and mod, featuring the Xotic EP Booster
The Calsonics Boss DS-1mod. Amazing mids with controlled gain!
Deep Dive: MXR Distortion + vs. Micro Amp vs. Rat (Distortion Plus)
Mod your Cry Baby: 3 Legendary Mods - Q-Mod, Fazel Upgrade, and Sweep mod.
Impulse Response (IR) Measurements on a Cry Baby Wah
Tube Screamer Diode Clipping - Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical
Myth Busting TS9 vs TS10 Tone
Boss Super Overdrive or Ibanez Tube Screamer? SD-1 vs TS9
Easy Mod - Ibanez Tube Screamer High Gain - Make any version scream!
Easy Mod - Boss SD-1 to Tube Screamer TS9, TS10 Tone Stack Mod
Keeley Manis transistor mod to Wampler Tumnus.
Understanding Guitar Compressors - Boss CS-3 with the Fromel Mod
Awesome American pedal for under $40. The EHX Metal Muff Pocket - Analysis, Mod and Tone Test.
Browne Audio Protein Pedal - Circuit analysis and clean boost bass mod.
Nobels ODR, it's green, so is it a Tube Screamer? All you need to know - Analysis, teardown & Mod.
Fuzz Face - Expression Pedals, Buffers and Gain Stacking - Everything you need to know!
Can it be fixed? #NOTADÜMBLË, Clean Channel - converting BBC-1 to 'A Box Later', 'Box It Later' Mod.
The ultimate NOTADÜMBLË teardown and mod!
It's a voltage gain monster - the Brothers AM Pedal - a dive into its gain and distortion structure.
Do you want an amazing 80's tone? MXR 6 Band Graphic EQ 6BGE, repair and high headroom mod.
Blues Breaker and Klon Mod - The Ceriatone Horse Breaker pedal teardown and mod.
Can the Metal Zone be a clean boost? Convert the Boss Metal Zone into a Booster with Equalizer
How to install an effects loop in a Fender Blues Junior
Bias and the Blues Junior - Hot or Cold Bias?
MXR Micro Amp to Distortion Plus Mod - John Frusciante to Randy Rhoads Tones
Improving the HEADROOM of a MXR Micro Amp