How do you find unique sounds? A perennial question, with no single answer. But one place where I am guaranteed to find hope is the boutique world of DIY.
Like many great ideas, my first exploration of DIY was born out of a lack of finance. Having spent years annoying my parents playing Muse’s ‘Hysteria’, I discovered it was the Shin‑ei FY‑2 Fuzz guitar pedal I needed the most. Unfortunately, at £300‑£500 second hand, this was desperately out of reach. But to my delight, I found someone selling their own home‑made version.
In a rudimentary gold chassis, painted by a child, was someone’s DIY Shin‑ei Fuzz for £30. When it arrived, I was more excited than when I bought a U47. I think it’s the exploration factor that got me so hyped. I’m someone who obsesses about music technology, and it was incredibly liberating to actually not know in advance how this would sound.
I won’t go into too much detail on the looks, and to be honest, even the real Shin‑eis are pretty basic. This one had two rotary knobs (covered in years of sweat, I might add), a tiny power light and a footswitch. It was scratched to death, leading me to believe that this thing had been toured around. But I was hopeful!
I plugged it in. The light flickered because the connection was so poor, but to my delight, it had that weird, ‘gorgley’ fuzz sound I was looking for. When I played ‘Hysteria’ through it, I felt like I was there, alongside Matt Bellamy at long last.
...it’s one of the pedals I would never get rid of, because no‑one else in the world has the sound this makes.
I should caveat that even to this day, I have no idea if it’s really all that much like a Shin‑ei, as I’ve never been able to get my hands on one. My version seems to thin the sound out quite a bit, and even though it’s only got two knobs, I don’t know what either of them is supposed to do! But that’s why it’s one of the pedals I would never get rid of, because no‑one else in the world has the sound this makes.
My Shin‑ei craze eventually lead me down a path of not only buying DIY pedals but trying things out more for myself. I quickly realised soldering wasn’t my forte, but creating my own delays, reverbs and distortion units was. Distortion delays are an easy one, because you can pick up any old piece of hardware (for cheap!) and put sound through it if you have the right connections. Then add a hose in between and voilà: you have your own Cooper Time Cube slapback delay.
Which leads me back to my opening line. Hardware technology makers have gotten superb. Software is inherently identical. But we want randomness in our lives and in our music. Try experimenting yourself with DIY effects. It’s fun, it’s exciting and, with the amount of similarity out there, it’s very much needed.