Dynamic Haircut (MattG Barber Gain Changer)

[MichaelW]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

A few months back @MattG was kind enough to send me a couple of his custom boards to build out.
With my "Great Build Output Slowdown of 2023" it's taken me a while to get to it.
But I ventured into the frozen tundra of my garage and managed to get a little bench time in and built out this very cool pedal.

Matt and I both have an admiration for Dave Barber's pedals, the OG booteek overdrive designer.

The "Gain Changer" has it's roots in the LTD/LTD SR series and is kind of a combination of both of these pedals.
In fact, the retail Gain Changer was the last retail overdrive pedal I bought shortly before finding this forum and starting on my DIY journey.
I wound up selling it because I adopted a hard core "DIY or Die" attitude

Like most of Barber overdrives, it's a bit of a Swiss Army knife overdrive. With the gain structure toggle and the EQ toggle it can do the "transparent Timmy" thing but it can also do the TS808 thing as well. There are a lot of really great tones in this pedal and @MattG did an awesome job with his trace and board for this.

It really sounds exactly how I remember my retail GC sounding.

Very straightforward build with modest amount of components, went very smooth and fired right up.
It sounds as good with single coils as humbuckers and like most of Barber pedals it doesn't have a ton of low end. But it definitely stands out in a mix with the way it sits in a particular frequency range.

Thanks @MattG it was a super fun build and it sounds great!

Working through my last few raw enclosures with rattle can paint. This one, I primed and then painted with a brick red. Still seems like it needs multiple coats to get all the little enclosure imperfections covered.

 

[Guilherme Collateral]

Very clean! I love Barber pedals, got one a few weeks ago

 

[MattG]

That’s awesome, it’s very satisfying to see others make use of my “baby”.

Note though, I didn’t trace the circuit, Barber actually has the schematic on his public website. (Though I do believe that schematic is for an older revision of the circuit.)

One thing I suggest you try: set the GC for a fairly light drive, just a skosh past edge of breakup. Now treat that as your (pre)amp and run your Colorsound Power Boost into it. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I remember being pretty pleased with the result. I don’t remember exactly how I set the Power Boost though… but my impression was that I could get in the ballpark of the cranked amp + cranked Power Boost sound at family-friendly volume. I’ve tried other overdrives in place of the GC and met with varying success, but the GC is definitely the best I’ve tried so far.

Anyway, great looking build as always! Thanks for posting!

 

[Alan W]

Working through my last few raw enclosures with rattle can paint. This one, I primed and then painted with a brick red. Still seems like it needs multiple coats to get all the little enclosure imperfections covered.

Even rattle can lacquer is very thin when it dries. So fine scratches, nicks, etc. can become visible once it’s fully dried. The glossier the paint, the more things show.

So, if you want a clean, smooth surface, sand the pedal—with a sheet of 320 (or so), wet, and on a flat surface. Move the enclosure over the paper. If there are pits or deep scratches, a bondo pass might be needed. If they’re shallow, you could try a “filling” primer, which has higher solids content. Typically, I’d fine sand a coat of filling primer, because it’s thick, and doesn’t lay smooth. If it were for matte paint, the 320 would be okay; for satin, I’d go at least 400, and if you want a really nice gloss, 600 or 800, followed by buffing it out (I typically use paper towel for this) until the primer has a sheen to it. (This is true for any gloss finish—trying to build a high gloss over a matte primer is a lot more work than just making the primer really smooth.) In my shop, when we needed really high glosses, it wasn’t unusual to use 1500 or 2000 between coats. (I don’t think pedals need this much TLC though.)

In any case, often 2 or 3 minutes of just sanding will get enough of the blemishes removed that you won’t need the extra coat. And most rattle paint (and solvent based lacquers and enamels in general) are soft enough that more coats just create a more easily damaged surface.