Custom Boards Blog

I've been noticing clear signs of me turning into an “old fart” over the last few years. It’s only a few short months before I will turn 50, and it seems ever harder beam myself back into my 30-year old “hippy” state of mind. Am I – is Custom Boards – still a relevant player in the eyes of the new wave?

German engineer Burkhard Lehle unveiled his plans for the Lehle Components a few years ago at 2014’s NAMM Show. He would release his own line of audio components, which will include brand-new designs alongside his older inventions.

Amorphis’ manager, Jouni Markkanen told me to be extremely careful, and made me clear that I had to have the gig fee in my hands, in cash, before allowing the band to leave their hotel for the venue.

We've been entertaining ourselves with the thought of starting a Custom Racks service for some time. Inner need of getting a chance to build a large effects rack has lived in our minds for a while, and in the end we got lucky.

After seeing the newspaper article from Andy McCoy, where his pedalboard whole looked a real mess, I reacted instinctively: I took a quick snap of Andy’s pedalboard right off the paper and put it on Instagram. My message read that if anybody out there knew how to get hold of Andy, could they please tell him that I’d be more than willing to help him sort his board out.

I really do admire Mikko’s attitude. His idea was to tape Dogma-style videos of every available Keeley effect, so that he would play each effect for the first time with the camera rolling.

The album is one of the best-selling and most-legendary records of all time, and many guitarists think that David Gilmour must have used tons of different effects to produce his sounds, but in reality he played his guitar relatively sparingly and used surprisingly few effects.

Jaco was a true super star in his time. His playing had a profound influence on virtually every bass player that has come after him. Tragically, Jaco’s life also had a merciless side to it. There’s a very few artists in popular culture, who rose to fame as meteorically and shone as brightly, only to face such a brutally tragic fate.

Many guitarists strive to emulate David Gilmour’s unbelievingly beautiful playing style. In terms of ethereal beauty he is in a league of his own, even though many have tried – and still are trying – to follow in his footsteps.

The thought of having absolute pitch seemed very intriguing. I already had a history of trying, and succeeding in naming pitches. Some intervals also always seemed more friendly to my ear than others. The most annoying interval of them all, which had bugged me for quite some time, was the major third.

Wah-wahs, auto-wahs and filters are more popular than ever before. All of these effects are in regular use in many different musical genres. Vox’ “gentleman’s sound” and the aggressive tones of Dunlop wahs both have their place in the modern musician’s tool kit.

Learning to play songs on guitar that you’ve known for a years can be a very rewarding. One of the most enjoyable parts of my journey into the depths of Black Sabbath’s riffs, was to notice all the little surprises in Iommi’s phrasing. This is even more underlined, if you’ve been listening to Black Sabbath for ages, and you can hum their riffs by heart.