The New Year's Project is Done

So the biggest news of the day (which was actually yesterday, but I didn't get to post it) is this:

My friend Brian Hanna (technically a Sophomore Engineer major) and I built a Big Muff Pi distortion pedal!!

For those of you who don't care come back tomorrow; for those of you who don't know what that is I will give an explanation. It is a classic distortion pedal made popular in the '70s by people like Jimmy Page and I've wanted one since about 8th grade when I first heard Dixon's. They Big Muff looks something like an ammunition box left over from the Cold War (if you're looking at the Russian made one), which is similar to the design that Brian and I went for, minus the triangle formation of the control knobs. The one very interesting difference is ours is made out of Bakelite, not sheet aluminum. Here's another (probably obligatory) explanation: Bakelite is a plastic that was made mostly back in the 30's and 40's, but it was so expensive to make, because of the involved process, that a cheaper plastic was invented and therefore made bakelite a rare commodity. And thanks to Mr. Thomas we have a bakelite enclosure for our Big Muff. Anyway, it sounds awesome...vintage creamy, deep, fuzzy distortion and makes me feel warm and...well...fuzzy.

Finals Suck.
z.james