CWS008

Boost with six-way tone rotary switch.

CWS008 – boost/overdrive

This pedal is yet another progression of the boost circuit found in pedals CWS001–CWS004, consisting of a volume and tone control. Instead of the continuous tone control as found in CWS004, this pedal has 6 different settings which are selectable with the 6-way rotary switch. With the tone in the center (4th) position, it is the exact same circuit as CWS004, but it is as if the tone knob on that pedal was in a fixed position (most of the way down). This was the placement of the tone knob in CWS004 which I found to have the most even, natural response. Through much experimentation and use of CWS004 I found that I would almost always resort back to this position.

With this pedal, the tone knob adjusts 2 different values in the circuit simultaneously to both shape the top and bottom end of the sound, giving a range from very treble heavy (1st position), to very bass heavy (6th position). There is no conventional tone knob, which only adjusts the tone at the very end of the circuit, though the third knob on the pedal could be made for minor adjustments. This design eliminates having a tone knob which only sounds good in a very small portion of the overall sweep of the knob, and instead creates 6 distinct tones which allows for a much wider variety of sounds.

CWS008 was made in a Hammond BB sized enclosure, and adorned with a large 8mm red LED indicator.

Update 5/2019:
This pedal was used on nearly all of my guitar parts in the recording of Panorama and several tracks from Rooms of the House. It was also used on almost every guitar track on the 10 year anniversary Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair, re-amped with Will Yip in Conshohocken, PA. It was used on my live pedal board from 2012 when it was built, until 2018 when CWS016 was built to replace it. CWS016 uses the same circuit as this pedal with the tone in the middle (4th) position, but with a variable tone control.

Below is a photo from 2018, reverse engineering (remembering) what made this pedal tick before building CWS016, and later CWS017-019.

Here is CWS008 being used in May, 2018 at Studio 4, during the re-amping session for Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair 10 year anniversary.