My Uncle’s Gear, Part Two (Get Yourself a Soldering Iron)

The Boss DD-2 is probably my most-used pedal at live shows, and the Fender amp is a practice workhorse.

I’ll be the first to say it: I’m not handy. So I was skeptical when my uncle Tommy — Billy’s older brother — handed me an old Boss delay pedal and said “Here, maybe you can get this to work.”.

But when I joined a country band and started learning some chicken pickin’, I realized the delay pedal could get some use. I popped open the back and found a couple loose wires floating around in the casing. A quick Google search turned up some detailed wiring diagrams, and I picked up a soldering iron at a hardware store for less than $20. With a little patience, I was able to solder the two wires back into place.

A few years later, my dad came up from Maryland with a Fender FM65R amplifier in his trunk, also from Tommy’s basement. Again, it didn’t work - somehow the speaker had come disconnected from the amp head. Luckily the back of this model was open, so I was able to easily get my soldering iron into place to reconnect the speaker. (Well, somewhat easily. Like I said, I’m not handy.)

I’ve never been one to get into the inner workings of the equipment I use. I don’t know the difference between X-bracing and ladder bracing on acoustic guitars. I don’t know much about different tonewoods, or how winding impacts pickups. I still don’t know how delay pedals manipulate sound, or how solid-state amps create volume.

But we’re lucky enough to live at a time when information is a click away, and YouTube is lousy with how-to videos. I repaired the amp about two years ago, when we needed an amp to rehearse the songs that would eventually become Punk Rock Retirement. I did the pedal repair almost 10 years ago. Neither piece of equipment has given me any issue since those fixes.

I think I’ve always been intimidated by how complicated instruments and gear can be, and the gaps in my knowledge have sometimes made me feel like less of a musician. It wasn’t until Tommy began offloading stuff from his basement that I even considered trying to fix something. In giving me these broken pieces of equipment, Tommy had given me an opportunity to try something new, to fail and learn, and try again.

Now I’ve got a bit more confidence about taking on another project — I’ve just got to figure out what that project will be.

Sean BreslinComment