Modifying guitar effects pedals with circuit designs that predate most Millennials has become another tangent of my guitar obsession and a welcome opportunity to create with my hands.

In fall 2017, around the same time I first developed rashes on my elbows, I began tinkering with an old distortion pedal I had barely used in years.

Made to turn my electric guitar and amplifier into a heavy metal machine, the infamous Boss MT-2 Metal Zone needed an upgrade. It has been understandably lampooned all over YouTube for its fizzy, ultra-compressed, mid-scooped, nasally tone that teenagers flock to as though each pedal was boxed with cocaine and a porn mag.

Remarkably, with a soldering iron and some patience, by replacing and removing a few capacitors and resistors, it can be made decent. By overhauling every single cheap Taiwanese component with much higher-quality Japanese ones, the Metal Zone moves from a neglected embarrassment (paradoxically, it’s found in almost every guitarist’s closet; Boss has sold millions) to a marvel of modified Japanese engineering that performs as well as boutique distortions twice its price.

For an angry thirty-four-year-old anarchist who grew up on Metallica, Iron Maiden, and nu-metal, plugging a guitar into a modded Metal Zone is enough to get you through the days you want to tell your employer to take this job and shove it.

For me, overhauling a pedal I obtained from a friend as a teen was a wonderful exercise in taking my mind off the things I cannot control and rejuvenating the things I can, no matter my constraints.

These guitar projects have become a welcome relief from my usual, more cerebral pursuits that leave my head lost in the clouds.

Since finishing the project, modifying and improving these relatively simple circuits has become a part of my quest for my perfect guitar tone. I’ve rebuilt seven Boss classics in 8 months: two BD-2 Blues Drivers, one DS-1 Distortion (the same effect used by Prince, Kurt Cobain, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and others), an SD-1 Super Overdrive, a PH-2 Super Phaser, a CH-1 Super Chorus, and most recently, an HM-3 Hyper Metal.

These projects have become a welcome relief from my usual, more cerebral pursuits that leave my head so lost in the clouds that Aristophanes himself could come back from the dead to stage a sequel to his parody of Socrates. By day, I work at a university, trying to keep up with astrophysicists and bioengineers. By night, I write novels and blog posts that require equal research efforts. To some extent, hand-built guitar effects and the gym are all I have to remind me I live on Earth, that reality is ultimately material.