CMC Guitars and Effects

CMC Guitars and Effects Professional guitar repair and modification. Specializing in custom electronics wiring. Boutique Pedal Builder.

Home of the Triple Octave Manipulator, signature effect pedal of Thomas Erak of The Fall of Troy.

The USPS should be ashamed of itself. From “expected delivery Monday 4/6” to “arriving late” with no updates in 6 days. ...
04/13/2026

The USPS should be ashamed of itself. From “expected delivery Monday 4/6” to “arriving late” with no updates in 6 days. Shameful. And of course it’s on the first pedal I’ve shipped without full coverage insurance 🤦‍♂️. It’s like they’ve been watching and waiting for me to not pay for extra insurance so they could lose one of my pedals.

Last night I finished up 5 Szik Sniper PCBs and got one of them all boxed up and did a blind bias. It was early today by...
03/27/2026

Last night I finished up 5 Szik Sniper PCBs and got one of them all boxed up and did a blind bias. It was early today by the time I finished so it’s dated accordingly. Tonight I’ll put the final touches on getting the bias dialed in and then this one is going to of , one of my favorite bands for many years now. I do so love when I’m able to put one of my pedals in the hands of musicians I love. , get at me if you find yourself jealous of Jake’s new toy.

20 germanium transistors in measured an tested sets of 4, ready to be permanently soldered onto 5 Szik Sniper boards. Th...
03/26/2026

20 germanium transistors in measured an tested sets of 4, ready to be permanently soldered onto 5 Szik Sniper boards. This is the last step before boards get boxed up and are ready to rock. I spent a couple of hours last night making sure each set plays well together and dialing the bias for each set so each pedal sounds as consistent as possible. Over the course of the session I got more of a feel for how to quickly dial the biases so in the future I hope to spend no more that 5-10 minutes on any given set before moving on to the next.

More Szik Snipers incoming curtesy of The Big Bossman and The Corporstion.
03/24/2026

More Szik Snipers incoming curtesy of The Big Bossman and The Corporstion.

Testing and labeling germanium transistors when Over The Edge came on. I’ll never forget this event. One of the great tr...
03/23/2026

Testing and labeling germanium transistors when Over The Edge came on. I’ll never forget this event. One of the great tragedies in professional wrestling.

When it’s just been that kind of day.
03/21/2026

When it’s just been that kind of day.

Taking a break from building pedals tonight to get one of my favorite guitars ready to do some recording this weekend. W...
03/21/2026

Taking a break from building pedals tonight to get one of my favorite guitars ready to do some recording this weekend. Watching some vintage (late 90s) wrestling and working on an even more vintage (late 70s) Memphis MG-300.

Bonus points to anyone who can tell what PPV I’m watching based on the screen in the background.

Late night sniper building last night into the wee hours of this morning
03/20/2026

Late night sniper building last night into the wee hours of this morning

For those who have been following me long enough, you might remember that I introduced the Feral Fuzz a few years ago as...
03/16/2026

For those who have been following me long enough, you might remember that I introduced the Feral Fuzz a few years ago as the first pedal in a series of cat themed drive pedals called the Fē-Line that all shared a similar topology but with feature sets. I had intended to drop the second pedal in the Fē-Line a few months after the Feral Fuzz but life has a way of tossing your plans out the window. I had the circuit all designed and ready to go and even hard the enclosure art drawn up. Some 3 and a half years later and I’m back at the soldering station and (mostly) ready to release the House Cat out into the world. I say mostly because do to an oversight on my part the art needs to be redone but the circuit is ready to go. So here are the first two built into enclosures that are misprints. Unfortunately the labels for the gain and volume controls are reversed. Big whoops on my part for not catching that earlier. These first two pedals are heading out in the next day or two. One to my buddy Josh over at who did the art for both the Feral Fuzz and the House Cat and one to another customer who’s getting the “Bloody Rawr” edition misprint. Stay tuned for audio clips and updated enclosure art in the next few weeks. I’ll also be building two more Bloody Rawr misprints at some point that will be for sale. After that hopefully it’s all smooth sailing with the House Cat and the future of the Fē-Line.

03/12/2026

Sometime you just want to add a little grit and sparkle to your sound but still be able to clean it up with your guitar volume k**b while retaining that chime. The Szik Sniper has you covered.

03/11/2026

Yesterday I went shared a clip of the Szik Sniper using a single coil bridge pickup and the germanium diode hard clipping with the gain cranked and tone controls set to extremes. Today we’ve turned off the diodes and dialed the tone controls back a bit but left the gain all the way up for more of a heavy overdrive sound using a single coil neck pickup. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Another huge shoutout to and for being a part of this project!

Address

Kingston, NY
12401

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 8pm
Tuesday 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 10am - 8pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 8pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+13155520075

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when CMC Guitars and Effects posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category