R2R Electric Pre-Amp & Vintage Wah
The R2R Electric Pre-Amp and Vintage Wah together — two pieces from the same builder that were made to complement each other. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the R2R Electric Pre-Amp and Vintage Wah take center stage as a double feature — alongside freshly installed Lollar The Bird Pickups in the Frank Brothers Arcade Thinline, into the Benson Amps Vincent 2x12", with the Greer Amps Lightspeed, LPD Seventy4 Deluxe, Effectrode Tube Vibe, and Strymon Volante all in the mix.
The R2R Electric Pre-Amp is Chris Vincent's (@djlavalamp) input coloring and signal enrichment tool — built with NOS components throughout, designed to add harmonic content and three-dimensional presence to whatever follows it in the chain. Previously featured on the channel with the Frank Brothers Ultralight.
The R2R Electric Vintage Wah is a faithful recreation of the original Clyde McCoy circuit — the wah that defined the sound of Hendrix, Page, and Clapton before anyone knew what a wah actually was. Component list: Halo inductor. Vintage CTS and Centralab potentiometers. NOS 1960s Siemens BC109C silicon transistors. NOS Mullard .22uf Tropical Fish capacitors. Philips 4.7uf capacitor. NOS 1984 JAN paper-in-oil .01uf capacitors. 1962-64 Philips, Piher, and carbon comp resistors. Each unit is unique in the specific components used — the combination varies unit to unit — but every unit is tone-tested for consistency before leaving the shop. The expression controller uses a separate NOS 1970s Centralab potentiometer connected via TRS cable, and with the toggle in the up position becomes a standard expression-controlled wah. In the down position the unit operates as a fixed cocked-wah filter — which is explored in detail from 16:29 onward as a treble booster substitute.
Important note: built to original vintage specs, this wah does not work well with germanium Fuzz Face pedals placed after it in the chain. Silicon fuzz after or germanium fuzz before is the correct order.
The Lollar The Bird Pickups are a full humbucker-sized enclosure housing Lollar's Firebird-voiced mini humbucker circuit — not a traditional PAF humbucker architecture. Neck 6.1K, Bridge 7.4K. Brighter, snappier, and more percussive than a standard Imperial or Low Wind Imperial, with a tight low end and a no-hole cover for the classic Firebird aesthetic. Genuinely sounds like a cross between a hot Jazzmaster and a PAF — its own voice entirely.
Get on the R2R Electric mailing list: https://www.r2relectric.com/how-to-order
Follow Chris: https://www.instagram.com/djlavalamp/
🎸 Lollar The Bird Pickups: https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-pickups
🎸 Frank Brothers Guitar Company: https://www.frankbrothersguitars.com
🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 Frank Brothers Arcade Thinline | Lollar The Bird Humbuckers (Neck 6.1K / Bridge 7.4K)
🎛️ R2R Electric Pre-Amp + Vintage Wah | Clyde McCoy Circuit | Halo Inductor | NOS Siemens BC109C | Centralab Pots
🎛️ Also: Greer Lightspeed | LPD Seventy4 Deluxe | Effectrode Tube Vibe | Strymon Volante
🔊 Benson Amps Vincent 2x12"
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R121 & R10 | Sennheiser E906 | Ableton Live 11
