Twenty years ago I worked at an independent music shop. The owner, Don, bought guitar and amplifier brands that weren't carried by Sam Ash, Mars, or Guitar Center. He said he, "Couldn't compete against their prices." One of the brands he carried was Rocktron. They were known for their rack gear and pedals mostly.
I was playing around with some of their pedals one day when I came across one called the, "Austin Gold Overdrive." It was an overdrive pedal unlike any I had ever heard before. With a name like Austin Gold you'd think it would be another Tubescreamer copy, but it wasn't like that. Back then, I wasn't sure how to describe it. I only knew I liked it.
Fast-forward to the future I recently looked up information on it. I read where other musicians gave their thoughts on it. A lot of them decribed it as "Light overdrive boost pedal that doesn't color your sound." Okay, I realize that's a lot of musicianese. Let me translate for those who don't understand.
There are really three things happening with this pedal. First, it's a light overdrive. That means it adds a touch of break-up. Think of Jimi Hendrix's song, "Hey Joe." The very first notes of the song have a slight break-up. This pedal does exactly that.
Second, it's a boost pedal. That means your volume goes up when you engage the pedal. It helps when using the pedal when playing a solo.
Third, the pedal doesn't color your sound. A lot of players love their amplifiers. They want a way to add break-up, but not change the sound their amplifier's sound. This pedal does just that. It's actually rather rare for a pedal to not to "color" your sound.
Some players thought that the Austin Gold was a "Poor Man's Klon Centaur pedal." I can't say I've ever played one of those due to their rarity. However, I have played the Electro Harmonix Soul Food Overdrive pedal which is a clone of the Klon. My personal opinion is they are nothing alike. Again, the Austin Gold is kind of it's own thing.
So what does it sound like? Well, I have to say it nails any Stevie Ray Vaughn song. I could also play a lot of Jimi Hendrix songs with it. I would say any modern blues sound could be played on it. It's pretty clean so it enables the player to roll their tone knob back, and play really bluesy if they wanted.
So as I previously stated I had wanted an Austin Gold pedal for years. I started searching around for one on Reverb. Twenty years after I played one, they were now considered "vintage gear" and the prices had jumped. After searching for a few months I came across one that wasn't in such good condition. It seems that someone had taken black spray paint to the gold on the pedal.
Since it was being sold at a great price I took a chance on buying it. I think with shipping it was less than $30. That's normally considered a steal, but again, the pedal was in rough shape. I don't know why someone would spray paint it black? Especially since it covered up all the control knob markings. So I decided to see if I could clean it up. This is what I was working with.
Someone painted the entire enclosure black. However, someone else tried to clean up part of the pedal. The first thing I thought of was using some silver polish I had. It wouldn't be too hard on the metal or remove any of the writing on it.
I had results, just not good ones. It seemed to work a little bit, but it looked like it was going to be a long day.
The silver polish was starting to break up some of the paint, but not all of it. I started looking for something stronger. I looked through my bottles of chemicals when I came across my Denatured Alcohol bottle.
I have to say, this made a difference.
It's not perfect, but I will say it's 95% of the way there. It's certainly better than the black out paintjob that was previously on the enclosure. Here's a funny thought, let's take a peek at the aftermath.
This is the pile of rags I used.
Not to mention I had the paint residue all over my hands.
Don't worry, I used more denatured alcohol, and it took it off my hands. So, I have to say I was successful when it came to Operation: Pedal Clean-up. I can read the print on the pedal so I'm happy with my work. Now, if I would only play my pedal more than work on or write about it.
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