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Unique Circuitboard Design

One of the main defining elements that makes a McPherson Stompbox different from many of the other effects units on the market today is our circuitboards. We do not use machine printed circuitboards (or PCB's) in any of our products, but rather choose to build using a point to point method. This Vintage technique of circuit building is unique in that one component is directly connected to another without going through a copper trace like on a PCB. We use high quality heavy duty Phenolic matrix boards to build (point to point) our circuits.

The advantages of point to point wiring.

1) You are ensuring the shortest possible path for your guitar's signal to travel:

This helps preserve the detail in your guitar's tone throughout it's journey through the circuitboard. The further your signal has to travel the and the more circuitry your sound has to travel through degrades the subtile detail within your guitar's tone. Once the more delicate frequencies in and around the human hearing spectrum within your tone are lost, they are gone forever and no amount of EQ'ing can get them back. This detail is one of the main elements that gives your tone a live, human like organic feel.

2)  Reliability

Building something by hand means that we are there every step of the way throughout the entire building process. We can inspect each and every solder join and also make sure every connection is properly bonded. We are also able to test each individual stage of the circuit as it is built, unlike machine produced circuitboards. Also none of the jacks, pots or switches are directly mounted on the circuitboard and used for attaching the circuitboard to the pedal's chassis, this can stress the board and cause pedal failure. All McPherson Stompboxes are mounted on a shock absorbing foam to minimise circuitboard damage that can occur from rough handling and transport.  

3) Upgradable

All McPherson Stompboxes are built by hand one at a time from start to finish and we are constantly improving our building practices and evolving circuit designs. This is something that is very difficult to impossible to do when you use machine made printed circuitboards as they are normally produced in batches and any changes to the design can not be made. When purchasing a McPherson Stompbox you know that you are receiving the latest tweaks and upgrades along with the most reliable building techniques.

The disadvantages of point to point wiring.

1) Expense

Building in this style is labour intensive, this means a point to point wired board requires far more work to create than a machine made PCB, it also requires a human to build it. This makes the cost of a point to point wired board a lot more expensive than a PCB.

More to follow..........................