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After countless modifications and testing more than a dozen of different resistive optoisolators I am finally at a point, where my new Vactrol-based opto tremolo circuit sounds just awesome. I already sent a first prototype to Styrian guitar player “Sir” Oliver Mally, who confirmed my assessment: this is something big. I’m really looking forward to bringing this little sound monster to market in the next weeks!

Mike Hermans, who also demoed the ‘Bluebird Drive Germanium’, now demoed the Silicon version of the USB rechargeable Overdrive pedal.

The product videos of the rechargeable overdrive pedals ‘Bluebird Drive Si’ (silicon clipping diodes) and  ‘Bluebird Drive Ge’ (germanium clipping diodes) are now online. Which do you like best?

Bluebird Drive Si

 

 

Bluebird Drive Ge

 

They will be uploaded next week 🙂

Today the sale of the ‘Bluebird Drive’ guitar overdrive pedal started. You can purchase it directly from us via https://www.songbirdfx.com/products.

The Bluebird Drive is a simple but effective overdrive that keeps the original timbre of the guitar and takes it one step further – no tone knob needed. It is the world’s first analog guitar effect, that is rechargeable via the included Micro-USB cable. Just plug it into your Smartphone wall charger or your computer and in less than two hours it will be fully charged. The integrated Li-Ion battery lasts for more than 100 hours of playing time. Highest build quality makes the Bluebird Drive the perfect choice for professional and semi-professional musicians as well as demanding hobby guitarists.

‘Bluebird Drive Si’ (silicon clipping stage) and ‘Bluebird Drive Ge’ (germanium clipping stage)

The Bluebird Drive is available in two versions:

• Bluebird Drive Si:

  Legendary 1N4148 silicon clipping diodes deliver a great range of sounds, going from clean boost to singing leads.

• Bluebird Drive Ge:

  Rare soviet D9D germanium clipping diodes (NOS) give you a sound that goes from warm overdrive to fuzzy leads. The asymmetrical clipping stage combines the characteristical low clipping threshold of germanium diodes on the positive half wave with higher output level on the negative half wave (achieved by connecting a silicon 1N4148 in series to the D9D).

Last week the Alpha Potentiometers I ordered arrived.

Now that all components are available the series production of the revolutionary Bluebird Drive pedals has begun. The Bluebird Drive is the world’s first analog guitar effect, that is rechargeable via Micro-USB.

Soon the first pedals will be available for purchase, so stay tuned!

Hello out there!

This is my first post, so I’m going to introduce myself and my company. My name is Dieter and I’m the founder of Songbird FX. My profession is Electronics Engineering and I love playing music. Songbird FX is a new guitar effects manufacturer that is based in Molln, Austria. Our first pedal, the Bluebird Drive is the world’s first analog guitar effect, that is rechargeable via Micro-USB.

The story of Songbird FX

Did you ever want to play guitar through your favourite guitar effect but the 9V battery was empty and you didn’t have an AC adaptor at hand? That’s what happened to me in December 2015 when I decided to develop a Micro-USB charging circuit for lithium batteries which I then combined with a vintage overdrive circuit – the Bluebird Drive was born. It has a battery life of over 100 hours and is fully charged in less than 2 hours.

Then the real work began: finding manufacturers for high-quality components and enclosures, making a PCB layout and creating mechanical drawings, creating a brand, founding a company…

Currently I’m waiting for the last components to arrive so I can start production. In the next weeks the first pedals should be available for purchase, so stay tuned!