Description
Welcome to Dr. No’s Analog Imaginarium.
From the box of never seen before projects, The Brain Ray is a collaboration commissioned by Brian Ray (Paul McCartney, Etta James and The Bayonets). In 2011 and 2012 I worked closely on a collaboration/commission request with Brian Ray to create a Fuzz with a Clean Boost. This is my first but also last commissioned creation.
In 2012 I received a request from a distributor of my effects from the UK to contact Brian Ray . Brian used my Octofuzz and had taken note of my existence and work, and as a fan of old vintage gear he wanted a reliable Fuzz for on tour with Paul McCartney and his own band The Bayonets. Brian knows his classics and clearly knows what he wanted from me. I started working on his genius idea to take the best of worlds of several Tonebenders that he owned and liked, combine their qualities and add a clean boost circuit. This is the first but also last commission based creation I made.
In March 2012, early in the development stages, I was invited to a Paul McCartney concert to discuss our project with Brian and to present the first sketches and prototypes to him. I invited my father to come with me as he never seen a Beatles or McCartney concert. After the conversation and presentation in the backstage area with Brian, I took my father to the concert and asked him if he would like to see his old music hero perform, to which he replied, to my great surprise, “that he was a Rolling Stone fan and didn’t really like the Beatles”…….
Back in my laboratory and with solid feedback from Brian, I got to work. The Fuzz had now evolved from a two silicon transistor to a three germanium transistor Fuzz and a separate clean boost circuit. After the second test, this was the final prototype of which I would make a small series. Brian Ray himself came up with the name XRay that later changed into Brain Ray in which he played with his name and incorporated the classic ray gun toys.
As an announcement on my website, I posted a news article in which I announced that Brian Ray and I had started a collaboration with a photo. After a while of working on the final details to create the Brain Ray series, I received a legal letter on the doormat of my laboratory from a US law firm asking if I wanted to pay $30,000 for the photo I used on my website, with permission from Brian Ray which was taken by their client. Because I thought this was so strange and so unrealistically out of context, I decided to send my underpants and old socks to the photographer accompanied by a photo of myself in the nude with the message, “This is all I have and what I think of your action. I wish you much happiness in your life, signed, Dr. No”. Afterwards I heard nothing more from the combative photographer and his legal firm, who later turned out to earn his income by filing lawsuits to small companies.
But…back to the Brain Ray…
During the period of conversing about the prototypes and the design that were sent back and forth, in which changes were continually made to the circuit design but also to the cosmetic design, which I now really liked myself, I had to changing it so much that I was no longer satisfied with where it should go. My biggest lesson from this was, that I learned that I can only create if I know and appreciate an artist so much that it feeds me with inspiration to create. Although Brian Ray is a tremendous talent and has a great and kind personality that I have all the praise for, I could not get the right energy out of it to achieve a result in which we were both satisfied. Communication and interest slowly faded away.
In total I made 5 Brain Rays of which Brian has a few. Two of the Brain Ray’s ended up in my archives, but have never been shown to the public before. I especially would like to thank Brian Ray for the fun creative process, his generosity and his trust in giving me the opportunity to make something with him.
Only 5 are made. This is No#01/05 and is one of the two that are from Dr. No’s Archive and is made available now. Very unique peice.
The Brain Ray is equiped with a 3 germanium AC-128 Fuzz and a Clean boost.