KingBollock

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1409929332' post='2544705'] It's a real shame you have no luck with IC, maybe kick off with a klon buffer ? [/quote] I don't currently have any TL071s and with the luck I am having I am reluctant to order any. I have TL074s, LM396N4s and LM741s. I do have a few other ICs that came in a sort of starter set that I bought to get a stash started, but they don't look very useful. I'm not going to stop trying with ICs, I'm sure it's something stupidly obvious.

I did end up putting the Split n Blend and an LPB-1 together. It actually works as I thought it would, which, lately, is highly unusual... The only side effect is that the loop gets boosted when the LPB-1 is engaged. Which shouldn't be a surprise really, but it has a volume pot and if used carefully could be quite useful. I am going two build another and put them in a box. Since the plan was always to have three footswitches (loops 1 & 2, order switcher), four knobs (volume and blend for each loop) and two toggle switches, I can keep trying to build a better version and just swap it out if I succeed. I just need to figure out why I fail so hard with ICs. Even incredibly simple stuff like the Noisy Cricket, Ruby and Smoky amps won't work for me, though I did get them to work on breadboard. The main difference being that I breadboard from schematics but follow others' layouts for the vero. But I have looked closely at those layouts and can't see anything wrong and they have been verified by others. I have also used DIY Layout Creator to design vero layouts from the schematics. I socket the ICs and work on an anti-static mat connected to earth so as not to damage them, and like I said, they work on breadboard. I just seem to be getting something fundamentally wrong when trying to use them on vero and it is worrying that it has been so long and I just can't see it. Some of the mini amps are even simpler than the blend and LPB-1, and before I started trying to use ICs the far more complicated circuits, including the dual Big Muff and Musket, that I had to redesign a bit, worked fine first time. It just seems to be the inclusion of an IC that throws me. I did do some stuff with ICs on breadboards in college, and replaced some while doing work experience in electrical repair shops, but that was all over twenty years ago. The only difference is the use of sockets, but I have tested them to make sure the IC legs are definitely in contact with the circuit. I think I might put something really simple together and post pics on here, see if anyone can spot the problem. I can't post any of my current bad builds because I have made a right mess of them while trying to figure them out.

Well, I am having no bloody luck with blender circuits at all. I have built the paralooper, both the bass and the full ranger versions, and a couple of others, and none of them have worked and I really don't know why. Though I rather suspect my current fragile state of mind might have something to do with it. As the end result with each one was the same I decided to try to narrow it down to common parts, the sockets that I have set up in a box for testing. I built another one of those little split n blend circuits that I put in my Big Muff thing, because I know it works. And it did indeed work... Bugger! The main reason I don't want to use the split n blend is because I wasn't terribly happy with it in the Big Muff, but I found it played ball better when the effect volume was at 50%. I also discovered that the Musket that I have built into the same box and also goes through the blend, leaves the phase inverted because of its five gain stages, whereas the Big Muff only has four, this causes the volume to drop when the blend knob is at 50%. When I talked about this earlier in this thread, I wondered about adding an LPB1 to add volume but was told that it inverts the phase. Now I am thinking this could be exactly what I need. I could use it in the Musket as a phase inverter. I could also use it in the dual loop, blend, order switcher pedal I am currently struggling with. It seemed such a simple idea when I thought of it... Am I talking bollocks again? There is a very obvious reason this won't work, isn't there? I really don't know why nothing is working properly, though. It seems anything I try to make using ICs just doesn't work. It is confusing and worrying.

It looks like a bass that has shrunk in the wash.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1409581102' post='2541104'] Is it any good for metal? [/quote] I bet these could use it... http://youtu.be/WIKqgE4BwAY

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1408730754' post='2533073'] Well, first of all, we need to see this board ! The dual loop pedal sounds really interesting. Which circuit do you use for the paralooper ? [/quote] It's just made from bare wooden bed slats with a small step for the pedals at the rear. But I will take a photo when I have finished making the leads for it. The plan was to use this: Because I have the parts, but I have put it together and I can't get it to work. There are others but they use either 4x TL071 or 2x TL072s, which I don't have. I'll probably have to take the schematic and try to knock it up in DIY Layout Creator. I seem to be struggling with even the most simple of circuits lately. My poor state of mind is causing me to miss even obvious things. Normally this would be where I would find my "Zen", but I appear to have misplaced it.

In the end I went with the red / blue / purple, it works fine and the different colours are nice and obvious. It is actually all boxed up, now, with knobs on, all ten of them, I just need to get around to putting the design on the box. As well as the '73 Ram's Head Big Muff and the Musket, it has an overall blend circuit, I am not very happy with the blend circuit, though. I am currently putting together a double bypass loop pedal with the intention of making it with one passive and one paralooper loop. If the paralooper works well, though, I may well put two of them in there and replace the blend circuit in the muff with one, too. The dual looper will also have an order switching footswitch. The order switcher on the double muff thing is so useful that I started thinking about replacing the toggle switch with a footswitch, but there isn't room for it, sadly. Another pedal I have in my head, is another bypass loop with a momentary switch in parallel and a latching switch to bypass the momentary switch. I was looking at a tune I would like to play on the bass as a solo but to be able to add an occasional octave note down, at the start of a bar, would be handy, and I think this pedal will do that if I include an octave pedal in its loop and have the momentary switch only disconnect the input to the loop. That way the octave note down will be able to ring. I have probably got that all wrong, I've only been thinking about it tonight, I'll probably have to iron out wrinkles in the idea. If anyone can see any obvious flaws and point them out, that'd be very helpful. I have built a temporary board to put my pedals on. It was while working on the layout for it that the idea for the dual loop with a blend circuit in it came to me. Mostly because the chorus pedal I currently have, until I build a bass specific one (blimey I wish Al Heeley was still here so I could ask him about the one he built earlier in this thread), is a guitar one and it rather saps the bass, so having it on a loop with a blend would really help. At this rate, though, I will have more utility pedals on my board than effect pedals, but they're so easy to build and so bloomin' useful.

If I have a 4x10 that is perfectly square (with the port on the back) and I was able to prop it up on one corner, in a diamond shape, what happens with the dispersion? And, not taking all the mucking about into account, would it be preferable to being sat flat?

I have to confess that I have always coiled my cables with all the twists in the same direction. I was actually taught to do it this way when working for a guitar shop that had a sideline guitar cable company, even though I was only 15 I was one of only two assemblers. Any way, I discovered that I had been doing it wrong a couple of years ago but did nothing about it. The videos in this thread have convinced me to give it a try and it's actually quite simple. I shall be doing it properly from now on. Thanks.

[quote name='DolganoFF' timestamp='1408367358' post='2529436'] I am actively using LTSpice for my circuit simulations. The learning courve can be a little steep but once mastered it becomes a great tool (and it is free)! [/quote] Thank you, that looks ideal.

Has anyone tried any of the circuit simulation apps, like iCircuit? I have been using DIY Layout Creator (which is ace by the way. Free, too, which is always good) and kept thinking how nice it would be if I could virtually test the layouts. I enjoy using breadboards but sometimes my eyes don't work so well, even my huge magnifying lamp doesn't help, so it can get frustrating when doing complex circuits. http://icircuitapp.com https://code.google.com/p/diy-layout-creator/

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1407655979' post='2522563'] KingBollock, I've just looked on the Alpha website at the specs for their 24mm pots and they're using M8 threads with a 0.75 pitch. http://www.alphapotentiometers.net/html/24mm_pot_11.html [/quote] Thanks dude. Unfortunately, the pots are the only things I don't want to change the nuts on, because they get covered by knobs. But thanks to you I went and had a look at the switchcraft site and found that the jack sockets have a 3/8-32 thread. I will see if there is a diagram for the footswitches, too. Edit: The thread on the footswitches is M12 - .75. Unfortunately, my M12 tap is 1.75. Thanks for nudge in the right direction.

Just discovered something cool. About three hundred million and twenty three years ago, give or take three hundred million years, while in college, I built a signal injector/tracer. For the vast majority of the time since it has been bouncing about in boxes with half its case missing and cannibalised for parts (switch and battery clip missing). In fact, I was about to nick some other bits off it when I decided to see if it actually still worked, and it does! It still has the problem that it can't do both at the same time but, as I was planning on building a little amp for tracing anyway, this means I don't have to make a new injector. Which is nice.

This is probably the wrong place to put this, but as I intend to use it for fault finding in DIY pedals... I built a Noisy Cricket on veroboard, but it didn't work, all I got was a constant tone and the IC got warm. So I took it apart and put together a Ruby on breadboard. The Ruby worked, but as I haven't built the bench power supply I am planning on building, I have to reach behind me to get at the PSU lead that I use, so, as I couldn't be bothered with all that hard work, this time I used a battery instead. Then, once I knew it was working, I tried it with the PSU, but again all I get is a constant tone. The only thing that changed is the supply, I definitely have the wires the correct way around and the PSU is measuring at just over 9v and the battery just under 9v. What the blinkin' nora is all that about? Edit: It turns out that it only does it when the gain is turned up more than about half way/ I tried a regulated PSU and I tried a multi PSU in 9v, 12v and 7.5v, all with the exact same result. Re-dit: Thought I was going to have to replace my soldering iron today when I saw that I had left it plugged in for the last three days... Still works perfectly and it is over twenty years old. Bless.

Does anyone know what thread, size and pitch, jack sockets and footswitches use? I am thinking of either buying nicer looking nuts, or making my own covers, which would require the relevant taps. Edit: After trying the taps in my set I have a feeling that, if they are M sized threads, they're m9 and m11, which, of course, I don't have. I can't tell by the crappy little gauge that came with the set.

I've done a design for the Muff/Musket pedal, but I need to figure out how to make it the correct size. I made it in Paintshop Pro, and used their guides, but their idea of a millimetre and an actual millimetre are not quite the same... Even resizing by 50% has left it still too big (it'll be going on a 145mm x 125mm box). (I was just going to call it Dank & Fetid, but got carried away.... The image is a negative of a photograph I took of a sunset.) I am probably going to have to redo all the text and diagrams when I do resize it, but I have the layers saved, so it won't be too big a pain in the bum, just a bit annoying.

I bought my Peavey T-Max 500 about 15 years ago. I bought it used and what knobs it did have didn't match. Unfortunately the pots have 4mm shafts, and to buy replacement knobs from Peavey would cost about £30. You can buy adaptors for about 25p each, but then there's P&P, too. I have just put in an order for a bunch of cheap, but nice looking, knobs for my amp and some DIY pedals, so I needed to figure something out because they're for 6mm shafts. And then I had an idea... Aquarium air tubing! It has a 4mm inner diameter and 6mm outer, it is also quite grippy. I got a metre of it for £1, I suppose I could have asked for half a metre. Anyway, it works a treat, so I thought I would share.

Right, I have managed to get the board with the Big Muff and the Musket in a bigger box, and I have added a switch for changing the first diodes in the Muff (original, none and green LEDs) and the Split N Blend circuit. Really happy with the diode mod, I might add one to the Musket, too, maybe experiment a bit with asymmetrical diodes. Not quite so happy with the blender. This is the one I have used. What I think would help is a boost on the clean side, I am thinking of the LPB-1, as I have the parts already, but I am not sure where to insert it. Can anyone help?

Anyone got an ideas for how I can add a simple noise gate to a pedal? I know the Big Muff has a noise gate mod, and I assume that it will also work with the Musket. But the problem I have is that they are noisy when on together, but really quiet otherwise. I am going to experiment with that mod, to see what happens, but would be grateful for alternative ideas while I wait for parts. I also want to add this: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.fi/2012/02/split-n-blend.html I did manage to get everything into the box I had but I physically had to force it in because of the depth of one of the toggle switches, which probably isn't ideal, so I am going to get a bigger box, which will give me plenty of room for the blend circuit.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1406414363' post='2511382'] Seriously, playing stuff at a slow (but steady) pace is a great practice discipline. If you just blast through a tune, you are probably making mistakes that you don't even realise, and reinforcing bad habits. Play slowly with a metronome or a drum machine and your playing can only benefit. [/quote] Indeed. I believe playing at the same speed improves muscle memory more than actually learning the tune. I have come across many players whom, once asked to play something slowly, struggle to do so. It's like they have been playing it for so long that they don't have to think about it and it throws them a bit.

I've rather surprised myself this evening. I got it working! All of it, the Big Muff and the Musket, all on one board small enough to fit into a 1590BB box (even with 9 knobs, 2 toggle switches, 2 foot switches and an LED). And it sounds incredible, absolutely monstrous. I wasn't overly keen on the Musket by the time I had built it, but the way it interacts with the Ram's Head is ace, and the order switcher adds a whole other dimension. I am usually a set and forget kind of guy when it comes to effects, but this thing craves molestation, it screams "Play with me!". Once I have it in its box I may even do a video of it, which is something I never thought I'd catch myself doing. There probably won't be any gut shots because the wiring is shamefully messy, and I don't want to risk interfering too much just to make it tidy, I am just hoping I never have to look inside it again.

[quote name='DolganoFF' timestamp='1406401277' post='2511260'] Maybe sand the LED a little with fine sandpaper and make it matte? This is not reversible though, I guess... [/quote] Excellent idea. I think I might even go as far as to sand it flat and flush to its mount. Edit: The sandpaper worked a treat. I'm not going to sand it flat because too much protrudes from the bezel, but it looks a lot better now. Might have to try to dial out a bit more of the red, it looks pretty good as it is, though, so I will only do it if I get really bored.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1406330382' post='2510783'] Using a single resistor won't work correctly (I have a feeling I may have suggested it earlier but I hadn't thoguht it through). As you go from one to two lit elements, you're doubling the current through the resistor while putting two LEDs in parallel, thus halving their resistance, and it's far too late for me to work out exactly what'll happen but essentially you'll be reducing the voltage across the LEDs. So if the red LED has a lower threshold than the blue LED and the voltage drops to just below the threshold voltage, you'll just see the red. So bridge the single resistor and put the same value resistor between each switch and the respective LED cathode. [/quote] Thank you! I did some experimenting and found a combination of resistors that allows both red and green to glow simultaneously. I need to find a way to diffuse the colour now, with the clear LED the colours don't blend as well as I would have liked and they just look like a red and blue next to each other, rather than the hoped for purple.

[quote name='DolganoFF' timestamp='1406320598' post='2510669'] You still have three wires coming to "color" pins, just put three resistors there. [/quote] Sorry for being so dim last night (no pun intended...). It really was one of those, all too common for me, moments when I can't see what is right in front of me.

Well, I figured out what was wrong with my Big Muff after changing and moving it... The changes were to make it fit a smaller board, knocking a column off each end, so I was having to move some stuff, and I forgot to move one of the cuts. I spent last night trying to get it to work with the 9v wire in the wrong place, and because I didn't move the cut there is nowhere to put that wire, so I am going to have to tack it onto the back. The worst thing it that there was room to move the cut into, leaving the perfect spot for the 9v wire. Oh well, at least it works now. Now to install an order switcher and box it up.