hrnn1234 Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 I've been fooling around with pedal mods for a while and I've come to the idea of building an analog stompbox with a few handy things. Nothing too fancy, so far I think it will be enough having some kind of: preamp, mild overdrive, distortion and a wild fuzz. Nothing that hasn't been done before. Ive been doing some research and there are nice schematics available, tried already, which I would only have to tune to my liking. I'm leaving out modulation effects as the only thing I use that's not dirt is an octaver which I wont be able to improve by doing it myself. For this kind of thing I'd also put some effect loop in the box. Questions for you people: would you add/remove something to this? Is there a tried and true DIY compression you coukd recommend? Most of the designs seem to be based on the opto-coupler concept and I'm not sure how better off I could be doing it myself. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 The Mad Bean Afterlife gets good reviews for a diy comp: http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/after.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrnn1234 Posted October 27, 2016 Author Share Posted October 27, 2016 Thanks man . It's been a bit elusive what to pick as usually they involve building the opto-coupler yourself with an LED and a photo resistor, and this affect immensely the response of the pedal. I still have to check with my electronics-savy friend in which design is it possible to use a vactrol so it's only the circuit affecting the sound and not my hand work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chienmortbb Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 A vactrol is an opto coupler. It does have better than a home made one though. Many prefer a good VCA ( voltage controlled amplifier ) design and several good designs are available from THAT electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Wishbone Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 I've built both the Afterlife and the Engineer's Thumb. Both great but a bit too vintage-sounding for what I was looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bottle Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 [quote name='hrnn1234' timestamp='1477477394' post='3162439'] I've been fooling around with pedal mods for a while and I've come to the idea of building an analog stompbox with a few handy things. Nothing too fancy, so far I think it will be enough having some kind of: preamp, mild overdrive, distortion and a wild fuzz. Nothing that hasn't been done before. Ive been doing some research and there are nice schematics available, tried already, which I would only have to tune to my liking. I'm leaving out modulation effects as the only thing I use that's not dirt is an octaver which I wont be able to improve by doing it myself. For this kind of thing I'd also put some effect loop in the box. Questions for you people: would you add/remove something to this? Is there a tried and true DIY compression you coukd recommend? Most of the designs seem to be based on the opto-coupler concept and I'm not sure how better off I could be doing it myself. Cheers! [/quote] Nice! Just my £0.02, maybe include a balanced DI out with a wet/dry (clean) blend. I'm thinking similar to the Valeton Dapper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrnn1234 Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 That'sactually not a bad idea. I've been using my amp (mb200 super tiny and lightweight) as a di whenever I needed one but it would be wise to add it to the box. I'll look for some good designs, I haven't yet looked into that at all. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrnn1234 Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 What I have so far is: PRE sagrado poblano picoso COMP pale green MILD OD cream pie HARDER OD green giant FUZZ bazz fuss Seems to be the designs are simple, verified and good sounding. I'll do a bit more research on the DI and ways of modeling the sound on the dirts and start prototyping. I though of adding a matrix so IZ could swap the effect order but truth is I'll probably leave the sounds as they are when I find something I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.