DIY Effects

[ColinB]

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1463407619' post='3051081']
Can I use a bass body to make the charcoal?
[/quote]

Only after you've smoked the grass!

[Bigwan]

Little did I know that I'd wake up this morning and order all the bits to build 2 (count 'em - 2..) Meatball Clones...

I'm more than a little concerned that it was a vero Meatball clone that killed all my pedal building enthusiasm a few years ago.

But no half measures this time - pre-etched enclosures from Audio Disruption Devices in the USA (which started all this madness!) and Rissole v1.4 PCBs ordered from OSH Park. Can't wait!

[Dood]

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1462882013' post='3046547']
These are the best I've used:

[/quote]


I ended up buying these as I've not used them before. The price was good so I could take a hit on them if I didn't get on with them. Initial tests and I appear to be getting on ok!

[paul_5]

Just finished putting together a modified Tube Screamer with a 2 band EQ instead of the tone control. It does magical things to the DHA tube overdrive unit.

Very happy with it.

[Bigwan]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1463658367' post='3053132']
Just finished putting together a modified Tube Screamer with a 2 band EQ instead of the tone control. It does magical things to the DHA tube overdrive unit.

Very happy with it.
[/quote]

BB Preamp-a-like?

[paul_5]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1463670397' post='3053263']
BB Preamp-a-like?
[/quote]

Kind of. The BB has an active 2 band Baxandall EQ after the gain stage (which is suspiciously similar to the Tube Screamer…) - the Timmy EQ is a cut only EQ, so it's only 1 opamp (JRC4558) in the pedal.

The bass cut is before the drive section and the treble cut is after it.

[Bigwan]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1463672744' post='3053292']


Kind of. The BB has an active 2 band Baxandall EQ after the gain stage (which is suspiciously similar to the Tube Screamer…) - the Timmy EQ is a cut only EQ, so it's only 1 opamp (JRC4558) in the pedal.

The bass cut is before the drive section and the treble cut is after it.
[/quote]

Interesting. Never really looked at the Timmy... Must investigate!

[paul_5]

http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/wanna-build-timmy-overdrive.html

It's designed by a guy called Paul Cochrane.

[Bigwan]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1463686238' post='3053416']
http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/wanna-build-timmy-overdrive.html

It's designed by a guy called Paul Cochrane.
[/quote]

Oh I know the pedal, just never heard of it being used on bass that often. Did you make a straight up Timmy or mod it for bass?

[paul_5]

I made a TS808 that had been modified to include the Timmy tone circuitry:

[URL=http://s1221.photobucket.com/user/paul_510/media/Ibanez%20TS808%20with%20Timmy%20Tone%20Control_zps6mcnj3mb.png.html][IMG]http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd471/paul_510/Ibanez%20TS808%20with%20Timmy%20Tone%20Control_zps6mcnj3mb.png[/IMG][/URL]

The 47nf (lower left quadrant) is the one to increase to 1uf for much better bass response. The 51kΩ (top left Quadrant) governs the minimum amount of gain - reduce this value to tame the drive circuit)

[Bigwan]

Ah, I see. Took you up all wrong. Do you have a schematic?

[KingBollock]

I am considering getting an expression pedal, probably the Boss EV-5, to go with my Boss GX-700. I love the GX-700 but it hates basses, and it feels kind of wrong buying more stuff that I can only use with guitar and not bass. So I was thinking that building an effects box that I could plug the EV-5 into, that has effects for bass, would be fun. Off the top of my head I can only think of Wah and volume, but I am sure there must be more that could be done with it.

Unfortunately I can't find any plans for such a thing, so I thought I would ask you clever gentlemen for your thoughts and ideas.

[Winny Pooh]

Fuzz dog kits are UK based and good value. They're bass friendly too and come with appropriate capacitors to keep low end. I recently put the blender kit into my Hao Rust Ride.

[Passinwind]

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1464696234' post='3061485']
I am considering getting an expression pedal, probably the Boss EV-5, to go with my Boss GX-700. I love the GX-700 but it hates basses, and it feels kind of wrong buying more stuff that I can only use with guitar and not bass. [/quote]

I've owned a GX-700 for many years and have done a few mods to make it more bass friendly. The most important one was padding the input stage down to prevent premature overload.

Using a blender pedal or a full blown clean/dirty rig with the GX-700 on the dirty side might be worth playing with. I often run a separate tube preamp in the EFX loop with good results. Just bypassing the front end entirely and running a dedicated bass preamp into the EFX return can work pretty well too. In any case, if you want a good pedal controlled Wah I don't think the GX is really the right tool for that job.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Passinwind

[ahpook]

I sent off last week for a couple of PCBs from Moody Sounds in Sweden as I fancied building one of their Härt Müller bass overdrives.

I saw they had one of their 'Moody Overdrives' on clearance and for a whole kit including a box and decal/stickery thing was a bargain.

I put some pictures from its construction [url="https://flic.kr/s/aHskC6vpiX"]here[/url]

But here's the final article. Very good kit it with everything you need (even solder) as well as a few alternative components to tweak the circuit The board has locations for clipping diodes to place them either in the feedback loop of the op-amp or after the output. I socketed mine and I'm still tweaking. Not great for bass it seems - I've tried various input caps - it's happiest with a decent basscut or it gets awful farty.




More on the bass overdrive later....

Edited June 12, 2016 by ahpook

[ahpook]

Now, time to tap some brain power.

I built a RunOff Groove Big Daddy last week, and boy does it have some output (to be expected). I need to pad the output /before/ the volume control.

Is the an easy way of doing this ? My first instinct is to use a potential divider but then there's the interaction between the vol and the divider, as well as the tone control created by the cap decoupling the output.

I'm beginning to think a buffer will be needed.

[paul_5]

Holding my hand up - played a local fete this weekend, and the sound engineer plugged the bass directly into his DI box, then I took a feed from the parallel output into my pedalboard, then to my amp.

Turns out that as soon as I turned on my recently finished modded FX25 envelope filter I overloaded his system.

I was playing about with a trimpot on the input stage of the pedal (to set the 'sensitivity' sweep of the knob properly) and only used a 25kΩ pot - I suspect that the input impedance wasn't enough, and that's where the problem was.

Time to strap a 1MΩ across the input to ground then.

[KingBollock]

I have been thinking about building a tube preamp for a while now, but I don't know where to start. I know you can get them as pedals but I have been unable to find a layout for one. I don't even know what section of BassChat to ask about it in, especially as it is for guitar not bass (my bass amp has a tube channel preamp, but I don't like it).

I don't want to buy a kit because they're expensive and I'd like to spend as little as possible.

At the moment all I need is a plan for the preamp part, I can figure out what eq stage to use later. The only requirement really, is high gain.

Any advice? Even if it's just to suggest what sub forum I should ask this in (so I can blame you if someone tells me I've put it in the wrong place...).

[bartelby]

have you got this book?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Valve-Preamps-Guitar-Second/dp/0956154522

[Passinwind]

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1467547949' post='3084427']
I have been thinking about building a tube preamp for a while now, but I don't know where to start. I know you can get them as pedals but I have been unable to find a layout for one. I don't even know what section of BassChat to ask about it in, especially as it is for guitar not bass (my bass amp has a tube channel preamp, but I don't like it).

I don't want to buy a kit because they're expensive and I'd like to spend as little as possible.

At the moment all I need is a plan for the preamp part, I can figure out what eq stage to use later. The only requirement really, is high gain.

Any advice? Even if it's just to suggest what sub forum I should ask this in (so I can blame you if someone tells me I've put it in the wrong place...).
[/quote]

Why limit yourself to Basschat when you are wanting to build a guitar widget?

Here are a couple of useful sites to get you started:

http://www.ax84.com/

http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

A kit will actually very likely save you both money and many headaches if you are needing to ask where to start, IMHO.

Here's a relatively inexpensive one: http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9210K&cat=14

Good luck, and have fun.

[KingBollock]

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1467550570' post='3084459']
have you got this book?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Valve-Preamps-Guitar-Second/dp/0956154522
[/quote]
I haven't. Until the last few weeks I have had no interest in valve amps at all. My very first proper amp was a Laney Klipp, but only because it was cheap. I think it was probably something to do with having no access to information about them back then that caused it to blow up. And I had no idea until the best part of two decades later...

That book looks good, but it isn't cheap, and I really don't want to spend much. If it's going to cost a lot I simply won't be able to do it.

[KingBollock]

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1467557649' post='3084521']


Why limit yourself to Basschat when you are wanting to build a guitar widget?

Here are a couple of useful sites to get you started:

http://www.ax84.com/

http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

A kit will actually very likely save you both money and many headaches if you are needing to ask where to start, IMHO.

Here's a relatively inexpensive one: http://www.paia.com/proddetail.asp?prod=9210K&cat=14

Good luck, and have fun.
[/quote]
This is the only forum I am an active member of. It's home. And I am cripplingly shy (is one way to put it...).

I was hoping to see what parts I have (I do build other things, I have just never worked with valves) and what I could scavenge.

I have never had any interest in valve amps, but I would quite like a valve preamp for guitar. I have seen ones that look very simple, basic preamps with just gain and volume, but not much in the way of details (there is always either lots of pictures and no information, or lots said and no show, never both...). I figure that if I could get a plan, layout or schematic, and a bill of materials, with some general advice for the circuit, it would be enough to get me started.

There is such a wide variety, I was hoping that someone here might give me a clue before I just close my eyes, spin around and pick one at random.

I have read that working with valve amps can be dangerous, but I am a safe worker when it comes to electricity, and I don't want the poweramp, just the preamp.

[Passinwind]

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1467584967' post='3084736']
This is the only forum I am an active member of. It's home. And I am cripplingly shy (is one way to put it...).

I was hoping to see what parts I have (I do build other things, I have just never worked with valves) and what I could scavenge.

I have never had any interest in valve amps, but I would quite like a valve preamp for guitar. I have seen ones that look very simple, basic preamps with just gain and volume, but not much in the way of details (there is always either lots of pictures and no information, or lots said and no show, never both...). I figure that if I could get a plan, layout or schematic, and a bill of materials, with some general advice for the circuit, it would be enough to get me started.

There is such a wide variety, I was hoping that someone here might give me a clue before I just close my eyes, spin around and pick one at random.

I have read that working with valve amps can be dangerous, but I am a safe worker when it comes to electricity, and I don't want the poweramp, just the preamp.
[/quote]

OK, but how about a little more direction on whether you want clean, dirty, Fender, Vox, Marshall, and so on?

The AX84 site I linked has full layouts and bills of materials for many different circuits that you could just omit the power section for. One dedicated preamp build that many people have started with is also detailed here: [url="http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/mctube.htm"]http://www.dogstar.d...stuf/mctube.htm[/url] . This uses a lower power supply voltage than many others, which may be a smart way to start out IMO. My tube bass preamps all use at least 300 volts DC, at which point decent test equipment and a little experience are surely helpful things to have.

Another time honored way to get your hands dirty would be to find an old and/or broken guitar or PA amp on the cheap and hopefully make something useful out of it with minimal cash outlay. For instance, this one just needed a new input jack and it ended up being used professionally around Seattle for several years before I traded back for it:

Edited July 4, 2016 by Passinwind

[bartelby]

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1467584160' post='3084731']

That book looks good, but it isn't cheap, and I really don't want to spend much. If it's going to cost a lot I simply won't be able to do it.
[/quote]

I have a copy if you want to borrow it for a short while...

[KingBollock]

[quote name='Passinwind' timestamp='1467604769' post='3084758']


OK, but how about a little more direction on whether you want clean, dirty, Fender, Vox, Marshall, and so on?

The AX84 site I linked has full layouts and bills of materials for many different circuits that you could just omit the power section for. One dedicated preamp build that many people have started with is also detailed here: [url="http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/mctube.htm"]http://www.dogstar.d...stuf/mctube.htm[/url] . This uses a lower power supply voltage than many others, which may be a smart way to start out IMO. My tube bass preamps all use at least 300 volts DC, at which point decent test equipment and a little experience are surely helpful things to have.

Another time honored way to get your hands dirty would be to find an old and/or broken guitar or PA amp on the cheap and hopefully make something useful out of it with minimal cash outlay. For instance, this one just needed a new input jack and it ended up being used professionally around Seattle for several years before I traded back for it:


[/quote]
The on,y thing I really know is that I want dirty. If I am successful I woul add a clean channel, too, but the main reason for this is for the filth. I don't know about manufacturer sounds, I shall do some research on that.

I don't mind working with high voltages, back in the day I used to repair TVs, where many thousands of volts were involved. Though I would prefer something low voltage to start with while I experiment a bit.

I meant to say thank you for the links but there was something else I had also meant to say and while trying to remember what it was I mangled to forget both. If you see what I mean.

Thank you for giving me ideas to think about.