DIY Effects

[bobbass4k]

10 minutes ago, bartelby said:

An inventory?

Now there's a good idea!

I have to do most of my componenets ordering at work so it's just practical, I got sick of ordering expensive ICs for new builds only to discover I had one in the back of the ICs drawer. it only works if you remember to update it though...

[bartelby]

1 hour ago, bobbass4k said:

it only works if you remember to update it though...

Yeah, I can already see the flaw with this...

😆

[Sibob]

My dad swiped me 2 x 270p from work, so I actually just need a single 300p now lol. I have two 150's, but if I can avoid doing the parallel thing I will. That said, it's hardly worth the price of a stamp.

Meh lol

Si

[bartelby]

My wife got me this for my birthday. A soldering and rework station. I have to say, I’m impressed.

The ability to desolder smd ICs in a couple of seconds is fantastic!

[Bigwan]

We have a few rework stations at work. VERY handy for SMD stuff! Always fancied one myself...

[Bigwan]

I noticed on instagram last night that pedalparts are about to start selling an ROG Ginger kit for anyone that's interested. Nice sounding fliptop emulation that can get into SVT-ish territory. I prefer it to the SFT.

[bloke_zero]

A couple of builds from  the vong and the guma drive - I'm finding the Guma VERY fussy about powersupply - quite noisy when the Grunt switch engaged with a big 50HZ hum unless I run it from an old boss powersupply.

 

[jetofuj]

My first Tone Bender MkI with selectable input caps.

[Sibob]

Finally got round to building my Kurt Ballou Brutalist Jr, with an added Fuzzdog clean blend control (hence the slightly uneven pot spacing).
Looks a bit of a rats nest top-down, but all the wiring is nicely layered, with moldable wire. I'll probably leave the top plain, maybe label the knobs with some old-school embossed labels.

Sounds very cool!

 

I also recently modded my Boss ODB-3 with the Monte Allums Try-Gain Plus mod. No guts shots because there's not much to see, replacement of about 10 components to smooth, thicken and tame the buzzy nature of the stock pedal into a nicer overdrive, including an IC replacement. The mod also adds the switch which let's you switch between 4002, LED & Diode lift clipping options. Also I added the sticker to make it even more ODB:

Si

Edited November 14, 2018 by Sibob

[ahpook]

Maybe this should go into the pedalboard thread, but as they're all from kits...

Right to left, all Schalltechnik 04 kits

VONG-Filterung
Pumpernickel
GUMA-Antique
GUMA-Drive

The finish went wrong on the Filterung a total of three times, so I ddn't redo it a 4th. It's....um....a distressed finish I'm quite fond on the 'prototype' look with flat colours and Sharpie legends.

I can't speak highly enough of these kits, great boards and good components. The SMT stuff is a bit fiddly....especially tricky for me as I have pretty bad eyesight, but I managed it and I'm quietly chuffed about that.

I've wanted a pedalboard of kit pedals for a while so I'm happy.

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by ahpook

[Bigwan]

1 hour ago, Sibob said:

Finally got round to building my Kurt Ballou Brutalist Jr, with an added Fuzzdog clean blend control (hence the slightly uneven pot spacing).
Looks a bit of a rats nest top-down, but all the wiring is nicely layered, with moldable wire. I'll probably leave the top plain, maybe label the knobs with some old-school embossed labels.

Sounds very cool!

 

Did you do any of the suggested mods on the Brutalist? Have a couple of the PCBs knocking around!

[Bigwan]

5 minutes ago, ahpook said:

Maybe this should go into the pedalboard thread, but as they're all from kits...

Right to left, all Schalltechnik 04 kits

VONG-Filterung
Pumpernickel
GUMA-Antique
GUMA-Drive

The finish went wrong on the Filterung a total of three times, so I ddn't redo it a 4th. It's....um....a distressed finish

I can speak highly enough of these kits, great boards and good components. The SMT stuff is tricky for me as I have pretty bad eyesight, but I managed it and I'm quietly chuffed about that.

I've wanted a pedalboard of kit pedals for a while so I'm chuffed.

 

Agreed, they're great kits. I've built the Drive, Antique and Pumpernickel, and have the VONG kit SOMEWHERE in the house (misplaced in a recent office move!).

[Sibob]

47 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Did you do any of the suggested mods on the Brutalist? Have a couple of the PCBs knocking around!

No, largely because I knew I was including a clean blend, so would need to 'sculpt' the sound of the pedal too much. That said, I always socket my clipping diodes, so easy enough to swap those in and out for anything. My experience with the ODB-3 though, where I prefer the diode lift compared to the 4002 & LEDs means I might experiment with just removing the diodes from the Brutalist and bridging the connections. We'll see, sounds great as is.

Si

[bloke_zero]

I was really pleased with Vong - hit a lot of my minimalist pedal needs - though hard to drill the case with the push button on the side!

I was recently thinking about building a passive ferrite DI from these guys: https://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/products/ferrite-di

But then I thought why not expand the vong with a Cinemag CM-DBX transformer?  Anyone tried anything like that?

[fuzzonaut]

More Fuzz Dog stuff.

Hype Fuzz/Destructor Drive. I went for all 3 circuits (Fuzz/Drive/Bass Drive) on the toggle and like the drive better than the fuzz. 

 

Peachy Fuzz. This one is great, big fat sounds in there. 

[Woodinblack]

On 08/11/2018 at 09:46, bloke_zero said:

A couple of builds from  the vong and the guma drive - I'm finding the Guma VERY fussy about powersupply - quite noisy when the Grunt switch engaged with a big 50HZ hum unless I run it from an old boss powersupply.

I found that too with the Guma.

[Guest oZZma]

How did you learn to make pedals? I'd like to try, I read the book by Craig Anderton, the intro was clear but the projects are not explained in depth so that one can understand what is doing exactly 😩

[Unknown_User]

21 hours ago, oZZma said:

How did you learn to make pedals? I'd like to try, I read the book by Craig Anderton, the intro was clear but the projects are not explained in depth so that one can understand what is doing exactly 😩

I started from absolute scratch, no experience of electronics or anything, mainly from following designs on this site: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/.  I had a good read through http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/p/components.html to know what all the components were and http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/04/vero-build-guide.html, http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/02/offboard-wiring.html and http://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/MBP_FootswitchWiring.pdf for how to get them onto the strip board and into a box. 

This is a good guide for how to transfer a schematic onto a strip board too: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/09/vero-layout-guide.html

Finally, I found this interesting on how to make your own designs: http://sessionville.com/articles/how-to-make-your-own-distortion-pedal.  Although I haven't tried that yet.  That's my plan for the new year!

[Guest oZZma]

10 hours ago, Unknown_User said:

I started from absolute scratch, no experience of electronics or anything, mainly from following designs on this site: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/.  I had a good read through http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/p/components.html to know what all the components were and http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/04/vero-build-guide.html, http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/02/offboard-wiring.html and http://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/MBP_FootswitchWiring.pdf for how to get them onto the strip board and into a box. 

This is a good guide for how to transfer a schematic onto a strip board too: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/09/vero-layout-guide.html

Finally, I found this interesting on how to make your own designs: http://sessionville.com/articles/how-to-make-your-own-distortion-pedal.  Although I haven't tried that yet.  That's my plan for the new year!

Thank you so much!! Lots of useful resourseces, I'll check them out in my Christmas vacancy so I'll have something fun to do while not reharsing 

 

[Guest oZZma]

Do you think the Harmonic Percolator is easy enough for a beginner? Is it suitable as a first project?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Harmonic-Percolator-PCB-circuit-board-DIY-guitar-effects-pedal-/173654725638

Or of not, could you suggest a couple of easy kits to start learning the basics and build basic skills?

Edited December 28, 2018 by oZZma

[bobbass4k]

A percolator is as good a starting place as any, beware though as the circuit is quite tempramental, the original transistors are obsolete and the sound will change quite drastically with your transistor choices, I'd maybe go for a components kit from somewhere like fuzzdog, as they'll come with "known good" ones. 

[Guest oZZma]

24 minutes ago, bobbass4k said:

A percolator is as good a starting place as any, beware though as the circuit is quite tempramental, the original transistors are obsolete and the sound will change quite drastically with your transistor choices, I'd maybe go for a components kit from somewhere like fuzzdog, as they'll come with "known good" ones. 

Thanks a lot!! I found a site which sells "beginners" kits, maybe better I start with them! 

These ones are effects I may want to use, the first two are simpler, the third a little more challenging:

https://www.jedspeds.co.uk/product-page/treble-boost

https://www.jedspeds.co.uk/product-page/bit-4069

https://www.jedspeds.co.uk/product-page/the-evil-robot

I'll  buy the Percolator anyways but I'll keep It to build it later when I understand how to choose components, because I want It to sound as it is supposed to sound, and keep It on my pedalboard 

Edited December 28, 2018 by oZZma

[fuzzonaut]

On 28/12/2018 at 14:02, oZZma said:

Do you think the Harmonic Percolator is easy enough for a beginner? Is it suitable as a first project?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Harmonic-Percolator-PCB-circuit-board-DIY-guitar-effects-pedal-/173654725638

Or of not, could you suggest a couple of easy kits to start learning the basics and build basic skills?

I started out about a year ago - with a Bass Fuzz kit from Fuzzdog. After that, I switched to buying PCB's only and built 2 more of their "one knob fuzzes" to get a hang of it.

Later on, I also built the Fuzzdog Percolator. Great circuit! You should be fine with that one - just use sockets for the transistors, so you can change them easily.  And include the diode lift switch, it's worth it.

Another thing I recommend is to build an "audio probe" - it lets you follow the signal through a circuit. That's helpful, if you need to find a problem with your build, but it is also very cool to follow a signal through a working effect - that gives you an idea what those components actually do to your signal.

 

Here's my recent build - also based on a Fuzzdog PCB.

Super loud, bone crushing fuzz. Big knobs and large enclosure for even more low end. 😉 And a bit of wonky drilling.

 

 

[Guest oZZma]

@fuzzonaut thank you so much for the GREAT tips!! I've found a tutorial to build an audio probe, I'll make it, seems really easy!

(I don't know how your pedal sounds, but the design is really cool 😁)

[Unknown_User]

On 04/01/2019 at 15:16, fuzzonaut said:

Another thing I recommend is to build an "audio probe" - it lets you follow the signal through a circuit. That's helpful, if you need to find a problem with your build, but it is also very cool to follow a signal through a working effect - that gives you an idea what those components actually do to your signal.

 

Interesting.  How would you use that?  I have one effect that doesn't work (you just get a steady white noise when it's on) and I'd be interested to see if that could show me where it's going wrong.