Any DIY pedal builders on TB? Strut your stuff!

There are so many talented people out there who understand things on a level that I barely scratch the surface of... so whenever I try something different, especially with the muff circuit, I just assume that someone must have tried it previously.

On the other hand, I think that a lot of people want the super driven/distortion sound and aren't going for a more subtle, overdriven but full in a muff way kind of sound.

 

@deepestend

I didn't follow all the latest muff talk in detail, also my understanding of things is pretty limited, but I might add that there's a cool PCB around, that mirrors the Kit Rae schematic. This one.

Based on that PCB, I've made a pretty silly "all options" Muff, to be found here .

Good luck with your experimentations! It's a cool circuit to go wild with.

 

@Fuzzonaut THanks for the links! That's a great PCB layout. Great, build as well!

 

That's not true, "nobody goes below 47n..." — jw23mind does...


...and now you have.

I can't imagine the number of people tinkering on Muff circuits that nobody else has done it. The only difference is it hasn't been done commercially, available to the masses.

 

i just finished this one last night. i forgot how much i like this pedal:

 

One of my favorite compressors. I sold mine, though. Did you build it with the stock circuit or with the bass mods? I thought it worked just fine for bass in stock form.

 

i just built it stock. IMO, it didn't need any mods at alll.

 

The newest kid on my block is another lovely Darkglass clone from Aion, this time the Binary fuzz, based on the Duality Fuzz Engine. I really like my Maelstrom, so I was excited to give this one a try:



It took me a while to settle on an aesthetic for this build, and I went with a bit of a strange choice that ended up looking really great. The enclosure is the September special run colour from LMS, "Golden Glitter". Given the nature of this effect and the imagery it invokes, the artwork naturally features our old friend Janus. This piece was something I found on a random PNG site, perfect for this project, that I vectorized and edited a bit to give the result you see here. I went with oxblood graphics and actual Davies 1400s to go with the gold base, which works surprisingly well, and I'm really happy with how it turned out (another masterpiece by Spencer from Amplifyfun). The text is rendered in the font Dumbledor 1. The footswitch is an LMS Pro 3PDT as usual for me in builds that call for one, and the LED is red.

This build went very smoothly IMO, but I am giving it four stars a) because of the crappy 3PDT breakout board and b) because pin 3 of the Blend pot is unacceptably close to so many other things. I use a smaller-than-stock tip on my Hakko 888D and this, I'm convinced, is the only reason all the surrounding components escaped damage.

So how does it sound? I haven't had a ton of time with this yet but am already enjoying it. First thing to note is that there is no gain control, so I hope you like Fuzz because that's what you are getting The left side of the Duality control is a CMOS-based fuzzstortion that sounds like a nastier version of the Maelstrom/B3K, and the right side is a glitchy, angular fuzz with an unusual comparator-based topology that has a very unique sound. Either side alone sounds great, but as usual, the magic is in the middle. There are so many usable and textured fuzz tones to be had all over the Duality knob, which are broadened exponentially by blending in different amounts of your clean signal. Although the tone at all noon was nice, it didn't impress me quite as much as the Maelstrom did using the same settings, but it didn't take long to find several tones I liked. I built the Filter control stock (as a 5 kHz shelving filter, not the 1 kHz mid boost/cut that's detailed in the build doc as a potential mod) but at the moment I'm finding myself always keeping to the right side of the control (less high cut), so I'm kind of curious as to what the mid-control-version sounds like. I don't think I'll bother doing it to this build, but I feel like this would be a really useful thing to make switchable.

 

Traynor TS-120 B preamp:


It is very similar to the preamp of the TS-60B / TS-50B aka "Rusty Box"

 

just finished this one today. it's basically two Zvex Sho's in one, or like having two JPTR Jives in one without the clipping diodes (which i never use anyway).

 

Doug from Darkglass posted a Gain mod several years back for the Duality, something I've intended to do to mine at some point (not sure how this may differ from the Aion layout):

 

Ah, cool. It seems it doesn't differ at all, in the Aion schematic R4 is the feedback resistor for the first gain stage which is obviously what we are going for here. The specified value there is 330K so I'd actually be inclined to put a 1M across the pot lugs to get 333K (instead of a 750K which will leave you at 300K and a touch less gain as a consequence).

 

Question for the diy boys and girls..

What dictates the operational voltage range of a pedal?

Is it the component with the lowest operational voltage?

 

2x Buzzaround

First up, a D*A*M version, called the Buzzotron, on vero (dirtbox layouts).
I used metal film resistors and put the whole charge pump story on the footswitch board.
As for capacitors: 2 Silver Micas, 2 big ol' mojo caps and 3x tantalum.
Then add a chunky Mullard OA81 with a forward oltage of 0,791mV (!) as the GE diode to that.
And the transistors are all GT2307, Q1+2 both hfe 65, Q3 hfE 83.

Well, it sounds huge, agressive, unruly and in yer face, it's amazing.
Oh and Buzzo-Tron .... the graphics were kinda obvious.




N.E.W. Buzzaround (Design Dunwich, PCB Godcity), which is "inspired by", aka as modified. It is NPN, has a muff style tonestack added and a Volume knob. The PCB itself is layed out for bigger "mojo" components. I put in a mix of carbon comp and 2W resistors and some fancy capacitors.
Transistors are: 3x 2N2219 und 1x MP38 (Q3).
It sounds nice, maybe too nice? ... I mean the tone stack is cool and you can dial back the rudeness with the fuzz knob, but frankly, who wants that? The Buzzaround attitude or signature sound gets somehow lost. Again, it sounds very good, has different dirt sounds on tap, but my favourite setting with this one is everything dimed but the Volume. Could have been a one knob fuzz ....

 

it's usually the filter cap's voltage rating in the power supply.

 

i just finished this one this morning. Nobelium preamp (Noble clone). I'm using two NOS 12AU7's in it.

 

I have one on standby myself. How do you like it?

 

it sounds really good.

 

My boards should arrive soon!