Any DIY pedal builders on TB? Strut your stuff!

[davelowell2]

I used the cap values from the ram’s head layout on tagboard. Probably suited to guitar but that’s an easy fix if I feel the need to tinker.


The Phat Phuk I finished today, just need to box it up. I used GT402B and J201’s on smd conversion boards from Pedalpcb. Sounds cool. 2 pots.

 

[Feral Feline]

Sheesh you guys are prolific. And fast.

How long to build the Phat Phuk, and then how will you dress up the enclosure, if at all?

... I am still on the learning curve and have not been able to figure out how to do a proper tone bypass on this particular vero layout. ...

Which layout, can you post it?

Could be fun trying to sort out the tone section and have a Sw that does the mids bumped/ flat/ scooped thing.

I really like how Aion does that with an on-on-on sw. Most mid-scoop switches I've seen are on-off-on and so you've got to have the smallest cap in the middle and parallel it on either side. If I'm not mistaken that gives you flat/scooped/boosted; whereas with Aion it's a more logical user interface of scooped/flat/boosted.

 

[davelowell2]

Sheesh you guys are prolific. And fast.

How long to build the Phat Phuk, and then how will you dress up the enclosure, if at all?

Probably two hours to cut the vero, make the cuts and traces, populate board and test.
My style of finishing is a balance of ease and durability. I stamp letters, color with a sharpie and then wet sand. It’s easy, quick, and looks somewhat unique. I admit Fairfield does it better but I’m just a guy in the basement. I’m not into taking days to paint multiple coats and sand in between and stuff. I want to finish it and get the next one going. There are examples of my simple style in this thread.

 

[mdalamond]

Sheesh you guys are prolific. And fast.

How long to build the Phat Phuk, and then how will you dress up the enclosure, if at all?

Which layout, can you post it?

Could be fun trying to sort out the tone section and have a Sw that does the mids bumped/ flat/ scooped thing.

I really like how Aion does that with an on-on-on sw. Most mid-scoop switches I've seen are on-off-on and so you've got to have the smallest cap in the middle and parallel it on either side. If I'm not mistaken that gives you flat/scooped/boosted; whereas with Aion it's a more logical user interface of scooped/flat/boosted.

So this is the lay out. Switch 1 is the only reference to a switch. Most muff lay out are shown using a dpdt switch and doing the boost , flat, scoop like you mention only the smallest cap being on the vero and the parralles on the switch.
If my understanding of the BB is correct , there is no boost,flat or scoop. The switch is meant to be a straight up tone bypass making the tone knob inactive. Turning it does nothing. All the gut shots off the BB with switches that I've seen are spst. There is a link here AMZ - Guitar Effects: Tone Control Bypass that shows the schematic for a tone bypass. Unfortunately I am not at the level of being able to read schematics and apply to vero layouts, lol. Im just starting to be able to somewhat understand schematics. Here is the layout I built mine to.

 

[AudioTaper]

Probably two hours to cut the vero, make the cuts and traces, populate board and test.
My style of finishing is a balance of ease and durability. I stamp letters, color with a sharpie and then wet sand. It’s easy, quick, and looks somewhat unique. I admit Fairfield does it better but I’m just a guy in the basement. I’m not into taking days to paint multiple coats and sand in between and stuff. I want to finish it and get the next one going. There are examples of my simple style in this thread.

Are you cranking them out to sell?

 

[mdalamond]

I wish I could sell some. They just keep piling up. Ever since I gave up drinking this has consumed my life . If Im not playing my bass then Im building something. Whenever my bandmates call they never ask me what Im doing anymore, they just start the conversation with " whatcha buildin now"

 

[AudioTaper]

I got my hands on a preprogrammed DSP board with 16 types of Reverb and chorus. I need to make a small signal amp to get the level up (I'll probably try my old BJT booster project, provides 20dB of clean gain) and I'm waiting on a 9VDC to 5VDC converter. Enclosure is a Hammond 1590BB that I'll paint. The control is a 16-detent gray code encoder, and I'll have a volume from the booster side. Should be a fun and cheap little project.

 

[AudioTaper]

I wish I could sell some. They just keep piling up. Ever since I gave up drinking this has consumed my life . If Im not playing my bass then Im building something. Whenever my bandmates call they never ask me what Im doing anymore, they just start the conversation with " whatcha buildin now"

Better for you than drinking.

 

[SubHuman]

I got my hands on a preprogrammed DSP board with 16 types of Reverb and chorus. I need to make a small signal amp to get the level up (I'll probably try my old BJT booster project, provides 20dB of clean gain) and I'm waiting on a 9VDC to 5VDC converter. Enclosure is a Hammond 1590BB that I'll paint. The control is a 16-detent gray code encoder, and I'll have a volume from the booster side. Should be a fun and cheap little project. View attachment 4170443

What DSP is this design using? A little more info if you can share! Thx!

 

[davelowell2]

Are you cranking them out to sell?

I’ve often thought about it, not sure there’s a market for them. Mostly I build them for me. A few are for friends.

 

[AudioTaper]

What DSP is this design using? A little more info if you can share! Thx!

NOS Alesis board I was able to pick up.

Edit
Found a pic of the front of the amp they were in. Seems like a good selection of presets

 

[Feral Feline]

Good score!

I think I know where I might be able to get my hands on one of those Alesis, if there's any left.

Probably two hours to cut the vero, make the cuts and traces, populate board and test.
My style of finishing is a balance of ease and durability. I stamp letters, color with a sharpie and then wet sand. It’s easy, quick, and looks somewhat unique. I admit Fairfield does it better but I’m just a guy in the basement. I’m not into taking days to paint multiple coats and sand in between and stuff. I want to finish it and get the next one going. There are examples of my simple style in this thread.

They look great, I liked the SHO-TEA idear and methinks I'll try some cross-hatch style scratching.
I worked at a bicycle company way back when and had to cross-hatch finish aluminum V-brake boosters on a bench-grinder.

I like Bugatti "engine-turned" dashes/firewalls, time-consuming but looks great:

My Favourite is the Bugatti hand-scraped engine finishing, not present in the pic above, but here's a 4cyl Bug with it:

The pic doesn't do it justice. It's really beautiful up close.

I tend to get bogged down in the planning and "what-if" etc... instead of just DOING it.

 

[Feral Feline]

So this is the lay out. Switch 1 is the only reference to a switch. Most muff lay out are shown using a dpdt switch and doing the boost , flat, scoop like you mention only the smallest cap being on the vero and the parralles on the switch.
If my understanding of the BB is correct , there is no boost,flat or scoop. The switch is meant to be a straight up tone bypass making the tone knob inactive. Turning it does nothing. All the gut shots off the BB with switches that I've seen are spst. There is a link here AMZ - Guitar Effects: Tone Control Bypass that shows the schematic for a tone bypass. Unfortunately I am not at the level of being able to read schematics and apply to vero layouts, lol. Im just starting to be able to somewhat understand schematics. Here is the layout I built mine to.
View attachment 4170439

Thanks. I've got that layout on my hard-drive, too.

Looking through the schematic now...

Going from back to front, 'cause the tone stack is close to the output, of course.

Need to find the cap that goes to the base of Q4, C12 in the GGG Tuned Schematic (and I'm 98.73% sure that's what was used for this vero).

Hmm... I don't see how one connection on the vero to "Sw1" is going to bypass the tone stack, the information is incomplete. [Apres-Edit: Ahhh, after doing the mods below, I looked at the AMZ link, now I get it. Clever and simple. A lot simpler than mine, but... the AMZ method has the 39k and 3n9 still in the circuit, and the pot — whether you'd hear that or not I've no idea. Easy enough to try, just remove one side of the 10n and 100k in the tone stack and play through your pedal and turn the tone knob. Anyway, below is my attempt at the EHX method where the entire tone stack — 2 caps, 2 resistors, and tone pot — are removed completely from the audio path. Read on intrepid Muff-Maker-Tone-Takers...]

With "Sw1" as per the vero, note lower case "w",
and "SW#" with a capital "W" repping the DPDT...
DPDT:
1 4
2 5
3 6

...Here's how I propose to bypass the Tone Stack:

- Remove from the vero the Tone2 Wire — just from the vero, leave the other end attached to the tone-pot.
- Take pot Tone2's wire and run it to SW6 lug of your DPDT on-on toggle.
- From SW5, run a wire to the Vero where Tone2 was previously, 7th row down from top.
- Vero's "Sw1" wire (still attached to vero) runs to SW2, that's the Collector of Q3, and...​

...here's where it gets dicey, uh spicey...
Top right of 3n9 is a hole, we need that hole, but we need to cut the trace between it and the 100n to its right. It'd be a hairline cut and once soldering the chance of bridging it is too great, so I propose...

- Right of the 3n9, move both 100n & 15k over one hole to the right, the 15k will have to share holes with the jumpers.
- With 100n & 15k moved, there's room for a trace cut where the north end of the 100n was.
- In the hole to the right of the 3n9 (470k above the needed hole) attach a wire...
- Run that 3n9 wire to SW3.
- Lastly, attach a 150k resistor between SW1 & SW4.​

A bit of wire reshuffling and an extra trace cut and ... BoOm!, you should now have a bypassable tone-stack.
The 150k is what EHX used for its tone bypass, and I've seen it used on other DIY circuits such as GuitarPCB's MuffN, so you don't get a volume spike when bypassing the tonesschtackage.

Here's an idear, m'dearies: Make the Switch a 3PDT stomper and use the 3rd column for an indicator LED. Swap out the 150k on the switch for a 100k pot in series with a 47k or 56k resistor and you've got a "Channel 2" MoarLaud button. If you don't want another hole in your enclosure and knob to twiddle, you could make that 100k pot a trimmer in line with the 47k and then you can still dial in a volume boost for solos. Or a 200k trimmer and no resistor and dial in a boost or DROP. Shhboom. Now you see why nothing gets done at the Feral Feline Pedalier, as option-itis infects the noggin causing near-complete paralysis, save for the exploration of yet more potential options...


OKay, doakeh, run out of time for today. Somebody should double-check my bypass plan, see if it's verofiable.

Will have to tackle the Scoopered/Poopered/Boostured tone-stackage anon, thatis, if you want a maudded Blue Beard.


Happy enclosure drilling everyone.

 

[mdalamond]

Thanks. I've got that layout on my hard-drive, too.

Looking through the schematic now...

Going from back to front, 'cause the tone stack is close to the output, of course.

Need to find the cap that goes to the base of Q4, C12 in the GGG Tuned Schematic (and I'm 98.73% sure that's what was used for this vero).

Hmm... I don't see how one connection on the vero to "Sw1" is going to bypass the tone stack, the information is incomplete. [Apres-Edit: Ahhh, after doing the mods below, I looked at the AMZ link, now I get it. Clever and simple. A lot simpler than mine, but... the AMZ method has the 39k and 3n9 still in the circuit, and the pot — whether you'd hear that or not I've no idea. Easy enough to try, just remove one side of the 10n and 100k in the tone stack and play through your pedal and turn the tone knob. Anyway, below is my attempt at the EHX method where the entire tone stack — 2 caps, 2 resistors, and tone pot — are removed completely from the audio path. Read on intrepid Muff-Maker-Tone-Takers...]

With "Sw1" as per the vero, note lower case "w",
and "SW#" with a capital "W" repping the DPDT...
DPDT:
1 4
2 5
3 6

...Here's how I propose to bypass the Tone Stack:

- Remove from the vero the Tone2 Wire — just from the vero, leave the other end attached to the tone-pot.
- Take pot Tone2's wire and run it to SW6 lug of your DPDT on-on toggle.
- From SW5, run a wire to the Vero where Tone2 was previously, 7th row down from top.
- Vero's "Sw1" wire (still attached to vero) runs to SW2, that's the Collector of Q3, and...​

...here's where it gets dicey, uh spicey...
Top right of 3n9 is a hole, we need that hole, but we need to cut the trace between it and the 100n to its right. It'd be a hairline cut and once soldering the chance of bridging it is too great, so I propose...

- Right of the 3n9, move both 100n & 15k over one hole to the right, the 15k will have to share holes with the jumpers.
- With 100n & 15k moved, there's room for a trace cut where the north end of the 100n was.
- In the hole to the right of the 3n9 (470k above the needed hole) attach a wire...
- Run that 3n9 wire to SW3.
- Lastly, attach a 150k resistor between SW1 & SW4.​

A bit of wire reshuffling and an extra trace cut and ... BoOm!, you should now have a bypassable tone-stack.
The 150k is what EHX used for its tone bypass, and I've seen it used on other DIY circuits such as GuitarPCB's MuffN, so you don't get a volume spike when bypassing the tonesschtackage.

Here's an idear, m'dearies: Make the Switch a 3PDT stomper and use the 3rd column for an indicator LED. Swap out the 150k on the switch for a 100k pot in series with a 47k or 56k resistor and you've got a "Channel 2" MoarLaud button. If you don't want another hole in your enclosure and knob to twiddle, you could make that 100k pot a trimmer in line with the 47k and then you can still dial in a volume boost for solos. Or a 200k trimmer and no resistor and dial in a boost or DROP. Shhboom. Now you see why nothing gets done at the Feral Feline Pedalier, as option-itis infects the noggin causing near-complete paralysis, save for the exploration of yet more potential options...


OKay, doakeh, run out of time for today. Somebody should double-check my bypass plan, see if it's verofiable.

Will have to tackle the Scoopered/Poopered/Boostured tone-stackage anon, thatis, if you want a maudded Blue Beard.


Happy enclosure drilling everyone.

Wow, that was quick. Thanks for taking the time to do that AND explain. I will give this a go but it will have to wait till Thursday after work. Got band rehearsal tomorrow evening. Thanks again.
Matt

 

[Fuzzonaut]

If my understanding of the BB is correct , there is no boost,flat or scoop. The switch is meant to be a straight up tone bypass making the tone knob inactive.

As an owner of a BB, bought directly from Sonny, I can confirm that.

I’ve often thought about it, not sure there’s a market for them. Mostly I build them for me. A few are for friends.

Same here, although I did put a few on the local equivalent of Craigslist some days ago, just to see what will happen.
So far, there was just one guy hitting me up, asking if I might have some specific NPN Germanium transistors to spare as he's building a TAFM ...

 

[Feral Feline]

I can't wrap my head around that "Sw1" on the vero. On the AMZ schematic it makes sense, but on the vero, the wire going to the switch is coming straight off the same row that Q3's collector is on... The AMZ Sw would take out the connection to ground of the 100k to the immediate left of Q4 on the Vero, as well as taking out the ground connection of the 10n cap in the upper right of the vero.

"Sw1" does f-all.

Going over to Tagboard to see what I can find...

 

[AudioTaper]

I just placed my first order at PedalPCB. I'm keeping it small for now (OC2 and the Terminal Fuzz with some switch breakout boards) just to try them out and so the wife doesnt put a pillow over my face when I'm sleeping.
I'm planning on ordering more down the road.

 

[mdalamond]

I can't wrap my head around that "Sw1" on the vero. On the AMZ schematic it makes sense, but on the vero, the wire going to the switch is coming straight off the same row that Q3's collector is on... The AMZ Sw would take out the connection to ground of the 100k to the immediate left of Q4 on the Vero, as well as taking out the ground connection of the 10n cap in the upper right of the vero.

"Sw1" does f-all.

Going over to Tagboard to see what I can find...

You will have to go to the forum and look under requests. It’s very close to the top on the first page. You will see where I have been posting on it as well.
You sir are a genius. I did your mod but I did not move the cap and resistor I just did a very fine cut on the strip board and was very clean with my soldering tested everything. It works perfectly. I may build a new one and make the board one row wider but that is already a tight squeeze into a 1590 B. I could probably turn it the other way. I would elaborate more but I am running late and must get to rehearsal right now. It only took me about 15 minutes to do the mod. It does sound pretty good with the tone stack bypassed. There is a very slight boost. I’m sure probably decreasing the resistor would increase the boost? Thank you for your time in figuring this out. Very much appreciated. Got a run

 

[Feral Feline]

There was no new additional info at Tagboard; haven't checked DIYSB nor FSB yet... but hark! What sound over yonder vero barks? 'Tis the Beast, and Bluebeard — EQ-free — is the sound...

Started my post before I spotted yours @mdalamond. Glad it worked for you.
I'm no genius, just a persistent curious cat. Now that the mod is verified, I'll post it over in the Tag thread.
You've mentioned you're not great with schematics, but if a crotchety old cat like me can learn new licks, like reading a schematic, then so can you. It really helps. Kinda like playing music by ear and not knowing the chords, and then learning the chords and someone calls out a tune in Bbm and you don't have to hunt and peck with your ears, you know what to play. It's that kind of helpful. Brings even more enjoyment to proceedings when you can comfortably play in any key called out, or read a schematic to trouble-shoot or ff f f fffreee-style it.

Looking at the Kit Rae schematics for the EHX tone bypass again, they put a coupla coupling caps before and after the bypass resistor. I can see maybe the one after Q3 before the bypass resistor, but the cap after the bypass resistor would do the funky-monkey dance with the tone-sections output cap, ie not sum like parallel caps do, but Cap-sum=C1*C2/(C1+C2). I think that's how it goes. I'm no mathemagician. Anywhooo... I think those caps are unnecessary and will continue to think so until someone tells me why otherwise.

For the bypass resistor, yes lowering the value will give you a bigger bump in volume. If you don't want the slight bump in volume 150k brought you, upping the game to the next level to bring the volume down is 160k (& 180k after that) — or just play around with some small values in series with the 150k 'til you get unity gain for your particular build (allowing for parts tolerance variances etc). If you want even MOAR of a bump, the next value down is 130k, then 120k.

Personally, I honestly wouldn't bother widening the vero another column, I'd be happy with that 150k sharing space with the jumpers.

 

[Feral Feline]

I just placed my first order at PedalPCB. I'm keeping it small for now (OC2 and the Terminal Fuzz with some switch breakout boards) just to try them out and so the wife doesnt put a pillow over my face when I'm sleeping.
I'm planning on ordering more down the road.

I think you'll be pleased.

My order was so well packed, that I didn't unpack it — 'cause then I'd have to repack it for my move. Like, it was hermetically-sealed packed. HK is really humid, so better left unpacked than what my shoddy attempt at repacking would be. So I'm risking that the order is correct and nothing's missing so I can keep everything sealed up tight until I can have a good crack at it with the solder-whip...

I can't wait for your feedback on the OC-2.