• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Any DIY pedal builders on TB? Strut your stuff!

#1,001
I finished this up yesterday, it is a PedalPCB Gnat board that I modded to be an NPN Elka Dizzy Tone clone. There's a thread on the mod over at the PedalPCB forums if you're interested here.

I am not used to fuzz sounding so good on bass. This really retains the low end very well and it is just so mean and nasty sounding, I really love it. There are some sound samples in the link I posted above if you're interested in listening to my terrible playing.

Transistors are MP38A's and I used no-film waterslide decals for the enclosure artwork.

Q1: 58 hFE and .097 mA leak. Q2: 70 hFE and .125 mA leak. Q3: 100 hFE and .172 mA leak measured on a DCA75

pinkfuzz.jpg


guts1.jpg



joe
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Passinwind, Fuzzonaut, cosmicevan and 2 others
#1,003
Yesterday I completely re-did the last of my my four year old 3 band preamp demo boxes, the only one I kept for myself:

9CDCC69D-020E-40F9-B579-7CE3E3D9E456.jpeg


Plenty of room for an added HPF and top jacks when I get to the next gen build, but this current format actually suits my own needs perfectly and will go back into my utility bag. Mid centers switch between 260-480-700Hz, variable LPF sweeps from 800-8.5KHz. The old version already worked really well and was the best of the original three, but this one feels much nicer so far. I've finally got the LPF cut mode to work the way I want, which the Tayda/Alpha reverse taper pots helped a lot with. Next up is an onboard version for my Marco singlecut fiver, which I hope to wrap up by the weekend.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: GMC, mdalamond, AudioTaper and 2 others
#1,005
Feral Feline said:
Cool, Charlie. Why did you cap the LPF at 8.5KHz? I would've thought better to go as high as 16Khz?
Click to expand...
For use stricty in cut mode, maybe so. But the idea of potentially setting loose oscillations at frequencies I can't even hear with my rig kind of spooks me, especially for a DIY giveaway application. It would also impact control granularity, which is just starting to be less of an issue with the reverse taper pots. I just ran a quick sim and a sweep range of 1.4K-15K models fine with standard value caps, and it can go lower with a higher value pot, so maybe I'll try one of those tunings when I get a minute. IIRC I tried 10 or 11K way back when I started developing this circuit but didn't find any practical benefit for the stuff I was using it for at that time. And a couple of Alembic users have mentioned to me that they felt 8K was plenty high enough, FWIW.

I'm throwing a lot of new tweaks at this project right now, so thanks for bringing that up!;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoeDaddio and AudioTaper
#1,007
Passinwind said:
Yesterday I completely re-did the last of my my four year old 3 band preamp demo boxes, the only one I kept for myself:

View attachment 4335291

Plenty of room for an added HPF and top jacks when I get to the next gen build, but this current format actually suits my own needs perfectly and will go back into my utility bag. Mid centers switch between 260-480-700Hz, variable LPF sweeps from 800-8.5KHz. The old version already worked really well and was the best of the original three, but this one feels much nicer so far. I've finally got the LPF cut mode to work the way I want, which the Tayda/Alpha reverse taper pots helped a lot with. Next up is an onboard version for my Marco singlecut fiver, which I hope to wrap up by the weekend.
Click to expand...
I actually just received my mouser order to accompany your OSHpark pcbs for the PW3B V1 preamp. Just finished up a bunch of Dunwich stuff so this is next on the bench.
 
  • Like
Reactions: johnk_10, AudioTaper, JoeDaddio and 1 other person
#1,008
Feral Feline said:
Cool, Charlie. Why did you cap the LPF at 8.5KHz? I would've thought better to go as high as 16Khz?




Quick update from me...
Went to work on my 5E3 tonight, wound up ordering parts for pedals instead.
Click to expand...
On bass...there's not much happening at those lofty frequencies, even with effects. Anything over 12Khz is pretty much wasted space on bass. I often use cabs that cut off around 12khz or a Low Pass filter (to FOH) set around that point. It cuts out all unwanted hiss and noise artefacts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Passinwind and mdalamond
#1,010
Feral Feline said:
Thanks GMC.

Since the range of human hearing goes up to 20kHz, I figured knocking that back to 1600kHz would clean things up enough but still leave plenty of presence.

I need to spend more time listening to specific frequencies :thumbsup:, and less time yabbering about them theoretically. :laugh:
Click to expand...

My human hearing tops out at around 12KHz these days, you might want to start with a hearing test reality check. ;)

But your query did get me to take a closer look at how the cut-only mode works in my design, and I already built up a new board last night that nominally sweeps from 1K-10.5Khz. I could go wider at either or both ends, but first I'll probably install this one in my fretted fiver this weekend and see how that goes. One byproduct of this particular tuning and the way I did the associated bass/mid module that I also built yesterday means that all knobs at noon yields a gentle overall scoop profile, with getting to flat looking to be fairly easy and intuitive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AudioTaper and mdalamond
#1,011
mdalamond said:
I actually just received my mouser order to accompany your OSHpark pcbs for the PW3B V1 preamp. Just finished up a bunch of Dunwich stuff so this is next on the bench.
Click to expand...

Cool. If possible I'd highly recommend buying a set of the Tayda reverse (C) taper 20K dual pots. That'll bring the low end of the sweep range down by an octave and a half and make the cut mode work better as well. This would have been the default config had those pots been available back when I did the V1 design.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mdalamond
#1,012
Passinwind said:
Cool. If possible I'd highly recommend buying a set of the Tayda reverse (C) taper 20K dual pots. That'll bring the low end of the sweep range down by an octave and a half and make the cut mode work better as well. This would have been the default config had those pots been available back when I did the V1 design.
Click to expand...
I will get them ordered. Thanks for the tip
 
  • Like
Reactions: Passinwind
#1,013
mdalamond said:
I will get them ordered. Thanks for the tip
Click to expand...

De nada. I'm going to ask Mouser to stock these in a few values, I'm sure they would sell quite a few. You might want to pick up a set of the breakout boards for them on Oshpark as well:

Freq: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Resonance: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
Last edited:
#1,015
Parasit Studio Darkadiator on stripboard, sans LFO controls.
Another excellent octave,fuzz,crusher creation from F.Lyxzen. Darkadiator has a feature set similar to the Arcadiator or Sidescroller. All three use different circuit methods and sound slightly different. Darkadiator uses a dozen common NPN transistors instead of the CMOS IC's in the other two pedals. The sub octave tone has that gritty analog flavor, in LPF mode it's heavenly.
Painted purple & yellow radiation hazard stripes.

20210715_184016.jpg


20210715_184129.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: cosmicevan, Passinwind, mdalamond and 3 others
#1,020
Feral Feline said:
You knocked this one outta the park!

Why you messin' with your little all-Keeley board when you've got so much cool DIY to chooose from?


No kidding, I keep scrolling up to look at the gutshot and pedalface as I'm trying to type this...

Great match on the knobs/stripes colours. How'd you find such a good paint match?
Click to expand...

Took my time and it all came together better than expected! That purple paint looks light in the bottle, but darkens when dry. I wasn't sure it would be dark enough but got lucky.

Cant match the sounds of a Bubbletron or digital delay with DIY pedals. Giving some support to modder-turned-pro pedal builders like Keeley.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back