The Effect Builders Club!

[B.C.]

so some bad news, both book stores near my campus had no intention of buying back the chem book I was going to sell in order to buy parts to build a fuzz. So now its going to have to wait till I can sell the book on amazon.

Been there.

Me who spent 900$ on books that semester: "I would like to sell my books."

Clerk:"Sure thing. Oops, can't take any of your physics books or Calculus, etc."

Total was 180 back to me.

 

[chicago_mike]

too bad theres no black market for college books.

 

[LzeroKI]

too bad theres no black market for college books.

sometimes you catch a break and have the only copy of a book that someone really needs, in which case you can maybe make a decent amount of money, but for the most part, its a losing game.



.....or you could do it like one of my more sketchy classmates, wait for the bookstore to get mobbed during the last couple days of the semester so that all the employees are very busy, reach over the yellow tape marking off where all the un-purchased books are, snag a text book and sell it back to the store for 100% profit.

 

[LzeroKI]

You could always make the hour & a half drive down here to Columbia. Addams bookstore buys just about every book you can think of. Let me know in a PM which chem book it is, and I might be able to check with them to see if they would buy it, and how much they'll give you for it.

Thanks for the offer, really.

But, I drive a 97 ford explorer, if they were to give me what I paid for the book in the first place, I still don't think I'd break even after the cost of driving there and back.

 

[ejsagun]

thanks B.C and i2k!

the toggles are for switching diodes and controlling low end roll off.

 

[ejsagun]

Can you guys suggest a fairly complicated project? I was thinking along the lines of a preamp or envelope filter. I just want something to do while im still looking for a real job.

 

[chicago_mike]

Well..IM working now on 4 to 5 pedals. Lets see here..

A meatball, mutron style pedal. I can pm schematics pretty soon..
Juggernaut pedal
Bass Brass Master
"Fuzzy Bas Balls" a bass balls pedal with a butt load of controls and switches.
auto-flanger/phaser..I always wanted a level dependent phaser and I think I found something...

Still on my plate..mutron flanger schematic and octave divider..

I love that old greasy ****.

 

[ejsagun]

Well..IM working now on 4 to 5 pedals. Lets see here..

A meatball, mutron style pedal. I can pm schematics pretty soon..
Juggernaut pedal
Bass Brass Master
"Fuzzy Bas Balls" a bass balls pedal with a butt load of controls and switches.
auto-flanger/phaser..I always wanted a level dependent phaser and I think I found something...

Still on my plate..mutron flanger schematic and octave divider..

I love that old greasy ****.

id like those schematics. yeah!

 

[chicago_mike]

Im off to bed for the day..err..night..err...whatever..

Ill compile the schemas for tomorow. =)

I still havent found the mutron flanger or octave divider...but im hopeful.

 

[B.C.]

thanks B.C and i2k!

the toggles are for switching diodes and controlling low end roll off.

Interesting. I would love to hear how that sounds.

 

[Sir Edward V]

Sir Edward, for the PCB making, I would give the Radioshack PCB kit a try. They hide them, but I think it is pretty easy to use.

I may give it a shot... I think I need a more powerful soldering iron... mine sucks for use with I/O jacks, backs of pots, or anything else big... it works only well enough for the actual electrical components... I think I would benefit greatly from a power increase... maybe I will go out and get a new one... hell they are only $8 at RadioShack...

 

[Sir Edward V]

Actually that makes for a good topic of discussion: What kind of soldering irons do you folks use? do you have more than one?

Mine is a $8 RadioShack 15 Watter... I may move up to a 30W to try to solve my problem...

edit: how about one of these?

Invalid Link Removed

 

[MellowTone]

I had a quick look over the thread and couldn't see this, so...

How difficult/expensive would it be to make a tube overdrive (real tubes)?

The only overdrive that's ever sounded right to me is tube, but even finding plans for a tube preamp circuit is difficult, does anyone knopw where I could find some. I have plans somewhere for an Eminar amp (pre through to poweramp), could this just be modified?

I would love to at least have a crack at it.

 

[B.C.]

Actually that makes for a good topic of discussion: What kind of soldering irons do you folks use? do you have more than one?

Mine is a $8 RadioShack 15 Watter... I may move up to a 30W to try to solve my problem...

edit: how about one of these?

Invalid Link Removed

I was actually looking at that one myself. My soldering iron is pretty bad. Its the smallest tip I can find, but o well. These seem nice in that you can control temp, which will be pretty nice for IC's. I may get that, but I want a multimeter that records data on a PC first.

 

[LzeroKI]

Actually that makes for a good topic of discussion: What kind of soldering irons do you folks use? do you have more than one?

Mine is a $8 RadioShack 15 Watter... I may move up to a 30W to try to solve my problem...

edit: how about one of these?

Invalid Link Removed

I got my first iron when I was about 11 or 12, its a little like 10 watt weller cordless. The cordless part was nice, but by the time the iron was hot enough to work with, I could have gone out, bought a new iron, plugged it in, waited for it to get hot, and soldered the joint itself.

My current iron is a little 40 watt corded radioshack pencil, not a major tool, but a vast improvement.


**EDIT**: Just thought of something, with a 40 watt iron, do I run the risk of easily burning out Ge trannies?

 

[B.C.]

**EDIT**: Just thought of something, with a 40 watt iron, do I run the risk of easily burning out Ge trannies?

With any iron you do. Some will say its better to use a higher wattage iron so the solder really flows and you can get the iron off quicker. I don't know which is right, I just touch it and jump off.

 

[Brad Barker]

'Linear Integrated Circuits' by Winzer & 'The Art Of Electronics' by Horowitz & Hill where the ones nifty recommended to me. Also im reading 'Electronic Devices & Circuit Theory' By Boylestad and Nashelsky & 'Intro Circuit Analysis' by Boylestad. They where given to me by an EE at work.

Also many a web page. Then there is the practical side of building kits etc and cloning. I try not to just build, but ask 'why'?

i hated hated hated horowitz and hill. the book was useless to me after the first chapter, and even then, i had to wrestle with it.

 

[niftydog]

I think I need a more powerful soldering iron...

Many cheap soldering irons are rated at 15W (or whatever) but they can't maintain that power when confronted with a heat sink like a pot casing.

What you really want is a quality soldering iron that can deliver the rated load into a massive heatsink.

So it's not so much a case of needing more power at the tip as it is a case of having a good power supply in the base station.

In that case I would recommend you save up for a decent soldering iron rather than buying that $8 job!

Having said that, it'll work just fine, but as we know it could be dangerous in the wrong hands!

How difficult/expensive would it be to make a tube overdrive (real tubes)?

How long is a piece of string?

Two basic types; mains powered (or high voltage) and low voltage (or "starved plate"). Mains voltage types are extremely dangerous and should not be attempted by anyone without some significant experience in mains wiring and high voltage sources.

Starved plate types are still hazardous, but not nearly as much as anything with mains wiring.

As for expense... put it this way: regardless of how experienced you are, what design you choose or how cheap you can get components, it is ALWAYS more expensive to design and build your own than it is to buy a commercial product. If anyone tells you any differently it is because they are not including the cost of their time and effort.

i hated hated hated horowitz and hill. the book was useless to me after the first chapter, and even then, i had to wrestle with it.

Well, sometimes wrestling with stuff is the only way to understand it! It is pretty much a bible, and people have been (re)analysing the bible for a few years now!

 

[MellowTone]

How long is a piece of string?

Two basic types; mains powered (or high voltage) and low voltage (or "starved plate"). Mains voltage types are extremely dangerous and should not be attempted by anyone without some significant experience in mains wiring and high voltage sources.

Starved plate types are still hazardous, but not nearly as much as anything with mains wiring.

As for expense... put it this way: regardless of how experienced you are, what design you choose or how cheap you can get components, it is ALWAYS more expensive to design and build your own than it is to buy a commercial product. If anyone tells you any differently it is because they are not including the cost of their time and effort.

I see. Are there any designs or websites you could direct me to?

What sort of commercial ones would you reccomend, I haven't seen many good ones.

 

[chicago_mike]

Actually for good info on tubes, besides sites to go to, like diyaudio.com , triodeelectronics.com ( i go there a few times, place is like my grandpa's basement, crap all over!)

You really really really want to buy some books

1. RCA recieving tube manual

2. Dan Torres inside tube amps

3. Groove Tubes book, either vol4 or the big book with a cd

4. BOTH kendrick books, found at borders all the time.

there are more books on tube amps but these are good to get you going.

Dave funks book is great as well.

THEN : Print out some schematics of tube amps, and lay then across your room, and look at the similarities and differences, while you read and figure out, what the tone stack is, what cathode biasing is, what local feedback is, what cascade or cascode is, what ultralinear is. Doing this to james brown helps too. =-)