SteveF's Pedal Building Journey

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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    SteveF said:
    ... Unfortunately seem to have a couple of little bits of dust in there - the garage wasn't as dust free as I would like.
    Gawd, tell me about it! Every single one of my builds has a fleck or two of dust or a small fluff on it.
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  • OctafishOctafish Frets: 1937
    Adam_MD said:
    1n914 and 1n4148 are essentially the same thing Steve.  I actually prefer the regular eternity the ‘burst’ version has a little too much gain for me.  It’s worth building both of them imo to see which you prefer.  
    The 1n4148 is the newer improved version of the 1n914 with less leakage, as you say they are interchangable. Although they're supposedly discontinued I did pick up a batch of 1n914 at Rapid Electronics. The 1n914 has a lower forwarding voltage, I don't know enough to know if this would make any difference. I keep meaning to do a test against 1n4148s just to satisfy my curiosity as to whether there is any audible difference, bet there isn't!
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Awesome, thanks :) 

    So while waiting for paint to dry etc, I have been working on the artwork.  Started with the boost pedal and have refined the "Power Up" theme a bit. I think I will go for the sticky paper option this time - I don't think the colours will work with the water slide stuff. 


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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    Like it! Great concept! :-)
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Philtre said:
    Like it! Great concept! :-)
    Cheers Phil :) Now I just have to come up with something for the others! :lol: 
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Ok, so I've been working on artwork for the second Fuzz Dog pedal (the switch and pots are in the same place, so no faffing around with the template.  It's a clone of a very early Electro Harmonix pedal called the Muff Fuzz, which despite its name is apparently not a fuzz and is more of a low/med gain overdrive.  I figured that it was both old school and American, so I went hunting for images with that in mind and found this, which I adapted (very) slightly to make it work: 



    Unfortunately, I have encountered a problem.  My printer is printing with a regular missed line throughout. It's on the black ink cartridge so maybe it's something I can rectify with a sharpie but I doubt it.  Not sure if a new cartridge will work, or if it's something in the printer hardware that's blocked.  No amount of running the clean programme seems to make a difference. 

    I'll try a new cartridge and if that doesn't work, then it will be a new printer at some point. 
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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    edited April 2018
    Artwork looks great, Steve!

    I hate faffing with inkjet printers, I usually leave that to Mrs. Philtre...I don't have the patience for them. When that problem happened to me once I just went and bought another printer for fifty squids from Argos. ;-)

    Edit - that missed line thing happens to my printer sometimes but doesn't do it on the highest best quality settings.
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  • aord43aord43 Frets: 287
    @SteveF ;
    Well done, just found this thread.  Nice artwork too!
    And welcome to stripboard.  I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    My latest build does use one of those stomp-switch daughterboards though (https://www.taydaelectronics.com/pcb/diy-guitar-effects/3pdt-footswitch-diy-pcb.html), so maybe I have gone to the dark side!
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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    aord43 said:
    @SteveF ;
    I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    Same here, although I want to give it a go. My fear is with the PCB-mount pots and the risk of drilling the holes in the wrong place in the enclosure.
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Philtre said:
    Artwork looks great, Steve!

    I hate faffing with inkjet printers, I usually leave that to Mrs. Philtre...I don't have the patience for them. When that problem happened to me once I just went and bought another printer for fifty squids from Argos. ;-)
    That could be the plan.  We rarely print at home so it was a cheap from Amazon anyway.  If I'm going to be using the printer a lot for this stuff, I may just get a new one.   There's a colour laser printer at work, but I'm not sure how good it is at quality printing on glossy paper. 

    Philtre said:

    Edit - that missed line thing happens to my printer sometimes but doesn't do it on the highest best quality settings.
    Ooh, I may give it a go on a high quality setting and see then. :) 

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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536

    aord43 said:
    @SteveF ;
    Well done, just found this thread.  Nice artwork too!
    And welcome to stripboard.  I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    My latest build does use one of those stomp-switch daughterboards though (https://www.taydaelectronics.com/pcb/diy-guitar-effects/3pdt-footswitch-diy-pcb.html), so maybe I have gone to the dark side!
    I agree - I'm quite intrigued looking around the internet at trying a home made PCB design/etch at some point.  I think I will leave that until the stage where I am designing my own circuits though.   I do like the little switch PCBs, they seem to make wiring the switch less faffy.  Those ones look like they hug the pins a bit better than the Fuzzdog ones too.  I can't see a diagram for how it's wired - do they ground the circuit input when it's bypassed?  I read somewhere that if you don't you can get noise in high gain circuits? 
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536

    Philtre said:
    aord43 said:
    @SteveF ;
    I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    Same here, although I want to give it a go. My fear is with the PCB-mount pots and the risk of drilling the holes in the wrong place in the enclosure.
    Nothing stopping you soldering wires from the PCB to the pots is there? (except on crammed builds, obvs). 
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  • Adam_MDAdam_MD Frets: 3420
    Philtre said:
    aord43 said:
    @SteveF ;
    I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    Same here, although I want to give it a go.
    I was like that too for a while but these days I primarily prefer pcb as I like the Uber neatness I can get on my guts.  It’s also an absolute faff to wire up a load of pots and switches when you get used to the ease of install with board mounted pots.  

    Interestingly the best sounding pedal I’ve ever made was built with vero and I’ve tried 3 different pcbs from different pcb sellers and none of them sound as good! 
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Philtre said:


    Edit - that missed line thing happens to my printer sometimes but doesn't do it on the highest best quality settings.
    HUZZAH! It worked perfectly on the sticky paper on the highest quality setting :) 
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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    SteveF said:
    Philtre said:


    Edit - that missed line thing happens to my printer sometimes but doesn't do it on the highest best quality settings.
    HUZZAH! It worked perfectly on the sticky paper on the highest quality setting :) 
    HUZZAH indeed!
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  • aord43aord43 Frets: 287
    SteveF said:

    aord43 said:
    @SteveF ;
    Well done, just found this thread.  Nice artwork too!
    And welcome to stripboard.  I always reckon that using a PCB is not DIY-enough for me :)
    My latest build does use one of those stomp-switch daughterboards though (https://www.taydaelectronics.com/pcb/diy-guitar-effects/3pdt-footswitch-diy-pcb.html), so maybe I have gone to the dark side!
    I agree - I'm quite intrigued looking around the internet at trying a home made PCB design/etch at some point.  I think I will leave that until the stage where I am designing my own circuits though.   I do like the little switch PCBs, they seem to make wiring the switch less faffy.  Those ones look like they hug the pins a bit better than the Fuzzdog ones too.  I can't see a diagram for how it's wired - do they ground the circuit input when it's bypassed?  I read somewhere that if you don't you can get noise in high gain circuits? 
    I will check when I go home.  I didn't trace out the PCB in great detail, although I noted that it looks pretty much like how I would wire it by hand.

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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    All ready for clear coat.  As I've bought it already, I am going to have a go with a Plasticote spray can on these ones. If it ends up terrible, I can always refinish them later on.  A few thin coats is the way ahead to try and avoid drips etc.  Let's hope the dust monsters are asleep at the moment! 


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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    I'd be interested to see how this Plasticote spray works.
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Philtre said:
    I'd be interested to see how this Plasticote spray works.
    The paint I used was plasticote too.  The finish wasn't too bad, but side by side with a powder coated enclosure, you can tell.  I'll see how the varnish goes but I'm sure once I get on the ET wagon I won't look back! :Lol:
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  • Adam_MDAdam_MD Frets: 3420
    SteveF said:
    Philtre said:
    I'd be interested to see how this Plasticote spray works.
    The paint I used was plasticote too.  The finish wasn't too bad, but side by side with a powder coated enclosure, you can tell.  I'll see how the varnish goes but I'm sure once I get on the ET wagon I won't look back! :Lol:
    All my early painted enclosures are chipped to hell after being knocked about for a few years whereas all of the powder coated envirotex topped pedals look mint.  
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