Post-Lockdown pedal building

Cookiemonster

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Not even much room for the LED next to the foot switch!

I think it’s just the angle. But it is close. The box was a pre drilled one I picked up on reverb. With all sorts of bits and pieces. Must have been a pedal company that has decided to not trade. I have some lovely looking fuzz face pcbs that came with it. But no instructions and oddly four electrolytic caps that I’m not quite sure I can figure out. 

Are those caps bipolar? 

They look it yes. Not quite sure and can not find a build guide. In fact if anyone wants one I can post. I have a few. And maybe someone can work it out

Keefy

Cookiemonster said:

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Not even much room for the LED next to the foot switch!

I think it’s just the angle. But it is close. The box was a pre drilled one I picked up on reverb. With all sorts of bits and pieces. Must have been a pedal company that has decided to not trade. I have some lovely looking fuzz face pcbs that came with it. But no instructions and oddly four electrolytic caps that I’m not quite sure I can figure out. 

Are those caps bipolar? 

They look it yes. Not quite sure and can not find a build guide. In fact if anyone wants one I can post. I have a few. And maybe someone can work it out

Maybe post some photos?

Cookiemonster

@roberty that 1590a looks good. Nice and neat. Mine is so compact I can’t even see the vero board, once everything is in. I probably should just made a one knob fuzz, with an input cap switch. But really into the nasty spitty fuzz sound at the moment. I actually like this more than the fuzz factory and it can be quite similar on some settings, just not with the squeals of the fuzz factory, which. I never use

Cookiemonster

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Keefy said:

Cookiemonster said:

Not even much room for the LED next to the foot switch!

I think it’s just the angle. But it is close. The box was a pre drilled one I picked up on reverb. With all sorts of bits and pieces. Must have been a pedal company that has decided to not trade. I have some lovely looking fuzz face pcbs that came with it. But no instructions and oddly four electrolytic caps that I’m not quite sure I can figure out. 

Are those caps bipolar? 

They look it yes. Not quite sure and can not find a build guide. In fact if anyone wants one I can post. I have a few. And maybe someone can work it out

Maybe post some photos?

Yes I will tomorrow. 

Also came with some transistors, which I assume are for the fuzz face

roberty

Cookiemonster said:

@roberty that 1590a looks good. Nice and neat. Mine is so compact I can’t even see the vero board, once everything is in. I probably should just made a one knob fuzz, with an input cap switch. But really into the nasty spitty fuzz sound at the moment. I actually like this more than the fuzz factory and it can be quite similar on some settings, just not with the squeals of the fuzz factory, which. I never use

That's cool. A friend of mine wants me to build her a one knob fuzz so maybe this could be a candidate. What values did you change from the meathead?

Fuzz Factory is a bit much for me as well

Cookiemonster

roberty said:

Cookiemonster said:

@roberty that 1590a looks good. Nice and neat. Mine is so compact I can’t even see the vero board, once everything is in. I probably should just made a one knob fuzz, with an input cap switch. But really into the nasty spitty fuzz sound at the moment. I actually like this more than the fuzz factory and it can be quite similar on some settings, just not with the squeals of the fuzz factory, which. I never use

That's cool. A friend of mine wants me to build her a one knob fuzz so maybe this could be a candidate. What values did you change from the meathead?

Fuzz Factory is a bit much for me as well

I went with the dark layout, but then changed the cap to be between the standard version and the dark. Added a bias pot, which is 20k, but I think 10k might have been better. If I was building it again, I probably would have used a trim pot to set to where it gates, but the way this one is set up, it means you can go from a distortion style fuzz with little to no resistance, to a standard meathead, through to a really gated fuzz. 

I played around with transistors but except for one combination, which made it into an insane fuzz with some octave up. Most of the combinations sounded similar, so I think I settled on the standard transistors.  I did trying a dying battery mod as well, but preferred the bias. 

I think a pre gain pot would be good, as the volume on say 8 on the guitar makes it a very different sound, it’s brighter and sounds great. No room on this build, but the meathead deluxe might be a future build. Or perhaps a standard layout into some form of EQ. 

I used vinyl for the old movie poster. It did curl up a bit so sprayed some clear coat. I had also added some sparkly paint before I added the graphic. 

Cookiemonster

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpOUJ8HNaJM/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

hopefully I will get better at applying decals. 

Cirrus

it's not *really* applicable to the thread, but I'm waiting for the bits to arrive to make a couple of clones of old Microphones - Neuman U87i, which are jfet based circuits with a tiny output transformer. I've sourced the PCBs from someone in the US, and will be housing them in a couple of cheap chinese mic bodies I picked up on Reverb.

Am hoping that my experience making pedals will make it not *too* tricky. 

roberty

@Cookiemonster thanks for the detail great info I've got a breadboard sat in the drawer unused I should experiment on that

@Cirrus that's awesome I've semi looked into that before. Best of luck!

roberty

Redid the graphics on this over the weekend. I think it may be a little too bold now which cheapens the overall look, but it's nice and clear which was my priority. Something to keep in mind for future creations. I used a photo of some actual frog spawn for the background 

Keefy

roberty said:

Redid the graphics on this over the weekend. I think it may be a little too bold now which cheapens the overall look, but it's nice and clear which was my priority. Something to keep in mind for future creations. I used a photo of some actual frog spawn for the background 

Oh come on, that's not very original!




Seriously though, nice work Rob.

roberty

Keefy said:

roberty said:

Redid the graphics on this over the weekend. I think it may be a little too bold now which cheapens the overall look, but it's nice and clear which was my priority. Something to keep in mind for future creations. I used a photo of some actual frog spawn for the background 

Oh come on, that's not very original!

Lol I just wanted it to look a bit slimy. The sliminess doesn't really come out in black and white but it's nice and randomised

SteveF

Finally got around to faultfinding this and getting it sorted. Daft mistake when wiring it up in a hurry the first time and soldered the wrong lug on the power socket. 

Anyway no graphics yet as it was a bit of a test but here’s a Klon and a King of Tone (or prince of tone, I guess) in one box with an order switch. 

roberty

Looks great @SteveF, all the overdrive a sane person could ever need, Bluesbreaker reissue be damned

SteveF

Thanks @roberty Im pretty sure I did it with the high gain mod on the KOT side too so it’s got a bit more naughtiness in there. 

It was quite a challenge to fit it all on there when I was designing the board. Any more and I might have had to go to SMD for a few components and I haven’t had the courage to try that yet!  Future project is a Rat and a Shredmaster dual pedal. Why? Because.

roberty

Boxed this Vox Repeater up. Fuzz Dog kit, nice and easy. I think it'll be good for production bits and pieces, will help give parts a unique voice. I've wired it up for battery to make it easier to plonk into a signal chain.

Not my tidiest work but good enough for rock n roll. I've covered it in rude words because I am essentially a child 

SteveF

Looks great - great graphics as always  

roberty

Thanks @SteveF. Got a few things to get through first but my goal is to design a PCB this year. I think for my first one I'll do a passive pickup sim since there are very few components. I'd love to eventually be able to design something like yours. I have ideas

SteveF

I would recommend the free version of Autodesk Eagle when you do - I have found it (fairly) intuitive to use and I can always help if you get stuck then. There are also libraries easily available online (e.g. Madbeanpedals) for most of the commonly used parts which saves hunting. The free version is easily sufficient as it lets you do 2 layer boards big enough for most pedal enclosures. I can't see me ever needing more than I have out of the free version.  You can also download a job file from JLC PCB which tells it exactly what files to export when you are done and their design rules (minimum trace clearances etc).  

There's also a decent video series which demos creation of a PCB in Eagle from schematic to production somewhere (again I think it's on mad bean pedals forum somewhere) - which is based around an older version of Eagle but is still really useful. 

roberty

Finally got around to putting this together. Haven't had a proper play but it did sound good into my audio interface. I'm sure it'll be as good a tone bender style fuzz as any