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BTW, the center is black because I had to rig wires from the transistor socket to a separate board for the smd J201. The black is some heat shrink that I slipped over the board to prevent shorts.

I just completed the Moodring. What a cool pedal! I was worried because the components are tightly spaced and there is almost no room in the box for error. Thanks to Brian's awesome photoshop drill templates (...why don't all PCB sellers do that?), however, I nailed it with no errors. If you knew my record with boxing pedals you'd be as amazed as I am.

Thanks Brian!

@cajone5: Hate to say it, but age-related memory decline starts at 30 (some would say earlier). Getting old sucks!
@madbean: Sorry didn't mean to be braggy--just thought I'd reassure you that you're not alone! And despite the fact that we do a lot of electroencephalography, I know almost nothing about proper electronics. DIYSB and this forum has been helpful, though.

One of the things that there's really no good research on: Do different people really learn in different ways? Some people say they are visual learners, others say they can't visualize at all. We don't really even know if, after controlling for IQ, there are really important differences between people in the ability to memorize things.

Thanks Boba, sorry I should've credited you in the quoted text!

Is the feedback mod that I described the same thing as the slam switch mod that you described? Or does the slam switch max out the depth too? Would you use a DPDP momentary to make that happen?

Also, would you recommend any mods to get it to sound more like a spring reverb?

Thanks!

**I posted this previously on the Tech Help forum, but I didn't get responses and thought maybe it should havegone in the general questions forum. Please LMK if this belongs somewhere else**

Hello, I am building the moodring pedal and wanted to add some cool mods. The one that I really would like is a momentary switch to max out the feedback for some spooky sounds. I found a thread below that describes a "slam switch". Would that do the trick? To do the mod it says "I also added a slam switch that shorts pin 2 and 3 of both the feedback and the depth pots"--so would you run a DPDT normally off momentary to short those pins when the switch is on? I couldn't pull up the figures so that'd really help. Thanks!

If anyone knows of other cool, easy mods, please post! Thanks!

Hey, so I've just built a modded Moodring and even though it's not exactly finished, I got so excited playing it that I couldn't not share it!

I changed the tone section a bit to get a flatter response in the mids (I prefer the sound, and find the feedback pot reacts better that way).

I also added a slam switch that shorts pin 2 and 3 of both the feedback and the depth pots. The level trimpot helps get the desired amount of slam effect.

I boxed it and played it for a while. It's such a GREAT circuit!!

Then I let it sleep and while I was away I had an idea... I've wanted a reverb with modulation controls for a while (like the Keeley vibe-o-verb), and it occurred to me I could modulate the predelay to get that effect. Since the feedback loop includes the PT2399, even the tails should be modulated with the feedback pot cranked.
So I built a GrindCustoms modulation board on vero, with a B2K depth pot and C250k rate pot (also omitted the 1K in parallel with the led) and it worked!
There was just enough room to add the two pots and one switch. It would have been nice to use mini 9mm plastic pots for the modulation section, but it seemed just impossible.

The modulation is very interactive with the feedback pot, which is not surprising. There's a bit of a learning curve, but all in all it's still quite simple to operate. And man do I LOVE the sounds I can get with this reverb now! Straight up pseudo spring reverb, cavernous feedbacks, haunting vibrato verb, slightly modulated subtle reverb.

The wiring is quite messy... it was much cleaner before adding the modulation board... (FYI the noise was present from the beginning, and isn't a consequence of my poor wiring).
I still want to polish the enclosure a bit more and then stamp the controls, but I feel too lazy to take it apart again...

From left to right the controls are:
Modulation rate / depth / switch (on-off)
Predelay / Feedback / Tone
Reverb
On-off / Slam

First off, this is not about bragging because it frigging annoys me to no end (it's a bug, not a feature). My long term memory is kind of terrible. People tell me all the time about things I've said, or done, or events that I participated in and I honestly have no idea what they are talking about. It's like there's a blank space in my brain that I can't access no matter how hard I try. Sometimes it's rather embarrassing because it involves personal relationships and it is definitely not on purpose.

And yet, I can remember in detail a game level I played for like 20 minutes 10 years ago or the phone number for an old friend I haven't used in 20 years. Is this just normal aging? Surely everyone else has this problem, right? Maybe it's time for a DIY neurological scanner.

@madbean I am a neuroscientist who studies human memory...that's my day job anyway  What you're talking about sounds pretty normal. People generally forget most stuff that happened a long time ago, but you're much more aware of all the stuff you forgot from the last week because people remind you of it. In fact people forget most of the details of stuff that happens in a day. I am absolutely terrible at remembering faces, names, and most anything that involves people, but I am much better with things that involve bands, guitars, or other random stuff. Some of that probably boils down to dopamine, but that's a deep rabbit hole.

Anyway, if you are forgetting that you had a conversation a few hours ago--not just what was said, but the fact that you had a conversation--then I'd be concerned. Or if you find yourself getting lost very easily. Or if your close friends and family are concerned. Or finally, if you are having other problems like headaches, sleep apnea or insomnia, depression, etc.

Otherwise, I'd be more inclined to file that in the "getting old sucks" bin, which I am all too familiar with!

In case you are interested, here is a recent interview I did on why we forget names: http://time.com/5348486/why-do-you-forget-names/

Hello, I am building the moodring pedal and wanted to add some cool mods. The one that I really would like is a momentary switch to max out the feedback for some spooky sounds. I found a thread below that describes a "slam switch". Would that do the trick? To do the mod it says "I also added a slam switch that shorts pin 2 and 3 of both the feedback and the depth pots"--so would you run a DPDT normally off momentary to short those pins when the switch is on? I couldn't pull up the figures so that'd really help. Thanks!

If anyone knows of other cool, easy mods, please post! Thanks!

Hey, so I've just built a modded Moodring and even though it's not exactly finished, I got so excited playing it that I couldn't not share it!

I changed the tone section a bit to get a flatter response in the mids (I prefer the sound, and find the feedback pot reacts better that way).

I also added a slam switch that shorts pin 2 and 3 of both the feedback and the depth pots. The level trimpot helps get the desired amount of slam effect.

I boxed it and played it for a while. It's such a GREAT circuit!!

Then I let it sleep and while I was away I had an idea... I've wanted a reverb with modulation controls for a while (like the Keeley vibe-o-verb), and it occurred to me I could modulate the predelay to get that effect. Since the feedback loop includes the PT2399, even the tails should be modulated with the feedback pot cranked.
So I built a GrindCustoms modulation board on vero, with a B2K depth pot and C250k rate pot (also omitted the 1K in parallel with the led) and it worked!
There was just enough room to add the two pots and one switch. It would have been nice to use mini 9mm plastic pots for the modulation section, but it seemed just impossible.

The modulation is very interactive with the feedback pot, which is not surprising. There's a bit of a learning curve, but all in all it's still quite simple to operate. And man do I LOVE the sounds I can get with this reverb now! Straight up pseudo spring reverb, cavernous feedbacks, haunting vibrato verb, slightly modulated subtle reverb.

The wiring is quite messy... it was much cleaner before adding the modulation board... (FYI the noise was present from the beginning, and isn't a consequence of my poor wiring).
I still want to polish the enclosure a bit more and then stamp the controls, but I feel too lazy to take it apart again...

From left to right the controls are:
Modulation rate / depth / switch (on-off)
Predelay / Feedback / Tone
Reverb
On-off / Slam

Alternatively, if there a simple mod to the Tapanator trem PCB to allow for harmonic, bright , and full-range (T) tremolo modes that'd be even better!

Hello, I just ordered the Tapanatorator PCB and I'm writing to see if it could be used to control the Cardinal Harmonic Tremolo:
http://1776effects.com/product/cardinal-tremolo-v2/

If it'd be easier to do part of the Cardinal circuit from scratch on vero, that'd be fine, I'm just not sure where to start. Thanks!

Thanks Brian! It looks like the GPCB uses a 50k log for volume, so that may be the difference (?). I think they might've also substituted some components to get more gain.

Does it sound like the pedal is performing like you'd expect-- in terms of unity gain at 60-70% and not much clipping until gain= ~75%?

I have to say I like the tone a lot more than the GPCB version. Great work!

One request in the future for boards with diode switches--it'd be great to have a diode lift option when using on-off-on switches. I love using the Rat as an overdrive with the diodes bypassed.

Hello, I built the Kingslayer--had some trouble fitting it in the 1590B because my 1uF pot is tall, but eventually worked out the bugs.

I've built a couple of GuitarPCB klones, and this sounds very different. On the GPCB pedals, the gain  (I mean amplification, not clipping...I know the Klon isn't a distortion machine) is so ferocious that I can get a big boost with volume at 40%. With this one I get unity volume at about 60%. Also, the clipping switch doesn't seem to have much effect (not necessarily surprising from what I've heard). It still sounds great, but I wanted to make sure that something isn't going wrong. As I said, that 1590B is packed and it's certainly possible that something could be shorting b/w the pots or under the dual gang pot.

Please let me know what you think, thanks!

Hello, I'm relatively new to Madbean boards, and happy with the quality and docs! I'm dying to find out more about the Uber Tuber and Supering. Is there info on them and anticipated release dates?
Is the uber tuber a variant of the valvecaster?
Is the supering much different from the 2017 moodring?
Thanks for humoring me.

Thanks @zigcat this is super helpful!

Hi, I'm building a Slow Loris Rat and short on a couple of parts. Need to know:
1. Can I substitute a: 2n5458, MPF102, or J201 for the 2n5457 transistor in the output buffer?
2. I'm out of 22n caps. Can I substitute a different value like 27n or will that mess with the tone. I like the Rat tone so don't want to change too much. Per the instructions: "C12 is a coupling cap between the tone and output buffer section. It also forms a very low HP
filter with the R8 resistor"

Separate question:
3. Clipping diode section. To get asymmetric clipping, I assume I'd wire one diode normal and two in series across the companion pads, right? Does it matter which pads (i.e., orientation of the diodes) I go with?

Could you use the DigDug2 CV output that is meant to drive the LED to drive the expression input of the EHX Pitchfork maybe?