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Hi peoples,

I've just come back to doing a few builds I never got around to but have lost my Hipster Fuzz (2014) Build Doc Instructions.

Is anybody able to direct me to where I might find Instructions for the 2014 version?
I might be able to get by without but my OCD will drive me nuts.

Any links or leads would be much appreciated.
Thanks folks.

[http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/catalinbread-heliotrope.htm]

Hi peoples,

Haven't posted in a while. Been pulled out of retirement to for one last pedal build (sorta like Rambo), and wanna build my own too
A mate wants me to build a Bit Crusher.  I've decided on a Heliotrope Clone (part bit crush / ring mod + dist) analog BC emulator.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/catalinbread-heliotrope.htm[/b]l]http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/catalinbread-heliotrope.html

Question: How accurate would trannie specs for a bit crusher have to be?
I'm hoping maybe not too accurate because of the nature of the effect. Maybe something close will do yes / no?
And if so, what might be a good substitute for 2n5457 be?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

A friend asked me to show him how to build pedals.
I thought it would be cool to share the knowledge.

But No, NEVER AGAIN!!

Nice guy. Cluey. No trouble with catching on. But he was convinced that he knew better from the get go.

No Tom, You can't solder the pots straight to the board if they're not mounted pots. No, don't try. Just don't.
No Tom, we can't build it in a couple of hours. it's your first build. You WILL ruin it. be patient.

Yes Tom, I know you have an I.T background, but this isn't programming. It's analog. It's different.

No Tom, you can't go rummaging through all my drawers to find stuff. We'll get to it later. Just get the resistors done first.
Yes, there is a reason for doing it that way.
Tom, stop rummaging through all of my shit!!

Okay Tom. The other bits are in my wives panty drawer, wrapped in the frilly pink ones.
Yes Tom, I'm joking. Just come back and finish the resistors first.

So anyways, against all advice, he solders the tall caps before diodes, and then gets why you don't do it.

At this point, he starts to figure maybe there's a reason for why I'm showing him things the way I am.

But he insists on trying to solder unmountable pots straight to the board. Surprisingly, it doesn't end well.

I tell him "Tom you are way too I.T for this shit. Every time you fix something, 2 things break.
"Why don't you try turning it off and then turning it back on again".

Anyways, after much de-soldering and re-wiring, it actually fucking worked.

I was even more shocked than he was.

But never again. NEVER!!!

Howdy peoples.

Thanks in advance for any assistance people might have. I haven't been here in a while, so a big hello to everyone.

Just getting back into doing a few builds, and teaching a Bassist friend to build pedals.

We're both building Timmy clones from FuzzDog Candyman PCB's. One for guitar, one for my Bass player friend
I've read that Timmys are Bass Modable, but haven't found any bass mods for them.
I'm guessung it's largly to do with swapping out caps that favour lower frequencies, but it's something I know little about.

Can anybody suggest any Timmy Bass Mods?
Whether the Timmy is already Bass freindly as the stock version?
Any info on which Caps in the circuit relate to filtering frequencies, and what caps I might sppliment them with?
What cap values generally favour bass frequencies?

Thanks again to anybody who might have some advice on this

I am planning a West Coast L.A to Seattle holiday with my wife.
Was wondering if anyone had any ideas about interesting places to visit, food spots, nice beaches, music, history, interesting tours, etc.
Hopefully going in August, but maybe September.
Any suggestions?

[Sound happens @ 15:15 on the video]

I've been looking into how to get this Boss DD-3 Jamie Hince 'machine gun' sound but am convinced there might be some secret unicorn mojo conspiracy going on.

Sound happens @ 15:15 on the video

I tried a current DD3 at my guitar shop the other day but the hold function (which he uses) only dials down to 200ms (according to the inter web) which is much slower than what is needed to get the machine gun sound which must be at least 100ms or less.

From what I've read about DD3 history, I can't find anything to suggest that the ms rate of the hold function has ever been any lower than the current model, hence my conspiracy theory.

It's such a unique and signature sound, that I'm convinced he's employed some sort of mojotologist illuminati pedal modding society to get this sound (then killed them all)

If he has modded the pedal by having the ms of the hold function reduced, how might one do this?

Also (and I could be wrong about this/and everything) he seems to activate the pedal as he strikes the guitar, but when I played the current DD3 this way, it won't register unless you've finished playing the note before activating the pedal. Maybe it's just technique, or CONSPIRACY?. How, and why is it so??

I built this pedal for Pro Skateboarder, Steve Caballero, who was one of my idols as a kid.
A Photographer friend knows him through his work and had me build it for him to give to Steve as a gift.

It's a Slow Loris Rat.
He had asked for a 'Punk Distortion' so it was originally going to be a 'Dirty Rat' but I ended up going with stock Rat diodes and LED's because I preferred it to the Dirty Rat diodes and it still sounded similar.

Pretty stoked with the paint job. All hand painted in the style of Steve's early Skateboard designs.
The Logo is from the 'RatBones' Skateboard Wheels Logo. By pure luck, it turns out Caballero has just been re-sponsored by RatBones. I did the old glowing eyeball LED's trick to add some character.

He received the pedal today. It's definitely my proudest moment in pedal building.

He even gave me a little gift of appreciation. An unreleased Steve Caballero Matchbox Figurine.

This seems pretty cool.
Similar to their old SynthWah pedal but with momentary vibrato and a wet/dry knob.
The original SynthWah is awesome, and sounds killer when paired with fuzz, delay, or sequencer effects.
This would be even better.

Has anybody out there ever had weird vibes from pedal haters in the music scene?
It's never been my experience before recently. But wow, some people really don't like guitar pedals.

I went to see a friends band play last week. It was a punk gig. The subject of guitar pedals came up, (not instigated by me), and a couple of people chimed in with their 2 cents worth of pedals are a wank cliche's.

My friend then kindly pointed out that I made pedals, which was followed by a pedal board tap dancing joke and comments about how you don't need pedals if you can play well, etcetera, etcetera.

I kept my mouth shut and laughed it off.

Later on, the last band were setting up. Another freind was in the band. They were a 2 piece, and he had a sweet looking mint condition Super Fuzz pedal hooked up to a bass and guitar amp.

A couple of people from the previous bands were writing off my friend for his 2 amp set up, fancy fuzz pedal, and how 2 piece bands were a 'Hipster' thing.

Again I kept my mouth shut, but by that point I was wondering why do I bother going to my punk friends gigs?
So many haters, hating on each others bands, music, gear, whatever, and so many posers that I felt like I'd forgotten to get dressed up for a costume party.

But the worst thing was, I'm there to support friends band who plays music I otherwise wouldn't listen to.
I'm politely pretending I like the music, and being written off by them just because I like and make pedals.

I don't like to stereotype, but it seems to be a vibe you only hear from metal and punk scenes.
My rock band and accoustic music freinds are supportive and interested, or at least polite about what I do.

Has anybody else had similar 'hipster' hater vibes for being into guitar pedals?

If Thomas Edison was a pedal builder....

Found this article whilst studying up on switch pop problems. Very informative and helpful.
Thought it'd be worth sharing.

ftp://www.mrblackpedals.com/blogs/straight-jive/6629778-what-really-causes-switch-pop

This is my TH Customs Jenny Greenteeth 'Weird Chorus' pedal.

It works (sometimes), but makes an uber loud buzz if you play too loud, then you panic and turn it off and it won't turn on again.
If you unplug then replug the power it works again, but it's now made a mega loud squealy robot death noise and I'm too scared to play it again.

Apart from that it's perfect.
At least it looks sorta Pretty.

Anyways, I think I've sort of accepted failure on this build, but it'll look nice on the mantle piece.

I'm building a Slow Lorris / Rat for pro skater Steve Caballero. (a friend hooked me up through his photography work with Steve).

He's asked for a 'punk distortion' so I want to do the switchable diode option as a You Dirty Rat clipping stage.
I own a YDR, and do find it to be a bit more vintage punk sounding than the standard Rat so I think it will suit it better.
I do really like my YDR. It has a cool slightly Fuzzy sound that gives it a bit more character than the standard Rat.

From what I've read, the YDR uses asymetrical(?) 1n34a germanium diodes for it's punk mojo.
I plan to do 1n4148's instead of the LED's because I read that the standard Rat uses 1n4148's. LED's are apparently for Turbo Rats.
I'm hoping this will also give less of a volume difference between the 2 clipping options.

This is my pretty much my first attempt at modding so I'm wondering if my concept will work or not?
It seems like a pretty solid idea (from what I've read).
If anybody knows anything about, or has done YDR mods, I'd love to hear some ideas, or reasons why this might or might not work.

PS: If anyone happens to know Steve, please don't tell him about my project. It's sort of a surprise gift from my friend.

I've had a request to build a pedal for a professional 80's skateboarder that a friend of mine knows through his photography work.
I'm pretty excited about it because I was a keen skateboarder myself and a big fan of the guy when I was young.

He's asked for a 'punk distortion'.

I'm thinking of doing my first 2 in 1 build with a DIYGP Distortion+ and either an overdrive before it or Silicon Fuzz Face after it. (not so punk but might sound cool stacked with Distortion+ at lower gain settings, or just as a 2nd option because he also likes 70's music).

Or maybe a Distortion+ with an uncompressed sounding overdrive to drive it harder for leads or extra beef.

My first question:
How do I go about wiring twin pedals to be used separately or combined, or both?

Q2) Anybody got any cool 'punk distortion' ideas?

These are pretty amateur in comparison to the 2015 showcases I've seen but here's my 2015 builds anyways.
I got carried away with paint effects and arty farty ideas for enclosures last year. Nothing too fancy but it was fun.



RullyWow Super Judge (killed my one of favourite Dredd comics for this one)




Sunking 2015 (Alcohol Ink Enclosure)




Woody Accoustic Simulator (With $1 wooden Floor Sample from Hardware store)




Arcadiator ( My favourite build of 2015)



Blue Box (I love the sound of this thing but it was a difficult tight build)




DIYGP Fuzz Factory (with so called 'stone effect' paint)





Madbean Mangler with collectors edition Warholl Campbell Soup Can Logo that I botched a bit when trying to steam it off the can



Madbean Zero Point Delay (painted using a doylie as a stencil / took a while to get around to building this one)



Soda Meiser (was going for a rusty paint effect for the enclosure but failed miserably)




DeathKlaw / Mr Fusion (named after the Back to the Future II Blender that made time travel environmentally friendly)




Pig Butt IC Muff (probably my favourite Big Muff Build)

I'm building a Wolfshirt with a momentary footswitch for activating the octave.

Can anybody suggest how I might wire the finger switch to the momentary footswitch so that it turns the octave on and off?

Thanks in advance for any advice people might have






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[Audio Magic with my Bipolar Guitar]

If you haven't seen this already, it's well worth checking out.
What a genius idea.

http://youtu.be/Wo7ZkRjXM3k

If my crappy attempt at embedding a Youtube doesn't work try looking up
Audio Magic with my Bipolar Guitar on Youtube. (then please post it for everyone)

Such a cool idea.


A similar effect with a momentary footswitch for just the delayed signal could be workable as a stomp box.

If you haven't seen this already, it's well worth checking out.
What a genius idea.

If my crappy attempt at embedding a Youtube doesn't work try looking up
Audio Magic with my Bipolar Guitar on Youtube.
Such a cool idea.


A similar effect with a momentary footswitch for just the delayed signal could be workable as a stomp box.

[Q1) Can I substitute the Sunking II D1 and D2 1n34a diodes with 1n60p diodes, and how might it effect the sound?]

Howdy peoples?
Thanks in advance to anybody who has any suggestions.

Q1) Can I substitute the Sunking II D1 and D2 1n34a diodes with 1n60p diodes, and how might it effect the sound?

I noticed that there is no subs option listed for them in the shopping list but had heard that these were the best sub available for the Wolfshirt 1n34a diodes.

Q2) Will substituting the ICL7660SCPA (IC2) with the suggested sub of TC1044SCPA effect the sound of the Sunking II very much?

Thanks again to anyone who can help me out. Me and my OCD get nervous about substitutes.

I've been looking into how to use painting techniques to make my enclosures look more interesting and am hoping to do some swirling, crackled, and snake skin effects.

Anybody got any tips and or photo's of pimped paint jobs to share?

Here's a photo of my Bloviator build. Pretty basic stuff really but I'm happy with it.
Just a green base coat with pink and purple spray paint sprayed into the spraycan lids and splattered over the enclosure