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hi guys,

so Ive got the SDX on the bench ready to test but like a dufus Ive not ordered any BC550's....    

Also, being the impatient bafoon that I am, are there any trannies I can sub for these with acceptable results just to test the thing? 

Hi guys,

ive nearly finished stuffing a pair of afterlife comp pcb's and I am struggling to source the 1n270 diodes in the UK at a reasonable cost.

I know the build docs suggest 1n34a or 1n60 as alternatives and also bat41.  Has anyone tried alternative diodes and had good results? Can anyone suggest any other substitutes that are more common? 

and one final dumbass question,what do the diodes do in this circuit? 

Guys,

I am repairing a mixing desk for a friend and I need to order some replacement pointer knobs. I have found the exact matching ones I need but they are from a company in the USA who will not ship to me here in the UK.

would anyone be willing to order the parts for me and post them over to the UK? Its only a few dollars worth, which is what makes it annoying!

I can get the money to you up front and add on a few extra dollars for your troubles.

Thanks!
Sam

Hi guys,

Ive just populated a pair of boneyard boards and Im planning out the enclosure layout for one of them.  Id like to have all the features footswitchable -  bypass, hi/low gain, boost - so I am going with a larger enclosure.  Id like to get a baby board compressor in there too which would work with just the hi gain channel for lead stuff.  

Is there a way to make up a 3pdt or maybe a 4pdt footswitch that would switch between the hi/lo gain pots and also switch the afterlife comp in and out of the circuit?  I am at work at the moment and Ive been doodling around some ideas but wondered if anyone has done something similar before?

Another thought I had was to not use the boost function on the boneyard and replace it with the afterlife as the 'boost' in the circuit, giving me a variable comp and an output increase I could use with both the low and hi gain channels.  Im assuming this would also let me just use the comp/boost when the boneyard is bypassed?  so effectivley I would have a clean, crunch and lead channel available with the option of boosting each one?  all in one pedal?   This is what I am trying to acheive anyway

I will more than likely test all this out before i commit to boxing anything up but if anyone has any cool suggestions Im really eager to learn about it and try stuff out.  

made this for a friend of mine who plays bass in an orginals band called citizen smith in the Midlands - UK.

Im really happy with how the graphics turned out on this one.  This is inkjet waterslide.  He did the artwork for it with his band logo on it n stuff.

This is my second build where ive attemtped to actually label up the controls and add graphics so Im pleased that my skills are improving as my last effort was a quite terrible.  My wiring has improved a lot since I did this one too but it just took me an age to get the decals and finish right! 

I'll try and do a demo of it before he picks it up.

I think the old sega megadrive may have been called the 'Genesis' across the pond? But anyway, this is my first attempt at paint and graphics....and it didn't go that well 

I decided to gig with the pedal anyway but I just tossed it in my bag of leads and it got scuffed up.  I actually quite like the look of it now, enough to justify not stripping it down and trying again. The fact that it sounds great also puts me off trying to refinish it.    Ive got plenty of other projects to improve my finishing skills.

I used heat inkjet transfers on this one, i will try laserjet waterslides next time.

so I won an old boss me-10 on ebay the other day.  It's in amazing condition with all the original manual etc, I doubt its even been switched on in the past 10 years.

It fired up fine, then after 30 mins or so started making popping noise like I was at a fireworks display.  quickly switched it off, opened it up and it seems as though some or all of the electrolytic caps have burst and leaked a thick gooey yellow liquid over some of the main board. 

I thought seen as theres only 7 large caps that seem to have leaked I might try to replace them and see if I can get it working again.

Worst case is I can salvage a load of jack sockets, footswitches, diodes and some large socketed IC's or maybe even use the enclsoure to house some of these baby boards that will be coming out soon and make my own multi fx pedal!

I hadn't even noticed this section of the forum before!  which is why I actually emailed this request directly to Brain originally    sorry dude!   I'll paste my original request below...I'm a complete noob, so this may be an unrealistic project or simply just not worth doing. 

I remember a while back you said it would be nice to have some more bass specific circuits on the projects page and I wondered if you could maybe make a pedal version of the Trace Elliot V-type bass preamp?  I believe the design was adapted from the Alembic FX1 bass preamp, which was also a derivative of the fender bassman/showman preamp.  I can definitely vouch for how good the circuit sounds, much better than a sansamp bass DI (which I also have) and as an amp head its one of the best I have ever tried... and I've been through quite a few.

I have got the original schematic and tech's handbook (attached) of the rackmount preamp version of the unit which gives a good breakdown of the circuit but I'm still very much a noob and wouldn't know where to begin in terms of vero, eagle or anything that would let me make it into a pedal.  There is also the issue of it using 2x12ax7's, but I know you have been experimenting with the sub-mini valves lately.

I thought it might be worth dropping you an email to bring it to your attention, as it could make a really useful bass preamp pedal that could be carried around in a gig bag.
best regards,

Sam
here is the pdf tech booklet...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7285894/V-Type%20Pre-Amp.pdf

and a pic of the rackmount unit

just a heads up that CPC farnell are offering free shipping/handling on orders over £10+vat.  I will be stocking some parts up for future builds and also getting some odds and ends like drill bits.   

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke2.jsp?bespokepage=cpc/en_CC/special_offers/rdrlp/webfree.jsp

Ive built a green bean using a pair of 1n34A's for the symmetrical clipping and 2x1n914, 1x3mm red led for the asymmetrical clipping.

I have only tested it briefly and plan to debug it later today, but I have found that one set of diodes has a MUCH higher output than the other.  I think my multimeter has a diode test function so i will be checking the fwd voltage for each of those tonight to try and rule out any bad ones.   Im assuming that if one of the diodes was fried completely that it would prevent the selected clipping section from working all together?

is a large difference in output normal between the 'comp' settings depending on which diodes are used?

Im using a TL072 opamp at the moment, but I also have some 4558D Ic's to try too. 

I did a quick demo to show some friends how my first pedal builds sound.

Not the best audio (my camera likes to compress the audio too much) and I probably spent too much time talking but it gives a general idea!

(1- name) Fabbed Fatpants V2
(2-problem) On my second fatpants build now and the circuit is working fine with the 'fat' pot fully open, but when its not at its max setting I get a very sudden drop in gain and output then the pot acts normal reducing the overall gain to zero through its rotation.
(3-fix attamepts) tried a new gain pot, but got the same fault.  Gonna try a new J201 later today incase I damaged it.
(4-subs) no subs, all stock parts as per BOM.

When i get back in later today I will take some pics and take some voltages at the IC and transistor.

thanks in advance!

just a quick hello as Ive joined the site and ordered some pcbs.

Just gone through the BOM's and ordered evrything so I will try to get some good results and post some finished pedals!

Ive gone for the fatpants, greenbean and egodriver - 2 of each. one for me, one for my buddy.

I built a nice little 5w valve amp kit last christmas break and I want some pedals to use with it.  Im also learning to build guitars too, but as winter gets closer that is on the backburner.

cheers!
sam - uk