Topics

Here is my newest build. Haven't got to play with it much but so far it is pretty sweet!! Screwdriver stacks into the Lunar Mod.  Used 1776 Effects Opto Bypass again and I am LOVING them. Great work on those!!

I know the knobs are a little funky positioned but I wanted to leave them board mounted in case I switched to separate enclosures. The Urchin/Rub-A-Dub combo is killer though.

I have a couple builds I am working on and want to do something different with the LEDs than I have done in previously builds. I have seen some builds with some trick hidden leds behind graphics, and some with large colored lenses (some "steampunk" inspired builds) that looked really sweet.

So, if you have done anything cool post some pics of it!! Also, if you have any details on where you sourced bezels or lenses and how it all went together that would be cool to know as well.

So I had a Cave Dweller in a 1590a enclosure that I really liked, but I had a Taptation (w/ mod) board just lying around waiting to be used... I had planned on incorporating it into a Deep Blue Delay build, but I like the Cave Dweller so much I was thinking about not building the DBD...

Now I have an empty drilled 1590a enclosure and a new yellow tap-tempo Cave Dweller with modulation.


Depth controls the depth of the modulation. It can go anywhere from none, to sea sickening. I am going to have to play with it some more to see how much use I get out of it, but it is a fun feature to have available.

The LED by the footswitch is the on/bypass indicator. The 2 that are in between the knobs are the 2 indicators for tempo. The one on the right is for the tapped tempo, and the one on the left changes accordingly with the division switch for 1/4, dotted 8th, and 8th notes.

I am REALLY impressed with the Taptation board. It works really well and will be put to good use. The division switch is very nice for locking in a dotted 8th or 8th notes just having to tap 1/4 notes.

Couple new builds from this past weekend! I told you, I am hooked on this 1590a thing now, and just finished #2 and #3, and #4 (cavedweller) and #5 (apis klone) are in progress.

#2 (black pedal) custom "favorite switch" expression controller for my Stereo WET reverb. Now I can have a second footswitchable reverb setting for on the fly adjustment. Very nice to have so I can have the ambient swell setting and a nice subtle reverb and select as needed with the press of a button.

#3 (white one) Madbean's Smoothie Phase 45. Sounds great! I was worried something was wrong, but a tweak on the trim pot and everything started phasing like it should. Everything fit beautifully too so I was very happy.

And no thread is complete without crappy camera phone pics!!


Smoothie guts:

I am planning on a couple new builds in the next couple weeks including a Smoothie and a Cave Dweller. I also have a Taptation Mod board coming and I am wondering if I should integrate it into the Cave Dweller, or hold on to it for a more filtered delay build like a Deep Blue Delay, or maybe one of Bean's new builds?

Also, if I did integrate the Taptation board, it would replace both R-11 and the TIME pot correct, and connect straight to pin-6 of the PT2399 chip?

Well, after building my first Klone (then having a friend take it off my hands) and my second Klone (and having HIS friend take it off my hands) I have finally built one that I am keeping. I learned a lot off the first 2 and measured a bunch of dual gang pots to find the best matched ones I had. I also used the "correct" carbon comp and carbon film resistors. It sounds great. My buddy has a real silver Klon and this one sounds every bit as good. My sister sketched out a new Griffin for the logo so it would be unique to the other 2 I made. Also, now it has a more personal touch.

The 1590a is an Afterlife comp and is my first foray into baby board builds. I thought this would be a good first build since it is a pretty straight forward circuit and not too much stuff to try to cram in a tiny box. Overall, I love it. Everything works great, the build was not too difficult, and I LOVE the tiny footprint. Oh, and the build sounds GREAT. Thanks a bunch Brian!

Next time, I will be trying another 1590a that is a little more complex. It is strangely addicting getting all that stuff in a tiny enclosure.



Ignore the sloppy glue holding the LED in. I got a little carried away.

I am building a vero Klone for a friend of mine and need some of the strange value capacitors (.0068uf and .0039uf). I thought I ordered 25V ones from Mouser, but it turns out I got 250V ones that are fairly large. I can still fit them in my layout without much headache, but it made me wonder if there would be any difference using this compared to say a 16V cap of equal capacitance?

I assume not, but I just wanted to be sure.

I am getting quite a bit of high freq loss when in bypass mode on my new kingslayer. Sounds great when on but bypassed it cuts out a lot of highs from my normal signal. Is this normal? If not, any ideas on where to look first?

Built a couple new pedals and thought I would show them off. The Kingslayer is AMAZING!! The Sparkplug is also a fantastic sounding build. I recommend both if you havent got them already. My friend has a real Klon and I am going to compare the Kingslayer, Klon, and Chimaera (KLONe) soon. Should be fun. Between the Chimaera and the Kingslayer though, it is the Kingslayer all the way.

Kingslayer:


Sparkplug:



Chimaera:

Just thought I would share some of my recent builds:

Cosmopolitan (blue) and Quasar (green)


Quasar guts:


Hotcakes (using the flapjack PCB I got off the forum here):

Just built a Hotcake clone and thought it would be a cool circuit to add. Plus, there are several version that might be able to be combined into a switchable variant maybe? 

Just an idea...

Took a long vacation over the holidays and got a little stir-crazy.  So, I built a couple pedals...



Fatpants: On mine, this adds lots of chime and clarity to my sound. I thought it would be "fatter" sounding based on the name, but unless I did something wrong it isn't quite that. Seems to add its own color to the tone with boosted mids and highs too, but I really like it so far. Haven't played at gig level yet but I am impressed with its "bedroom level" performance.


Egodriver: Yes, the LED clipping is VERY nice. Thanks for a sweet build Brian!


Crowther Hotcake clone: done on veroboard. This might be a good future project for Madbeans. It sounds absolutely KILLER with my AC30.


Green Bean (aka "8-oh-9") w/ a Jack Deville's Click-Less True Bypass switch: This is my second build of this circuit and I love it. I built one for a friend over Christmas (Sweede-Tea 2-in-1 build report) and liked it so much I had to have my own. I socketed the diodes so I can play with options in the future but stuck to 1n914's for now since I had a bunch on hand. The Click-Less true bypass is pretty cool too, but I think it would be better to make a silent true-bypass looper with them as a $20 switch for a pedal is pretty expensive.

I am building a Green Bean and I was wondering if anyone has played with the clipping diodes and compared them yet? I built one already for a friend with all 1n914's and it sounded pretty good but I think I am going to socket them this time and play around. I was wondering if anyone already had some combos that worked well that I might try rather than just start blindly plugging diodes in (though I may to that anyway). Thanks!

Based on the JHS Sweet Tea. I took the layout Brian had made for the Crunchbox a while back and used the Green Bean board for the TS side of the pedal. No labels yet and I drilled one of the footswitches slightly off, but overall it is a pretty sweet build. Too many knobs and switches but it adds for TONS of tweakability.

Oh and Brian (Bean), the new fabbed boards are NICE!! The only thing I screwed up was wiring the 9V+ to the negative pad on the board. Oops  



I have a Fatpants, EgoDriver, and a Hotcake clone in progress. I will post those when they are done too.

Ever a chance the King of Klones fabbed boards will ever be back? I built an Aristocrat a while back but want a single channel now to save space on my board.

Ok, I just have a quick question about some components. I built a Tonepad El Griton screamer a while back and now a buddy wants me to build one for him, but I wanted to try the new Bean pedal instead. Comparing the schematics, there are a few component value differences which don't concern me, but there are some additional parts in the Green Bean and I am just wondering what they are there for? I am still trying to learn the workings of these circuits, so any help is appreciated.

On the Green Bean, the additional parts I am referring to are R17, D6 and C11. I think D6 is just a protection diode, and are C11 and R17 just for filtering for the power or what purpose do they serve?

Thanks for the help!

I would like to see a board for just the buffer from the Sunking (Klon) circuit. I want to build a buffer for my pedalboard, but want to make it really small so it doesn't take up unnecessary space.

I understand it is a slight variation from the RC booster and there are supposedly schematics floating around too, but I don't know if they are verified.

Any chance you will have a PCB for one any time soon? Or better yet, any chance you will make a PCB that will work for either an AC or RC Booster? A "Quasar / Alpha Centauri" Booster maybe?

Ok, from what I understand the RC boost and AC boost are almost the same thing. Does anyone know the specific differences? Also, would there be a way to use the Quasar (2.5) board and make it into an AC booster?

If not, are you going to have a PCB anytime soon for a AC Booster (clone/inspired pedal) Madbeans?