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I put together a Harbinger two, and everything is working right except that the lamp is always on instead of pulsing.  If you manually cover and uncover the LDRs it sounds awesome.    The voltages all look pretty close except for Q12, which has the correct value for C, but B and E are way low (like around 1v each).  So I suspect that is the culprit, but I don't have any more MPSA13s here to swap with... so while I'm ordering more of those I thought I'd see if anyone else has any suggestions.  I also triple checked the values of the caps and resistors in that part of the schematic and they are all correct. However, C20 and C21 I had to use some older 1uF caps that I "reclaimed" from another board, since I was also out of those... so I'll be replacing those as well if swapping out Q12 doesn't end up fixing it.  Any other ideas or suggestions for what to look at would be welcomed.

Thanks!

My whole life I've wanted a "real" Les Paul.  I've been casually looking for the last year or so for one that I could afford and that was not weight-relieved.  I like the heavy solid mahogany ones. 

I sort of stumbled backward into this one.  The drummer in my band plays in a few cover bands here and there (ie: old white guys playing Mustang Sally and I Shot the Sheriff to their old white friends).  We decided to do a fun rob/white zombie side project with him singing and playing a little rhythm.  He asked one of the guys he plays with if he could borrow a guitar for the project and he said "sure, I have one I don't really play any more" and loaned him this 1971 Gibson Les Paul Custom. 

I, of course, was dumb founded that this was a thing he'd just let a drummer borrow for an undefined number of months.  So I told him to ask this guy how many dollars we'd have to give him to never ever give this guitar back and if he said a number at or below $2k, tell him it's sold.  And here we are.

It's a 71 custom with the pickups from a 65 SG/Les Paul.  And it's my new favorite thing.  It's got some holes drilled where a bigsby was installed and then removed.  And it was refretted about 6 years ago to medium jumbos.  It had a nickle ABR-1 on it when I got it, but I replaced that with a gold graphtech bridge. 

Surprisingly enough, this is my first tubescreamer pedal of any kind.  Not sure why I never built one before, but this one is pretty great.

The board is from m-Kresol and is a fantastic layout.  Thanks again!

Bonus point to anyone that recognizes the robot.  :-)



Not sure I'm happy with the knobs, but they're all I had that matched and fit at the time.  Probably switch them out next time I place an order.

Pretty pleased with how the etch turned out on this one.  I had some struggles getting the transfer to work the last couple times, but tried some new paper that worked much, much better.  :-)

Threw this together for the bassist in my band.  Just a Mudbunny built to Green Russian specs with a GuitarPCB buff n blend circuit to mix in some clean signal for low end. 

Came out pretty ok.  Dan likes it and it sounds pretty awesome.  I didn't have time to take a gut shot before I gave it to him, but it looks like all the other Mudbunny boards out there with slightly sloppier wiring. 

So, I put this board together about 2 years ago, I think.  Had some trouble with the graphics (printer crapped out on me) and let it sit for a while.  I finally decided to go a different, less good direction with the box and put it together only to find that I drilled the top mounted jacks a little too close to the power and couldn't fit them all in.  So I cursed a whole bunch and decided I'd redrill another box later.... which never actually happened.  So it sat there, 3/4 assembled for a long while now.

Yesterday I got some parts in from Lawrence including some Lumberg jacks.  I hadn't used those before and they deserve the hype. Very nice jacks and much smaller than the Switchcraft ones.  Anyways, those fit in the existing box just fine, so I was able to toss them in and finally box this up after years of shame and failure.  The label is still way less than ideal, but the pedal works perfectly and sounds fantastic.  Used dual-concentric pots to put the rate and balance knobs on top of the multiplier and waveform knobs.  I also got some of the colored aluminum footswitch nuts from BLMS, and I really like those as well. 

Didn't get a shot of the insides, but I assure you it's messy (six off-board wired pots and two footswitches) but functional.  :-)






Additionally, this is the first thing I've gotten finished since I put in my new workspace in the garage last month  The whole process was ssoooo much easier without having to dig out tools and set up / tear down a workspace on the kitchen table. The pedal parts still need a bit more organization, but this is already amazing.  Even though it's summer in Phoenix and even at 9pm it was over 90 in the garage.  Worth it.

I've had this done for a while, but haven't boxed it because I was struggling with getting the etch/painting right.  I finally gave up and said "eff it, this is close enough" and put it together.

Great sounding effect that deserves the praise it gets.  Still haven't gotten it down to practice to really put it through it's paces, but that's coming up on Wednesday. 

As I recall, CJ based this on the Iron Bell (muff variant)... it's taken me way too long to box this one up.  It really is excellent and actually replaced my Triangle-spec Large Beaver on my pedal board.

Another star wars themed etch for me.  It's fun and matches the board. 

I haven't boxed anything up in a while (put together at least a half-dozen pcbs with a few more almost there) because I was sick of decals and wanted to try etching, but was putting it off and doing some research.

Finally took the plunge on a couple of boxes over the weekend.  They came out better than I expected, but not as good as they could be.  Still, good effort for the first time and I learned a lot.

First a Supreax Deux...




Came out alright... left it in a bit too long and got a little pitting and lost some detail.  Oh well. 
Also didn't really plan this one out very well in terms of knob placement and graphics.  Really wanted the top mounted jacks, so I ended up having to flip the board and mount the controls upside down.  Oh well.  It's for me and I know what they do. 

Next a Mini-Me (based on the EHX Small Clone, I believe)




This one came out better.  A bit more shallow of an etch and I almost lost some detail sanding off the black paint, but overall better. 

And one last shot of them together:

Forum was down when they put this up yesterday. 
I have to assume that is why I don't see anything from Jimi about it?   

Code: 222888 valid until 8/23.

Finally got around to making a test box out of an enclosure I f--ked up the drilling on and a set of speaker terminals.

RadioShack had the 8 terminal speaker set on clearance for 77c, and 4 terminals were $3.49... so I got the 8 and cut it in half with a hacksaw.  I got an extra 4 terminal thingie if anyone wants it.  :-)

So yeah, nothing fancy, but it works.  Tested my supereux deux with it.  Holy shit, that thing rips. Can't wait to get that boxed up... but I'm going to try my first etch for that, so it might be a little while. 

Finally got my Zero Point Super Deluxe boxed up and working.  This thing is epic. 

Taking it down to practice tonight to try it out.  I suspect I need to add a resistor or trimmer to the slam function to slow down the runaway oscillation, but I'm trying it on the 'real' rig before deciding how much it needs. 

My second attempt (5 pedals total, but 2 at a time last time and 3 this time) at waterslide decals... I think I'm done with them.  Gonna look into etching.  But this came out alright.  A few water spots, a few wrinkles, but it mostly just adds character.  At least, that's what I tell myself.   

The insides... well, I'm just astonished I got all of that stuff in there.  Yay. 
A friend was over last night and saw, said he was in the market for a delay.  Checked it out and I may have to cook up another one of these soon. 

Photos!

Ordering the "blemished" or "seconds" powder coated enclosures from SmallBear and then trying to figure out what the hell is "wrong" with them. 

Just got one in this morning... Seriously, no idea why it isn't good enough to sell at full price. 

Well, I haven't really posted any of my stuff before because it's all pretty straightforward and not nearly as impressive as a lot of the stuff you guys are doing with lasers and doing your own circuits and layouts and all that.  But I decided I should start posting stuff anyway.  Mostly as a motivator for myself to do better.  If I know other people are going to see it, maybe I'll not be so lazy about it. 

Anyway, this is a ZenDrive clone(sorta) built on GuitarPCB's Zenith Drive board.  I honestly had more trouble with this than I'd like to admit.  But, it turns out I had downloaded the docs right after Barry started doing fabbed boards and must have gotten an early revision or something, because mine had the tone pot at 10k instead of 50k and C3 at 470n instead of 100pF.  Those things made a pretty big difference.

As for the decoration... I'm a total nerd.  That's a cover to a Thor comic from the 80s (Issue 337 I think).
Anyway, the singer/pianist/guitarist in my band is also a fan and we have a long running debate/joke about whether his head is based on a horse or a goat.

The decal is just full sheet white avery label. Works fine provided you don't go over the edges (which I did). And you don't mind a white background.  (Which I don't).  Had to trim off the top of the label with an exacto knife because it went just over the rounded part of the top and wouldn't stay down to put on the clear coat.  Probably should've pulled it off and made a new one... but like I said, lazy.    Also ready to finally be done with this one.  I have three more boards already finished, tested, working, and ready to be boxed.

So yeah, there it is. 

Pics:

Hello.. I'm working on my ZPSDX and have run into an issue. 

(1) Project Name: Zero Point SDX

(2) General description of the problem
Basic problem is that the delay isn't working.  The clean signal passes through fine (with Mix and Feedback down all the way), but if you try to add in any delay, it instead makes horrible screeching sounds. 

Also, the 78L05 gets super hot when the effect is given power.  But only with the 2399s installed.
With the 2399s out, it does not get warm and the voltages are as expected (9.27 on one side, 5.01 on the other).  With the 2399s in, it's more like 7 on one side and 2.5 on the other and like I said, the regulator gets very warm.

(3) Steps that you have taken to try to resolve the issue
I've tested the 2399 chips in a working neptune delay, and they all work fine.
Reflowed solder joints, double checked component values, triple checked IC orientation.  Tried different ICs.

One thing I'm not sure about... I ran out of sockets so I just soldiered the BC550s in place.  They are labeled BC550B.  Looking at the data sheet Tayda has, they are 1. Collector, 2. Base, 3. Emitter.  I looked up BC550 datasheets on google and it seems that some of them are 1. Emitter, 2. base, 3. Collector.  And I'm not sure which pinout the silkscreen on the ZPSDX is for.  Any ideas?  If these were backwards, might that explain the behavior I'm seeing?  I don't want to desoldier them to try flipping without more info on whether or not that could be the issue.

(4) List any substitutions you used for parts/values
No subs...

Thanks for any help.  I can take some photos if you'd like, but I'm mostly after suggestions about the transistor pin outs and any other ideas about why that regulator is getting so damn hot. 

Thanks again!

-Bill