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I've had a YY enclosure for years that I want to use but I absolutely suck at drilling -- even when I draw something up on my own, I am always somehow off in my measurements.  Because this was a pricier enclosure, I really want to get this right and not putz around.  Does anybody have a resource for a drill guide for the YY enclosures? 

Hi...I'm wondering if anybody can help me figure out how to use Tayda's drill pattern coordinates tool to have a custom enclosure drilled for a project.  I'm banging my head against the wall trying to make it work and, bless my heart, I just can't. 

I am trying to build up a Wolfshirt, but with a few minor changes to the way it occupies a 125B enclosure:

1. move the octave switch to a second stomp switch at the base of the enclosure parallel with the bypass stomp switch.

2. wire a regular 16mm pot via short normal jumper wires to the pads for the tone control so it can sit in the middle of the enclosure like a "normally" situated tone knob.

3. Top mounted in/out/DC jacks.

4. Little holes for 3mm LED bezels above the stomp switches

I know this is really basic stuff, but I am just running into a wall.  If it was a free-form sort of project without a PCB using board mounted Vol and Fuzz pots, I could probably figure something out that would get close enough to what I want, but I don't know how to calculate for the pre-determined placement of certain components that the PCB demands (i.e., the Vol and Fuzz pots, or precisely where a mid-situated Tone pot should "sit" on the face of the enclosure).

Can anybody help in terms of what I need to do here?  I've tried already but the end result was completely clusterf***ed.

I'm going to build up a Wolfshirt, but really would like to have the octave switch as a footswitch (with an LED signalling when it's engaged).  I've never adapted this sort of switch in this way...can anybody direct me to a diagram or tutorial about how to make this change?  I'm guessing it's likely not terribly complicated, but I want to avoid making mistakes along the way.

I'm trying to source the on-board 9mm pots for an etched Zombii board, and I'm not sure where to find them.  Looking at Mouser there's a ton of options, but I'm a little worried I'm going to pick the wrong one/s.  Can anybody tell me the specific part number/s I need to find for the 5K and 10K pots for this project?

Thanks very much in advance.

This is going to be a dumb question but I just don't know how else to ask it.  In some very well-built fuzzes that use shielded wire, I have noticed that they are sometimes held in place by little "brackets" that seem mounted to the wall of the enclosure, with little hooks that grab onto the wire, holding them securely in place.  Does anybody know what those little brackets are called, or where to find them?

I'd really like to purchase some of the nice, wide-pitch stripboard that I see used in some of the D*A*M products, but I'm not sure exactly what it is called; my searches on Ebay have not been successful.  Can anybody tell me where I may find stripboard of this type?

I've managed to secure several Mullard OC-series germanium transistors (OC74s and OC76s) that are just the right leakages for a TB MK II, but pretty low gain.  Most are around 35-50Hfe. 

I seem to recall a discussion thread somewhere on another site where someone noted that even these low gains would still work for the circuit with some tweaks.  If memory serves, this involved tweaking the collector resistor on Q1 to be 12-15K rather than 10K.  I can't remember more from the discussion (and of course now, I can't find it!), but I also wonder whether upping the Q2/Q3 feedback resistor to be closer to 150K might help too. 

Does any of this sound feasible to you all?  Can low gainwers like these still work in this circuit with sufficient tweaking/tuning?

I've experimented with having a "starve" pot on a TB Mk II and I like the way it makes the circuit more  -- sweaty, I guess.  Lots of cool tones can be dialed in.  But I am less familiar with the interactions on the Mark III.  Would it similarly react well to having the voltage turned down through such a control, or would the circuit topography just not take well to this and adversely affect the signal and tone?

Looking at the guts of some vintage Tonebender clones out there, I see the leads are insulated by colorful tubing that doesn't look like heatshrink tubing, or like the insultion stripped from regular hookup wire.  Anybody know what this stuff is called, and where I could find some?

For the first time, I've painted an enclosure a dark color (deep metallic blue).  I've used waterslide decals efftctively in the past but only on lighter backgrounds, and only with black lettering.  I use laser printer stock from Small Bear, but my printer is only B&W.  I'd really like to use a bright purple or orange on this background and have it stand out -- can anybody suggest how I can do that?  Is there a resource you use or know about that could help create a logo for me that could slide onto the enclosure the same way but with bright colors?

I'm preparing to build up this project, and have a bunch of different caps on hand: those brownish-orangish Panasonic types, some 50V dipped ceramic types, and of course a bunch of greenies.  I'd appreciate any thoughts on what each of these types might do for this circuit, or which types to avoid (and, if possible, why). 

I've used greenies in Fuzz Faces and TB Mk II's and they sound good; and I've used dipped ceramics in Rams Head Muff builds and they also sound good.  But I've only ever seen the "higher" quality Panasonic types in the MK III builds...so I just want to make sure I don't make a mistake if the latter is the preferred type to use...

I wired up an ethced Zombii board and the thing sounds fantastic.  BUT -- the way the pots are situated, it leaves the bottom of the PCB too low in the enclosure, and I can't get a battery to fit (I'm using a pre-drilled 1590b from Pedal Parts Plus, as I **suck** at drilling).  Any suggestions on how I can do this differently?  I have another etched board that I'd be keen to populate and fit into the enclosure if I can manage to find a workaround...

I have a Peacekeeper PCB I've been waiting to build up, but find that at the moment I don't have quite enough J201's to use.  Is it possible to substitute some 2N5457's one one of the gain stages, perhaps the second to last (the "double" one)?  If so, would I have to adjust the 10M resistor on that stage?

I'm planning on building up a Zombii project, and am trying to use the lowest leakage, lowest noise transistors I can.  At the moment, this is what I've got:

For Q1, either a BC550B or a BC549B (both with HFe around 550)
For Q2/Q3, either:
-  a set of 2N1378 (85/130 HFe, virtually no leakage)
-  a set of CV7355 (80/125, very low leakage)
- a set of 2N404 (90/130, virtually no leakage)

I'm assuming that any of my choices for the Q2/Q3 positions will be fine, though I would be curious as to why any of you might favor one choice over another. 

The real question I have is for the Q1 device, which will be quite a bit higher gain than the usual 2N3904 in this position.  To compensate for that, would you recommend lowering the 220K resistor across the B/C of Q1 a bit...to, say, 180K?  Or is this not really so important?

Finally...the volume control on the stock Fuzz Factory is, as we all know, weird, since it is extremely loud already when the pot is up at the 9:00 position.  would lowering the 470R resistor to 390R or even 330R help with this, or would this lower value introduce some problems in how the other parts of the circuit interact?

So from what I've seen and heard, I'm liking the new ZVex dirtbox that remulates the '59 Bassman tone.  In the video demos, Vex suggests that the topology of the circuit would be very similar to the Box of Rock -- anybody have a guess as to what components would be altered or removed/added in order to get the circuit to behave more like a driven Fender Tweed?  I wonder if it's as simple as that, or if there are some additional maneuvers involved in the production of this device that the BOR didn't have.

I'm about to build up a K*ng of T*ne project, and I want to have one of the channels as high gain.  But I've never been clear about which side that channel should be...that is, should the standard gain side feed the high gain side, or vice versa?  What do YOU prefer, and why?

Also -- I was perusing another forum, and someone suggested what seemed like a useful mod: changing the 10K resistor in the IC1 feedback loop to 56K, and then using a 50K drive pot.  According to the poster, this yielded a far more useful drive control where the entire sweep of the pot functions essentially like the final 1/2 of the normal drive control, yielding useful OD in every position from low to high.  I'd like to adapt this for the high-gain side of the pedal as well...in that case, would I:

1) keep the 56K resistor substitution in place and just use a 100K drive pot (as opposed to the 250K pot in the "usual" high gain channel of this pedal)?  or, if this leaves me with *less* drive than the 250K pot would provide...

2) keep the 56K in place and use the 250K drive pot?  Or...

3) up the 56K to something a bit higher and use the 250K drive pot?

My understanding is that the 56K sets the minimum drive amount, and then higher pot value would then add to that.   So -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- keeping the 56K would keep the same minimum drive level irrespective of the highest level of drive set by the value of the drive pot...

I've just discovered this great circuit by Mictester on FSB, and want to give it a go.  But I'm wondering if there's a way to add a threshold control to this circuit...I've found that feature useful on other circuits and I'd like to figure out where it could be incorporated into this one.  Any suggestions?

I'm building a Tonebender Mk II project and want to stick a PNP silicon transistor in the Q2 spot.  I know I can simulate leakage by running a resistor between the B and C of the transistor, but what's a good value to do start with in doing that?      Open to any suggestions or ideas regarding the variables involved in making that choice.

I picked up a nice haul of AC125 transistors (don't know the manufacturer, but they're in the TO-1 package).  The problem is that they're all REALLY leaky...like 700ma or even higher.  I was going to use these in some Tonebender circuits but with that leakage I don't think I can.  Any suggestions about where they might actually work??

Someone asked me to make them a triple overdrive pedal with a Tubescreamer-type circuit, a Red Llama clone, and a Bluesbreaker clone.  I've got the boards and actually excited to tackle the job, but the question remains: which is the best order for these effects to go in series?  Now, I know there's no "best" of anything,  but what's the most flexible, useful combination if this player were to run all three at the same time?  I'm guessing the Llama first (for a fairly clean boost or drive), into the TS (for a bit more honk or mids) into the Bluesbreaker, which should add a bit of shine without too much additional midrange flavoring.  But what would YOU do?