Messages

i really like the artwork on your magmatone. wouldn't have noticed the sharpie if you hadn't told us.

Thanks Felix, this is my second (barring some disasters) attempt at acrylic medium toner transfer and I guess I've seen some of the really professional finishes other people are getting and I would like to be able to achieve those results. I'm going to try a new method on my next one.

you would have to cut the pcb in half to do that. And even then it would be close with 4 pots

ah, I think I should have said 1590B!

One small note: I would add the jumper wire between the effect input lug on the 3PDT switch and the lug benath the grounded one. This way your input gets grounded when the effect is disengaged, which is prefered by most.

Yeah I've seen some guys do that, I didn't know why, thanks for the tip.

I like the graphics, they both look great!

Thanks Luke, I'm not 100% happy with the Cardinal,might change it at some point.

Hi all,

here's a couple of tremolos, first up Mark's Magnavibe layout from Tagboard effects.




I still haven't got the artwork technique down yet so I had to touch up with a sharpie, which then smudged with the varnish...

The wiring's slightly neater than my last effort and I was pleased the hand rolled vactrol worked, especially as it smoked a bit when I heat shrank it

Although it sounds nice, a subtle wobble, I wasn't that happy with the depth of this so I decided to build a Cardinal tremolo.



I needed to get this done for a rehearsal so I just glued an inkjet print onto the box and varnished it. Is there a problem with doing this? No-one else seems to do it that way? Anyway I guess Chinese new year had an influence.



The wiring's a  real mess — in a fit of temporary insanity I  attempted to get this into a 1590A — way out of my league at the moment! When I realised it was never going to happen I had to revise the plan. I didn't want to desolder the wires from the board, having already lifted a pad after soldering the wave pot incorrectly, so it's joined up wires and heat shrink all round...

Anyway it sounds amazing and you can get so many different sounds out of it. I really recommend this to any trem fans out there who haven't built one yet and big thanks to Jon for designing this thing!
ta
George

brilliant artwork and build! I couldn't see the coin slot though... 

That's really impressive, everything looks perfect!

Very nice colour scheme!

dunno if you're still making your mind up David, but here's my thoughts—

I've got a Squier Bass VI. It sounds great, has that Fender single coil sound and has a low-cut switch that helps clean up chords on the lower strings. It's got a 30" scale which you'll need if you want to tune E-E.

I've got mine tuned A-A, which took some getting used to but you're right, it does open up new tonal possibilities...

The nut and bridge are shite and will be replaced when I get some cash. It was a bitch to intonate and I've read a lot of people had real grief intonating it tuned E-E.

Definitely worth it though, sounds great with some term/reverb!

It's discussed in exhaustive detaile here— http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/21722/

I've also got a Gretsch Baritone with a 29.5"scale, so it can be tuned E-E  but I've got it A-A. Comes with mini humbuckers and sounds more piano-like than the Squier. Also has a licensed Bigsby which sounds gorgeous, strings are a real pain in the arse to change though.

I would recommend either of these as they can be tuned E-E, B-B, A-A or whatever and are great fun to play. You may not be able to get E-E with the shorter 27"-28" baritone necks.

ta
George

I really like your finishes very unique!

I might have to try the hand painted look myself as I can't spray in my place. Is the etching primer you use a spray? Is it available in a brush-on form?

^^

what he said!

Thanks for the props guys. And thanks for your tips Curtis, I've been tinning the wires but it didn't occur to me to tin the lugs as well.

I was thinking of getting some of  the 3PDT boards— if I wanted to rig two effects again I could connect from  T/S jack out of the first board to T/S jack in of the next?

I'm sure I'll make plenty more mistakes Cody, stay tuned!

OK here's a question— I took this to a mate's house yesterday to demo it to him and when we plugged it in it made a horrible humming noise. I figured something had come loose and it wasn't grounding properly, but when we opened it up we couldn't see anything obvious. We tried different amps, different cables. He has an isolated power supply (unlike me) so I don't think it was that.

The only other thing I did differently was no other pedals chained, (at home I had it after a compressor and before a delay). When I got it home it works fine, although the Echoplex has lost some gain now...

Any thoughts?

thanks,
George

Hi All,

the magnifiers that clip on to reading glasses worked for me and I finally got something built! I've posted it in the projects area. Thanks for all the encouragement, you're right, this is addictive!

ta
George

Hi All,

this is my first build, a Nocturne Brain Seltzer and Echoplex preamp from tagboard effects in one box. I thought these would be simple enough for a relative noob to build and despite a few hiccups on the brain seltzer I'm pleased with the sound.

The brain seltzer gives a nice clean boost and the tone control adds a bit of twang (I had to change the 100n for 10n to get anything useful from the tone pot).

The echoplex can do clean boost up to a bit of crunch at full gain. I swapped the 3k3 in the layout for a 2k2 in series with a 4k7 pot to get a useable gain control.

I can also get a nice crunch with them both on, kind of like  Angus Young or Pete Townsend with the volume at half on their guitar.

Lessons learned—

1. don't forget to plug the IC into a the socket before testing (what a dumbass!)

2. I need to get better at soldering jacks/switches/pots

3. The box was much more of a PITA than the circuits themselves...


Graphics Fail Two- I used t-shirt paper and it wrinkled up like this  - too much heat?



Graphics Fail Three- Gel medium transfer - didn't use enough gel...



Graphics attempt Four - still looks rough but I couldn't face sanding and trying a fifth time, it's got imperfections, scratches and the varnish has yellowed it a bit so I think I'll say I planned it that way, it's vintage! ;]



here's the guts - I know - the wiring's a mess...

Thanks again for the greets everyone!

PeAk, we're not trad surf but we don't know what else to call it when people ask! Check some demos out on soundcloud if your interested- https://soundcloud.com/29-palms

Thanks Josh, as upthepunxx says this is a fantastic site and your projects look really interesting.


SMD? no thanks! Bjorn, who I got the Surfy Bear PCB from, offered me some matched SMD transistors for the build but I'm not ready for that yet...


Both the magnifying loupe and the DMM got lost in the post. The replacements showed up yesterday...

They forgot the leads for the DMM so I'm still waiting on that.

The Loupe is OK for inspecting joints/checking components but you have to have the board about 5cm from the goggles so it won't be any good for soldering.

I'm going to check out that lamp Leevibe, but I was hoping for something I can wear so I don't have to keep moving the magnifier, I have some 'helping hands' with a magnifier but I found it wasn't really powerful enough and I had to keep moving the lens all the time...

I've ordered some of these

I'll let you know how they turn out. Can't go wrong buying from James Bond right? ;]

haha, thanks for the greets guys!

I received the pcb for the Surfy Bear recently and didn't realize it was going to be so tiny.

I immediately realized that I've bitten off more than I can chew with this one.

I decided to try something simpler first and attempted to build the Nocturne brain Seltzer by Mark from Tag Board Effects (hope I'm allowed to mention other pedal sites! .

I ordered some parts and solder etc. I know my eyes aren't what they were last time I built something but I swear the components are smaller than they used to be!

Anyway it's built, doesn't work, so now I'm waiting on a 20x magnifying Loupe and a DMM so I can attempt to debug the little swine...

ta
G

hi all,

I've been playing guitar on and off for around 25 years — though you might not believe that if you heard me play

I made some effects from Craig Anderton's book about 15 years ago and I thought I might have another go...

I'm playing in a surf band right now so I'm thinking of building the surfy bear spring reverb project so I'm sure I'll be picking your brains / begging you to bail me out in no time!
ta
George