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I've been building a stack of projects lately, and my hit rate is somewhat ordinary.

Built a None More Black on vero.  Sounds great, but unusable due to the noise.  Messed around with it a bit with shielded cables and the like with no result.  I've ordered an etch off Keef in the meantime.

Built a Wampler Sovereign on vero.  Sounds great, definitely getting boxed.

Built a BSIAB II on a pcb.  After realising I'd put the switching IC in the wrong way it worked properly but still had the same noise level.  Sounds great, but there's even more noise than the NMB.  Everything seems to check out but it's obviously full of unhappiness.

Built a Pork Barrel on a pcb, had some distortion in the signal, like an overload on a hard strum that disappeared after I put in the rate LED.  Didn't think it would be that necessary, but there you go. 

Built a Rub-a-dub on vero using the long brick.  Works and sounds great.  Whoever came up with this did a great job.

Built Sabrotone's Mutant on vero.  I get voltages but no output.  I must build an audio probe someday and see where things are going wrong.  More than likely I've done something stupid.

Built the Duplex Drive, haven't tested that yet.  It's a big build so it should be an interesting experience.

Just had my Tayda order arrive (4 days!) and for poops and giggles I ordered a black powder coated BB for my Sovereign build (or any build, really) to see what it was like.

Seems ok.  A small mark, a bit of hammertoneish orange peel but definitely usable.  Not sure if I'll try cutting it back or not yet.  Not sure if I'll finish the box before attempting to drill the holes.  Who does that?  I normally drill, label, clearcoat.

Gudday all.  Just thinking I need to build a Mesa Boogie style build.  Which one do you guys think is better?  The Triple Wreck, or Doctor Boogie?  I'm leaning towards the Triple Wreck with a different boost component...

(Speaking of Wampler, I just built the Sovereign on vero.  What a great circuit).

Gudday guys, I have a fairly ambitious project coming up and it needs a LOT of illuminated pots.  Where do you guys get them from?

I don't think I'm going to get to box up any more builds this year, so I thought I would be first to post my 2016 roundup.  It's been fairly constructive.

Hyperactive Hyperdrive (Kingslayer, Gainster, Boneyard (later swapped with a Purple plexi 800 on vero when the Boneyard died), Dual Booster (Brian May Treble Booster, Crackle Not OK), Harley's Hammer (Afterlife)

Shinei Echo Master modded to true bypass, replaceable fuse, and illuminated power switch.

Krankosaurus replaced with Crunchbox and Crackle Not OK.


Cleaned up my Little Angel.

Deadringer V1

One knob gate on vero from Tagboard. Great on dirty sounds, makes clean sounds sound a bit crackly.  This would be better in a noisy dirt box that gets bypassed with the rest of the pedal.

Some jfet distortion project I found on the Tagboard forums.  Like it a lot, added a marshall tonestack and LPB1 after it.

Crunchbox and Cranked AC.  Left switch toggles between the two, right switch is box bypass, so no stacking.  Might make a version of this in a DD with a toggable treble/SHO booster in front.  Very nifty box, and the Crunchbox is one of my favorite dirts, while I use the Cranked AC for beatles style jangle/chime.  It's a close call between my Boneyard, HT-dual, and Crunchbox for my favorite dirt, so close.

Stealth - Smoothie phaser, Glam chorus, Mimik with added tap, Equinox II reverb.  Might replace the Glam with a Porkbarrel one day.

Not really a pedal, but I modded a Peavey HP to have a Dimarzio Megadrive, Duncan JB, 3 peizos (one under the floyd baseplate), with a preamp and lpb1 booster.  Volume pushpull splits both humbuckers, tone pushpull swaps the middle pickup out for the peizos.

Gutted a crappy distortion pedal and replaced it with a Rabbithole to Green Russian specs.

Things that didn't get completed this year:
Direwolf - A modified 7th Heaven (with charge pump and a few substitutions)
A Timmy/Zendrive box (Zimmy? Zeetee?)
Genuine Fake - A YJM 308 build.
Terminus V2 - multicab sim plus a few other bits.
Wampler Sovereign
Stank.
Porkbarrel.
Bloviator needs boxing.  Might go in Terminus v2.

Gudday all.  Here's a recycled enclosure a friend gave me to do something interesting with.  It used to be some horrible distortion, so I gutted it and replaced it with a Rabbithole.  After some reading up on the subject populated it to Green Russian specs, with 2n5088s, socketed the diodes and put 3mm red diffused in the 3-4 pair and then boxed it up without even bothering to listen to it.

I'm not sure what a Muff is supposed to sound like, but this isn't some over saturated high gain beast.  I was hoping for, I dunno, more, but this is fairly open in it's sound.  Dare I say it... it's a little Klonish, crossed with a bit of Fuzzface maybe.

It also has a new green indicator LED, because Green Russian.  I can't remember what I painted the box with, maybe rustoleum 2x with a clear coat.  More likely etching primer + 1k clear.  Possibly even just a couple of coats of a black enamel as this has been a pretty lazy build.  Don't know that I'll bother with any artwork.  No real gutshot as it has a top plate that everything mounts onto, that is slid into the baseplate, and then the sides are screwed on to keep everything in place.

Original gutting.


Rabbithole in place.


Painted and put together.

So today, I decided to sit down and sort out some issues with my latest build - Stealth - that you might have seen in the build reports.  This is how it went:

Stealth wasn't 100%. I thought the problem was with the delay initially as it wouldn't pass signal until I poked it the right way, but then I found that there was a lifted/broken trace at the input on the reverb.

That sorted, I still couldn't get the delay working quite right, like, much at all, so I decided to replace it with a Deep Blue Delay on vero and go without the tails of the Small Time.  Thinking ahead of myself, I shoved the DBD in without rocking it and .... it didn't work.  It passed signal fine, but there was no delay.

I checked all the voltages and found that I was only getting around 6v at each of the effects off the buss you can see in my gut shot.  I was getting 9.3 or so at the jack so I bypassed the decoupling but that gave the chorus a wierd noise when engaged, so I decoupled that one and everything is getting around 9v now.  The Glam and Smoothie are much happier now.

I was still getting some reverb signal regardless and it turned out that I had the reverb wired to the switch wrong, so it was always on and in the signal.  I fixed that (still no delay) and the reverb was sounding quite nice and not over the top - previously it was sounding a bit springy/short delayish early in the pot rotation.

With still no delay, I decided to go back at the Small Time since it had been working with the tap tempo originally out of the box.  I rewired it up and got it working.  Not sure what the issue was, but this was with no tap, just a normal pot layout.  So I jammed with that for a bit and decided to put in back in without the tap.

I put longer leads on the pots and put it back in.

And it didn't work, it just passes a clean signal when on.  The reverb now has that short spring thing going on again.  It might just be that combination of buffered effects.  I really liked it before!  I fiddled around with the DBD and it still didn't work.

That's what I did today.  I think I'll just get a cave dweller PCB and be done with it.

Gudday all.  Here's Stealth.  Smoothie, Glam, Smalltime + tap, Equinox II.

The tap is from http://uk-electronic.de/onlineshop/product_info.php?cPath=105_195_352&products_id=3099&osCsid=0622e90a18403e6cf9f89e22f30a9aa6

Etching primer with clearcoat, then laser etched.  Not recommended really, it came back from the engraving with some weird crazing in the clearcoat.  Polishing didn't get rid of it, so I was forced to cut it back *very* lightly with wet/dry sandpaper and then polish with the cut/polish compound.

As a result, the smaller text isn't as sharp as it was.  It also had lots of little bare dots around a few of the letters, so these have been filled in with a fineliner texta.  These pics are the before photos, as tightening the nuts causes the finish to chip off in places, so I've taken photos before all the extra fineliner.  Additionally, the pot shafts are different lengths, so I've put the knobs at the same height for the photos and have now shoved them down lower..

The Smalltime on vero is now playing funny buggers, so I may replace it sometime or at least check the solder joins.  I don't remember the Equinox being so distinctly delayish either.  Anyway, it's working, more or less.  I can see myself replacing the delay and reverb at some time.

The guts are ok, as far as these sort of things go.  Vero makes for a tough time making it look neat.

Edit:  This has been modified - it now as a Porkbarrel for chorus, a rubadub for the verb, and a Mimik w/tap for the delay.

While looking for an interesting project, I came across a layout in the Tagboard forums.  The linked video sounded great, so I decided to build this one.

It's named for the classic Ausploitation movie "Razorback", which is in turn what we call feral pigs over here.  If you haven't seen it, you probably should.  If you can, find the book - it's even better - and it will further convince you to stay home and never visit Australia.

The pedal schematic itself seems a lot like a Wampler Plexi, minus the tone controls.  I added a BMT marshall based tonestack and LPB-1 booster from another Tagboard layout and it makes it the sonic adjustment quite broad.  I also put the "Bright" switch on the "Bite" footswitch.  It makes a subtle difference, but it is there.  Bit more "something".  The switch made much more difference before I added the tonestack.

I also used 2sk118 jfets which are functionally identical to 2sk170 according to the datasheet bible at the LHS.

The dirt level starts at "Panama" and goes up from there.

Not a fan of the clearcoat I used for this.  It tends to craze on the curved edges once the box starts getting handled.

I've decided to call the pedals I'm building that happen to have iconic characters as the basis for their artwork the "Icon Series", ha.

This is Gunslinger, from Steven King's The Dark Tower series.  I'm seriously hanging for the movie to come out, and the TV series based on The Wizard and The Glass should be some epic darkness if it's anything like the book or comic.  The artwork features Roland in the field of roses, and the Gunslinger's Litany, plus the classic opening line:

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."

The pedal itself switches between a Cranked Ac from Sabrotone's layout, and a Crunchbox layout from Tagboard.  "Ka" - lifeforce - turns the pedal on, while Twinner - a person's twin from the Territories - switches between the two dirts.  "Darks" is the gain, "Kes" is volume, while "Thinny" is tone - all are high or low language terms from The Dark Tower, The Talisman, or Black House.

No stacking of the drives. The idea is to get a chimey low-mid from the AC, and the hard high gain from the Crunchbox/

See, after years of hand drilling enclosures while kneeling on the floor, I now have the opportunity to use a drill press. 

Not just any drill press. 

This drill press was a drill press when your grandfather was thinking about using a drill.  It's a REAL drillpress and it doesn't care for your organic gluten free transparent purist corksniffing hipster overdrive pedal.  It spins slow enough you can just about see the curves in the bit as it turns.  Aluminium doesn't stand a chance against it and I don't think it took me 5 minutes to fully drill out a 1550G enclosure that'll have 4 effects plus tap tempo using a step bit.

No pilot holes.  Australian made. 

Cop that.

Yeah.

I ordered some smd j201 and adapters from chromosphere ages ago for those ubiquitous amp-in-a-box style projects, and every time I looked at the adapters and the jfets I knew there was no way I was going to be able to solder those together.  I wandered into Jaycar today and happened across some some "wire glue"... 

What's the worst that can happen?

I'm dabbing it onto the pads, using a tweezer to place the jfet on the tiny blobs, and little pressure to push it in, and then a tiny dab on top.  Maybe I'm just chickening out, but if this works I'm happy with that.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/wire-glue-9ml/p/NM2831

Happy second hand new multi effect pedal day to me after 18 years of not using multis at all.  Vox Tonelab LE, scored for AUD$150.

I got it mainly so I could put my Blackstar HT-Dual and gate pedals in the insert, switching them out as necessary, using the other effects for whatever reason. 

Sounds pretty good as a general rule.  I like the 90's marshall sound mostly, with the dumble model not too far behind, but the higher gain Soldano and Boogie models don't really do it for me.  There's a patch called "Eruption" that nails the VH1 sound, as you'd expect.  Surprisingly, no U2, Beatles, or Queen patches come stock, although the prerequisite delay and boost pedals are modeled.  You'd think that given the AC30 is such a part of those band's signature sounds you'd be able to pull those at leisure, even first cab off the rank.

So far, I have four banks with patches set up for clean, low gain, high gain, epic solo in varying amp flavours (vox, marshall, dumble, and one with no amp models so I can use the Blackstar).  Lot of fiddling to get proper relative volumes from each patch.

Willy.

I was certain I ordered a bulk of 10 footswitches off ebay ages ago.  Last time I did that they took a month or so to arrive, but when this lot seem to be taking their time I checked my ebay (both .com and .com.au) and couldn't find the order. Mustn't have actually done it...

It turns out that Mr Bruce Egnater himself is in the DIY STOMPBOXES (unofficial) facebook group I'm in.  He answers a lot of questions about design and whatnot, but recently he asked if anyone has ever played the Egnater pedals (the Goldsmith, Silversmith, and Blackmetal).

I hadn't even heard of them.  I think they've only been out a year or so, but the functionality looks fantastic - some really useful features.  Haven't tried them, but they have all the things I've been (all of us?) thinking about putting in pedals like loops, effect order switches et al.  He just designs for the company these days and has nothing to do with the business side AFAIC.

Check them out, very interesting.  Only posting because it seems like something we'd all be interested in.  No commercial benefit for me.

http://www.egnateramps.com/EgnaterProducts/Pedals/EgnaterPedals.html

My Sprout PIFs are about to go out in their classy, protective packaging...

Gudday all.  Someone posted a massive multi they'd build a while ago, and according to the dimensions they posted, it was the size of an A4 sheet of paper, around 21 x 29cm.  Anyone know where I could find a beast like this?  Can't seem to find the original post.. might have been lost in the great crash.

Gudday all.  Here's my One Knob Gate, built off the attached vero below that I found in the Tagboard forums.  For those who don't know, the fellow on the front (and the font, and the font fill style) is the Guardian taken from the Ultima series of games. 

This was to be my first effort at waterslide decaling.  It came up ok, but I couldn't manage to keep the edges from coming up.  I'd drilled the enclosure earlier off the template thinking I'd put LEDs for the eyes and then realised I'd be struggling to line it up.  Then I came up with the brilliant (!) idea of waterclear yellows behind the decal.

I still had to line it up properly.  Luckily, waterslides let you do that with a bit of soap in the water.

Anyway, because the decal wouldn't stick at the edges, I eventually went to my usual inkjet sticker paper.  I lined it up by putting my phone under the enclosure, light facing up, and lining the sticker up with the bright spots shining through.  Worked remarkably well.  Etching primer on the whole box, mask and spray white undercoat on the top face, place sticker, many, many, many, coats of clear.

Guts are messy, it's a recycled stomp, and I think my soldering iron should be tossed - I don't think it's hot enough.

Came out ok overall.  It's usable.  Basically, plug it in, and turn the knob until you hear the noise go.  It's a pretty sharp knee, you'll definitely hear it.

Willy.

I did a Tayda order a couple of weeks ago, putting some 2n3904 in the cart for a project, getting a few extra thinking I'd use them down the track.

Now, I have no idea what I got them for...

Gudday all, anyone in Melbourne looking for waterslide decal in Melbourne, I'm going to recommend these guys:

http://www.decalspecialists.com.au/

They're happy to be mentioned here, but RING and organise a time before going around as they are a small operation and don't answer the door if they're doing an order and can't stop.  I haven't tried the paper yet - just picked it up today - but they stock the white and clear.  Very good to have a chat to if you have any questions and the price was very reasonable.  I'm actually looking forward to sanding the two boxes I've messed up recently and having a go with the waterslide stuff.