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I haven't built a pedal since August and I think I've forgotten everything I knew.  Most of the trouble I had with it was self inflicted.  When I rocked it, I got no sound.  I went around checking voltages, flipping the polarized caps that were supposed to be non-polarized caps, turning knobs etc.  Voltages were all good and I got sound in bypass, but for some reason I was getting nothing with the circuit engaged-even with the audio probe there was no sound anywhere.  I was just about to toss it in the box of fail when I got the idea to switch my input and output.  Bingo!  I'd plugged my input into the output and vice versa 

Then the graphics.  I couldn't remember which paper I use for my toner transfers, and none of them seemed to work anymore.  I ended up going with magazine paper, but the transfer still came out grungy.  Still don't know what I was doing wrong.

I haven't played with it much yet, but so far I like it.  I'll try to get a quick demo of it up later this week.

Thought some of the synth guys might dig this.  Even if you're not a synth guy, Mark Mothersbaugh's a fascinating character 

[not]

If you're looking for DAW software...

https://shop.presonus.com/products/Software-Specials/Studio-One-Artist-2

Normally $99.  Not sure how long this is going on.

There's also a free version on the Presonus site if you just want to try it out.

The big caveat with this one (Artist version) is that it does not support 3rd party VSTs.  So you can't use EZDrummer or what have you. It does have drum samples natively, but they aren't on par with 3rd party stuff IMHO.

I still prefer Reaper, but that's probably because I'm used to that.

If you already have hundreds of dollars sunk into 3rd party VSTs, then this probably isn't for you.  If you're just getting your feet wet, though, it's worth checking out.

This is a formerly paid plugin.  I just installed it in Reaper and it seems pretty cool so far.

http://www.powerdrumkit.com/download76187.php

Follow the install instructions in the documentation.  Pretty easy install. 

Used a looper to keep everything the same.  The bad news is that it's 6 minutes of the same loop with some knob twiddling.  Not for the faint of heart

Just got this in my email:

http://www.bitcheslovemyswitches.com/#!/~/product/category=10252302&id=39455539

1 per customer.  Only 20 available. Click fast!

Looks like the site is down.  I hope it's just maintenance 

Finally finished this up.  It's getting an annoying high pitched whine at the moment.  I'll have to trouble shoot and adjust trimmers more sometime when the wife's at work.  She doesn't have a lot of patience for my guitar noises to begin with.   





Doesn't really look that grungy in real life.  It's more of a dark gray.  I painted it with a red candy at first, but it didn't turn out like I wanted.  Stripped it off, and just went with the plain metal look.

Sounds pretty good except for the whine.   

Another quickie.  I thought I already did this one, but I guess not.

G2 Fuzz.  I figure anybody building a G2 is probably a Gilmour fan, so I took a crack at a Gilmour solo.  Hope the purists don't string me up 

I'm messing around with some new video editing software.  In trying to get the hang of it, I did a quick demo.  Hope it's helpful to somebody deciding which autowah to build.

My ultimate goal is to do quick demo videos that get across the basic sound of each pedal. These should get better as I learn how to use the software 

Rust Driver with Juansolo mods.  Also did a gain mod.  Basically just replaced the 470k resistor with a 1meg pot.   I socketed the caps on the switch and may still play around with them.  One setting (I think the 1nF) is blanket over the speaker dark.  Otherwise sounds fantastic!

I etched this box a couple months ago to house a fuzz.  I dug the graphic, but never really got the fuzz dialed to my liking.  The Rust Driver is a keeper, though 

Looks interesting:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/otherfab/the-othermill-custom-circuits-at-your-fingertips

http://otherfab.com/products/

This is the GuitarPCB board.  I really like this comp.  Gets pretty squishy, but doesn't seem to attenuate the highs too terribly.  It's also very quiet.

My daughter brought back the luchador stamp from Korea.  I have no idea what the text is supposed to be.  "Longevity" and "Health" Kanji for "Comp" and "Volume".  Those stamps came from Hobby Lobby   Bonded silver stardust sparkle powder coat from PowderBuythePound.com.

I wish I'd posted this sooner, now it kinda looks like I ripped off Codtone's idea   

Anyway.  First enclosure etch wasn't too bad.  I'll definitely be doing more of these in the future.  This was done with  photopaper toner transfer and ferric chloride.  Exactly the same process as etching a board.  I left it unfinished because I liked how it looked all grungy.

The circuit sounds pretty good.  I need more time to play around with it, though.  Still don't have the sample hold dialed in just right, either.

Boxed this up today.  First try at alcohol inks, and I think it came out pretty decent.  I powder coated a clear coat over it, and it seemed to work OK.  I was afraid it would ruin it, but the ink didn't run or smear or react in any negative way with the powder coat.

The board went together without a hitch and fired up first try.  Sounds good, just like the demos of the pedal it's based on

Had this one mostly populated for a while, just boxed it up today.  Still playing around with R20 to dial in the amount of wobbly-ness.  Some of my best wiring yet, if I do say so myself.  These boards are like cheating, though.

Paint is Anodized Transparent Pink from PowderBuythePound.  I put it over a silver base coat, but it didn't turn out very transparent.  More like flat pink.  I like how the paint came out, though.  Looks like a cupcake

Finally got around to doing a demo of this.  It's kinda boring, but I tweak the controls and play a few chords.  Gives an idea of the range of tones in it, anyway.  I really, really dig this pedal!

Audio/video don't line up exactly.  I recorded the audio in Reaper and shot the video on the iPod, then put them together in iMovie on the iPod.  Worked OK, though.

I call it "None More Black" from the Spinal Tap quote

Screwed up the paint, so I went all Grind Customs on it.  Came out OK, I guess.  The purple LED and border look better in person.








I did a quick and dirty demo.  Just dinkin' around.  Mainly messing with the tone control.  Way more gain than I'll ever need.  Sorry I had the delay on the whole time.  I forgot it was on because, well, it's ALWAYS on (Multiplex).

Got some Ge trannies for a fuzz project and they came with this datasheet.  Just trying to verify the pinout.

Any help is appreciated 

Everybody seems to love these, so I gave it a try.  All I can say is that if you haven't built one, you definitely need to do so ASAP!  Exactly what I was looking for in a fuzz. 

I call it the Jade Dragon.  Not super proud of the guts.  I give it an 8 for concept and maybe a 5 for execution.  I had no idea it would be so hard to cut out a circle