Over the weekend, I finished up three projects: twin1965's V Fuzz, midwayfair's Rustbunny, and now jubal81's Lamprey (the SFT). This build wasn't super eventful, but it's worth noting for a couple of reasons.
The PCB was intended to fit into a 125B, but I much prefer 1590Bs. I asked Jason if he thought it would still fit, and he said it would, so I dove in. Turns out, it does fit...barely. After some very careful measuring and drilling, I still had to flip the PCB component side-down, but otherwise it fits over the jacks and under the backplate without touching either. Since everybody always says this circuit sounds so much better at 18v, I also made sure to leave room to include a spare Road Rage I've had sitting around for a while. Double-sided tape insulates it from the enclosure and holds it in place.
The enclosure is Laser Navy from PPP - it's actually a little bit darker with a more subtle sparkle in real life, but my camera's flash made it pop a little bit more. I labeled it with a metallic silver Sharpie, though it looks white here (again, due to the flash).
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/sarlakk/sft_zps2f6436bf.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/sarlakk/sftguts_zps7e015970.jpg)
You can see how tight everything is in the gutshot, but there's no pressure or stress on the board when I close it up, so overall I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. It sounds good, and I intend to use it for home bass recording. Thanks to Jason for the nice PCB!
Man that's tight! Nicely done...
ok that settles it... mine is going in a BB! :)
Wowser that's tight! Great job, though. It's funny because the 125b doesn't look that much bigger than a 1590b - until you're trying to mount things inside it.
Thanks, guys. If I was doing it again, I'd be less stubborn and put it in a 125B -- if only so I could use PCB-mounted pots. I've been spoiled by some recent builds and forgot how annoying it can be to wire those guys up!
If you guys think this is tight, wait'll I get my 1590B Death By Audio Robot up and running. It's giving me some weird issues right now, but I'll get a tech help thread going soon enough...
I've been playing one of these for the past few weeks and I find that it's really the last 1/4 turn of the volume and gain knobs have the most effect. Before that, it's kind of subtle. Is this normal or do I need to do some mods? Or just run it at 18V?
Quote from: thesameage on September 24, 2014, 03:43:54 PM
I've been playing one of these for the past few weeks and I find that it's really the last 1/4 turn of the volume and gain knobs have the most effect. Before that, it's kind of subtle. Is this normal or do I need to do some mods? Or just run it at 18V?
That's how it's designed - dial in gradual distortion until you want a lot. I actually love it this way. If you want a more linear response, try a linear 1M pot for gain and an Audio taper 100K for volume.
Good to know. I'll play it with this in mind and see if I still want to change things.
I will say that if I was going to build another one of these, I'd go for the alternate pot values. I'm fine with the pedal as it is, but a more linear response feels more natural to me.
Plus, a real B-15 will tend to break up anywhere above 9 or 10 o'clock. ;D