Topics

So i plugged my eventide timefactor in yesterday, and the unit stopped working then restarted, then stopped working again. i knew there was a problem to it and thought it was a crack in the solder joint of the DC jack, so i just left it like that, and played a bit.
After a moment i smelled something burning, looked at my power supply, and realized that there was a big short between the + and ground sides of the power supply.

I opened the PS box and cut a bit of the cable so theres no short anymore. but it doesn't seem to work anyway.
Should i change the diodes into the power supply? or is it dead? the transformer into it is still smelling a bit..

So i breadboarded a mangler and a zombii today, using the germ trannies i bought.
I find both of them sound very bad: the sound is not smooth and natural sounding. and the decay is too fast for my liking.
i measured both the trannies at about 80 hfe.
I know that the second transistor of both of these effects should be around 130hfe.
Is it possible that my problem comes from that? or am i just not into the germ sound?

Hey folks,

I'm thinking of building my first fuzz on turret board, i have everything ready, but i still have one question :
I hate batteries, they're not ecological, you have to open the boxes, it's heavy, and expensive.
I would like to use a power supply for this fuzz, but i don't get why i need to road rage to power this with positive ground. Can't i just use my regular power supply and solder the positive wire of the circuit to the ground of the DC jack and the ground of the circuit to the +9v lug of the DC jack?

From what i gathered it can't be so simple.. but why?

So i finally got around making the mods to my (already working) lowrider to get a cleaner octave up.

I made the changes, connected the PCB to my testing box, fired the PSU, heard a kind of crackling noise, and nothing else... then i realised i used the 12v AC plug on my PSU.

Now, the lowrider doesn't work, and the PSU is dead too. I guess it's time to waste time to get everything the way it was before.

How can i check what parts are fried in the lowrider?
i thought of checking voltages at the ICs for starters

I couldn't open my PSU so far, the screws are REALLY tight. but i wonder if it could simply be a fuse. Are there fuses in these beasts?

thanks

I have just boxed a neutrino (my design, not madbean's same schematic, only sub is BAT46 for diodes), it pops loudly when the effect is turned on. I want to get rid of that.

What i tried :
- increase R1 to 3.3M then 10M -> no change
- Add a 10uF cap between the + and - legs of the LED -> no change
- change the switch -> no change

i'm short of ideas.. if anyone can help i'll be glad to try his/her(?) suggestion !!

THanks in advance

I'm looking at enclosed jacks that have the same configuration as those in the mad bean libraries.
Basically the ones i bought have a few millimeters of plastic along the shaft of the jack, this thing prevent them from going in their pcb pads.
So i'm wondering where i could find the parts corresponding to madbean libraries (mb_jacks_alt -> stereo_pcb)

I found this http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/info/p1160_6-3mm-Wah-Stereo-jack-metal-hex-nut--print.html but 3.5 euros for one jacks is a bit hard to digest.

I also started making a new eagle device corresponding to the parts i sourced, but i'm not sure they are very sturdy anyway, so i might change.

I'm looking for MPF102s at tayda and it seems they don't have them.
They do have KRC102 however.

I know that for opamps, the prefix is the brand, and numbers means 'model' of opamp. any 072 opamp could be used for a TL072. Is that the same for trannies? if yes, i could used KRC102 for MPF102s?
thanks in advance..

I tested my mud bunny ram's head build with a bassist friend yesterday evening and when he plays loud sustained notes, the sound is not 'constant' but it 'breaks' from time to time .. makes me think of a badly biased transistor.. but it sounds great with my guitar.

we tested with 2 other muffs and a skreddy supa tone and it didn't happened..

I have no idea where that could come from... any suggestion?

Looking at the values of the components for the ram's head and the mayonnaise, i only see small subs (in fact i almost completely made a mayonnaise instead of a ram's head just because of what i consider normal subs for parts i didn't had in the stash).
My question is : i thought these changes were minor the only differences are: R2, R18, R19: 39 - 33K, R6, R17: 18 - 15K,  R7: 1K - 820r.

These are subs for me and not huge changes... am i mistaken in that conception? will it sound very different? (the mayo uses other trannies too, and that could change a lot)

Other question. i compared my ram's head build to a skreddy supa tone, and the supa is much smoother and warm, sounds better in general. Skreddy website says it's a muff without diodes in the second stage, but does anyone else know the other differences?

I finished a ram's head and added the midts pot and while i can hear a difference, i find it too subtle (i'd love to go from no mids to too much miss in one swipe of the pot).
I tried 25kB, 50kB, and 100kB pots and it's still too sublet for me..
Is there problem on my pcb? is it supposed to be obvious? am i tone deaf? or is it a subtle effect from the beginning?
Thanks

Hey all ..
i scratch the varnish of my enclosures very often... do you have tips to avoid that?
i was going to try painters tape all around the nut but it's going to take a lot of time.
i'm already using a (english vocabulary missing) ratchet(?) to avoid scratching it, but i still see some scratches.

Any idea is welcome

i just breadboarded a mudbunny ram's head.. it sounds marvelous! i thought i didn't liked muffs, but i was mistaken, BIGTIME!

only problem is: theres a volume drop on it, even with volume cranked to the max.
Do you experience the same thing with yours? or did i made a mistake somewhere?

i plugged my guitar into the breadboard after every stage and i found that the first stage output is VERY low.. maybe it has something to do with it? or a gain problem on the last stage? not enough volume recovered after the tone control?

i'll double check the values while you guys answer :p

So i'm having a daughter in a few months.
that's a great news! but that also means that my workbench / give guitar lessons room is mutated into a baby room. and i don't have any other room in the house to build pedals...
what are your solutions to have a portable, easily installable workbench?
i'm looking for creative ways to stock components, protect a table that can't be stained/touched by tools, and in general, go from a clean dining room to an efficient work bench in a few minutes ....
I do hope that you have solutions for that or i'm seriously screwed up until i find a new place to live in (and to money to pay it...)
thanks in advance

So i wanted to make my first try at pedalpartplus powder coated enclosures.
For 2 painted boxes, the price is 19$ .. i accept that.
Shipping price to europe is ... 39$ ?!?

Am i the only one who find that WAY to expensive for two small, empty, light boxes?
Do you european guys who order from them pay that?
Maybe it's a fixed price and i should buy 20 boxes and not 2?

How do you cope with these HUGE shipping prices?

Oo
gotta catch up with those guys!

Just mounted my egodriver pcb into a box. It wasn't popping with my test box (simple box with one 3PDT, one LED, and 2 jacks, i use connectors to test the circuits before boxing). In the test rig, switching it off and on didn't popped.
I now put it into a box, and used a small pcb i made for the switch wiring and it pops really loudly when turned on and off..
i guess it doesn't come from the circuit, but from the LED then, is it possible?
do you have solutions for that?
i'm trying AMZ's trick of sticking a capacitor between the LED legs, it helped me before, but so far no luck.

any help is appreciated :p

i don't see mounting holes in most of bean's projects.. how you do make sure the board won'y travel into the box to a place it is not supposed to be (against the box -> grounding for example)?
I'm curious to know the experienced guys tricks
thanks in advance

Just wondering about the 150n cap on the neutrino, right before the tone control, same place as the famous 220n of the tubescreamer, C4 in the neutrino schematic, C6 in the tubescreamer.

the 220n is supposed to give the nasal sound to the tubescreamer, but i had thought it would do that by rolling off bass. or that 220n is letting high freq signal pass to groud and keeps the bass frequencies, so i don't get how the nasal sound is produced then ..

also, in the neutrino, the cap is 150n so it should .... keep more high miss than the 220n, means there should be more high mids than in the traditional TS, is that correct?
does that makes sense?

Hey,
I'm looking for a reasonably priced source for pcb mount pots with bent legs.
http://www.musikding.de/popup_image.php/pID/1290/imgID/0
i can obviously find them on the musikding website since that picture comes from there but they are worth 1.3euro= 1.65$ for one pot . i find that too expensive when you know you can have alpha pots for 0.5 0.6$ a piece at tayda.

Where do you buy yours? (european/low priced shipping costs sites preferred obviously )

Am i right if i say that the first half of the opamp is usually used for gain and the second half usually used for small gain/boost, sometimes active tone control, but also and mainly for lowering the output impedance?