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Gudday all.

You might remember my Magnum Opus build.  You might not.  It can be found here:  http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=30309.0

Anyway.  I'm having problems with switch popping noise, but I'm not getting it in the usual on/off switch - I'm getting it on both the other two footswitches, which basically just swap between 3 sets of pot and soft clipping options.

Both are 4pdt switches and have common anode tri colour LEDs clipped to 2 colours (red/green, red/blue), and I've put 47uf caps to ground off both 9v feeds at the switches following their 8k CLRs.  As one side of the LED is always on at these switches, I don't seem to need to worry about another CLR after the cap.  The On/Off LED is also a clipped tri colour, but it is set to red only, and I blew this one when I didn't use the additional CLR after the cap.  After replacing the LED I used another 2k following the cap and all is good there (but I don't recall popping on that one anyway).

So... what can I do about this?  I'm open to the idea that it's mechanical switch noise on these Tayda 4pdt and I may have to replace them...  It's bugging me quite a bit as this is a killer sounding build...

Willy.

Gudday all.  Here's Magnum Opus.  As Jörg Sprave would say, "Let me show you it's features, ha ha ha".

It's a Boneyard on the vero layout from Tagboard, and as can be hit and miss with this thing (even on vero), I was lucky enough not to have any squeal so it became a base for this build.  It was originally inspired by a video of the Keeley El Ray Dorado that has Bat46 (41?) as a second clipping option - but when you switch there's a volume drop so it's not something you set up on the fly.  That bugs me, so the original intention was just to do a gain/volume/diodes on a footswitch.  And then I got silly.

While I like the Boneyard/plexitone, I've always wanted more gain/saturation from it so I started looking at a lot of my fav drives.  The Crunchbox has hard clippers to ground, the Zendrive has a pretty elaborate set of clippers, the Valvestates have green/red leds in a back to back pair going to ground.  While I hate the OCD, I decided to use its' 2n7000s, and drives like the @T have multiple clippers to ground.

I removed the 68n tone cap/tone pot and replaced it with a bandaxall eq from Parasit.

So, it has:
OD1 - Symmetrical green LEDs (sounds great), no diodes, Zendrive clipping.  For some reason I couldn't get the Bats to sound good)
OD2 Low - Symmetrical red LEDs, no diodes, Zendrive clipping
OD2 High - Back to back red LEDs, no diodes, asymmetrical 1n4148s
Hard clipping - back to back 2n7000, red LEDs, Bat 46(41?)
Hard Trim - just a pot to control the amount of hard clipping.  Needs replacing as it's all bunched.  Maybe a different taper or size - edit, the 100kB has been replaced with a 10kA.  It's better, but it still seems to be either "flat out" or "not at all" with a pretty small area for adjustment.  Maybe something like the Turnabout's 10kC would be better.
Body - selects between 1uf, 1.4uf, 2uf as I felt 1u (the newer plexitone value) was a bit low but 2.2 could be a bit high.
A bandaxall eq using Parasit's layout.

And... a master volume to finish it all off...

EDIT:  I wasn't getting unity when some of the hard clipping options was engaged with the other clipping in some cases.  LEDs were generally fine, but the other diodes took too much out of it.  I was going to add an external boost but then I had a lightbulb moment, remembering that the Boneyard/Plexitone had a switchable boost, so I removed a jumper and soldered a 330k across instead, leaving the boost engaged.  This gives me enough level for unity+ in all the options, meaning that the soft clippers only channels needed to have their volumes brought down, which is easy enough.  Problem solved.

Gudday all.  After making Darth Punk for a friend, I had to make one for myself.  Same as last time, except I'm using Paulinthelabs' buffered Y splitter for the clean blend.  I'm running out of inspiration for build graphics and names, and my next build will have an even less exciting set of labels.

Red LEDs across gain pins 1-3, bat41s to ground.

Gudday all.  Here's Cobra Kai, built on Pedalpcb's Thermionic Deluxe.  Works, sounds great, finish is my usual datapol sticker with upol clearcoat.

Gudday all, here's Hellboy.

The red channel is Goosoniqueworx's seventh heaven Bogner red clone, the black channel is Jok3rX's Black Forest Uberschalle clone.  Both are on vero.  I included a buffer to kill any squeal, not that there was, and a charge pump to give a selectable 9/18v.  The boost switch handles both circuits.  In the case of the red channel, the boost is actually on the Structure toggle, and the structure is on the Boost footswitch because it works better as a channel switch that way.

Sounds killer.  That's about it.

Gudday all.

Here's Darth Punk, a modified Distortion+ with a clean blend as it will be a bass drive for a friend's son.
- Mods:  LED pair in the opamp feedback loop, pair of Bat46 clipping to ground.  The blend is a pcb I got from someone here.

This was going to be a X-fuzz, but it was a bit noisier than I liked, but I'd already drilled and finished the box so I needed a 2 knob drive I could use with a blend.  I'd heard the Dist+ was pretty good with LEDs, but I wasn't impressed with them going to ground so I tried them in the loop.... and holy hell does it sound good with them there.  From there it was a case of trying different diodes to ground.  I tried bat46, 1n4148, 1n270 and the LEDs, and decided to settle on the bat46, although they all sounded pretty good. 1n4148s sucked too much signal out iirc and I couldn't get unity.

It's not often I build something and decide that I'll do another, but I'm going to build one of these for my next bass multi.

I had an issue with the first split/blend board on vero in that it seemed to suck something out of the signal, so I tried a pcb I got on these forums a year or two ago and it worked really well until I did something trimming leads and I didn't get any clean signal in the blend.  I swapped the pcb out for another and it works great.  This is a really cool sounding bass drive.

I did the graphics in photoshop, adding the spikes to Darth's head. 

The guts are a bit messy, but hey, it's half vero and two circuits.

Gudday all.

Just been playing around the Boneyard on vero.  It's a great drive, but I've always wanted a bit more *something* out of it so I've been experimenting with the clipping LEDs and adding some hard clippers to ground.  Basically, I'm mixing up features that I've seen around the place, like the 2 opposing LEDs in the Superjudge, and the hard clippers in the Crunchbox and the BE-OD (to a lesser degree).  I also noticed that the Valvestate amps (which I've always been a fan of) have clippers to ground as well as LEDs in the feedback loop.

The ultimate goal is to have a lower gain channel that is (here come the buzzwords) more open with a cleanish crunch edge (lol), and a high gain channel that's more saturated with a harder edge than the regular Boneyard (I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to box a Superjudge in with a Crunchbox and switch between the two).

SOOOoo, the idea is something like OD1 and 2 with high/low gain switching on each.  Currently I have diode switching between one symmetrical pair of LEDs and the stock arrangement of 4 found in the Boneyard, and I'm messing with switching in clippers to ground for one of the OD channels.

Question 1:  Why is 2 LEDs quieter and more saturated than the stock 4?  I'm trying to get my head around this but failing miserably.  It seems counter-intuitive to me but, it is what it is.

I'm messing around with both the placement and types of the clippers to ground.  A pair of 1n4148 sucked most of the volume out of the pedal, so I messed with placing it after the boost, only having the clippers connected when the boost (at a fixed value) is on.  It worked, but it isn't that nice sounding, so I'm thinking a resistor in line with those might tame a bit of the dirt.  The other downside of placing it after the boost meant that the gain control now had very little effect on the amount of dirt present - it was pretty much flat out the whole time, which makes sense as it's also after the volume.  I've also tried placing them after R6, which was a bit different again.

LEDs to ground don't have anywhere near as much volume loss (higher forward voltage, meaning less goes to ground, yeah), and much less effect on the sound overall.

Question 2:  Where would you put clippers to ground, and what diodes would you use (lol, how long is a piece of string)?

Ideas?  Suggestions?

Gudday all, here's a custom order I've done for someone who saw some of my stuff on FB.

It was a bit of work, and there's probably easier ways to do it, but basically:

- Tayda pedalpcb predrilled enclosure (the mode hole needed enlarging bit everything else was great)
- Grey etching primer,
- Rustoleum glitter spraypaint,
- Couldn't get modgepodge, so I used some other type of expensive watered down PVA to seal it and build up the top (and bottom) so I could eventually sand it flat...  Used some elmers on the bottom as a experiment but it clouded up so I washed that off, oddly enough.
- Upol rattlecan to seal that all off.
- Transparent laser sticker of some sort ($7 per sheet!)
- More upol.

The Arachnid has an eeprom consisting of various flavours of delay and reverb.  Haven't had an issue with a pedalpcb board yet and the updated version with the rotary switch is great.

Willy.

Nothing very exciting here...

Put together a junction box for my friend who I also built the Hyperactive Hyperdrive for.  Basically, it has two mic through, 3 1/4inch through, and a midi through so he can use the 4 cable method, hook up his vocal pedal, plus control his Bias Mini from his Boss switcher.

Also updated Hyperactive Hyperdrive.  Basically, cleaned all the gig crud off it, and replaced the plexi section with a Boneyard on vero.  It had one previously, but that was replaced with a Purple Plexi 800 on vero when the original Boneyard inexplicably stopped working.  Swapped the knobs out too.  Original thread here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21721.msg214328#msg214328

I have a stack of pedal ideas to finish up, but I'm beginning to think the golden age of building is probably over compared to the earlier twothousandteens.  Tagboard don't put out very many layouts anymore, every man and his dog is putting out PCBs of the classics and the better known pedals, and I've probably built all the clones of whatever I find interesting.

So, maybe it's just me.  I can certainly sympathise with the guys who are hanging up the soldering irons.

My next step would be to learn how to breadboard and come up with something I think is awesome, but I really don't have time.  Well, I probably do, but there's plenty of other things that I want/need to do, like put more time into the two bands I'm supposed to be in, work, be a good dad to my noisemaker, maybe get back into archery one day.

Interestingly, I have a couple of custom pedals ordered to work on.  Still, things aren't the same.  I'm certainly happy with the progress I've made in the last 9 years or so.

Just thought I'd let people know that Tayda are doing powdercoated pre drilled boxes for the pedalpcb stuff.  Good job BuGG!

https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/drilled-enclosures-for-pedalpcb.html

Gudday all,

Just wondering what people's thoughts on GOT, and this last season specifically.

Possible unpopular opinion:  The last episode was always going to be flat.

Happy New Second Hand Guitar Day to me. 

I've been wanting a PRS since 1991, but there was no way I was going to pay the AUD$5k for one, ever.  I decided that I was over having multiple below/average guitars that I'd hotted up and wanted to get something nice, so I sold the Attention Whore and a stack of pedals to get the cash together.

I went to the local shop to try out an SE, but it was so horribly set up it didn't play in tune.  I asked if they could set it up for me as I was serious about it, but wanted to know that it was able to be made playable before purchase if I'm forking out $800 - and I really wanted to buy local rather than online.  Long story short, they said yes, but we'll have to call you as we're too busy today.  Two weeks later and no call, went in, the guitar is in the same state.  Old string, 7mm action at the 12th fret.

Oh well, they mustn't have wanted my business.  I went online, looked around, and my friend found one for me near him on FB.  He's interstate.  Victoria vs Tasmania...  The bloke wants $600.  I ask him if he'll do $500 as I have to get it sent to me, and I can get it new for $800 set up and delivered.  Bloke says sure, if it's cash.  No probs, deal done.

My friend tries it out, rants about it and takes it to band praco for a drive.  Loves it, I may have to pry it from his cold dead hands (keep in mind he has a V-strat, Tele, and LP Studio to compare it to).  He sources a hardcase for me and sends it over, packing it with foam and whatever within an inch of it's life.

So, of course, what I do is post an FB status that only he, his wife, and my partner can see, that the guitar has arrived busted, complete with google sourced images.  Friend has a heart attack.  I let him off the hook and told him it was fine.

Anyway, the action wasn't any different to the shop one.  Scratching my head a bit, I lowered the saddles and it all came good.

So, impressions:
Indonesian made.  The neck is wider than Hulksnot, and shorter due to the scale length obviously, still coming to grips with that a bit.  The fret edges are fantastic.  There are two dings, one on the back and on on the top edge that can't be seen for the most part unless you're looking for it.

Overall, I this is a quality guitar.  In Australian prices, it's probably an upper mid range priced guitar and I'd say it's easily better than the Player Strats at the same price, and equal to the performers at double the price.  The only things that let it down imo are the cheap looking nut and truss rod cover.  Not a fan of the logo either, but that's even less important.  My opinion might just be because it's new to me or whatever.

You can find my prank at my fb profileas I've made it public for the time being:
https://www.facebook.com/william.phillips.77736310

Gudday all,

I'm doing another stupid pedal trick, by putting a TPA3116 D2 power amp into an enclosure with a JC120 pre on vero.

The exact board I have is here: 
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12V-24V-TPA3116-D2-100W-Mono-Channel-Digital-Audio-Power-Amplifier-Board-O9C1/183298033734?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

and there's a review of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CULehzRVurc

I'm using the JC120 pre layout as attached.

My the JC is working @ 33v, and it's easy enough to get 24v to the power amp, but my question is this:  Do I need to bring the level from the JC up before it goes to the amp? I know I could just suck it and see, but does it need to come up to line level first?

Any ideas, suggestions, or ridiculing is welcome.

Willy.

I was cleaning up the music room and thought it might be nice to get the family together for a photo.

It's probably a bit early, but with the announcement of the BOTY comp, plus the fact I probably won't finish anything else for the year I thought I would put up my completed builds for 2018.  I have no idea which one is going into the BOTB comp.

In no particular order:

Reactor - Baja's JVM410 on vero, with added eq on the crunch and OD channels.  Couldn't believe that it fired up first time.  I put this down to gluing the layout to the top of the vero.  Four footswitches is fairly tight, but it works.  If I was to build this again, I'd use a global eq as there's some sort of interaction between the two when they get summed to a single output.  Might be able to get around this with some switching hooha, but I'm not revisiting this one ever.

Beastmode - Switches between Zulu99's Mudflap Triple Wreck, and a Superjudge.  The boost on the Mudflap is a modified TS, and is before both drives.  There's also a gate after the Mudflap.  There's also a splitter to power the eyes, and a buffer after that as the Superjudge loves a buffer and the 1 knob gate doesn't work without one.

Genuine Fake - this was a rebox of Razorback that I gifted to a friend.  Long story, but it's inspired by a fake YJM strat I found for that friend.

Lightspeed - Afterlife comp and a Minitaur Klon in a 125b.  Great little box actually, and it sits after my drives as I really like the effect of comp post, as opposed to pre.  Very, very, very messy and tight build.

Tiger Drive - Crunchbox and Mimik in a BB, as a gift to a friend's 10yo son who has been taking to guitar like a duck to water.

Had a friend stay over for a few days this week, and we went through every pedal I've got here (~30).  It's not something I'd ever really ever sat down to do as a lot of my pedals get tested, boxed, tested again, and put on the shelf.  While some didn't do it for us as well as the others (Dangerzone, I'm looking at you), and some reminded me of how good they actually are (Boneyard), none of them really came close to my HT-Dual...

This really bugs me as it looks like I'm still going to have to make allowances for an oversized pedal with it's own PS until I get a CIOKS AC10 - I really wanted a straight 9v board.

The thing is, the HT has a massive low end compared to anything else I've got, and I suspect that most of the other pedals will actually play better in a live band situation without having to fight for sonic space with the bass.  The Brown Betty gets somewhat close, but not really.  It's still a completely different beast, and the boost/zen/plexi combination I have in the Leviathan seems to cover 90% of cover music anyway...

Bah.

Gudday all.  A friend of mine, who I've already built a stack of pedals for (Harley's Hammer, Phatboy, Hyperactive Overdrive, et al) saw my Dangerzone and said he wanted an OCD with the same artwork....

I tried his OCD (V4, I believe.  He sold it later on for whatever reason) with my gear a while ago, and I wasn't impressed.  Building this (V3 rev2) hasn't improved my opinion of it.  Might go better on single coils, but it just doesn't have the top end I like and sounds flubby with my gear.

Bog standard naughtyfish. Xvive vactrols. Didn't work originally due to a dodgy IC.

Yeah, I know I didn't use the MB wiring, I forgot to solder the LED and ground wires after getting it to work. I was a bit excited to finally get it in the box properly (that's what she said)....

Gudday all.

I've got a Naughtyfish populated here, and it all seems to work except for the actual effect.  I can hear plenty of signal and the tonality changes with the switch flips and knob turns, but there's just no mutron going on.  The best I can get is a trebly sort of cocked wah sound.

I'm using a pair of Xvive VTL5C3 that I got off ebay after I got the same results with my LED/LDR home rolled ones earlier.

I've gone around and resoldered what I thought might be dodgy and cleared up some possible bridges a couple of times to no result.

It's a shame because I have a sweet enclosure already made up for it (it's been mounted already, but removed when the new vactrols didn't work).

Voltages are:

Power supply: 9.27v

IC1:
4.9mv
4.9mv
.3mv
-8.56v
4.8mv
14.2mv
2.6mv
8.94v

IC2:
8.65v
3.43v
3.45v
-8.54v
-8.54v
4.06v
3.43v
8.99v

IC3:
2.7mv
1.9mv
0.4mv
-8.56v
0.4mv
2.7mv
14.6mv
8.99v

IC4:
1.2v
4.9v
0.5mv
-3.8v
-8.54v
2.54v
1.4v
9v