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For no apparent reasons, it turns out that i'm whoarding on EHX pedals, especially the BigBoxes and Vintage ones...

Truth be told, i've never been a huge fan of that company, it's probably the DIY that have made me love them or want to get into them more. Same goes for the BMP circuit, for many people it's the greatest dirt ever and i can understand that because i really dig that one especially since the whole Ultra workout... where i've come to know the circuit pretty well.
But main reason why i never been that much into dirt pedals is probably because of my background, coming from the extreme metal scene and have been playing in those type of bands for many years before, i never used stompboxes to create my distorted but rather high gain tube heads. Since i've started to build pedals my whole optic of that have changed a lot and i now crave for dirt pedals... probably because i'm not worried anymore of needing to have a sound than can effectively track 240bpm alternate picking...lulz.

So this week i've received 3 EHXs so i thought i'd took a group shot of what i have so far, mainly because i'll take a little break of purchasing EHX pedals for a little time, got plenty of them to work on DIY projects now

For those who are following the devellopements of the tubey stuff we are working on, this is the reward of all the effort put into these.

For more info and updates, check out this thread, details about some modification to circuit board and all that are also included so i keep the build thread lighter.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=16944.0

With this built i've been able to physically confirm the Cleggster PSU wich from a 9V source delivers 190V to the tube plates, no starving tube plate design here.
We where also running a GB on the PSU for those who missed it, it ends tonight a 12:00.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=17202.0

And confirm our first preamp pcb layout, the STM800, a JCM800 preamp in a box.

Onto pictures!



Shielded wire have been used for all the ins and outs, quite happy of how i managed to setup that and keep it clean for the main in and outs.



The little blue pads you see between the heatsink and PowerMosfet or Vreg and enclosure are thermal pads, they increase the heat sinking efficiency in a dramatic manner, very glad i discovered that.



Tube socket wiring, went with the rail method for the tube grounds and heaters. Simple to execute and efficient, also tried to keep a star grounding pattern through out the build.



And...what it looks like outside.





Bypass status LED are located in the tube socket, so when active a nice blue glow goes through the valves. I've used NOS RFT ECC83 for this one, quite my favored 12AX7 tube for marshall stuff, the growl in low end and tightness of the mids is slacker than compared to JJ i.e.

In another of my builts i have long grey plate RCA wich are very gainy and sound very compressed.... a different flavor.

Cheers!

Rej

Finally got some of my stuff back together.... couple weeks ago my only remaining computer got badly infected by a virus.... and it litterally died... and i was'nt able to afford a new computer right off the bat.

Still was'nt able to buy what i really wanted.... but i got something that is decent enough for now.

So.... sorry if i've only been posting in the GB and Member projects thread... looking like a pro-capitalist, was simply because i was restricted in my patience to handle everything using my iPhone....

'Nyway! Back at general spamming!

Rej

Here's the Shilum, an heavy drone machine made using a Machette and Thomas_H U-Boat. In other words, Hypno-BrownNote in a box!

Was weird to have that much place in the enclosure.... but that's what was asked... had revenge on the knobs tho!











Naked!

EA Trem built on Dave's Delirium Tremolo layout.

Meant to be 1590A... but it will be for next round.

Was my first time building or playing one of these.. very nice and simple, the available boost  is very pleasant, got body and sounds fat... digging it.

'Cause all trem should be purple!

The « Mass of Muff » project.

Decided to make a build log of this built as i go through it, makes a while that i'm planning it, was just not taking the time (or guts) to get at it.

So here we go!

All built on Pickdropper's MiniMuffin BMP layout.

The transistors used are sets that Marauder have put together.

Much thanks to Dave and Cleggy for helping me make this project real among other good folks (to be seen further in the progres) that have also took part in this stupid idea!

Group Shot!



Each of the circuit with some Si hfe geeking...

Mayo

Q1: 2SC1327-516
Q2: 2SC1327-490
Q3: 2SC1327-532
Q4: 2SC1327-473



Green Russian

Q1: BC549C-473
Q2: BC549C-473
Q3: BC549C-475
Q4: BC549C-467



UltraStoner

Q1: 2SC1327-542
Q2: 2SC1327-487
Q3: 2SC1327-558
Q4: BC109C-525



TSM680

Q1: 2SC1570-297
Q2: BC109C-555
Q3: BC109C-547
Q4: 2SC1570-290



'71 Triangle

Q1: 2SC1327-481
Q2: 2SC1327-470
Q3: 2SC1327-506
Q4: 2SC1327-438



?Lady

Q1: 2SC1327-539
Q2: 2SC1327-490
Q3: 2SC1327-542
Q4: BC109C-534



P19

Q1: BC550C-539
Q2: BC550C-563
Q3: BC550C-574
Q4: BC550C-545



Creamer Dreamer

Q1: 2N5089-651
Q2: 2N5089-762
Q3: 2N5089-890
Q4: 2N5089-538




The only circuit that had a «standard» pinout is the P19, got me some good practice at trannie leg twisting.

More to come later!

Rej

Hi guys,

I've finally been able to start taking readings and other funky test with my scope, gotta say... that it's lots of fun.

I'm a bit CDO with my bench organisation and wondered how you guys managed that. I'm looking to get a well featured function generator and a heavy duty dual bench power supply.... ...so i have a quite complete setup that will probably last me for years.

I highly doubt that it's a good idea to stack all those unit on top of each other for cooling and other possible issues of doing so. I was thinking of making a small wood cabinet in wich i could slide each of the units in with fair spacing between them, have a power strip in there and an isolation transformer for the scope in case i probe at the wrong place in HV situations. The transformer have been suggested to me by good buddy Joe @StaleFishFX/BYOC Mod.

So i'm just curious of how you guys handle this.

Any input, pics, isolation transformer suggestions are highly welcome.

Thanks

Rej

Jubal81's 280Kg Gorilla - DOD280 Compressor. 

So far this is the nicest opto-comp i've played. Super quiet even at extreme settings, smooth release when using moderate settings and TONS of squish available.

Also very flat sounding, tried couple OpAmps, very nice circuit to experiment them in too.
My choice is currently the OPA2134, gaves a bit more presence to the lower frequency range and keeps the highs rather natural to how they are at the source.

Thanks to Lyle (karter2000) for the VTL5C2, you've made it possible

Jason did a very good job in the power section of this circuit to minimize the chances of noise, sad thing is that i did'nt had those parts under hand and had to sub them. Q3 being a BS250 for classy polarity protection and L1 that i subbed with a 47R resistor is an axial 100uh inductor that can be find for cheap at Tayda... will now stock on both those parts... and use them in other stuff, love what they actually do in a power section.

Also tried a new finish technique, i called it «Squish it and hope!», it's new to me... can't say if it's junk or cool yet.







The enclosure without hardware

Why are the words K.L.O.N.E. and M.O.J.O. are automatically moderated to «card table»?

klone

mojo

NFSD!

New First Scope Day!

BK Precision 2120B 20MHz

Could'nt be happier!





It's in very nice condition and i got it for close to nothing... ...i'm rarely thankful to karma, but this time i'm glad this came across my path.

If any of the scope user here have some tips or training things i could do to understand the working of these, it would be greatly appreciated because i don't know shit about this....hehe. And i obviously want to «own» the use of this device.

Rej

New Russian New In Box Phaser Day!

On one of those procrastinating evening couple weeks (months) where all i do is lurk on eBay for vintage pedals, i was hunting anything «vintage EHX» and trying to find a nice deal.

Then a little PopUp appeared showing a NOS NIB Factory Sealed Sovtek SmallStone... it grabbed my attention immediatly.... i have a certain whoreness for phasers.

Seller was located in UK and the shipping cost to CAN was outrageous so i asked my good buddy Juan if he could order it for me and ship me it back with other stuff that i needed from the land 'o Fog... And it was bought.

Cleggy took reception of it, when it came in it was factory sealed... but it would have been blasphemy to not let him try it! hehe... So lucky him! He had the chance to inhale the almost 40years old air puff that was in that box...haha, still envious of that in fact... i do like everything from this old stuff. My disease is chronic and severe.

Picked up couple hours ago at the post office, gave it a little play and it sounds fantastic, if Scruffie or Haberdasher or reading this... you guys did a killer job on the SpaceHarp because it's pretty much dead on!

Pics!



Coolest Footswitch and Toggle i ever actuated!



This thing is built like a tank... ...probably made with tank parts that is...lol

There's a whole chassis inside of that thing. Funky.







Holy OTA!



Now time to put it back together.

Cheers

Rej

Just got this EBS Multicomp, buffered bypass version from a trade with dogfish.

It's not a sought after comp or anything like that, in fact most of the time it remains under the radar... but among all the comps i've tried, not much sound as good to this one on bass.

I had one 5-6 years ago and sold it... for no particular reason, really glad that i've put my hand on another one and particularly a buffered one, the buffer in these is perfect.

If anyone is aware of a schem for this... let me know, i highly doubt that i'll have the guts to trace the SMT layout... there's LOTS happening.







Also, anyone knows the part number for those type of mini toggle switch, they would be perfect for layouts with 9mm pots.

Rej

Hey guys! Makes a while i have'nt posted here so here's my latest built.

Couple months ago i've started to brainstorm about my live rig built with utility, ease of setup and that would give me what i need no matter the venue of if my amp shits in my hand and that i have to play in a Bandit112 (nothing against the amp, just very common to have those as slave amps in some place, over here that is.)

So this is the first of couple builts going in that setup.

The Messy Booger «Pre-Multi»

The idea was to have everything that goes in front of the amp (all my time based effects and other stuff goes in the FX Loop usually). But that would'nt become a one trick pony.

Here are the Gut Fillers:



GCFX RottenKomp (LoveSqueeze) with re-locate Bloom pot, jumpered the actual Bloom and installed a B250K pot in the place of R8 iirc, 39K resistor in the feedback loop of IC1B.

IDA Tusk (Klone) with Fat switch (82nf to 390nf) and Growl switch (390nf to 10pf) and built per the newer BOM with mysterious rubber package diodes!!!!!

MadBean GreenBean (TubeScreamer) that i named «Booteek Screama'», LM1558 OpAmp, BC109C for the buffers, MA150 Si for Symmetrical clipper and unknown old school Si that all measured 486fwdV for the Assymetrical position. Big thanks to artstomp for the diodes

And finally a Gallego Decimator etched by Keefe, built stock.

Then came the preparation of the enclosure:



This thing is a swiss cheeze...  in order from input to output this is what the signal path is:
-Tuner/Mute switch, with send jack to Tuner.
-Compressor Bypass
-HardWired Loop, no switching jack, there will always be something in there.. and space was more than important, using a 1590D, it's quite shallow for the amount of stuff going in it.
-Klone
-Tube Screamer
-Another hardwired Loop
-Decimator (Bypass via toggle switch.

Then came the power requirements!



The primary power input is 18V, so i built a small daugther board on vero with a L7809 Vreg and 220uf caps at it input and output. The 9V is then routed to a DC outlet (for later daisy chain)  and to the Decimator 3PDT daugther board that will give power provision to the Klone too. The 2 other effects, TS and Komp run directly from the 18V source.
Each side of the 18V input there's 2 other power outlets with 100R resistor on their positive end to prevent the chance of voltage ripple. One of the outlet will be used to feed the future «Post-Multi» and the other one... ...well... it was looking nice and you never have enough power sources!
I use a linear 18V 2A PSU to supply this pedal, so it will handle the duty of feeding the whole pedal board, once everything will be linked together.

Onto buidling now!

Tuner/Mute switch, Komp, Hardwired loop between Komp and ODs.....done!



Klone and Decimator in.... Sandwich stylee!



Booteek Screama' is in!



I added some symmetrical LED clippers, going from Lug2 of SPDT (Common) and Lug1 of Gain pot. That way the LED are always in the feedback loop, using a SPDT OnOffOn switch, when in Off you get LED instead of harsh low end loss lifted diode not so goodness sound.... ....and square blinkers, because it's cool!

Guts complete!



More guts, because there's never enough!






And here's what it looks like from top.....







Final shot and talking.........makes 35minutes that i'm typing this damnit!

The enclosure before anything is installed in, this was the first time that i perform the «grind worn» on such a large surface, i'm pleased by the result but it could be better and i've found how to improve it for the next ones. On a smaller scale, it bunch up pretty fast... but with that much space... it's harder. Maybe the first time that i was thinking of failing one of these, hope i have'nt.



Kudos to those who've read this entirely!

Rej

I think that my searching abilities on the internet sucks really bad....

Can't seem to find the schem for this and i have a big box one making is way to me and i'd like to get inside of it.

If anyone have a verified schem of this circuit it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Rej

IvIark / Mirosol Dr.Quack vero layout, with LED fun!

Purple anodized distress, still trying to find my way with that stuff, there's something to do with it, but what!

Couple months ago i came up with the Shootout for Science idea that JakeFuzz have run like a champ but to complete the whole testing we needed a Klon. So i took that task of sourcing one...

A good friend of me owns a Silver Klon and had let me know some time ago that he would let it go for a fair price if i was able to build him a klone that would be exactly like it's Silver, he had demoed some of the previous production Chimaera and knew how they where sounding compared to the genuine.

I've been a slacker on this.. but at the same time, Keith @ BYOC started to work on the Silver Pony Overdrive Kit and found some differences between the Chittum schem and what he actually had in hand... Karma is sometime cool.... so i should have a faithfull klone in hand at the moment.

My buddy was suppose to ship out the Klon to JakeFuzz before i get him the klone but he changed his mind over that....

Anyway... here it is.





Klone also have Fat & Growl voicing switch, RottenKomp (LoveSqueeze) is 18V supplied by the output of the klone charge pump.

I've noticed that lately lots of first posts by newer member are in the BST,  with no introduction prior to it, just signing in and put their shizznit for sale.

What would it be to have a minimum post required to be able to post stuff for sale in that section? Instead of having people that are not active in this community and simply take advantage of the views of this message board.

Rej

This started on a day that i wanted to buy Jason's (jubal81) breadboard after seeing a pic of something he was prototyping and appeared to be VERY interesting.

The Brazen Bull, 4in1 dirt machine that shares all the same controls that are Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble and via a smooth action rotary switch choose between a Boost, Jfet Muu, 4049 based dirt and a Muff! And to make it even more «grandiose», uBer badass stacked pcb layout!





I have rocked it a bit before boxing it when it first arrived, really liked the versatility of it, wanted to rock it in my current setup before we look at fine tuning it, very impressive so far.









So far in all the layouts that i've boxed, this is the most ingenious and well thinkered/ergonomic one i've used. Very clever!

Most of all, Thanks Jason! Very nice from you to give me the opportunity to try this circuit. 

Rej

New Chorus Day!

MIJ CE2, grabbed it for 100$CAN shipped, sounded like a good deal..... ...could'nt resist...







I've owned and built several chorus but the CE2 always remained my favorite... really close to the Maxon CS550..... but it's simplicity makes it a perfect piece of lush chorus.

.....'cause i'm leaving!

In 2 weeks i'm heading out once again for the great white north to work at the «Canadian Royalties» mine plant as a Millwright and team leader, it's quite exciting.

My work schedule will be 3weeks ON / 3weeks OFF. I'm currently setting up the logistics so there's no interruption in the shipping from GroupBuys, purchase from the store and all the other services that i offer.

The idea behind this move is too generate momentum in my bizz by having a greater income so i can invest more and get my damn thing rolling where i want it.

I just thought i'd let you guys know for the sake of transparency in my operations.

Sadly, even if in the far end of the world... i'll continue to spam the forums and facebook

Cheers!

Rej