So I'm fairly new to the DIY scene as made obvious from a few of my posts. I wanted to see if anyone wanted to chime in and offer build suggestions based on what I don't have and what would be a good addition to my growing pedal board that would offer some diversity in tone and character to what I've got. I listen to and play all sorts of music in the rock, blues, funk and jazz veins. I started with the BYOC build and have done a couple tonepads and the rest Madbean. I really love Brian's boards, pcb art for etching and his PDF files and would like to build his stuff first. TIA to all. - Brandon
Already started
Neutrino Burst (madbean)
Tremulus Lune (got the pcb from tonepad)
Ross Compressor (got the pcb from tonepad)
Ordering Parts For & need to etch/buy boards
Slow Loris (madbean)
Dinky Drive (madbean)
MXR Distortion + (tonepad)
Bumble Bee Fuzz (madbean)
Already own/built
EH Qtron+
Crybaby Wah (needs replacing)
Pork Barrel (debugging :-\) (madbean)
Phase 45
BB Preamp (madbean)
Zendrive (madbean)
OD2 Tubescreamer w/boost (from BYOC)
Boneyard (madbean)
Seymour Duncan Twin Tube OD
Boss Digital Delay
Boss Loop Station
Boss Tuner
Finish the bumble bee and throw all that other shit in the garbage. Just kidding. You have quite a few good overdrive sounds available. Im partial to fuzz, so i say build more fuzz. If youre not way into that, at least build a fuzz face. The mangler is a great ff project. The pork barrel is an awesome chorus. Definitely get that going. Overall, id say you got a pretty good board going already. An analog delay would be sweet. Theres the aquaboy or the soon to be released dirtbag delay (deluxe memory man) project. Other than that, maybe look into a univibe or the quadrovibe project for some bitchin vibe tones.
I was thinking that a second Delay would be a cool thing to add as well. Either an analog delay pedal, or a PT2399 based delay, or both. That would be what I would choose.
Check out the Rebote 2.5, but I think Brian may have a PT2399 delay in the future if you're willing to wait.
jacob
I'd add, pick up an EgoDriver while you can. It's a different character of OD from anything else you have.
dwstanford - "Finish the bumble bee and throw all that other shit in the garbage." LMAO! I've never really been into fuzz and chose the bumble bee based on a few youtube vids and the fact that Brian had spoken highly of it (i thought I read that somewhere). What would be your top three Fuzz builds?
Jacob- I do want to build an analog delay at some point soon, maybe I'll add the rebote 2.5 to the list. Is the PT2399 a digital based delay? Would you recommend waiting for it? I'm happy enough with my DD5 for the time being to wait it out if it's worth the wait.
oldhousescott- Thanks, that's what I'm after, something different than what I have. Adding to the list.
Does anyone have a good recommendation for an octave pedal? I want a good clean octave down.
I'm putting together an excel spreadsheet of all the components I need and putting in a big order tonight. It seems like I mostly see green caps on a lot of everyone's builds. I've never used them, but have been using the box caps available from mammoth, the gray ones. Idk if there's much difference tonally or if it's a sheer style thing, but I think I'm going to stock up and order the greenies from smallbear on this one.
Thanks everyone!
Octave down.
http://musicpcb.com/pcbs/analog-octave-down/
Quote from: keysandguitars on August 22, 2011, 06:29:19 PMI'm putting together an excel spreadsheet of all the components I need and putting in a big order tonight. It seems like I mostly see green caps on a lot of everyone's builds. I've never used them, but have been using the box caps available from mammoth, the gray ones. Idk if there's much difference tonally or if it's a sheer style thing, but I think I'm going to stock up and order the greenies from smallbear on this one.
I used greenies on an Aristocrat and found that they were a bit to big for the board. I crammed 'em in, but it was tight and it doesn't look great. For MadBean builds at least, I'd stick with the box caps.
Thanks for the heads up...I'm starting a massive order with Small Bear right now.
If i had to pick a top 3, id say fuzz face is #1, vox tonebender is #2, and germanium fuzzrite is #3.
I've been listening to Fuzz Faces a lot on youtube. I'm going to start with that over the bumble bee. It seems to be more of a standard sound. I'll see how I like it and go from there. Thanks man.
The fuzz face is a great first fuzz build. Every diy'er should build at least one. Germanium circuits are a bit more tempermental than modern circuits. I recommend you read r.g keene's article "technology of the fuzz face" before you begin. It will walk you through the ins and outs of the circuit and help you to get the best sound with the transistors you use. Ive found the pairs that small bear sells are hard to beat. I personally like the u.s. pair or the all american if youre doing pos. ground or the cv7112 pair if youre doing neg ground. Small bear also has a good fuzz face tutorial also.
I'm never sure about recommending Fuzz Faces for new builders because of the positive ground, the tempermentality of germanium transistors and the input impedence issues. The amount you can learn tweaking and modding the circuit, however, is immense. Add a Road Rage for the -9V conversion and get a matched pair of PNP transistors from SmallBear and you're most of the way there. Just make sure you actually like playing through a Fuzz Face, though, before you build it.
I placed a couple big orders last night from Small Bear and Mammoth, ordered some sweet enclosures last week from PPP. I like to spread it around between these three companies.
Anyway, I went ahead and ordered a pair of the All American PNP transistors from SmallBear per your recommendations. The US Pair was out of stock. I read somethign about buying the resistor values SmallBear recommends, but didn't see that anywhere on the site. I'm assuming he may ship that info with the PNP's.
So I solidified my order around the following builds:
Neutrino Burst (madbean)
Neutrino Black
Mangler (and a Road Rage)
EgoDriver
Krankosaurus
Slow Loris
Dinky Drive
MXR Distortion +
Tremulus Lune (got the pcb from tonepad)
Ross Compressor (got the pcb from tonepad)
I want to build a delay, but will tackle these first and see if Brian releases a new delay project. I'm going to build a testing rig tonight and get back to debugging my Pork Barrel before I get...distracted...again. Thanks for all of the input guys, I really appreciate it and look forward to finally posting some build picks soon.
Brandon
Small bear will give you the resistor values they used to bias the transistors. You may want to breadboard it with the Trimpot for bias to make sure it sounds good. You may want to sub the values that small bear sends for the values on the mangler project file. I like to breadboard them each and see what i like the best. I usually end up with something in between.
Thanks dw. I still need to invest in a little breadboarding rig and a testing rig. I imagine that I'll tackle the Fuzz circuit after I've built the Rat and some of the more straightforward builds I have on the list first. Time to search the forums.
+1 on the Egodriver
I say that a fuzz face is an absolute neccessity. but that's just me.
I highly recommend the tremelus lune. It appears like your gonna go for and its a great sounding tremelo. I haven't build Madbean's Double Flush yet but I was very impressed by the TL. I'm looking to do the Rebote 2.5 pretty soon as well. Simple project for how good it sounds and very cheap in parts. There's a good demo of it on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGGtgL91GG4