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Topics - Timko

#41
Build Reports / A Christmas Miracle (Nameless Flanger)
December 25, 2018, 04:45:08 AM
I started 2018 with high aspirations when it came to pedal building. I had 10 or so things I had lined up to build, but I realized in March or so my heart just wasn't in it. After building 40 or so pedals in a couple years, this hobby was starting to feel like work in that I was frustrated with every little thing I didn't do perfectly. So I decided to take a sabbatical from building and focus my energy elsewhere.

As fall arrived, I started to get that itch again. I had built 5 or so boards that I handing boxed before my break, and I decided to try to finish Alanp's pub based on the ElectricStorm clone of the Lovetone Flanger with No Name. After putting the basic circuit in the box, I was...underwhelmed by the effect. I had seen videos on YouTube that show this pedal creating all kinds of crazy sounds, and mine sounded kind of dull. So I started working my way through the circuit, seeing if I missed something. I replaced the LDRs.  The LEDs. Some of the transistors. And I just couldn't get the sounds I wanted. After conversing with Alanp as well as some others who have had successful builds, Aristatertotle suggested I look at RG Keen's article on how wet and dry phaser sounds are mixed. This ended up being the key for this pedal, ad all of those whacky sounds are there in spades. I may still do some component tweaking to get both the Time and Space effects balanced right, but that should be no problem.

This pedal has stereo out as well as the FX loop and expression pedal mod. If you're looking for a challenging build, this is one to try.

Big thanks to Alanp, LaceSensor, and Aristatertotle for helping me so much with troubleshooting. They gave me some great ideas, and a sounding board as I worked through it.

More things to come in 2019. Merry Christmas!






#42
Open Discussion / Small Keyboard for Theory?
February 26, 2018, 03:10:58 PM
I thought most of this winter would be filled with pedal building.  I am finally going to push through finishing my Flanger with no name (the board has been finished for months; I just have to finish the enclosure and hack all those jacks onto it), but for the most part, my pedal building has been quiet.  The main reason for that is I've spent more time playing guitar than anything this winter.  I have a friend who semi-professionally plays violin who's played instruments for nearly 20 years.  As we began talking about playing, I told her that I feel my music theory is the thing holding me back the most right now.  I've managed to teach myself quite a bit of guitar freboard theory, but I feel my music theory is pretty weak.  She said that a keyboard helps one visualize theory easily due to it's linear setup.

I know there's lots of cheap keyboards on Craigslist (I've already done a bit of looking), but one of the requisites I'm looking for is that it's a 37 or 49 key instrument so I can set it on my lap on the couch and noodle around with it.  Right now I think the new Yamaha Reface CP or CS fit my requirements the best, but I'd love to hear what this community uses for cheap keys.
#43
Open Discussion / Custom Ear Plugs?
February 06, 2018, 11:53:55 PM
I'm soon to be leaving my mid 30's, and have been doing more proactive stuff for my health as I quickly realize my body isn't invincible.  One of those things was visiting an audiologist.  While my hearing is pretty solid, there is a distinct notch in the higher frequencies.  My doctor told me it was most likely due to the number of concerts I've been to over the past 20 years.  One of my new year's resolutions was investing in some good custom molded ear plugs, so I also had ear molds taken today.  So now I'm on the hunt for exactly what ear plug I plan to buy.  My audiologist offers Westone plugs, which appear to be quite popular among doctors.  While they offered me the Tru line, I also see the ES49's are popular for musicians.  On the other hand, I have a sound engineer that has a pair of ER series. 

Since I obviously can't try out different custom molded plugs, I was curious if anyone here has a pair, and what they happen to think of them.  I'd be open to other brands too, but these seem to be the ones that show up the most consistently. 
#44
Open Discussion / NGD (sort of)
January 19, 2018, 03:15:14 PM
In 2017 I found my guitar collection growing quite a bit with the addition of a Johnny Marr Jaguar and a Johnny A Custom.  Of course, I told myself that I don't need to buy any more guitar.  And of course, I totally failed at that.  In October, the store I take lessons at (and bought the Marr) gave me a call, telling me they just bought a 1992 Gretsch Country Classic II.  For those not in the Gretsch community, the Country Classic was the name given to their guitars while Chet Arkins was with Gibson.  I've always been a sucker for semi and fully hollow bodies, and I loved the way this one played.  The only thing that was off was the poorly designed roller bridge.  So last week I added a Tru Arc bar bridge after having the frets leveled and re-crowned.  And now it's finally ready for some serious playing.

The 90s Gretsches have ceramic pickups which helps it overdrive a little easier.  While Gretsch purists often switch them out for the Alnico-based TV Jones, I like the rauchiness these have.  The wiring is really suspect (only the first 1/5 of the tone pot provides much use), so that's going to get replaced, but for now, I'm happy to be rocking out with this. 

If anyone is considering getting a bar bridge on a Gretsch, the answer is yes.  I have a Compton on my first one and a Tru Arc on this, and it's probably the single most impactful modification I've made.





#45
Build Reports / Leading Wave (Pangea Build)
January 03, 2018, 12:40:31 AM
This was my last build of 2017, but I was waiting on the knobs to get here.  It's a pretty stock Pangea build with the optional voicing switch.  Right now, I've only got Brenja's suggested values for capacitors in, but I'm sure I'll experiment more with it as I play with it.  The sounds out of this thing are pretty incredible.  I've head some insane phaser sounds (especially when push with a fuzz face), some warbly Leslie sounds, and an amazing tremolo when played big and clean.  While it was a big build, it wasn't too hard to put together.  I started the build this summer, but I got serious about finishing projects once the colder temperatures arrived.  I'm especially pleased with my current technique for rolling vactrols, which tuned out looking and sounding great.

While I was searching for inspiration on the etch, I noticed a lot of other MB'ers had ocean names.  I started thinking of the classic Japanese print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" and found inspiration there.  This is the first time I've etched an enclosure this big and I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  The big synth knobs add a classy touch.

Google helped me with the Kanji.  If it's wrong, just don't tell me :).


#46
General Questions / Sagan Delay and Modulation
January 02, 2018, 02:57:19 AM
I'm slowly going through some pedals I've built over the past couple of years and resolving some percieved issues that I've found.  One of them is the addition of a modulation board to my Sagan Delay.  I used a Grind Customs pLFO board, and rolled my first vactrol, but I've noticed sever motorboating when I have the delay speed on delay #1 anywhere past 10:00.  It doesn't matter where I set the controls on the LFO.  Below 10:00 I get a cool chorus effect, but I've found myself not using the modulation unless the delay is set short.

For people who've built a Sagan delay, do you find similar things?  If not, perhaps my vactrol isn't very good?
#47
Build Reports / Andromeda Overdrive
December 19, 2017, 05:30:56 AM
I finished u my 4th build of the Andromeda Overdrive. This one is for my college roommate's girlfriend's father (it's a bit confusing). He's a big country player, so I though he'd like something on a bunch of Nashville season musicans' boards.

This is also the first enclosure etch I've done with this circuit as all of my artwork has turned to etching. I'm quite happy with the way the lines turned out. The symbols are a nod to the Michael Critchon book and 70s movie 'The Andromeda Strain.'  The control labels were way too close to the drill holes so I had to use those mini knobs. They are super tough to turn. Is the a way to wrk them in?  I prefer bigger knobs but I like the etch enough to not want to re-do it.



#48
Open Discussion / NGD!
September 14, 2017, 05:45:04 PM
The nights in Kansas City are starting to get cooler; when I let me dog out before I go to bed there's a little nip in the air.  For me, that means the days are getting shorter, and my attention turns from outside to inside (and back to pedal building in the colder months).  I have a couple of cool projects in flight, but none of them are as cool as this.

Since I started playing guitar after a 10 year break, the only new guitar that has floored me has been the Gibson Johnny A Custom.  It's a thinline hollow body guitar milled out of a solid block of mahogany with a solid maple top. The finish is just otherworldy: gold hardware, tons of binding, a Bigsby, custom inlays.  The one thing stopping me from purchasing one?  The price.  $6,200 from Gibson (about 5k street). 

I had already purchased a new guitar this year (a Johnny Marr Jaguar which is fantastic), and didn't have any intention of buying anything new.  That is, until Epiphone announced they were releasing a Johnny A.  The Epi is nearly identical in specs (mahogany milled body, gold hardware, binding, inlays, Bigsby, Gibson classic '57 pickups, 25.5 scale length, ebony fretboard, chunky '59 neck), with the only difference being a laminate top.  Oh, and the price tag came in under a grand.  So while I wasn't guitar hunting, I knew the moment I found out about them I was going to hunt one down.

The CITES laws had these things held up in customs forever.  I placed my pre-order in May.  Manufacturing finished in the middle of June.  I got it last week.  But man, what a fun guitar.  It's both loud in terms of sound and looks, but it's an awesome player.  One of these days I would love to be in a position to get a real Johnny A, but this was still a fantastic guitar to add to my collection.

Images courtesy of Sweetwater.  This was my first online guitar purchase and I was very impressed with their service. 







#49
I'm finally starting to search for the last cosmetic modification I'm making to my J.Marr Jaguar.  I plan to switch out the standard Jaguar knobs for some black witch hat knobs.  However, I'm not finding exactly what I'm looking for.  I've post this same question in some other guitar forums, but I figure as pedal builders, our community has seen WAY more knob companies and variety.

Here are the cream witch hat knobs from Fender:


I'm basically looking for them in black.  The 2 things that are making these impossible to match are
* Set screw for solid shafted pots
* Numbers facing outward

These are the closest I've found, but they have the numbers facing inward.  FYI, they're the same knobs on a Tele '72.


These are probably the ones I'm going to end up with, but if anyone has seen black ones like the cream ones above, I would love to pick them up.
#50
I'm at the beginning of the somewhat intimidated Nameless project, based on the Lovetone Flanger with No Name.  Part of the intimidation is the shear number of jacks on this thing (7 if you use all of them).  There are some amazing features, like an FX loop, expression pedal control, and stereo output.  However, there's also a Trig/Gate jack, which leaves me with the same image on the pedal: ??.  I've done some talking with Alan, and I've done some research on exactly what this does.  It appears to be a precursor to MIDI, used to control multiple effects with a single controller signal.  I'm trying to determine practically how to use it.  Do I have a controller pedal that controls multiple pedals with a single signal?  Do I use a tap tempo switch (like a momentary thing)?  Do I use an expression pedal here too?
#51
Build Reports / Krypton Phaser
July 01, 2017, 09:52:41 PM
This is a pedal I built for a guy who works at the guitar store I take lessons at.  I let him play around with the phaser I use most of the time (a Liquid Mercury), which has a phaser circuit based on the Mutron II and wanted something like it without the tap tempo stuff.  He wanted the layout of the controls to looks something like the traditional Mutron, but I opted for a Maestro style color combo.  The silver knobs (which he picked out) really tie the look together. 

I spent the morning and afternoon noodling around with it, and it sounds GREAT.  It's also a really fun build with the 1/8 watt resistors.  Excuse the wiring mess inside; I did a poor job of measuring some of the connections to the jacks and power.  I got some opto bypass PCBs from THCustoms this week so I tried one out.  They're very easy to build and install.


#52
Open Discussion / Mounting a PCB to an enclosure
June 26, 2017, 02:14:04 PM
I'm working on a build with solder lug potentiometers.  I'm going to use the double sided foam tape to attach the PCB to the pots, but because all of the pots are on one side of the enclosure, the other end of the board is just floating.  Is there some trick that people would suggest on connecting the board to the enclosure?  I'm trying to avoid drilling some sort of stanchion.  I was thinking of just stacking that double sided foam tape, but I'm sure there's a better way that people have discovered.
#53
I don't post on this forum much during the summer because I'm often outside playing disc golf.  I've played since I was in college, and moved to Kansas City after college due to the scene here.  KC is on the short list of greatest cities to play disc golf in in the world; there's nearly 40 courses within 30 miles of the metro.  We've been fortunate enough to host 3 world championships, with a 4th coming up next year.  I bring this up because the story of this build starts with disc golf.

You see, I am a board member for the local KC club.  Pedal building is what I do during the winter, and before one of our winter board meetings, I was mentioning to, Pete,  another board member, that I build pedals.  His interest was peaked, and asked if I would be willing to build something for a friend of his.  At the time, I was dealing with a lot of issues from my Lab 5 preamp build and was looking for a break from it.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Sure, I'd love to build something for you.  Do you know what kind of music your friend plays?
Pete:  Oh, sure.  He plays blues.
Me:  Cool.  I'm sure there something I can build for that style of music.  Is he in a band?  Can I listen to some of his music? (thinking I'll go to a bandcamp or facebook page and listen to some of his band's stuff).
Pete:  Yeah, he's in a band called Slipknot.  His name is Mick Thomson.

Now I don't listen to heavy rock music, but I sure know who Slipknot is, and was pretty sure it wasn't blues.  It turns out that Pete knows Mick through disc golf.  Slipknot is from Des Moines which is another disc golf hot spot with another stellar local club.  Since I was building this for someone who has access to any pedal he wants, I wanted to build something that he's probably never used before.  After watching his rig rundown, I settled on David's Giant Hogweed.  I had previously built one, and thought it would be something he would find unique like I did.  So I ordered a board, etched once of the cleanest looking enclosures I've done, and worked on it during the end of the winter.

And that's when things totally fell apart.  I've only had one build fail me, and this was the 2nd.  Somehow, the power and ground rails got connected.  I reflowed joints, I removed components, I spent what felt like weeks probing the board trying to find the bridge.  There's a long post on this board where David tried to help me figure out where my issue could be (thanks to him any anyone that tried to help btw). I had promised Pete I'd be done by March.  Since there was no way I was going to get this build done by then, I gave him the one off of my board.  I spent a little more time poking around before I trashed it, and ordered 2 more boards from David.  I finally got around to populating the board late last month, then got it in the enclosure earlier this evening.  It's still the brutal octave distortion I remember.

And Mick got back with Pete and told him he loved the sound and the options the pedal provided but said he can only use it with passive pickups.  I need to figure out a mod for active ones since that's what he uses in Slipknot.  I tried using a trimpot in front of the input, but wasn't quite satisfied with the effect that had on the octave.  With the final board I have I may try to add some sort of potentiometer before the initial gain stage.  If anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The moral of the story is:  play disc golf.  You too may end up with a crazy build story.  Oh, and it's fun watching discs fly :).



#54
As I get more and more into big orders from Mouser, I was curious how I should order knobs.  I go with 6mm or 1/4" solid shafts on nearly all my builds, so I'm trying to only see knobs that are set screw.  I've gotten to this point on my Mouser search with a shaft size filter:

http://www.mouser.com/Electromechanical/Knobs-Dials/_/N-5g22?P=1yzxmvnZ1yzxmuw

However, there's no filter to select a knurled inside or a set screw. For example, this comes back in my search:
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/Eagle_02152017_450-series.pdf

Which is a common knurled connection knob.  So does this:
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/Eagle_02152017_450-series.pdf

I'm still getting the hang of filtering my Mouser queries.  Is there a trick to getting just set screw knobs?
#55
In a build report I'm going to submit soon, I am trying to allow a pedal to be tuned for active pickups.  This pedal is not for me; it was built for a friend who was giving it to someone as a present.  This person plays in a hard rock band, and plays with active pickups in that band.  I spent some time thinking of a fun pedal to build him (one that isn't something commercially available, and decided on David Rolo's Giant Hogweed.  I got a text from this guy saying he loved what I built for him when he was playing a guitar with passive pickups like his Strat, but the signal from his active pickups just hit the pedal too hard and he got none of the nuances you get from passive pickups.  Since I don't have any active pickup instrument or play hard rock, I needed to do some research into them.  It turns out that they are often underpowered pickups with a built in preamp.  DYIStompboxes helped me come up with some potential solutions.  The simplest is using a potentiometer (probably a trimpot at this point) before the circuit but after the footswitch to run some of the signal off to ground.  This seems to make logical sense to me; it will reduce some of the signal, allowing you to use the gain and volume knobs like you would with active pickups.  I wanted to see if there's any downside I'm missing here.  I think I'm going to be able to borrow someone's guitar with active pickups to test, but in the case that I don't, I figured this would be a good place to ask.

Thanks!
#56
Open Discussion / 1/8 Resistors
May 24, 2017, 03:07:37 PM
This summer I seem to have collected some 1/8 resistor projects to work through (a couple of Kyrpton phasers, a Pangea Tremolo, and the very daunting Nameless Flanger).  I have been ordering the cheapie 1/4 resistors from Tayda for a while, but I've been making the switch to ordering components from Mouser for my last 2 orders.  I've looked at past Mouser orders I've placed, and the Xicon resistors I've ordered have been 6.8 mm in length.  I can tell from the boards that the 1/8 watt are smaller.  I think from my searching that I'm looking for something half off that size (3.5 mm).  Am I on the right track? 

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Xicon/270-47-RC/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMu61qfTUdNhG%2fx58qVkkJBru51SUIEDxOY%3d

Also, is there some cheaper place to get these?  I suppose I'm spoiled ordering 100 metal film resistors from Tayda for a little over a dollar, but man.
#57
I've had the same cheap blue plastic solder sucker since I started building a couple of years ago.  Over the past couple of builds, I've noticed that if I make a mistake (and I have made a number lately), the trace comes off when I use the sucker.  I don't remember this being as much of a problem when I got this tool.  Is this something that needs replaced from time to time?  Should I invest in a better quality one?  Is it my technique? 

The good news is that I've become very adept at using trace wire to connect components when I do burn out a pad or two :).
#58
Open Discussion / Panavise Junior question
May 05, 2017, 06:35:07 PM
I'm trying to spend the year upgrading some of my equipment I use for building as this has turned from a recreational hobby to something I really love to do.  One of the things that was recommened to me were some of the Panavise grips for holding boards that I work on.  The 201 "Jr" was recommended.  However, I notice that the jaws limit is  2.875".  I went and looked up a bigger Madbeans board that I have completed (the Harbinger One), and see that it's larger than 3 inches the entire way around.  Most of my 2017 build year is being taken up with bigger boards (Dandyhorse, Dualin' Herbees, L5), so I was wondering what people use for boards that the Panavise Jr won't hold.  I've been eyeing the 315, which appears it will work with bigger boards (up to 10").  I also saw this near Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2065435222/pcbgrip-vise-panavise-model-201-base-compatible

Which would offer some more options.  Anyway, I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on tools to use for boards 3" or bigger.
#59
Open Discussion / Soldering station question
April 11, 2017, 06:08:27 PM
If you have noticed in the questions thread, I have had a nightmare of a time with my Giant Hogweed board.  After looking at some of my previous builds, especially from the first year, I noticed that my solder joints looked much smaller and cleaner.  So I wanted to ask some questions about solder stations, tips, and irons.

This is the soldering station I own (except mine is a 75 watt version which they don't make anymore):
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/60_Watt_Soldering_Station.html

And I use this tip:
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/kd-m-b.html

Are tips something that need replaced from time to time?  Do I need to replace the entire iron extension from time to time?  I noticed that when I unscrew the tip, the ceramic (I think) white part underneath looks a little brown. 

I've contemplated replacing my entire station, but I haven't come up with a good reason to do it.  Until I do, I fig
#60
I'm a disc golfer.  When I was younger, I played quite a few tournaments, and practiced non stop.  I always enjoyed playing with people that were just beginning because I think it's a fun game to get hooked on.  I would often tell people "if you haven't lost a disc, then you haven't played enough golf yet."  It's sort of like pedal building.  If you haven't faced some issue yet, it's because you haven't built enough pedals.  So last night I faced a first:  burning out a resistor.

I am working on my second Giant Hogweed build.  I had the board populated, and was ready to begin testing using my testing rig.  I noticed when I hooked the power and ground up that there was something hurting one of my fingers.  I thought for a moment I shocked myself (I did on a preamp build), but quickly dismissed that since there's not a lot of voltage flowing.  When I ran my test, I got no sound.  I looked at the board, and noticed the resistor right after the 9V connection (R42 on the picture below) had turned a dark brown in the middle.  I put my finger on it, and realized that what hurt my finger.



I grabbed the Hogweed that's on my board, and tested it.  The resistor wasn't super hot.  So I began to replace things on my new build.  I replaced R42 and C28 (the big 220u cap), but that didn't make a difference.  It was getting late, so I didn't have time to continuity test every component in the power section, but I'll do that this evening. 

One of the reasons I picked up this hobby was to learn more about electronics.  From my Google research, it seems likely that my resistor got hot because the current going through it isn't being routed anywhere, or at least isn't being routed to enough places.  Does it seem like I'm on the right track?  Unfortunately, I'm concerned about leaving the power hooked up for an extended period of time and burning up something else, so I haven't used my multimeter to probe around much.