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Hey all,
So I had the pleasure of ordering a set of proto boards from OSHpark recently. Still love them and they do offer a fantastic and quick service. I am wondering if any of you order from OSHpark still for the 3 board proto set. Is there another fab house that you use for this? Thanks everyone!
-Mike-


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Hey guys,
As most know I've been out of the game for quite some time, I was wondering if you guys use any apps on a tablet (specifically on a iPad) to design PCBs. If not do you use an android tablet or web based software. Not that I'm gonna be pumping out boards but might be good to learn some new software due to Eagle's EOL coming at some point. Thanks in advance guys!
-Mike-


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Hello all,
It's been a bit over a year since the plumbing accident at my house (which ruined almost all of my stuff). So I took a bit of time off and a break from the scene. Also in that time I lost my job and became a full time stay at home dad with my 2 year old twins and 9 year old daughter. I now seem to have a bit more time on my hands and...well, idle hands and all that. So, instead of continuing the hobby from a musicians eye (tendinitis in my left hand prevents me from playing guitar) I am focusing more on the development side of things. Which means learning how to properly breadboard. Which I am excited for. Anyways I want to say thanks to all of you for the support through out the years and I am looking forward to this new outlook. Thanks everyone. You'll be seeing more of me round here again.
-Mike-


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Hey All,
Been a while and I wanted to update anyone here that cares and ask any of you for a little advice / help if you are so willing.

The past couple years have been full of both exciting and devastating things for me. First I'll start with the traumatic emergency birth of my Twins, Drew and Miles. They were both born at 30 weeks due to a prolapsed umbilical cord on 5/28/21. Then rushed to Tufts Children's Hospital in Boston MA, only about 30 min from where I live. Drew was 3 lbs 6 oz and Miles was 4 lbs 2 oz. Once my wife healed they kicked us out due to COVID and we had commute back and forth to see our sons. But we did what we had to and made it work. 6 weeks later and a few scares later they came home!

That very same week construction started on the house. We had to add at least one bed room and bathroom for this house to work for us. But the noise didn't seem to bother the boys. They lived up to the NICU babies sleep through anything. This puts at just after July 4th of 2021.

I had returned to work and moved into a new position, and then forced into another position i didn't really want. That beside the point, the normal stresses of not being able to not afford child care and not afford my wife to be able to stay home all the time are applied to life. I then start to try and pickup some side hustle business and I get COVID for the 3rd time. even after having the vac and whatnot.

So i decide to sell some gear because hey "I have tendentious in my left wrist / thumb and can't play for more than 2 min anyways" and lets face it...I DO have too much of it...well, had too much of it, *cue disaster*!! The main sewer out from my house collapses and floods my workshop.

Now a little back story. I largely affected by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrimack_Valley_gas_explosions. They dug up the ground where my main sewer line goes into the house 2 times during restoration. This was because the "gas company" couldn't locate the gas line...I get it. private contractors sent in from all around to help and all that. I was here I remember, and am VERY grateful for what they did, also bought them pizza on a few occasions to show it.

So, at this point the stucko ceiling is acting like a sprinkler and distributing sewage all over my workshop. "Mike", you might say, "what did you have in your workshop"? I'll list the major things to keep it short:

-Almost all of my guitar gear. except 1 guitar (which I will most likely post for sale here later)
-All of my drum gear (2 drum sets including stands, cymbals, and an extra snare or two
-My 1979 Roland JC120
-ALL of my pedal building and repair equipment (o-scopes, meters, and all that jazz)
-All of my power tools and toolboxes
-My entire woodworking bench including 2 bodies i was going to start working on
-Multiple customer pedals
-Multiple binders and boxes of vintage Magic The Gathering cards <-Nerd alert!!! HAHAHA!
-ETC.
The loss is monumental. I can't even begin to put a dollar value on it. It is in fact so "Big" to me that I honestly don't know / think i will ever bounce back from it. Sure there will be a payout and I could get some new cool gear that will look pretty on my board that doesn't get used...EVER! (sorry for the negativity) But this, to me sounds like a "let's hang it up for a while" kind of turning point. I have Twin Boys, an 8 yo Daughter, an amazing Wife that supports me through EVERYTHING, and a couple of dopes for dogs. I have plenty to keep me busy.

Here is where, if I could, ask this amazing forum for help. I have questions and was hoping some of you may have unfortunately, suffered something similar to this or know someone. Does anyone have any advice for me? I have contacted a Lawyer and am having a personal adjuster come out and inventory things with me. Any advice, thoughts, comments, suggestions, ect that you think would help please post them. I would like to say DM me but I am so busy right now that checking a thread and reading through it would be easier...sorry. I'll try to post some pictures for family cuteness lol!!
Thanks for reading...or not. This is worthy of TLDR haha
-Mike-

Hey Guys,
I had someone reach out to me and asked if I could do a layout for them. I already have the PCB designed. I really just need to move a few things around and put their name on it. I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with this and what you would charge for something like this? They would be buying a quantity of 20-30 boards. I already have pricing from the FAB house (for 30 boards). My cost, shipped to me is about $1.25 per board. So, should I break it down to come out to cost per board, and how much would one charge for something like this? Thanks in advance for ANY advice you can give me.
-Mike-

So as most of you probably do, I offered to build some one a custom pedal. It was an Acapulco Gold and a Foxx Tone Machine in the same enclosure. It had a master bypass switch with two individual by pass switches for the fx. Now this guy is a real pain in the A$$. He was messaging me multiple times a day, asking for this and that, or if this or that was doable. Finally I finished the pedal tested it and sent it over to him.
Once he got the pedal he tried it out and said it didn't work...ugg! Ok, I sent him a return label and got the pedal back...works just fine. I then replaced a bunch of parts (shotgun attempt really) and tested the pedal for 5 days, on 3 different amps, with and without other pedals in the mix. Everything was good...or so I thought. Sent him the pedal, double boxed and TONS of packing material, and again. He said it didn't work. I am now sending him a single AG and fuzz in separate enclosures. Plus another return label for the original pedal I built him.
This guy has been a thorn in my side since the initial contact. I have since decided to no longer offer custom builds (unless it's a friend of mine or a mutual contact) because of this guy. I have had difficult customers, and everything that comes along with them. I work customer support for fishman...But "THIS GUY" has burnt me out! Anyways sorry and thanks for listening to my rant. Just needed to vent.

Anyone else run into this? What did you guys do?

-Mike-   


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Hey all,
Just wanted to say congrats to Jimi. He has been knocking it out of the park with his enclosure etches. I know from experience that they are time consuming, expensive, and take a lot of patience to do. So, Congrats Jimi and keep up the good work!
-Mike-


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Hey Guys,
Here is a clone of the EQD Hoof. I did this as a trade to my friend Evan. He gave me all the AWESOME Spawn figures before. His original hoof died and was broke due to COVID-19 and him being out of work. He did find a couple more spawn figures and what can I say...I'm a sucker for spawn stuff! So I built him a new Hoof pedal. This is almost a exact copy. I used some 2n2222 Transistors for this build, I think they sound a bit better. This wasn't my cleanest wiring job but hey, they can't all be perfect! HAHA Just kidding. Anyways here are a couple pictures. I didn't shoot a video but we all know what a modified muff sounds like. Enjoy!
-Mike-

Hey Guys,
This was in my "not working pile" for a long time now. I figured it was time to get it up dan running. I love the way this sounds. especially when switching between the two time settings. Anyways enjoy the pictures and the demo. Thanks for reading / looking.
-Mike-

Hey all,
So it's been a while since I etched any boards or anything. I recently had a couple build requests and figured I'd etch a few to see if I still had the skills.
First I found the layouts I wanted (Hamlet, Hoof, Sounds Like Doom, Sound Saw, and Clean Octave Blend). Then printed the layouts on shiny presentation paper with a laser printer. Then put iron to paper and transferred the layouts to a 4 x 6 and an extra piece of copper clad. Then etched. I'm honestly surprised these even came out on the first try. Here is a picture of the out come. Now it's time to drill an ass load of holes!!!




I also debugged and finished one of the nonworking Triton delay boards from CultureJam. You'll see a build report for that in the next day or so. I need to do a demo for it. Any hoo, feels good to be back at it for a bit. Thanks for reading.
-Mike-


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Hello all,
So as some of you may know it is INSANELY expensive to live in the New England area, especially Massachusetts. My wife and I are considering relocating to another area of the country. We are thinking PA or WV. I am not thrilled about the idea but understand it will have its benefits. I think weather wise I want to go no more south than PA, I'm not a summer / humid weather guy. If I had my way we would move to Canada but I'm not the only one in the equation. I have some questions for those who have done something like this.

Did those who did this do so with out having friends and family where you moved? We would not have either.

How hard was it to find decent employment and did you do so before hand? My wife has her pharmacy tech certs so she wouldn't have too hard of a time finding work. I don't have any higher education than a HS diploma so I May have a difficult time finding a decent job.

We are not expecting our financial burden to go away. Selling our house and moving to a more affordable area of the country seems to be a good place to start. Has anyone done this before? Kinda looking for some advice here.

Thanks for reading.
-Mike-


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So, I too have decided to hang up the iron. The hobby is no longer fun for me. I don't remember the last fun build I did. I'll probably unload some stuff at some point but for now. I will probably just box it all up. I will still check in here from time to time and contribute when I can. Thanks for all your support and encouragement over the past years. You are all fantastic people. Thanks again.
-Mike-


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Hey everyone,
A friend on mine asked me if there is a mod to reduce the rate of the micro flanger. I don't have the pedal in hand yet. I was just wondering if any of you have any experience with these. Thanks in advance.

-Mike-


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Anyone have the Harmonic Fuzz and Raw Power docs. I can't seem to find them anywhere. Thanks
-Mike-

Hey guys,
I was playing guitar tonight and had a strange issue. The volume of my amp (Peavey Prowler) was swelling up and down on its own. Did the usual cable check and whatnot. Also determined that it was only after playing for 10 min or so. From what I've read it seems to be power tube related. Which makes sense.

My amp takes 2 x 6L6GC and 3 x ECC83S. What do you guys recommend. I've never changed tubes in this amp and am kind of looking for advice...thanks for reading / advising.
-Mike-


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Hey all,
Here are a couple builds I just finished for my friend Bruce in Pray For Sound. The Admirer is a Hamlet Delay with a momentary feedback switch. The trimpot in the base plate controls when the oscillation starts  after pressing the switch. Hats of to Jon (midwayfair) for making a truly beautiful sounds delay. I absolutley love this circuit.
The second is a Sunn model T preamp. The PCB was developed by Benoit at Coda Effects. Super fun and very MASSIVE sounding. Thanks for looking.







https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K92Js_6W7GU/W5HPuLfU9nI/AAAAAAAACs4/7Sgyh58LbzkJu0SgvMF3AOPbZzYjG7kzACLcBGAs/s1600/Photo%2BSep%2B05%252C%2B12%2B35%2B54%2BAM%2B%25281%2529.jpg





-Mike-

Hello all,
This is my layout of the "Machete". The Machete Schematic was designed by Rej and his team at grind customs fx. This is an Ugly Face with LFO mods. The LFO has an on off switch that turns the lfo off. I designed the PCB out of "need", I have a friend that is looking for one and Rej's store is down. I asked if I could do my own layout and the "unicorn slayer" gave me permission. I am trying to get batter at posting my builds here. I've just been posting them on my IG account and always for get to post them here. Any way her are some pictures and a quick video. Thanks for looking / watching.









And the Video

Hey guys and gals,
I finished another Hunter Fuzz build. For those that don't know what that is it's a Devi Shoegazer PCB I did a while back. This one has an etched face plate that I did. Anyway here it is hope you like it.







Thanks for reading / looking!

-Mike-

So here they are

Dummy Box 8 and 16 ohm



0415 done for my friend Chris in Pray For Sound. Art and FP done by me





My Prototype for the BLMS Whammoth PCB. Get the PCB at the BLMS store! Art and enclosure etch by me.



Thanks for looking guys!

-Mike-

Hey all,
Lost my hard drive a little while ago and I am now starting to dig my self out of the setback. I am wondering if anyone of you kind gentlemen has a Power point DMG? Thanks guys!

-Mike-