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Sorry if this is covered somewhere else in the forums but I couldn't find it.

I know Haberdasher is making the single-sided boards for discontinued products but unfortunately I'm really interested in building a Moodring and that PCB has multiple layers.

It looks like I could order a small batch of boards here
https://www.pcbway.com/?ngaw=33&campaignid=793796577&adgroupid=44014088391&feeditemid=&targetid=aud-292348526782:kwd-18635313&loc_physical_ms=9004067&matchtype=p&network=g&device=c&devicemodel=&creative=196555801627&keyword=pcb%20prototype&placement=&target=&adposition=1t1&gclid=CjwKCAjw6szOBRAFEiwAwzixBfrQdxS9Pj1Mq0Siu-E-f11gRj9gJmp_v9lnPPQlRIRlrrLMwtEArBoCgMYQAvD_BwE

I was wondering if Brian has any materials for this kind of thing (eagle files, etc) or if it's up to us to reproduce the pcb layout if we wanted to handle it on our own. OR if it's frowned upon in general.

I've never used Eagle before but I'm just looking for a way to get the Moodring! Not trying to rip off Brian's awesome work. I just want his sweet, sweet reverb

I've been building out a smaller version of my pedal board and was looking at building an Afterlife with the Sensitivity mod as well as a Bacon Bits. Does anyone have any experience fitting these boards into the small, square 1590LB enclosure?

Ideally I'd like to still have the controls accessible (not just internal trimpots) but mini pots are fine.

Is this being too greedy?

Hey guys,

I had to reopen the QVibe that I built a while ago to replace a burnt out LED it was working completely fine unboxed and even when I boxed it up but all of a sudden the lamp no longer pulses. I unboxed it again and its still the same.

The main thing I can think of is while I was boxing it, I overtightened the speed knob, shorting it against the led bezel. Is it possible that I fried something on the board that would result in LFO not oscillating?

I haven't been building in a long time and when I did, I never had to probe for voltages so I don't really even know where to begin. It doesn't help that this wasn't the cleanest build in the world :/

Thanks guys for any help you have.

So with all my recent builds, I've been having a lot of people start asking me to build stuff for them.

Now, I value my time since I'm a pretty busy guy so I don't want to be building stuff at cost, especially since I spend a lot of time and effort on the aesthetics of my pedals. But on the other hand, I don't want to do anything to disrespect the community and especially Brian who has put so much work into this and given so much to all of us.

So basically, what should I do to be most respectful to all the intellectual property that I've been working off of so far?

I finally brought myself to box up the Quadrovibe I wired up a while ago. It was a pretty intense process considering the perfboard charge pump, lit knob, 2 toggle LEDs and my insistence to shove it all in with a 9v into a 1590b.

With this one, I have the Intensity knob pulsing at the rate of the LFO and two 3mm LEDs on the boat's mast which indicate whether it is in Tremolo or Vibrato mode. These are always on so I can tell the settings on the pedal without having to engage it with another main indicator LED to tell whether its on or not.

The vibrato is pretty subtle and is pretty much unnoticeable (to me) with intensity below about 12 o clock. The tremolo is ok but the vibrato is definitely the main effect here. Not replacing my Supa trem or the one on board my princeton reverb anytime soon.



A note about the envirotexing:
This time I decided to test out the method of drilling after the enclosure is completely finished.
Unfortunately while this did take care of the pillowing "problem" that you get from the envirotex running into the holes, if you look close, you can see that the finish actually lifted off around the holes during the drilling. This may make the finish a little more susceptible to peeling and what not later. Aesthetically it kind of works on theis pedal, especially around the 3mm vibr/trem LEDs since the air pockets get let up by the LED. This may be because I had to use regular drill bits this time which may pull up on the finish more than a unibit would have.




As you can see, its pretty tight in there. Almost had to give up on the 9v on this one but I got it to work. I used some of that poster hanging putty to mount the charge pump and 3mm LEDs to the enclosure just to be safe. Once I closed the lid though, there's definitely no room for anything to move anywhere

I was wondering how I could go about diagnosing a broken toggle switch. I have DPDT that I wired up for my true bypass/buffered mod on my Sunking (seen here:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=3063.0

Basically, it acts like there's a loose connection and i have to tap on the toggle arm to get it in the right position. I thought it might have been one of the solder joints but I re flowed all of them and even replaced some of the wires and it still does it. I did have to bend the solder lugs with pliers at right angles to get them to fit in the build so I was wondering if it might be a mechanical problem with the toggle. I just wanted to know if there was any real way to test the switch to make sure.

This is the board that I got from Danny in his pay it forward a while ago and it has become the ultimate pay-it-forward board! I ended up letting my brother try his hand at building it and then halfway through we decided to give it to a friend of ours once we finished as a thank you for some Bon Iver tickets he gave me. My friend is the lead singer of a great band that I used to play for called Wires in the Walls so I decided to name the pedal after one of their songs, "Big Bad Love" and incorporate some of their album art into the design. You can check them out here www.wiresinthewalls.com. I'm going to give it to him later today.








As for the finish, this is my first "all over decal" job and I also started using the envirotex stuff that some people have mentioned on hear. It does give amazing results but it is suuuuper messy and a bit of work to apply. Because it is made for flat surfaces, you can get some problems with the pooling on the bottom edges as it drips off. I don't mind the lip that forms from it pooling but the big drops don't look that great. 

Here's the method I've found that works the best

1) Tape up the screw holes (Trust me!)
2) Put tapes on the actual edge of the pedal (where it would touch the lid) This will allow the envirotex to flow down something instead of just forming a big drop.
3) Mix the stuff real well but wait a couple minutes before applying. It is recommended to warm the solution and apply immediately to be able to get out bubbles but this only works by making the stuff more fluid which doesn't help us since we have a 3 dimensional object. By waiting, it'll be a little thicker and will stick to the sides a little.
4) Pour it on the top and use a plastic knife to spread to the sides
5) Scrape up the stuff that drips off and re-apply it to the top of the sides, letting it drip down again
6) Get rid of bubbles by blowing on it
REPEAT 5 and 6 until it is thick enough that it's holding its coverage over the whole pedal.
7) Pop any bubbles with the knife since it'll be too thick to blow out. It'll still be liquidy enough to recover from the knife mark though
Let it sit in front of a space heater to speed up the curing.

I'm looking to make a pretty basic hall reverb pedal that basically only needs hall size and volume controls. Is there any board you guys could recommend since we don't have one here at home here madbean?

For my neutrino, I decided to build the Black version since from what I read, it was a little brighter and cutting than the burst version (ironically named if you ask me). For the switch, I added the ability to switch between symmetrical (4 diodes) or asymmetrical (3 diodes) which seemed like one of the big differences between the black and burst versions.

Like my Egodriver, I decided to get a little crazy with the rubber bands. First, I tried to paint a bit of a red/black gradient. Then I masked the bands with some rubber bands. I really wanted to get some thicker bands but the closes I could do was just use multiple rubber bands which let a little white paint through when I put on that layer. I figure if I ever make other versions of the neutrino, I can use another city and paint the stripes a different color.

This is my last one of the batch I was finishing so I guess I'll have to get back to work on my Q-Vibe

This one's pretty nerdy but SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor which is the drug that is usually used for treating OCD. This pedal was one of the reasons I started building. I really love how it can get crunchy but still maintain clarity between notes.

I got a little complicated with painting this one. First, I painted the whole thing green and used a bunch of rubber bands to mask it. Then I painted white over it to get all the green stripes.


Then I had to paint the parts that the decal was going to cover white so the designs will show up. I think I was a bit too conservative with this step since some of the elements still ended up on green, making it hard to read

This may be a pretty simple switch but I'm pretty proud of this guy just because it's the first pedal that I actually designed myself. If anyone else is interested, I can draw up a schematic for you guys. The only downside for me is that its possible to run down the battery if you leave it engaged even if its unplugged.

For this one, I went with the theme of Zen and used an actual ancient buddhist zen painting that I found online and the symbol is the japanese symbol for zen. I've been so busy with finishing all the pedals, I haven't even had a chance to really play around with this pedal so I might have to make an update after I get to explore it a bit.

I'm a little upset about the blemish by the LED. Some how a bit of the decal flipped up and stuck while I was spraying the clearcoat. The decals seems to almost instantly melt so there was not much I can do about it unfortunately.

After fighting with my zombii for the past year, I've found this fuzz to be much more usable and really flexible. I'm using it for guitar and it sounds great without any mods at all. I keep thinking of putting in the impedence switch that would make it usable with active pickups and possibly remain a little more responsive to the volume knob even when following a buffer but for now, I'm really happy with it.

I'm really happy with the way the finish came out. Once again, using clear water slide decals from smallbear. The really bright white LED really completes the look too but its impossible to take a picture without blinding the camera. haha

Also since I'm finishing my old first projects and a new batch at the same time, it's insane to compare the wiring jobs. It's like seeing a time lapse of me learning how to build!

This one is dedicated to our famous Haberdasher who has helped me out more than a few times since I started building. More specifically, when I missed the final sale of sunkings because I was traveling, He hooked me up with an extra board he had etched for himself. In honor of him and his avatar, I dub this, the first pedal I actually finished with decals and a proper finish, "The Dudetaur"





EDIT:
Forgot to put up the gut shot



For those interested in the True bypass wiring set-up I used, here's the wiring diagram. With the addition of a dpdt toggle, I'm able to switch between the stock pedal to a true bypass bypass pedal in bypass mode. Now I think it might be possible that the engaged circuit might actually be changed when in true bypass mode but I can't  hear any audible difference so it's great for me. The buffer does sound so great with my dark Les Paul that the only time I switch it to TB is when I want to use a fuzz pedal further down the chain.

When I bought my PR, it didn't come with the footswitch and rather than shill out the money for one, I figured it would be the simplest thing I built so far. But I have one question

I was thinking to build my pedal with a detachable cable and a stereo TRS jack on the pedal. The plugs on the amp are 2 RCAs (one for the reverb, one for the 'vibrato'), and it appears that the effects default to on when the switch is open or unplugged, and therefore closing the circuit from + (tip) to ground (sleeve) turns them off. In order to get this to work with a TRS, it seems I would have to close both switches to the same sleeve since I only have 3 segments on the TRS.

Is there any problem in doing this? It appears to work when toying around but I'm worried closing both switches might be dangerous somehow and I should just make the pedal connection 2 RCAs as well.


As a bonus, If anyone can explain to me how closing the vibrato circuit with an LED actually causes it to speed up , I'd love to know!

I just finished wiring up my sunking with a buffer/true bypass toggle switch mod I'm trying out. It's my first time doing any sort of mod to the design and I'm having some problems. The effect works and sounds pretty good but I'm not getting any bypass signal, buffered or true bypass.

My Mod:
So the toggle works by running the input tip to the SPDT. In buffered mode, thie SPDT wires to the board input as usual. with everything else being as in the diagram. In True bypass mode, the SPDT runs to the center lug of the empty column on the 3PDT footswitch. When the footswitch is engaged, the bottom lug sends the signal to the board to run as normal. When disengaged, the top lug sends the signal straight to the output tip.



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The effect works in both toggle positions and the LED as well just as planned but as soon as I disengage the footswitch, I have no sound, no matter which position the toggle is in. I couldn't find any solder bridges or shorts and the fact that its only the bypass signal is really confusing me. The only thing I can think of is that the output tip might not be acting right since I have three wires all wiring there. Here's a pic of my PCB if that helps you guys. (btw I did have to trim down some of the excess size of the PCB to get it to fit in the enclosure)


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I was wondering if this IC: 700-ICL7660CPA
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Maxim-Integrated-Products/ICL7660CPA+/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvAX9OfPh%252b2NZM2MkEpdLMs8jUYpljPbho%3d

Is the same thing as the ICL7660SCPA that is called for in the sunking

Thanks

I'm not trying to start the mojo war but I have a question about resistors.

I have access to a bunch of old Ohmite carbon comp resistors from at least the 60s called Little Devils. I've read a lot of carbon comp vs metal and the only difference I've been convinced of is a a possible reduction in noise in the metal films. I'm building a Sunking, Serendipity, Sabretooth, Egodriver, Quadrovibe, and Neutrino. Should these be ok or should I just buy new ones?  I don't mind buying new ones since resistors are cheap

The zombii seems to really suffer if its placed in the chain after a buffer but at the same time, a lot of pitch shifter effects (mine is the PS-5) track a million times better when they're first in line. I've read a few people online talking about a mod they could do to their fuzz factory to make it work like normal even when behind a buffered pedal. Does anyone know what this mod might be? If possible, I think I'd like to build it in with a toggle switch so I could choose based on the situation I'm using the pedal.

Hi Guys,
This is my first post so thanks in advance and I'd appreciate any help you guys could offer.

Basically I have my pedal board set up as in the picture with Mogami cables with switchcraft connectors I've made. The cables all seem to be fine by themselves to I think the tone suck is a larger problem with the chain. I love the way these pedals sound and ordered them functionally in the way I use them but it seems like there's quite a bit of tone suck and the sound I get sounds very flat, not the usual well rounded sound I love the princeton for. My current chain order:

Dynacomp/Ross compressor clone>>Boss PS-5>>Foxrox Zim OD>>ZVex Box of Rock Clone>>Zvex Fuzz Factory Clone>>DOD Super Stereo Chorus(2nd output feeds TU-12 Boss Tuner)>>Fulltone Supa-Trem>>Boss DD-20>>Line6 DL-4

I have 2 questions:
1) Would a buffer at the start help with this tone suck issue? I thought having some buffered pedals mixed in would have handled this.

2) Is there anything of this chain order that looks out of place to any of you guys?



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