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Nothing fancy here aesthetically, but I am still quite happy with this build.  This is a Wolfshirt board that I received as part of a PIF, I believe (my memory is as fuzzy as the tones from this pedal).  I've been building somewhat randomly this year, and picked this board out of the pile and said, "why not?"  The octave it produces is quite clear when you find the sweet spot on the fretboard. It is also a nice fuzz. Fun build and fun tone.

In the build doc for the 3PDT-05 bypass board, there is a mock layout drill guide.  However, it should use the image of the top of the 3PDT-05 board rather than the bottom so the LED is in the correct side for drill planning purposes.

This is the first Rangemaster I have built, and I love it!

The transistor is a Russian МП20 with a gain of 72. The Madbean 3PDT-05 bypass board supplies -9V, so this will play nicely with other pedals.

The knob is polymer clay over a brass insert from LoveMySwitches.

I'm currently suffering through COVID, after avoiding that germ for nearly 3 years, so I have decided to do a rehouse of an old project with a lemonade theme. When life gives you lemons, make lemonOD.

The circuit is a tube screamer with Landgraff mods, and I added Jack Orman's fat mod as a bonus. 


The left-hand toggle selects clipping: silicon (asymmetric), open, or LED.  The right-hand toggle enables the fat mod.  The knobs (left to right) are: drive, tone, and level.

In my years of building stuff, I have for some reason never made a test harness box.  Now I have.  Meet my lab assistant Igor:

Now I can more properly "rock it before you box it".

This is my build of the Chaos Agent.  I am happy to be able to post a working build after my last setback (still debugging that Naughty Fish).  I may add some more paint pen to the enclosure eventually if I can think of a name or anything to draw.




Jimilee inspired me with his recent builds to use a white pen on this. 

I have made it through a build of the wonderfully-tight Naughty Fish mutron iii clone.  Only problem is, well, it doesn't work right just yet.  The envelope follower seems to be fine, but the filters either cut out completely, don't affect the signal much, or oscillate.  Some debugging is in my future, but I think it looks nice, anyway.    I'll provide an update once I get it working.

This is a work in progress, but it is close to complete.  I just need to figure out what I want to do with the enclosure art. 





Storyboardist generously donated the boards for this project (Thanks again, David!), which is either a Distortion+ or a DOD 250 with mods.  I honestly couldn't tell you which circuit it is closer to now (I didn't build it to-spec, and it has characteristics of both), but it works, and it sounds decent.

I used a handful of Brian Wampler's mods found here:
https://www.premierguitar.com/amp/mxr-distortion-plus-mods-2651041927

Specifically, I used the Ge/Si output clipping combination, moved the gain knob to the feedback loop, and scaled some of the parts to extend the gain range.

The op amp is a vintage Raytheon can, for added mojo, of course (I didn't look at the datasheet too carefully).     I have one more of these cans if anyone needs one (free if you are going to use it in a Pedals for Ukraine build).

Once I get the enclosure art figured out (I'm open to suggestions), I'll have this ready for auction in relatively short order.

I'm most of the way through building an Archibald, and I really like how meaty this build looks. 

Although a vent over the tube probably isn't really necessary, I couldn't help myself:

That cutout took many hours of drilling, cutting, grinding, filing, filling, trimming, and sanding.  I don't think I would try that again.     The dark gray is JB Weld to fill in gouges and the like from my Dremel.  It will be hidden under paint eventually.

I am, unfortunately, having trouble getting it working.  I have an apparent short between the 6.3V test point and ground.  I'm thinking/hoping it is due to a bad regulator, but I haven't pulled that part off the board yet.  The tube is a TAD ECC83WA.  I hope it works.

I am currently working on my 3rd Brassmaster build, and I already have a 4th one planned. It's a great circuit (opinions vary, of course). As a sort of WIP thread, I decided to collect them here.

#1
Here is the first Brassmaster I built.  It was a kit build from GGG, using a board designed by R.G. Keen.  I was quite happy with it, but I sold it a couple years ago to make room for new stuff, and I knew I could build another one better someday.



#2
This is the one I built as a gift to my brother after he bought himself a bass guitar.  I squeezed it into a 1590B, and it was the one and only time I successfully etched an enclosure.





#3
This is my current project.  Another 1590B build, but this time with 4 knobs.  Again, using R.G. Keen's board from GGG.  I just need to make the box pretty and solder a few things, and it will be done. The fit is only slightly tighter than the previous one (mainly the 3PDT toggle needing to be placed just right).



#4
I was quite excited when Brian announced the BoomBoom.  I have the board in my possession, and I plan to make something special with it.


Several years ago, I cobbled together a combo Brassmaster and OC-2, with the Brassmaster input being selectable from clean, one octave down, or two octaves down.  Those same signals were also mixable with the output.  I really liked it, but in a fit of depression, I disassembled it.  I'm planning to rebuild it and improve upon my earlier version.  Suboctaves into a Brassmaster make some gnarly sounds.

I don't have a pic of the finished old project from before I tore it apart, but I have this partly complete pic.


Hopefully, the rebuild will also fit into a 1590BB.  I have no idea why I used a stereo input jack for a pedal that can't fit a battery, but I'm guilty of having done this more than once.   


Anyway, I plan to add updates for projects #3 and #4 here eventually.

This is my first build this year, and it is my first time using a 1590G.  It's a JMK HooDoo Drive, based on the Voodoo Labs Overdrive.

The graphics are simple freehand with a Sharpie and a paint marker and some clear coat.

I wrapped the board in some gaffers tape after taking this pic of the guts.


I like the way it sounds.  It's a more subtle drive, mostly clean, but adds some nice flavor.

You're never too old for Lego.



Came with a Princeton Reverb amp, which I haven't assembled yet.

Here's my old strat for scale:

I have been appointed (by my brother) as custodian for this lefty 2012 MIM Telecaster.

My brother found it while curb shopping (or trash picking, if you prefer that term--someone threw it out and my brother grabbed it).  It is missing a knob on the pickup switch, the jack wiring is broken, and there is a noticeable dead spot on one of the pots, but it is well within my abilities to fix it up. 

I have been instructed to keep it until a worthy left-handed player needs a guitar.  I am required to give it away for free when that time comes (my brother cited karma as the reason).  So, I get to have some fun fixing it up and hanging it on my wall for now.

After I won the Gearside caption contest, I selected a Slow Loris board as my prize.

Here is my build.  The graphic is my attempt at commemorating this entire year with non-political humor. 





The glyphs below the toggle can best be explained, perhaps, by breaking them into their components:
SS = pair of Si diodes
LL = pair of LEDs
SSS = asymmetrical Si diodes

Thank you again, Matthew, for your very generous prize!

So, I have this friend who has built lots of guitar pedals, but he is a little embarrassed to admit that he has never built a phaser.  There are so many phaser circuits out there that I am my friend is feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to decide which one to build first.  Any suggestions that I can pass along to my friend? 

Edit: Added the word "first" to soften the mental pressure of having to choose only one.   

My brain works like this:

This tin that I got for free looks kind of neat.


Hmm....  That graphic of the hand holding the lozenge -- the lozenge looks to be about the same size as a 3mm LED.  I happen to have some tangerine-colored 3mm LEDs, and I'm a bit bored.


That was amusing.  I wonder....  Would a pedal fit in this tin?  Perhaps using Lumberg jacks, and the footswitch would have to be shallow.

[Thinking]
[Going through my parts stash]

Looks like a soft touch footswitch fits perfectly, and I happen to have a Softie2 board to go with it, which would actually fit too!

I might as well drill it out and think of something to put in it later.


You know, with that LED, the hand looks a little like it is squeezing an orange....

A parts order and a couple weeks later, I have an orange squeezer pedal built in a rather shallow tin!

I happen to have a couple of these that came in a mystery box assortment from Electronics Goldmine:

They appear to be non-latching ("single-side stable" is what the datasheet says) 4.5V coils with the same contact configuration as the one in the Softie build doc.  Is there anything else I should be aware of, or would these work just fine with the Softie?

Datasheet:
digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/614/TX2-4_5V-pdf.php

I posted this query over at DIYSB, but I want to ask here too:

My kids broke my moderately cheap headphones that I use to listen to music.   
Can anyone recommend some new ones?  I want something wired (no Bluetooth BS) that can be driven adequately from consumer devices (phone, computer, etc.).  This would be for home use, so I don't care too much about sound leakage (in or out), and they don't need to be small. Sound quality would be my highest criterion, followed by comfort. Let's somewhat arbitrarily say $50 USD is my budget ($100-ish would be ok).  Any recommendations?

Scored this at a community flea market today (items are donated and sold for mostly arbitrary prices as a fund raiser for the school that hosted the event):

$15USD.
Sounds like shit through the built-in 12-inch speaker (bad speaker?), but is actually pretty nice through the headphone jack.

The best part was when the person quoting me the price suggested that I could test it to see if it worked by plugging it in to a nearby outlet. I left my guitar in my other pants, so I had to buy it as-is, but the price was right, even with risk of it being dead.

Making good progress on my Klein Bottle kit build.  The process has been quite enjoyable up to this point.

I'm not looking forward to completing all of the potentiometer solder joints though. A few of these would be impossible to solder from the top side of the board without melting some caps.  The closeup pic shows two of these impossible spots.  I figure I'll solder as many pads as I can, then remove the whole assembly and solder the rest from the other side.  I always get nervous tightening nuts on a finished enclosure because I don't always have the correct sockets to minimize the chance of scratching the enclosure.