Topics

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Build Reports / Jmk test rig V2

« on: May 14, 2022, 06:30:09 PM »

While I have been busy with work/home/and other aspects of guitar I found time the past couple days to put this together. While a test rig may not have the sex appeal of a fuzz or delay, a solid test rig is a necessity and a mainstay on my bench and my most used pedal. This is my test rig V2 as V1 was cramped and the layout has not worked perfectly for me the last 4 years so I wanted to make improvements on this one. In a 1590XX I have room for the bypass to be a stomp switch for testing on my amp. Everything you could ever want: oscillator, headphone jack, audio probe, voltage selector and added side DC jack for powering my looper pedal off one power supply when I'm calibrating something like an analog delay or other BBD pedals. Ready for the next build, make sure you rock it before you box it.

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Build Reports / Madbean Sludgehammer

« on: May 02, 2022, 07:48:57 AM »

I'm not a real bass player, I'm a guitar player faking it lol. Ive been waiting for this project to drop for a simple great sounding bass preamp that can cover a lot of ground for going into the interface and not using plugins.
       I straight forward build that is like a ducks butt, water tight. The top leaves little room for error in drilling. The sound is fantastic and can cover so much ground but I think I already found my preferred setting as in the video. Can do punchy or saturated, has a great EQ and the balanced out sounds great.
       Went with the trs balanced out as my two notes cabm+ only has trs in, and I plan on using that for bass cab IRs and power amp simulation. Went with a UV print on tayda matte dark grey enclosure. Obvious graphics choice for me. Brian really outdid himself on this one. Video has my preferred setting with my typical 90s style of simple basic bitch playing. Build this, it does not disappoint.

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General Questions / Sludgehammer hookup to test rig

« on: April 30, 2022, 12:16:59 PM »

I'm having a total brain fart, how would I hook up the sludgehammer to my test rig to rock before boxing?

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Open Discussion / Appreciation Post

« on: April 25, 2022, 03:35:04 PM »

I just wanted to show some appreciation to the work going on in these parts. I've seen more traffic the past 3 or 4 months and I love it. I've seen some old familiar face come back around and a lot of new faces as well (even if I know some of you from other places 🤣). I'm seeing a lot of killer build reports that are really inspiring. It's great to see Brian and other vendors putting out killer projects that aren't just low gain overdrives. I'm so happy to see this parts of the community spring back to life with some new blood. Seems like everyone is firing on all cylinders and it's really motivating and encouraging. Now, as you were.

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Build Reports / EHX Sequencer Drum-Lectric-fx abacus

« on: April 24, 2022, 10:27:46 AM »

This is a bit a a community effort. First want to thank @Gordo for an IC and @jjjimi84 with the led lenses after a design change. Also this is my tribute to @cooder because he has been an inspiration to me the past 4 or 5 years since he became an early supporter of mine and always kind and helpful. Just like Stephan, red wiring with inside of enclosure painted black.
Not much to say build wise, really simple and straightforward. It's a 8 step sequencer bleep bloop with a few controls. The speed is well, speed. The decay will thin the note out or make us fatter and more sustain. Single or repeat switch. The clock setting is for if your using a second unit or other clock to drive the unit. I'm already planning another build for real madness. Also, it's kid approved and mother/wife hated! I went with Ultron because he would probably dig this thing. Tayda UV print on bare enclosure. Video is straight into the interface. Video also has some other noisemakers for added fun.

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Build Reports / The Centaur has risen

« on: April 17, 2022, 04:16:59 PM »

You know what it is, you.know how it sounds. One of the polarizing pedals, seems like you either love it or hate it. Ive built a handful of these over the years, each time I played a different amp. This was designed for the fender blackface amps, specifically while it's at edge of break up in the sweet spot. My primary amp is a blackface with 6L6s and this was made for it. The right amount of mids, not overly compressed and very dynamic. Truly what the tube screamer wishes it was. Russian diodes from smallbear some years back. Tayda UV print on matte dark grey enclosure. Legit Deka Water oxblood knobs.
I used this graphic a few years back on a different build and so glad I can finally do it the justice it deserves. Will lives under a rock and doesn't know what one sounds like 🤡 strat on bridge pickup into centaur into blackface on 4

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Build Reports / Gnaw-effectslayouts ache

« on: April 16, 2022, 11:49:43 AM »

A few months back I was musing with David of effectslayouts and said that I liked the idea of the EQD life pedal but felt there are a lot of useless features. He agreed. The clean boost was kinda pointless, most people have an OD on their board, and the clipping options could be simplified. And finally it was too damn big. He came up with this gem. 125b, 3 position clipping, and octave can be used independent of the distortion unlike a stock life pedal. His original life was titled pain so he named this ache, I named it gnaw as that's a synonym of ache. I ended up going with a black panther theme for gnaw. To represent the dual nature of the pedal I went with a split graphic of T'challa and Killmonger. This thing rips. I used a spdt on/on with LED and symmetrical clipping since I don't care for the diode lift on this circuit. If you want a non bloated small form factor life jump on this.

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Build Reports / Pedals for Ukraine-Grey Spec DOD 250

« on: April 14, 2022, 06:42:36 PM »

This is my second build for the Pedals for Ukraine humanitarian Relief effort. I want to thank PedalPCB for helping with this build with his generous donation of the board to help the cause. This is a vintage Gray Spec 250. I had a stash of old LM741s so that made the cut. Nothing too special going on circuit wise as it's a very low parts count build. It's a good sounding pedal, not great or bad but I personally don't see what all the fuss is about with this circuit lol. For the design I went with grey Hulk for the grey spec theme. The backplate is really cool to me and not something I really see often. If you haven't read about the ghost of kyiv its a really cool story and shows how scrappy the Ukrainian military is. I originally wanted to do the graphic on the front but I couldn't make it work without having hardware obscure important parts of the image. I felt that doing it on the front would have been a disservice, so I decided to do it unaltered on the back. No film on gray tayda enclosure. Really happy how this turned out. This will be part of a sponsored sale hosted by reverb.com at the end of the month. Can't wait to see what everyone else involved is doing for this!

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Open Discussion / Science and Nerd Content

« on: April 09, 2022, 04:11:56 PM »

Back in my college days before I got in the health care field, I was getting my degree to be a teacher. I was a science major and math minor. I've always been into space since I was a little kid obsessed with NASA, and science fiction like star trek and star wars. I took 2 astronomy classes in college even though I didn't have too. My wife is huge into science as well and is an astronomy and astrophotography. We are all about that nerd life.
She turned 40 on March 27th and last night I finally gave her the surprise second birthday present she didn't know about. I took her to see her idol and hero Neil DeGrass Tyson. I bought these when they went on sale last November. Third row at the Fillmore Theatre in Detroit. His lecture on Collisions was amazing. Such charisma and charm. Half astrophysicist half comedian, he schooled us for two hours. She was in awe the whole time. Then the best part was the VIP Q&A for an hour and a half. Raw and off the cuff answers with passion and emotion not in his show. I even got to ask him a question. We got signed posters by Neil. It was no photos or video during the show so everyone is not distracted and in the moment. It's was amazing, if you are into this stuff see him if you get the chance. I snapped a couple candid photos before the after show Q&A started.

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Build Reports / EHX the worm-charlatan

« on: April 07, 2022, 04:50:51 PM »

I boxed this up yesterday. I was building it side by side with the polyphase, something I don't normally do. Polyphase got boxed first so this one waited a couple days. Another classic quirky, unique EHX pedal that's worth the price of admission.
I like this one even though it's not as feature packed as something like the polychorus/echoflanger. It's more a jack of all trades, master of none. Each setting has its own sound while sharing the characteristics of the optical LFO. modulated wah is really cool  and I like the less seasick vibrato, unlike the vb-2. One thing I recommend is changing the speed pot to a logarithmic taper because the speed abruptly jumps from slow to medium at the beging of the pots rotation. With the audio taper  there is a nice smooth transition. I may eventually do the same with the range but I haven't decided yet.
I went with Trevor Slattery for the graphics because dude is the ultimate charlatan and he's hilarious. UV print on matte black enclosure. Another winner from Brian. Optional knob turning around clip.

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Build Reports / Polytrog-EHX Polyphase

« on: April 04, 2022, 08:37:10 PM »

Here it is after all this time. First and foremost I want to thank Brian for this amazing project. Second I want to give a shout-out to my man Gordo. He's a solid dude and a hell of a builder and I got close to getting a full build report before him on the Archibald but I finally got it. Thanks for motivating me Gordo!
  This thing is a beast. Very little to bias which is great, and it really comes down to personal preference on the envelope. I have mine set to 6.3v currently. It's a packed board and I wanted no issues, so everything was measured before soldering. Slow and steady means no troubleshooting. It fired right up and man was it a glorious noise. I got a set of the original vactrols a while back and was kinda bummed when I saw Brian's build where they didn't fit great, even though he liked the slightly better than the xvive reissues. I was going to make them work. Here you can see what I did. I soldered longer leads on the LED side on the vactrol on the middle one and positioned them so that the fit. It worked well if you have the original vactrols and want to use them.


It's a tight fit inside the box but it's laid out well and I'm super happy how it came out. The enclosure is the one I did in the UV printing tutorial and it came out stellar. Matte white tayda enclosure with Kitty Pryde  and Lockheed. If you can build this then build it. The depth and headroom is fantastic, the envelope is so good and fun and it's a fantastic optical phaser than dethroned the glasshole as my favorite optical phaser. I included two short sound clips for anyone wondering what each mode does and sounds like.

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Build Reports / Harryklippton's Birthday Haul

« on: March 30, 2022, 06:56:15 PM »

Will turns 40 this year, and Ive known about his amp build for a long time. When he finally started it I wanted to make him something for his birthday that would coincide with his amp build. I asked him what his favorite marvel character was and he said Cable. So I got to work. He really like the way the hybrid fuzz driver sounded so I knew what to do. Enter Will's Hybrid fuzz Driver.
    Then I said Will doesn't have an analog delay!!! I made a new graphic for an old Madbean aquaboy deluxe. It doesn't have the mn3005s but Will got some for it. What else does Will need for his new amp? Tremolo! So of course the Luna tremolo is perfect and a great addition to the amp. It was fun and gratifying to be able to do this for my brother from another mother. It's an early Birthday present that he can use to make lots of noise with that bitchin new amp.



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Build Reports / Rust bucket 2.0-attack decay

« on: March 26, 2022, 07:07:30 AM »

This one has been poked, prodded, pulled apart, put back together turned into Frankenstein and resurrected. Started life as a stock rust bucket. I got sidetracked at one point with scruffie's modulation mod. I put the Vero together. I connected the mod board and a 9mm pot and drilled the enclosure. Man was it a tight fit. The modulation is really interesting but I wish I could have it on a separate footswitch to turn it on and off but there was no room in the enclosure. Ultimately I removed it because it kinda took away from the original effect and I figured I could always run it with other things. It would be really cool to do an effects loop and insert all kinds of pedals into it...if you're reading this Brian, something to think about in the future if you bring it back! So here is the resurrected rust bucket back in its original incarnation with a shiny new enclosure with all the backwards envelope violin playing your heart desires.

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Build Reports / EHX Zipper-lectric-fx flyleaf

« on: March 21, 2022, 07:49:30 AM »

This is a fun one from the boys at Lectric-fx, the flyleaf. It's the Zipper envelope filter and it's got a different flavor. I've had this built and tested since early December and finally boxed it up, which is not like me since I generally start and finish before starting something new. An OTA lm324 and jfets replace the vactrols on something like the mutron III/Q-tron which give it grittier sound and lends itself better to more synthy type sounds. I like this one and am thinking of leaving it on an all bass board I'm working on. I especially like it in LP mode on the slow attack setting. Nice range on it too. Another winner. Tayda powder coated light blue enclosure with Quicksilver graphic. Nice easy build with good tones.

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Build Reports / Pedals for Ukraine Freedom Fuzz

« on: March 19, 2022, 12:49:09 PM »

Here is my contribution to pedals for Ukraine. It's a Scarab Deluxe I had lying around and called it the freedom fuzz. No film on yellow powder coated enclosure. Blue led and knobs with Captain Ukraine. Happy I could contribute to the cause.

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