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Hey.  A friend of mine asked me if I could build a four channel buffer box for his studio.  Apparently he is doing some long cable runs and he is looking to preserve the signal.  Would each buffer need an isolated power?  And if so, could anyone point me in the right direction.

Thank you.

This was my first attempt at building a compressor.  I really haven't had a lot of experience with compressors.  I borrowed a friend's MXR script Dyna Comp for a little while.  I have mostly spent my years playing without them.  I can't really compare to others.  The idea of one being chimey or producing jangle piqued my interest.  So I thought I would have a go at this one, in hopes that it might go nicely with my AC30 and maybe my Casino and Gretsch Pro Jet. 

The birght setting works quite nicely with the neck pickups for me.  I have almost exclusively favored my bridge pickups.  I even got some nice tones out of my Les Paul's neck pickup.  I like the netrual or mid setting for bridge pickups and defintely preferred that with my Telecaster.  It starts to boost at 1 o'clock on the level knob.  I can't detect much of a difference between the two settings for the sustain pot being used as a variable resistor or a voltage divider.  If I built it again I would probably not put that on a switch. 

I used MadBean's layout in the Extra Projects section.  Haberdasher etched the board for me.




The wiring didn't turn out as neat as I had hoped.  I wanted to use shielded cable, but I was slightly short on what I had.  I didn't quite drill everything how I planned.  I am happy with how it looks on the the outisde.

I haven't built much in the range of high gain.  Mostly for the reasons that I probably won't have a lot of use for them and I can't imagine most of them doing well with my AC30 and my preferred choice of P90s.  This is the Mad Professor Stone Grey Distortion circuit. This one does not sound like a Dual Rectifier and I chose to build this circuit because it was described as retaining note clarity while playing chords.  I feel like it sounds big, tight and modern.  Quite different sounding than my Dyna Red circuit that I built.  The DR seems a lot more Marshall voiced.  I had modded my DR build by thinning out the lows a bit so it worked more as a stinging lead sound.  I swear my DR has more gain than the Rainy Day, but it DR seems voiced more vintage sounding.   If I were to use the Rainy Day often, I would probably use it as a rhythm pedal and switch to the DR for leads. 

I felt that it sounded more authentic through my Fender Hot Rod DeVille and my AC50 head through Marshall 4x12 cab.  I'd maybe say slightly better through the Fender, but the closed back cabinet seemed to fair better for the tightness of the low end.  The ohmage of the cabinet isn't correct for the Fender, but maybe a good combination for the pedal could be 6L6 tubes and a closed back 4x12.  Through my AC30 it seemed like it didn't have enough low end and that there was too much saggieness to do the pedal justice.  Although through the AC30 there were some nice lower gain options.

Here are a few of my recent builds and maybe a couple personal impressions.  In my usual fashion I continue on with non-labeled builds.  The end results were all cool to me; although I don't forsee any of these three retaining a spot on my pedal board.  Definitely some cool character tones that I'd like to have around for recording. 

The Supreaux Deux.  I understand it's connection with the Honey Bee overdrive in that both are supposed to replicate Supro amp tones.  I would describe the two pedals being quite different from one another; although both produce some vintage type tones.  My build seems to do well in the lower gain register where I feel the HB loses alot of volume turning the gain down.  The Supreaux has more over all volume and treble.  I used a 10n cap for the bass/subs switch.  This seems to work real well with my Telecaster.  Like the La Vache and the Shortstack, the Supreaux gets very thick and fuzzy in it's upper gain range.


Temporarily I have a tropical fish socketed for the bass/subs.


The La Vache.  I used some vintage Silvertone cupcake knobs and fullsize CTS pots.  I had wanted to use fullsize pots on a few different builds in the past and here I finally got around to it.  The tone of this circuit has been described so many times that there isn't much I could add to that discussion.  I like this pedal with my Gretscsh Pro Jet with TV Jones T-Armond pickups.  I prefer the middle cleaner sounding "Twin" mode, boosted switch engaged with the gain knob pulled back from max.  That setting wouldn't be possible with the stock Les Lius circuit.  The Madbean board has the gain pot modded to work with both options of the "boost"  switch.





The Shortstack.  My go-to amp is a Vox AC30.  So there are some specific pedals that come to mind to compliment the amp: Hot Cake, the Rat, a Range Master and Tone Benders.  There are others of course that I have found work well for me, but I think it's a good idea to check these historical combinations.  I think I do understand why some people like the voicing of a Hot Cake with an AC30.  It's pretty full sounding.  I prefer the gain a good bit before 12 o'clock.  After that, like the other two pedals, it gets pretty wooly.  Once again I'd more often pair this with a single coil pickup; although not so much with a P90.  Some people might like all three of these with a humbucker or P90, but to me I feel they all start to lose detail in the treble.

Where to source small blue trim pots in USA?
I know there are some different types that are smaller in size, but I want them to sit flat on the PCB.  I know I have bought them before.  I am pretty sure that Mammoth doesn't have them.  I am thinking that Small Bear doesn't, but it is hard to tell from lack of descriptions and data sheets on their website.  Probably at Mouser, but I have made a few mistakes there from the sheer number of products that they carry.

I have multiples of the values that I need, but I want them to look nice on the PCB.  I have the larger blue ones and some small white ones (but they sit up high off the PCB).

Finished this up last night.  Had been sitting on my bench partially populated for a long time.  After testing, I reduced the input cap.  I do not play my Telecaster often.  I play my guitars with P90s a lot more.  Well, my Tele likes this pedal.  So I might play it more often.



I switched out the CD4049UBE for a Fairchild CD4049UBCN.  I felt there was a little more clarity in the high end.  It did take a moment to switch them, so I wouldn't place any bets on that perception.

I picked up the layout at Guitar FX Layouts.  A friend of mine has an Emerson Custom EM Drive.  After researching it a bit online and watching a few demos on YouTube my inertested was piqued.  I had bought a few Russian paper-in-oils caps to build my EggHead OD, so I had those on hand ready for this project.  And after I saw the parts count I knew I had to give this a try.  



The drill is press is new to me and this was a learning experience.  I wish I had spaced the knobs slightly closer together and not so far near the top of the enclosure.



Directly from the Guitar FX Layouts, the 2N5088 didn't not work out for me.  It sounded like a low gain fuzz. With this transistor the gain knob did not work as expected.  I looked through my very sparse collection of transistors and search the internet for a similar pinout.  I found a 2N3904 and this did the trick.  Suddenly the tones and controlability fit the description and matched the demos.



I am still playing around with it.  I just finished last night.  I've had it going head to head with my King of Klones, Timmy and Morning Glory.  Started running it at 12 volts and like that even better than 9 volts.  Curious about 15v or 18v.  As of so far it is pretty cool.

I don't think I understand Brian's description in the original thread, or possibley I have the wrong part.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5170.0



I ordered two: NCP7815TG from Mouser.
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=NCP7815TGvirtualkey58410000virtualkey863-NCP7815TG
I want 12 through 15 volts.

Has anyone pulled this off?  Obviously many people like the 125B enclosures for top mounted jacks and the space that it saves on a pedal board.  I think that it is well established amongst many pedal using guitarists.  I see Bean has a template for it with a 1590B, but I haven't seen any photos or discussion.

I usually forget to post any build reports.  Usually I am too excited about the new toy that I just finished assembling.  Also I tend to feel other people have better "finishing skills".  I have built a fair amount of pedals, but I have never added labeling or art work.  So I tend to feel others have more impressive projects to share.

One thing that I do enjoy is sourcing the parts; although, that can be a headache also.  So there might be something that others might like to see.  Even if it can be a little rediculous.

First up my Krankosaurus.  This was the first project I used my new drill press on.  I enjoyed the PCB mounted pots.  22n cap for the input.






Next up is my EggHead.  After playing around with it for awhile I added a Road Rage to run it at 18v.  Had to desolder the 16v electro first.




Next, the Super Happy Over Drive.  I loved my Yellow Shark so much, I had to build this one.  I didn't intend for it to look so much like a Honey Bee though.


And last my King of Klones.  The Aristocrat has been on my board for so long, I thought I would try to update it with this guy.  I just ordered a Road Rage for it.  So it will have some updating itself.



I wish I had a better camera to capture the detail in the finishes of the last two.  They are beautiful in person.

Hello.
If anybody could send me in the right direction.  I have a friend that has a couple of guitars wired up stereo (neck/bridge pickups) and he uses two combo amps.   He asked me if I could build him a stereo dual overdrive pedal. 

I'm trying to wrap my head around some type of true bypass wiring for this.  Subtracting the use of an LED, could a 4PDT work for this?  And if so, could someone explain it to me?  I am sure you could do this with sometype of relay circuit, but I am so how looking for a simple yet elegant solution.  I've done lots of google searches, but yet I may not have been wording the search criteria very well.

The jist of what I am hearing from my friend and what he would like are two seperate overdrive circuits in the same enclosure, triggered simultaniously with a single stomp switch with stereo in and out.

Any help or advice is appreciated.
-Stevewire

Hello.  I posted this question in the General Questions section, but no one has replied.

I'm lacking a little confidence about how to do two circuits, in one enclosure, with a single battery.  I have done a forum search and I am not sure that I get it.  I am using an external on/off switch and no external power.  I want to only use a battery for these two effects.  The PNP wiring is enough to make me rethink every time I am about to solder up the next wire.  In the past I built the Pasty Face and a couple of Rangemasters in their own enclosures.  They turned out great.

So far I only have the positive of the battery snap connected to the ring of the input jack.  The round side of the LEDs are connected to the A1 lugs of the 3PDT switches.  And I assume the flat side of the LEDs will connect to resistors and then the negative side of battery snap after the on/off toggle switch.  And I think I should also have two wires coming from the negative side of the battery snap going to each PCB?

Hello.  I'm lacking a little confidence about how to do two circuits, in one enclosure, with a single battery.  I have done a forum search and I am not sure that I get it.  I am using an external on/off switch and no external power.  I want to only use a battery for these two effects.  The PNP wiring is enough to make me rethink every time I am about to solder up the next wire.  In the past I built the Pasty Face and a couple of Rangemasters in their own enclosures.  They turned out great. 

So far I only have the positive of the battery snap connected to the ring of the input jack.  The round side of the LEDs are connected to the A1 lugs of the 3PDT switches.  And I assume the flat side of the LEDs will connect to resistors and then the negative side of battery snap after the on/off toggle switch.  And I think I should also have two wires coming from the negative side of the battery snap going to each PCB?

I know this is a long shot, but I thought I would throw it out there.  I understand it is very well gooped and maybe not very common.  It would be nice with Vox like amps.   The original seems quite pricey.  I wonder if it is a variation on the Dyna Red, or if a DRD clone could be tuned well for a Vox.

A year ago I bought a remote true bypass loop from Analogman.  This was before I started playing around with putting things together myself.  I am a little afraid to disassemble it, being that it is an important part of my set up.  I do understand that it involves a relay.  There is an AMZ project that looks like it could work similar, but it functions with a momentary switch.  Built with that type of switch it won't integrate with my set up.  I need the regular on-off toggle type switching.  I am real surprised that there isn't more interest in this type of project on the internet. 

Actually I would love to learn more about relays and what can be done with them.  Like maybe some way of switching on specific effects in line with switching a multi-channel amp.

Hello.  I received my Pastyface PCB in the mail yesterday.  I have yet to receive all the parts for it, but I have started soldering some of the pieces that I do have.  I am having a little trouble locating 100n and 15n axial caps that will fit the board nicely.  I do have some rather obnoxiously large 100n caps, but I was hoping to make this look nice and fit it in a 1290 enclosure.  I have had trouble locating these values in axial form from Small Bear, Mouser and Digikey.

I am also concerned about the Germanium transistors set that I ordered from Small Bear.  I ordered the TB Pro MK II PNP - OC75 set.  I've noticed that the traditional Tone Bender schematic is quite a bit different than the Soul Bender schematic as well the resistor values widely vary from the traditional. http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/mkII.php I am expecting Small Bear to send resistor values suggestion for the original ciruit.  Should I have ordered the 3-Knob Tone Bender PNP set?  The directions for the Soul Bender project state, "A regular matched Tonebender set of transistors, such as the ones Smallbear offers, will work well."  So I figured any set of PNP matched Tone Bender transistors should work, until I started comparing schematics.  I chose the OC75s because I have read that they have been used in multiple versions of the Tone Bender.

Hello.  I just upgraded to the Weller WLC100 from the Weller SP23LK Marksman 25 Watt.  I've built 5 pedals with the SP23LK.  GGG Bluesbreaker, GGG Guvnor, KOT clone on veroboard, RangeMaster clone on veroboard and a Madbean Rangemaster.  So 25 watts seemed to work fine for me on those projects.  The new WLC100 has a knob for adjustment between 5 watts and 40 watts.  The dial is not marked as per the wattage.  What would be the most appropriate setting for building pedals or some possible work inside my amp?

For anyone concerned, yes I am aware of the serious safety issues concered with working inside a tube amp.  Drain the caps!