Topics

3 in fact.  Passive DI boxes, made for a friend who still manages to persuade me or Juansolo to make him interesting things.
He was getting all 3, but to test I had to get my cousin's Fender monitor/PA thing out of my garage, and restore it a little, its been there 6 years.  After that work, I'm keeping one, and it sounds great with bass into the mic input.

This was the last of the envirotex, and the resin was starting to go off, tiny crystals were appearing in the resin, luckily didnt affect the finish too much.  Juansolo did the decal.



Here's a video, not mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCmaxzAhLxA

It's kind of a pedal.  The filter from a 70s Wasp synth for a mate bored during lockdown.
Having not made anything myself or with Juansolo in over a year, the stash of parts was lacking, but had just enough to build it.
Only needed an enclosure and some Vero. 
Envirotex was minimal too, so improvised with a tiny amount, with plain paper, another tiny amount, sanding after a few days, and then, a flash over with some clear lacquer.
I'm actually suprised it came out as well as it did.
Juansolo did the minimal decal in 10 minutes and emailed it.

It's coming back for a volume boost mod, but its actually really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzfPy9Ie2Jo

Is this normal?

Every time either me or John build a Phase 90, and put the 22k feedback resistor in, it always noisy and pretty much unusable.  Take it out, so it V1 script spec and its perfect. 

Doesn't matter who's PCB we use the result is the same.

Is this normal, I've never used a real Phase 90.

As usual the PCBs have been built a couple of months, and left lying in a box.

Juansolo did the pot wiring on the HM-2 to get it to fit in the 1590B.

Jonathan at Feline guitars, old Feline V70. 

Amazing in every way.







I forgot to post this, which I've had a month or so.
Great fun, especially with a EHX Clone Theory Chorus.
Had to swap the bridge for a Staytrem, the stock one ain't brilliant, and the nasty almost translucent pickup covers.  Surprisingly, the pickups themselves are fine.
Could do with heavier strings too, but that can wait.

Finally, I've finished up Rej's awesome Hydra PCB he sent me months ago. Thanks Rej!

Sounds fantastic, and surprisingly quiet even with both effects running at high gain.

A 1776 Britannia, with a Greg Fryer Treble Booster Deluxe on the front end.

A added a switch to change the coupling cap after the first stage from 2.2nf to 220nf, simulating the normal input of the AC30, works really well, both with the booster active and without.

The booster is the type Brian uses these days, much quieter than a germ range master.  No pot, fixed 35db of gain!!

OD-820 built on a Nimbus board.

Great sounding pedal, possibly a Klon killer.  Hard to judge after a couple of days.

Aion did a fantastic job on the PCB, really easy to build.

Been a while since I posted some new builds, these have all been completed in the last 3 months.
Some very familiar artwork.

DLS built on a Poodle pcb.




Speedy Marie on Jubal81's pcb.




Tweed 57 on VIPFx pcb.




Behemoth on Rej's pcb.




Duovibe on Function f(x) pcb.




Kraken on Madbean's pcb.




IC Big Muff on Poodle pcb.




Fuzz Face/Tonebender on Function f(x) pcb.

Some SMD J201s mounted on 4x4 vero board, legs added, filed down as small as possible.



Holes drilled in a candle, surplus Envirotex from some enclosures poured in, and J201s drowned in it.



Leave a few days, crack the candle, wipe with some solvent, and paint.


A lot of work, but the J201s do only cost 13p each, and anything else is just surplus and essentially free.
And they do look like some 1960s mojo trannies,  TGP would lap them up.

Last time Phil came over from Hoboken to the homeland, he brought the last of his hurricane Sandy flood damaged pedals with him, a Mesa V-Twin.  This one is beyond repair   Corroded component legs, and pads, it would need everything pulling, and it's a nightmare to get the oxidised solder to melt,  only a pair of vactrols have been salvaged.  The board is still lying around in the corner somewhere , so if anyone wants it for the cost of shipping let me know , but I wouldn't bother to be honest.

Luckily the case is mostly stainless steel and survived ok, but the tread plate panel has suffered pitting corrosion, so has been painted.

Anyway,  the guts are now a JCM800 preamp circuit, with the second stomp acting as the lo and high input on the real amp.  The slider switch on the top switches a parallel 10k resistor on one of the existing 10k cathode resistors to give a little volume boost.

Phil wasn't bothered about some of the text being rubbed off, and said leave it as is, otherwise Haberdasher would have  been called upon to etch a face plate.

Somehow the Mesa 12AX7s survived with no ill effects, and are working well at the 190V the vero SMPS is supplying,  the best sounding tube pedal built by me or John.

Not good.




Lots of wiring.




JCM800 preamp.


9V in, 190V out.


A little repainting.

Very similar to one made the other day.

Being made second resulted in the invisible wiring,  jacks the other way up means I can put the wires underneath and its hidden in the 45 degree cutout on the jacks.

Not just a clone, a homage.

Second one of these posted today from the same parts bin.

It's "Come As You Are" in a box.

The depth pot is much more useful than the switch on the original EHX.

More mojo than ever.  In fact too much, as the board is incredibly tight with the axial 220nf caps.

Made to the same spec as a DAM FS-75, using Mullard OC44, OC71, and a Japanese germ as there's no Mullards left with the right gain for Q3.

Sounds great, louder than a straight mk. III clone.

ColesBD's enclosure is stunning in the flesh, no decal required.

At long last some boards I've had lying around for months are now in boxes!

Tonebender MKII.
Made from a friend's secret stash of old transistors.  A pair of OC75s, and an OC76.
Recycled enclosure from another friend, originally I think it was a Guyatone delay, with a square stomp, but some car body filler fixed that.  Also had to make a little bottom panel as the batttery compartment lid was missing.






Modded T-Rex.
The original Triplewreck "boost" is a terrible thing, why does a metal pedal have a single transistor fixed gain stage with a muff tone stack after it?  I wondered after hearing it, and this one was the better modded one.   I want  a real volume boost on a metal pedal.  

Usual suspect would be a SHO to boost the volume, and looking at the schematic I realised I could put one on the board without any track cuts.  I've changed a few parts, mainly due to what I had lying around,  25K Pot, 22K drain resistor, 4M7 bias resistors (mainly because I had a 1/8 watt 4M7), 12V zener (not quite where it should be, but should still protect the gate from static).  It all works perfectly, and gives the volume boost I expect on a metal pedal.

After putting all this together the mid pot, feels strange and tight in the middle of travel, so out it comes again.  At this point I decided to run it with a 12V supply, and it sounded even better.  So finally it's finished with a Road Rage running at 15V (the RC4580s I used have a recommended max of 16V).  It's pretty much perfect.






Black '65.
Built on a Blackbird board, I really like this, sounds stunning on my 10W EL34 amp with both cranked.






Grind Customs Tenebrae reverb.
Another box of win from Rej.  I used a medium brick for this, due to the fact no one has any shorts in stock, and its prefect for the effect.  Gives a nice shimmery background ambience when the feedback and tone are turned up.   Not the springy sound of a Rub-a-Dub, but ambient and trippy.






Modded Grind Customs De Profundis delay.
Pretty much stock, but the Time pot has been changed for a dual gang 50K, and the bottom wafer removed and changed for a 4.7KB wafer from another pot.  This is connected to the tone trimmer pads.  C14 swapped for an 82n.  This darkens the repeats when the time is increased, and helps get rid of the typical hiss associated with a PT2399.   Repeats are very dark when cranked, but I like the lack of noise more than usual hiss.






Some may have noticed that some of these decals have been seen before, any similarities are entirely coincidental  

These boards have been made for a couple of months waiting to box them up.

Nautilus





TSM680 Mudbunny (very familiar artwork)





Engineer's Thumb compressor, on the best vero layout ever, as easy as a PCB with board mount pots.

Same artwork as Juansolo's.

Did this with shielded cable to lesson the squeal when the pots are turned up, definately works, pretty much max'd before the squeal.  I've noticed this on all true bypass klones.  The buffered bypass ones don't squeal.

A very familiar decal.
Won't be making any more Klones, they've been assassinated.

Wired as buffered bypass, just to distinguish between Juansolo's, and there was a footswitch lying around with the resistors already soldered in place.

Got this board in a trade with GeekMacDaddy.

Great sounding tremolo/vibrato.  Really like the tremolo setting.

Wiring is not as tidy as I'd like, it was built and tested outside of the box.
If I'd known the charge pump would have been mounted below the stomp, to give a little more room for the jacks.

I've no idea what the graphic is, Juansolo found it!! 

Boost permanently switched on (so that would be both gain stages according to some people ), with MB's mods for the gain control, it's much more useful than the original.

One of the clipping diodes is a really low vf germ for more variety on the clipping switch.

Needed a little filing to fit the bottom cover.