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Hey guys,
     I was at a friends new studio and brought along a pedal that I built years ago to get some feedback. The owner, engineer, and the artist recording all freaked out and begged me to build one for them. They were saying that they knew a lot of people who would have to have one as well. There's no way I'm going to hand build a bunch of these on vero or anything like that but would like to see where this goes if I did a small run of maybe 20-50. The pedal is based off of a Plexitone (with some component value changes) but runs at +/-15v with added treble, mid, and bass with a few other tweaks/adds. Nothing earth shattering but it really does sound and react like a good plexi on just about any amp. I think the changes make it different enough to warrant producing it but that doesn't mean everyone else will. So my questions are:
1. Is it different enough to ethically do this?
2. Who would I get to design the board and how much would it cost?
3. Who makes your pcb's and at what quantity/cost?

Thanks for any insight!

Hello everyone, I finally finished the Lab Series Preamp project and guess what? I doesn't work!
On the power supply I get always get -15v but +15 is intermittent (I get -0.8v). When I don't get +15v I can remove a random IC or two and power it up and it comes back to +15v. I replaced the voltage regulator but that didn't change the problem. When I do get the +15v with all IC installed all LEDs light up correctly when switching channels and in bypass mode (although the compressor LED is always on and will not go out by turning the pot or the trimmer). I can crank the volume all the way up on either channel and get the slightest bit of volume to be able to hear that all of the pots and switches work on both channels. The master volume control does nothing.

I am going to pull out the schematic and start tracing. Maybe try an audio probe as well. Any ideas on where you would start would be helpful.

Hello guys, this question is for those who have their own small pedal companies;
I have a pedal that I have tweaked for several years now and although not an original design, I think it is somewhat different and special enough to warrant production. I have kicked the idea around for a while but don't even know where to begin. So here it goes:
1. Did you design the circuit board layout yourself or contract someone else to do it? If so, who and at what cost?
2. Who did you get to make your PCB's? What quantity and price?
3. Surface mount or through board components?
4. Who did you use for drilling boxes? Having Graphics done? Cost?
5. Overall cost to do a first run? What quantity? How do you determine a price? Was it worth it?

I understand that this is not a money making venture. I am really not interesting in producing anything but this one pedal so this is not intended to be a "start" to something bigger. It would just be awesome to know that people use something that I spent so much time trying to sound as good as it can.

Hello guys, I had a question about the chorus mode on the uni-vibe pedal (I guess that would be the Harbinger One around here). My son gave me an Earthquaker The Depths vibe pedal and it's fantastic. The problem is that there is no chorus setting and I probably won't use it without that feature. I looked at the Harbinger schematic and am trying to figure out what the difference is between the chorus and vibrato setting. Can anyone give me a rundown?

Hey guys, I am putting together a bass preamp and was wondering how to incorporate an XLR out. Would I just have to add a buffer to create low impedance?

Quick question- If you usually bias a J201 or 2N5457 at 4.5v, would you still do so if you run the circuit at 18volts? Would there be any benefit to running at 18v if you do bias at 4.5v?

Anyone use the old Rockman Octopus? I am trying to make remote Loops for it but I can't seem to make it work like Tom Sholtz does (if the drawing I saw on freestompboxes is correct).
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11997

Well after quite a bit of work, I finally finished Thomas' PControl project. It's a cool switcher and everything functions as it should. Let me just say that Thomas is an awesome guy and answered quite a few questions about this project before and during construction. I decided to use a box about and inch wider and deeper than Thomas did so I could use two rows of switches and still have a reasonable amount of room between them. I haven't decided on labels yet though. Bottom row of switches left to right is patch selection 1-2-3-4. Next row left is Tuner out, middle is bank down, right is bank up. Top right switch is buffer on (up position) and the pot is volume. Program switch is the little one next to the display and the toggle is for loop 8 (down position) or biamping (up position). Here are a few pics:

Hey guys, I built this modded boneyard about a year and a half ago and a friend did an audio demo for me over the weekend. Here is the link to the old build report and to the sound clip. The demo is basically direct so there is no amplifier preamp or cabinet being used. It actually sounds even better in front of an actual amp. This is still the best Marshall type pedal that I have ever heard.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=3139.0

https://soundcloud.com/#kass-belaire/shanes-marshall-style-pedal

Hely guys,
    I built an Engineer's Thumb compressor on vero (same one in this thread)
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=6206.0
and am having some problems. I have built about 40 boards now (a dozen or so on vero) and have managed to get them all to work so I am not a total noob and have ruled out the obvious. I am getting a LOT of noise and the pedal doesn't seem to be compressing. There is a constant hum/buzz and with all the knobs staight up the volume is almost double that of my original signal. Here is what happens when I turn the knobs:
Vol- works as normal.
Attack- Rumbles when all the way down.
Ratio- acts like a volume control.
Release- cuts the signal off like a switch when turned all the way down.
Threshold- cuts the signal off like a switch when turned all the way up.

I did notice that some of the voltages on IC2 jump around a bit (pin 2 and 4 are the worst). I don't get absolute 0.00 on pin 4 of IC2 so maybe that's the problem?

Here are my voltages:
IC1- 5.30, 4.58, 4.38, 0.01, 4.38, 4.59, 4.59, 9.17
IC2- 4.80, 4.70, 4.62, 0.15, 4.58, 4.60, 4.70, 9.18
IC3- 1.10, 1.52, 4.61, 4.59, 4.58, 0.00, 1.36, 1.96, 0.00, 9.18, 1.31, 0.82, 0.82, 1.10, 0.21
Q1- C-1.08, B-4.61, E-4.58

I examined the board with a magnified light and don't see any unwanted traces or jumps anywhere. I also  tried replacinging the IC's but no change. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  

Hey guys, I want to build another delay. I got a dirtbag deluxe with MN3005's completed but I would like something else. Although I would not consider myself a delay freak at all, my favorite delay is probably the Boss DM2. That being said, I am looking at PT2399 delays like the sea urchin or cave dweller. Modulation and tap tempo are cool but not really needed on this build. What would be the best compromise of size/ hi-fi sound? Any other vero or PCB's would be considered as well.

Hello guys,
     I just got the afterlife board from Brian and wanted to do a little experimeting with it. I haven't built it yet but have been thinking about options. I really like Midwayfair's idea to adjust R7. I was going to just put a 100K pot there but I think his idea is better with a 24K + 50K pot in series. My question is about C3 (release). Because it's such a high stock capacitance value (100K), it seems that it would be easy to use Joe Gagn's variable capacitor design that he uses on his Easyface and put a low value cap (maybe 1uF) and a 220uF on a 100KB pot and use it as a blend. Wouldn't that work for a release control? Half way would be around 110uF and be close to the stock value. Is this worth trying?

Hey guys, I bought the spare Dirtbad pcb from Jacob that wasn't working and found the problems. I knew that it had to be related the the two IC's and a couple of caps that he removed so I pulled up the schematic and ohmed everything out until I found a few places that were open. A few wires on the outside of the board and it's working like a champ. My delay pot is exactly 100K and C42 is 250pF. I bought 4 MN3005's from Polida (EBAY) and tried them all. I know it's a little crude but I set the delay pot to max and feedback to max and counted the number of repeats in 30 seconds. I got 68 repeats in 30 seconds no matter which combination of two chips I used. That should be about 441ms (68x2=136 repeats in one minute. 60 divided by 136= 441ms). The delay time seems a little short but I don't think you can get that much out of 2 MN3008's. All four give the same delay time so I can't be using one MN3005 and a MN3008 (which would explain 440ms). So did I get 4 real MN3005's?

Quick question guys: I have built several fuzz pedals now and have built them all with NPN's. (I have reversed the electrolytics and diode). When I bias the tranny's for 4.5v I only get about half that with the bias pot maxed out. This has happened on several fuzz face builds and now on a tonebender.

Right now on a Pastyface build, I am getting about 3.8v on the collector of Q1 and Q2 but can only get about 2.2v on the collector of Q3. I suppose if I used a 1M trim pot instead of the 500K it would get close to 4.5v but why? What the heck is going on?  I could understand on one build maybe, but all of them? What am I doing wrong here?

Quick question: I know that the 100KB delay pot should be as close to 100K as possible to get the max delay time from the Dirtbag. Is there a problem with going over 100K a little? I have about a dozen 100KB's and several are 104K.  I even have one that is 110K. Any reason not to use the 110KB pot if it will increase the delay time?

So which ones are the good ones? There are so many people selling them now! I bought 10 for under $30 a while back but one is cutting out already. I think I want to get something better now but how do I know which ones are better?

Hello guys, for those of you who picked up the Strymon Timeline dealy, how does it sound compared to your true MN3005 analog builds?

Hello guys, I am putting together a Rangemaster and checked out some of the tweaks and mods on the web. I like the idea of using a blend pot for the input like the DAM Red Rooster instead of just a single cap on a switch in parallel with the input cap. DAM uses a 10K while Joe Gagan uses a 100K on his Easy Face. Does the value really matter or did these values get picked for a reason in each particular circuit?

Why is it that on the majority of the fuzz pedals that I have built (PCB and vero) that I never can get them to bias right unless I use a resistor thats waaaay out of spec? I'm using tranny's that are in the correct gain ballpark. I just finished a simple fuzz face and needed 30K to bias to 4.5v instead of the typical 8.2K resistor. Same with my Zygote build. I did a tonebender type vero and needed about 80K! What the heck is going on?

Hey guys, I just got my rangemaster pcb from Brian and I am wondering if I should put some mojo components in this little jewel. I used metal film resistors but have stopped there for now. Are the mustard caps, sozo, or sprague big oranges worth the effort or will the panasonic films sound just as good? I have some nichicon 47u/25v electrolytics on hand unless there is something else that would be better. I am going to use a CV7112 NPN so I can use a standard 9v power supply. I can't wait!