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I take it back about it being better as a pre than a stomp... We found a mistake that we'd made with the power section meaning voltages were seriously down. Fixed it today and bloody hell it's impressive. I mean, without the grunt it was good, now it's properly ticking along with the power it should be, it's awesome. Very happy bunny.

What a great effort!

Did fixing this error change the schematic in any way?

In case anyone wants to know I can do a full report on all the trannys that I tested and my notes.  The one thing I did not try was mixing and matching different values between Q2 and Q3.

GhostofJohnToad-

I'll be starting a LowRider soon, so this information would be very useful!

Either way, I bought 4 of those and they were all fake.  Fortunately I got the money back, but wouldn't chance it with that seller.

Ah! Thank you, Chi_Boy! I'll strike them off the list.

I was born as a David Mac, but I've been known as dMac for, oh, the last 30 years. Seriously.

[is]

Where did you find a statement about it being a replacement for the MN3005?

It doesn't say it is a replacement for a MN3005, it says it is a MN3005.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/280781200545?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_2044wt_906

The heading says:

       New PANASONI MN3005 DIP-8 IC Chip i7247

and in the body it says

       SUMMARY
       Brand:       PANASONI
       Model:       MN3005

If you look at that eBay seller, it does look like the i7247 part of the description may be an inventory control number or something.

My first thought would have been that it is a stock number, except for it being cheaper than other MN3005 chips up there, and no one else refers to Panasoni(c).

Oh well, I guess it's a mystery then. No big deal.

Has anyone had any experience with this chip? It claims to be a MN3005 replacement, coming in at about half the price.

What concerns me is when I googled it, it seemed to be mainly an eBay chip- very few hits elsewhere. I tried a search on the Panasonic Industrial site without any success (but that could be me.)

I'm tempted to build up a MN3005 circuit, then swap the two over. That is of course unless someone else has tried it.

Anyone?

Cheers

dMac

Please help me understand which row of lugs on the gain pot  belongs to gain 1, and which to gain 2...

I might be missing the point of your question. Apologies if I'm not answering your question.

Turn the pot around so that the shaft is facing away from you, and the lugs are pointed down.

Lug one is the right lug, lug three is the left lug, and I guess you can work out for yourself which one is lug 2... 

(Why describe it that way? Because when the pot is installed in the enclosure, that is what you will see.)

What pedals do you have in front of the chorus? As an experiment, have you put a buffer or a buffered pedal between your guitar and the chorus?

That will highlight- or more to the point negate- any impedence issues.

I see there are some different 9.1v zeners for sale at various places I browse.  Some are rated at 400mV and then others are 1 watt.  Does it matter which ones we use?

The quick answer is no. 400 will more than cover it for what we are looking at. The long answer..?

(Sorry if I sound like I'm lecturing, but I teach in the music industry. It's nothing personal.)

The more involved answer asks you to look at all of your "bits". So, do you use 5% or 1% resistors? Carbon or metal film? What rating do you use for your electro caps- 85 degrees or 105 degrees? 16v, 25v, 50v, 100v, or 450v?

What is comes down to is "leeway". I choose to use 50v minimum caps. I believe it is better- but it is hard to prove definitively why. I also use 1% resisitors.

I believe that I have a better quality effect for using these components. I believe they are more rugged, able to cope with wear and tear better. But on the other side of the coin, 450v caps are probably over the top.

But I also include a voltage protection diode and power smoothing cap and resistor in every build I do, regardless of the schematic. (Pop over to www.muzique.com and have a look; if Jack Orman says so, I think it's worthwhile listening to... )

Remember what I said earlier, you're building an effect, not a space shuttle. You always have some room to move. So relax and enjoy building, and using, your effects. 

Or to put it another way- the day I need to find and use a 472.3k resisitor is the day I hang up my soldering iron.

Just to repeat, I'm pretty sure a 9V zener IS 9.1V, as is a 5v is 5.1...

I'm pretty sure of this, but I could be wrong I guess. I'm just going by this: http://www.smallbearelec.com/Categories.bok

Jacob

You might be pretty sure, but I'm positive     . A 9v1 zener is the beast you're looking for, as would be a 5v1 for a 5v.

Remember- this isn't the space shuttle you're building. .1 of 9v1 is 1% = well within tolerances.

I think that the G2 works better with Strat.

And Gilmour and Reed use...?     Note to self- never underestimate the interaction of guitar and effect.

Lou Reed was here curating at the Sydney Opera House for the Vivid Festival for several months. I've already spoken with a couple of the engineers I know there, and unfortunately his only performance was Metal Machine Noise, not a "proper" gig. His normal rig didn't come down here with him. It would have been interesting to find out what he was using.

The darkside has two problems:
- Volume too low with Ge diodes
- Too Bassy

You probably aren't using it loud enough. Seriously.

Then again it may not be the sound that you are looking for. I like it, and we are both entitled to our opinion.

I would suggest that if you're using 1N34As, keep going up the food chain. Socket the diodes and keep going up until you find something you like. You don't even have to use Ge.

Remember that the Darkside's parent was made by Pete Cornish initially for Lou Reed, then David Gilmour and others picked it up. Both of these players belt it out, and the gear is made to suit. I can imagine that Gilmour's combo of DR103s and 212s is going to seriously hurt... Cornish pedals in my experience- and I have used some- are not to be used at low volumes. They are "big rig" pedals. Bedroom and small room players will be disappointed.

With utmost respect to Brian- and I'm sure he will agree- to some extent his layouts are starting points, not end points, for a pedal. There's nothing stopping you modding it to suit your sound.

Did I hear Catalinbread was okay with the DIY community reverse engineering their pedals or did I just make that up? Anyways, this seems like a fun pedal with a unique name...

Have you had a look at the Grapevine and Faultline project docs?

"Note: Catalinbread supports the use of this design for non-commercial, DIY purposes. If you like this project, consider visiting the Catalinbread website to check out their many fine products.

Please note that Catalinbread does not provide any type of support regarding this information, or any of the madbeanpedals PCB products. Please visit the madbeanpedals forum for any technical assistance you require.

Thanks to Nicholas Harris for supporting the DIY stompbox community!"

Kudos to Mr Harris and Brian for this.

BTW: on DIYstompboxes you can find info on a terrific manufactured board for the EchoBase. The layout is just killer. I think it's made by Taylor (username).

I found this, but it's not on diystompboxes.  Is this it?
http://electro-music.com/forum/post-295045.html&highlight=

The Echo Base (with space) started in diystompboxes, and the thread is up to page 44. Here's the URL for page 1.

Taylor sells the PCBS for this and a tap-tremolo on eBay.

There are detailed instructions in the DIYStompboxes gallery. Do a search, they're PDFs.

Hope that  helps.

Wasteofspace.

This should test you out, Brian!

I got to play with a CE1 the other day, and it makes a CE2 sound like trash- and to me, that's saying something. OK, it had to be after a buffered pedal to work right, but didn't it work right! Oh, my....  

Agreed there's a small problem with the CE1 being originally for keyboards, but that's only a matter of fixing the impedence, or maybe slipping a little buffer into the box.

If you could do it, I would worship at your feet and proclaim "I am not worthy" on the hour, every hour.

wasteofspacester (who is not worthy anyway...)

(Oh, and in return, I shall build an original-spec 18v Colorsound Booster out of the cherrybomb to share with everyone. Hey, good enough for Gilmour, good enough for me...)


(edited to add bribery)