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I came to Mexico for the month of January for a certification course for teaching English as a second language. I planned to come back to the US early Feb but it looks like I may be here until July now. I can only hold down the urge to build for so long haha. I just picked up a cheap Mexican classical guitar so at least I can play again! I'm just wondering if anyone has some tips or tricks for building here. I'm sure I can pick up a soldering iron somewhere, as for components I have no idea other than scrounging. I will probably go back to the US for a week or two sometime fairly soon. I'll plan on bringing some projects back with me then too.

On kgull's krypton phaser I am experimenting. I started by making a daughter board for the vactrol but since doing that I'm getting a lot of thump. Image for reference:

Could I eliminate that problem by using shielded wire for the led wires? I want to maybe add a few switches on the ldr's to be able to use a different number of stages as it sounds cool with an ldr or 3 removed, I'm also thinking about adding manual control to the led for a fixed phase option or maybe controllable by a wah treadle

I'm getting sound and the switches change how it sounds but the envelope isn't working. The LEDs don't change brightness with the guitar attack. Switches and pots will change the brightness but no envelope. I've tried all different switch positions. And played with the pots but no hint of brightness changing with attack. I jumpered the send return pads and connected decay to ground as it said to do in the build doc if not using them
Voltages
Tl074
1-4.53
2-4.5
3-4.5
4-9
5-4.5
6-4.5
7-4.5
8-4.5
9-4.5
10-4.5
11-.005
12-3.84
13-4.5
14-4.5
Lm1458
1-7.5
2-6.35
3-.06
4-.005
5-5.39
6-5.39
7-5.4
8-9

My stomptown pennyroyal is not right. It is warbling and not giving a terribly deep chorus sound almost like the mix of dry to affected signal is off or the lfo is uneven. I've tried fine tuning the bias but no luck. At high speed and depth it sounds sort of metallic ring modish type sound Voltages are as follows
Ic1
1 4.42
2-4.42
3-4.32
4-0.004
5-4.4
6-4.4
7-4.4
8-8.8
Ic2
1-1.5 to 1.9 variable
2-4
3-4
4-.004
5-1.9 to 2.5
6-2.195
7-2.7 to 3.7
8-8.83

Ic3
1-8.1
2-4
3-4
4-.005
5-.004
6-4.06
7-4.25
8-4.25

Ic4
1-8
2-.092
3-6.9
4-8.15
5-8.15
6-8.15
7-.004
8-.004
9-.004
10-4
11-4
12-.003
13-8.03
14-8.15
Q1-
E-3.5
B-2.9
C-0
Q2
E-3.5
B-4.11
C-8.1
Q3
E-8.15
B-8.79
C-8.84

Much phasery goodness and some doomy butter. I'm not sure what the two on the left are though...

I just got a maxon ad80 reissue with a missing foot switch. It looks like a spdt switch as there are 3 floating wires, one blue, one pink, one black (ground?) I'm unfamiliar with their switching but I'm thinking maybe the black goes to the middle lug and the other two on the outsides? The blue comes from pad 13 right next to where you can see it. The pink is going somewhere on the daughter board that the pots are mounted to.

This is the same model

I saw this on Facebook and it seems really similar to an Arcadiator with a couple mods.
https://www.facebook.com/AggroJoe/videos/10205779801589492/?fref=nf
It is a product that's for sale so...

First off, everyone should build one of these! Though not necessarily in a 1590A, it might be nice to have a master bypass switch. Anyway this is JMK's paralyzer. I didn't do a fancy finish because there is no way I'm taking this out of the box ever again! Haha. It works great and can really add to the textures and layers of effects you can get. I have it shown with a delay in each loop which makes some really cool sounds with different length of delays set. I also have an envelope filter in front of one of the delays which can make for some really spacey, synthy, craziness. The possibilities are endless! I posted some progress pics of this a while ago but finally got around to finishing it. I used a miniature knurled shaft chicken head knob from smallbear, those are really cool and work great for this build.

I built a guitar pcb SWAH and I'm wanting to box it with a dirt. I tried it with a few ODs after it and of what I tried so far I'm liking the danger zone best but I'm not sold on it.

I'm working on dead astronauts abductor delay and I am getting static as the signal enters the first opamp. http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=110419.0
I posted some details on that thread. I'll port them here when I get a chance. It is still there with pt2399s removed though they do amplify it. I'm getting the static at pin 1 of IC5. I've checked everything I can think of.

Represented here are myself, Jubal, and Dminner with pedals on the way from Madbean and Rockhorst.

I'm working on getting pedals from many different members either through purchase, trade, or exchange. I put this thread up in the BST section for possible exchanges
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21074.0

A guy that posts at diysb has a new fuzz pedal for sale. Mouse Electronics is what he builds under. This is the Mezzanine Fuzz. I'm not affiliated it just looks like a sweet pedal. Check it out.
http://mouselectronics.com/products/mezzanine/

Probably not the most original idea for the design but I am SO happy with pretty much every aspect of the execution of this build! I wish I could have pulled off top mounted jacks but it would have been too tight. I flipped the board sideways so I could have the delay controls in one row and modulation controls in another. This allowed me to still board mount everything except 1 pot but I wanted a little extra space for visual indication of pot position anyway. I'm still tweaking the lfo a little hence the naked led and ldr currently the led shuts off with the speed at full, I think I need a different color in there. Anyway this is my second mplex jr and I built a regular mplex and every time I fire them up I'm still like... Wow this sounds amazing! This is about as clean as my guts have been but I'd still like to to better... If you haven't built this circuit yet what are you waiting for? I have a slight feeling I'll be building another soon, I'm taking it to a family gathering today and I have a feeling my uncle will like it a lot. Haha we'll see if I come home with it. Oh yeah, I have to show off my beautiful Gibson Falcon amp too, this pedal goes well with it. Many surfy sounds to be made together.

The filterwhore ness is strong. Here are two builds, a Madbean Honeydripper he "Dying Dipthong" yay alliteration. The second is the fluff girl "Shield Maiden".
The Honeydripper I built into a box sideways because I always do everything possible to have top mounted jacks and the offset layout looked really cool. I initially wanted to do a yin yang or feng shui sort of graphic just because it seemed like it fit the layout but nothing was working. Then some how I stumbled on the cool drawing of the skulls on google images and then came up with the name and it stuck. The shield maiden takes it's name from the show Vikings which I've been watching thanks to a recommendation on the "what are you watching on TV" thread. So yeah... Both are awesome, unique filters and the next filters I build will be the SWAH and the rissole so... Yup... Filterwhoring it up.

Musicians friend had this on their super discounted special for $80 bucks so I figured I'd give it a try, new wah enclosure and wah pot... Almost worth the price just for the parts but I digress. So this is supposed to be a phase 90 with some features of volume and mix adjustment and an internal block/script switch. There is also an internal trimpot in the battery department that looks like it is made to be adjusted but it didn't seem to do a whole lot. The mix knob is cool for some vibey sounds when rolled back. The treadle seems a bit stiff, maybe it just needs to be broken in? I've never had a new wah before. So anyway to the sound... I was a bit underwhelmed, the sweep doesn't seem super smooth and not as musical compared to my p90 clone. It just isn't terribly even and the bandwidth seems to be shifted a little bit lower, there is not as much sparkle. The volume knob bottoms out at unity and maybe a bit above still which ideally I'd like it to go a bit below unity at the bottom just to have a bit more fine tune ability. Ok so of course I opened it up. The JFETS are through hole 2n5952 while everything else is smd. I wonder how closely they are matched and if that is part of what I'm hearing that is less pleasing than my p90 clone? The circuit board looks like it is set up for a heel down switch but has has a toe down spst. I think heel down might be better for a treadle that controls lfo speed but not a big deal. So anyway I'm done rambling now. In conclusion I'm not unhappy with the $80 I spent but if I had to do it over again I'd just build a p90 in a crybaby shell.

Here is my sword breaker brute fuzz. I started a Facebook page for my builds so I could have a place to unload a few pedals and connect with the local music scene as it's a bit sparse. To increase my exposure I did a giveaway of a custom build within certain limits of complexity. If anyone is interested, I build under 45th Parallel Effects and I'm local to Northern Michigan. So anyway he wanted something muff like so I started out building a whisker biscuit but I didn't like the results though I may have had something wrong... Anyway I ended up building a Devi ever circuit on vero. The guts were cleaner until I busted the switch trying to lengthen a wire by pulling it through the heated lug... I'll advised. So after cutting the wires I had to add length to a couple so now they are too long and have splices. Oh also the box was done when it was going to be a whisker biscuit so the intensity knob is labeled tone. He didn't care so I left for him to relabel if he wants. So it was one of those builds... The simple one that wasn't.

New old amp day! It's a gibson falcon from 1963. This thing is in great shape and sounds so good! The reverb and tremolo are both excellent on this baby! This is essentially my first tube amp. I do have the made in china champion 600 which I've souled up but I don't really count that. There are some great classic sounds in this amp! I'm loving it so far. It doesn't get too crunchy but it breaks up a decent amount past 7 or 8 and for me it's great, max volume is loud enough but not overly loud, maybe a little more than my usual bedroom volume which is the only place I ever play anyway. Behold:

I'm thinking about getting a set of these for labeling. In interested in opinions, if anyone uses something similar. Will 1/4" be big enough? I've seen some 3/8" sets but they cost 3 times as much.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=171493822180

I found one on craigslist, the 410 version for a good price. Any experience with this amp? should is pull the trigger? Any feedback is appreciated. Everything I've read, it seems to be a great amp. I found the a schematic and I was wondering if I understand this correctly http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g429/Mandoluke/3405D5A7-68C1-40CD-BD0F-F7170B900EA7_zpsvojrlz4z.jpg[/img]]
The signal path is all tube with solid state effects loop and reverb correct?

I've used them many times successfully though I still feel paranoid every time like I have to confirm pinout through testing. I don't know why I don't just start buying regular 78l05 and just stick them in as the layout intended. I don't know why but this is driving me crazy right now... The datasheet is confusing too. They are opposite pinout correct?