Messages

Today is Jan 15. I am impatiently waiting for the new board docs to be released...Zero Points...
You know, like the old commercial where the lady is at the window with her hands on the glass...open, open, open....
This of course all in fun though! 

My biggest tip when choosing an acoustic: Regardless of which brand you choose, play as many as you can. They will all sound a bit different. Go to a place that will have multiple examples of any given guitar and try them all. I ended up purchasing my Taylor at Guitar Center (I know  ) but the upside was that they had so many guitars to play. I played 4 different guitars of most types ( and that included Martins, Takamines, Breedlove, Gibsons Etc) What I found was that each guitar sounded and played just a bit different. Of the 4 414 I played, they each were a bit different. So I chose the one that I liked the very best.
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British Pounds, typically 1.5% of US currency, so 105 Pounds would be about $150, but, in reality, we get things cheaper, so I would guess closer to $120. But as TC pricing indicates, it will more likely be $89. See the Polytune mini as an example.
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I love my Taylor 414CE. Easily the best guitar I have ever owned. Super fast neck, comfortable shape and size, projects well and has a great tone.
If you need smaller, you can go with the 412CE. I really liked it, but it doesn't sound quite as full as the 414, plus it is a bit quieter.
But yeah, my 414 is my go to acoustic. I will never sell it or buy another acoustic again (unless I need a baritone!)
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If it comes in at $100, I'll bite. $125 will make me wait until someone sells a used one. I've actually never owned a looper, so I am not sure if I would use one. Seems cool though.
I saw your thread over at BYOC P-Watts. How do you use your loopers? Is it a live thing, or do you use them for song writing? I have never figured the real use for them. If I am writing, I simply open up Garage Band and record a track, then work on the other parts.
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This is the first pedal that I have built in about 9 months    I took a bit of a building hiatus to work on a few guitars, but once the weather turned grey, it felt time to get the iron out and do a few builds. So this is the first. It is a Rat Clone (Slow Loris PCB by the bean). Did it in the mammoth textured black enclosure (very cool finish btw) Red hardware and the 2 little LEDs are clippers for the "turbo" setting (I like watching them flicker as I play). No on/off LED yet, just haven't gotten to it. I love the way this thing sounds. It does't really like my active EMG85 pickups (glitches out and sounds overloaded when the pups are up full, but when I back off the guitar volume to about 80% it works fine), but with passives it sounds great.
I was looking at the voltage on the Jfet, and I get a reading at the source of 6.75v, which seems a bit high (most references state it to be about 3v, but go on to say anything above 3v is good, so I dunno     ) At any rate it screams! Enjoy.
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There are a few joints that look cold (the flat grey looking ones) and I have a little concern with the IC being soldered to the board (not using sockets). If that IC got too hot, it could be damaged. The first step, however, will be to re-heat those cold looking joints. Anything that isn't smooth and shiny needs to have a little heat added to them, let the solder flow.
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Built up my egghead board today. Very cool little OD.  Some things to note:
1. The 120pf cap value is not too important. I believe this is a smoothing cap for the diode clipping and honestly, I hear no difference between 100pf, 120pf and 150pf. I used all ceramic caps since I don't have any silver mica, but I doubt there would be much difference. Honestly, I hear little difference with the cap completely out of the circuit. I know the portion of circuit works because if you stick a .01uf in there the tone changes drastically.
2. Using a 100K pot for presence works fine, below about 40% there is little change to the tone. I compared it to a 25K that I had and the tone didn't change, just the useful range is in the top 40%.
3. Used a 100K for the volume since I didn't have a 500K. Not sure what effect this has on the circuit, but I can't image much.

Let me know if there is something that I am missing. Once I get it boxed up, I will try out some other IC's to see if there is any change.
Very cool circuit Brian!
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Been building up the Slow Loris and noticed something that seemed odd in the directions. For the sweep control (ruetz pot), the description says that "fully clockwise, it gives you the traditional rat tone. As you turn the control up, the clipping frequency goes lower and the overall distortion reduces..."
From what I can see in the schematic, Fully clockwise would add the 1K of the pot into the circuit (while full counterclockwise would effectively remove the pot from the circuit). I think that the directions should read:
"Fully COUNTERCLOCKWISE, it gives you the traditional rat tone. As you turn the control up..."
Please confirm or correct me as needed.
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Thanks Bean, looking it over, there are some possibilities to mod (or use parts in the current bin). For the few odd values:
C2: A 100pf ceramic can work
IC: Good old 4558 should function well here
Pres: 50KB could work as well (not sure what the side effect would be increasing the value though...)
Unless I am out of my mind...which at times I am.

Sweet! I actually just placed my first ever bean order. I have done tons of other builds by other places (an moderate elsewhere), but wanted to give the bean a try. Excellent timing I guess!
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Excellent, Thanks so much.
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Hey all,
First post here at Madbean.
I received a Kokbox v1.0 as a gift. It is partially built, but I need an image of the board layout to confirm parts. I can only find the archive back to v2.5, so if anyone has the 1.0 build that would be great. I am hoping to find one with the traces laid out so I can check for any solder bridges or trouble spots as well. Thanks much.
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