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I received a Smallbear order today and at first was a little bit bummed out to see how small the package was. I order two enclosures, 18 or so pots, and some miscellaneous ICs. At first I thought to myself, "Well crap, did they forgot something?"

Open the box, only see the two enclosures.

But wait! These enclosures are heavier than they should be!



There are two things I particularly enjoy about this packing job. The components were all protected very well, and this is the most efficient use of a USPS flat rate package I've ever seen. These fit like a glove in the box.

I imagine the person who was packing this order looked at the pile of components next to the enclosures and had one of those moments where they thought to themselves, "Nah, there's no way that'll work." scratched their head a bit and continued, "But maybe..."

The ICs and the other smaller things I ordered were in the other one.

Don't know if you all find this as amusing as I do, but obviously I'm tickled. 

Anyone else see Forrest's little bit in this week's Tone Report weekly about the Clusterfuzz jr?

The real question is, what were you soldering up CJ?

So my wife floored me by saying I should take a week long trip to Osaka, Japan in late October with my friend while she stays home with the kids. She's the coolest.

We're booking the flights this week and we'll be there for 6 full days and the morning of our flight back.

Anyone been there and have any suggestions for awesome things to do there? I fully plan on gaining a whole bunch of weight from all the food I'm going to be eating.  I also know we'll do a couple of day trips.

Might have to scout around and see if I can find some cool old quirky guitars or something.

I was just looking around on Xvive's website and noticed they list the VTL5C4/2 as something they make. Does anyone know of anyone who carries them?

http://www.xviveaudio.com/productInfo.asp?id=358


Also interesting, they apparently are cloning the mn3102, but not the mn3101?

Finished up my build of the Lovetone Flange With No Name from Alanp's awesome double stacked boards!

I've had this one sitting around for a few months waiting to get boxed up. It's actually the second one I built. I built one for my brother in law back in April but I don't have pictures of his. I was able to squeeze in the CV control as well as the effects loop and keeping it in a 1790ns. Definitely a crammed box!. I put the loopage on a toggle switch so I could flick it with a toe when I want to. I had to use these jacks http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=NSJ12HF-1virtualkey56810000virtualkey568-NSJ12HF-1 and file the lip on the back plate in order to get them to fit in.

It's the second pedal I've ever done Envirotex on and it came out pretty decent over all. I used rattle-can purple and then some silver acrylic on top that I did with some stencils I made with my mom's Cricut. They smeared a little and some of it kind of melted into the Envirotex but over all I'm really happy with it. Sound awesome! I'll post some audio demos at some point I think so I can play around with the audio interface I got for Christmas.

Hey all,

Anybody have any bass preamp recommendations? Can be vero, schematic, manufactured pcb, whatever. I think I saw one based on a fender baseman on DIYST but figured I'd ask here.

So 3 things spurred the creation of this project: I wanted a compressor, I wanted to try and SMD build, and I wanted to try laying out my own board. So the only sane thing to do was lay out Merlin B's Engineer's Thumb comp as SMD in a 1590a with added attack and release knobs and the treble boost switch. Well, I successfully made a working layout, although with a few boo boo's. The pots all work in reverse if they're board mounted like I was going to try, so in this build I had to wire them off board and flip the legs. Also it's kind of a sloppy layout and some parts were kind of a bitch to get placed/soldered because they were jammed a bit too close. All in all I think it was a good learning experience.

This is actually my second build up of the 3 boards I got from OSHpark, but the first one's kind of hacked up. I couldn't decide where to put the slide switch for the top boost, but I settled on the top of it. Also, that was the only place I could get it to fit  . It's a three month late birthday present for my dad, and it matches the style of the other pedals I've made him. I'm using the first one for myself because I don't care about it being fugly.







I did the swirls with a wire end brush attached to my drill press. I've bought enclosures with the same kind of pattern from PPP before, but I figured I'd try taking a wack at it myself.







The top boost switch. It lets a bit more treble bleed through. Making that little rectangular hole for the slide switch was a bit more work, but I don't think I could have fit a bigger switch in there. Also on this one I may have forgotten to add arrow on the decal, so sharpie it was.






Obligatory guts shot. The electrical tape up top is covering the DC jack because the board's kind of sitting on top of it just a little. I didn't trim the wires as much as I normally would because my side cutters broke  .

Thanks for looking!

So I'm working 72 hour weeks until some Union workers stop striking which means I've got money (and the go ahead for my wife) to get a new guitar! I'm going to get a semi-hollowbody and I think I've narrowed it down to either an Ibanez AS93 or one of the reissue Hagstrom Vikings based on reviews.

Naturally neither of the SamAsh's or the guitar centers in town have either. Womp. Has anyone played both and would be able to chime in? Also open to other suggestions for a semi-hollow in the sub $700ish range.

So I saw this oscilloscope on Craigslist and I have no experience with o-scopes. Been thinking about getting one because I'm thinking about making some synth stuff, and I've been making more BBD based stuff recently. It's a Tektronix 465b asking $175. From what i can tell with Google searches, it seems like it would do just fine. Anyone have any experience with this scope?

https://orlando.craigslist.org/ele/5443130497.html

Hi folks!

So I've ventured into the world of doing my own layouts, and I've got a proto-board from oshpark on the way for an smd'ized version of MerlinB's engineer thumb on the way with the added attack and release knobs as well as the bright switch.

It was kind of disgustingly fun to make the pcb layout, and if it works I'll post it.

It got me thinking though, for a long term (no really) project I'm going to attempt an everything I need bass box. What I need is suggestions for the actual effects.

I'm thinking compressor -> dirt with a clean blend -> effects loop to add a filter (I don't use them much of bass myself) -> a modulation pedal -> EQ/preamp with direct out.

Going to try and shoot for a 1590dd or 1590d.

If my engineer's thumb layout works, I'll probably end up using that for the comp but I am tempted to go optical.

What are people's favorites for dirt and modulation? I was thinking a muff variant for the dirt, and either a chorus, flanger, or phaser for the modulation. Or possibly could go with an FV-1 to give whatever option?

Anything with preexisting projects I could reference would be appreciated as I'm new to this, but I'm going to work it in blocks I think and will post things as I go and post the final layout when everything is done. Ya know, in like a year or two .

Thanks!

Edit: I'll be asking for permission of and crediting every person's who's project I reference by the by.