Messages

Thanks for the update. I have tried messing with that expandor resistor before but never did end up on 10k. Glad you got it worked out.

If you are running the circuit at 12v, try changing the biasing resistors so the output is closer to 6v, rather than 7.5v.

It is very tone-neutral, IMO. The only tone shaping happens with C3 and C4. The overall boost is not huge, but it will definitely cook a tube amp on the edge of breakup (which is what it is designed for). You could probably breadboard the whole thing in 15 minutes to see if you like it before committing to build.

An alternative would be the Muzique Mosfet Boost. That is about the same gain as your on-board. It is pretty neutral as well, although you could tamper down some of the brightness by messing with the input impedance of the mosfet. One downside to the mosfet boost is that it does tend to pop on the first few bypasses. If you toggle your bypass on and off 5 or 6 times it tends to discharge and the pop stops.

I've done SMD stuff even with the Aoyue. A pin tip and small core solder plus a flux pen was enough to get going. But, desoldering would be a different animal. For that I would use some tweezers or something else.

There's no mistake in the schematic. Pin4 is tied to ground internally to Pin3 inside the IC via a 10R resistor.

schweltzer, if you are using a 7805 regulator you need to flip it around. The pinout is opposite of the LM78L05.

The Pitch Fork came yesterday and I spent about 20 minutes on it. Here are my thoughts:

Good:
Tracking is pretty well perfect. I could not get it to glitch so far.
Pitch accuracy seems very good.
The dual mode is very cool...part of the reason I traded the Drop.
There does not seem to be much latency at all...probably less than the Drop which was not bad itself.
The Detune sounds great. Much like the Whammy.
The latching mode for the switch is a win.
30mA draw...I mean, c'mon!

Not so good:
The two and three octave up/down is pretty useless for me. Once the octaves up get that high they are basically cartoons. But, that's not surprising---I expected that and it's not a feature I was counting on. I would prefer to have had two extra pitch options than the two/three octave up/down like flat 3rd, 5th or natural 7th. The two and three octaves down do not translate will enough on the AC4, but it's just a 10" speaker. Maybe through the AC15 15" they will be a bit more prominent.

Overall, I think the end quality of pitch shifting is not quite as natural sounding as the Drop, but I cannot do a side by side comparison. The Drop was really pretty great for shifting the entire pitch down on the guitar. The Fork is also good, but perhaps slightly less natural. Not enough to bother me...after all mostly I will use this for an effect not a replacement tuning.


Other thoughts:
I have not tried the expression pedal input yet.
The Blend knob is singal through left, blended in the middle, and effected signal right. If I had my druthers, I probably would have made independent volume controls for the dry and wet signals. Or, maybe switches since the output is unity. But, that is minor.
So, for $130 this is pretty well a no-brainer if you can accept the limitations. I can see this taking a permanent place on my board unless I get a POG or HOG someday.

I'll definitely post my thoughts on both. I'm hoping these will last me at least 5-6 years...probably longer if I take good care of them.

I've got both the Hakko FR300 and FX951 on the way. My trusty Aouye solder/desolder station has been a workhorse for the last three years but is just not keeping up. The desolder part constantly needs fiddling with to work well. The soldering iron part occasionally decides not to heat. I've already replaced both guns once. I guess there's no beating spending money on really good tools, though. At least it is a write off! Kinda peeved that the FX951 does not include a single tip, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FR300-05-FR300-De-soldering-carrying/dp/B00KWM69C4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414152058&sr=8-1&keywords=hakko+fr300

http://www.amazon.com/AMERICAN-HAKKO-PRODUCTS-INC-FX-951/dp/B0012B8NW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414152087&sr=8-1&keywords=hakko+fx951

Got mine today too! Hooray for pitchy!

1 - This is my day job. I have 2.5 day jobs now (MBP, FFX and 424) plus daddy day care in the afternoons. Just FYI.
2 - I did not know about the alternate transformer in the Octavia. I just used the one I've always built mine with. The reason that the pots are not PCB mounted is because of the transformer height. It might fit if 9mm PCB mounted are used instead of 16mm, but it just isn't something I checked into.

Don't forget there is also a "request" section of the forum, which I do check now and again. Granted, most everything I am going to do is planned out for the next six months but sometimes there are suggestions that come up that I never consider which gets me pumped up

I have one of those and I did find from time to time a pop would come in (this was testing on the breadboard, I have not put it in a pedal yet). But, cycling the power fixed it up proper. Does it go away if you unplug your dc jack and then plug it back in after a few seconds? Also, how are you powering it...does it daisy chain off anything else?

Don't jumper those...!

I did manage to arrange an exchange of the Drop for the Pitch Fork. Not sure when I will get the Fork. Hopefully, it will work out...the Drop is pretty great. But, I can't help but love some of the added features in the Fork, ya know.

Did you arrange the pins correctly on those transistors? According to the datasheet the pinout is emitter, collector, base.

http://www.guitarristas.info/foros/deluxe-memory-man-peticion/225032