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Gudday all.  I've just clearcoated a box, and the finish has gone yellow on the edges where there's been overspray between the top and sides of the box, and anywhere else there's too much paint.  Any ideas on saving it?  I'm hoping I can sand back the yellow bits and save it..

The rattlecan does say that it can yellow under some circumstances and shouldn't be used for automotive purposes.  Probably should have taken that as gospel.

Worst comes to worst I can stick a new label over the top after a bit of a sanding... and use something else to clearcoat it.

Seriously, I've built a couple of pedals now, but I have a couple of fairly ambitious multi builds that I want to box coming up.  I've previous put an SHO and a 1 knob fuzz in a BB, and that was fairly easy, but I'm looking at the DD and going ".... man, I just don't know.  It's starting to look a a little small".

I don't have that much going into it, really - just 5 knobs for a comp, fuzz, preamp, and a balanced out, but I think it's still going to be tight....

If I'm reading things right, both the Sunking and Kingslayer are clones of the Klon, yeah?  Or not?  What's the difference - is it that the Kingslayer is an improved version?

Can anyone point me the the general direction of the effect used in the solo in this song?  Solo starts at 2.10...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDl3bdE3YQA

Can't seem to get the tags for embedding video happening...  edit:  had to modify the post after posting...

Gudday all.  I'm putting together a multi effect shortly - Sea Urchin, Pork Barrel, Egghead.  Unusually, I'm at a bit of a loss for a name and graphics.

I'm thinking about calling it Awesomesauce, or Bag of Tricks (with a Felix the Cat motif of some sort), but so far it's leaving me cold.  I'm not even 100% on the egghead being there, but I have a HT-Dual that I use for normal usage and wanted something a bit less OTT, hence the insert point. 

edit:  What's the next size up from a DD (haha!) in terms of width?  I'd like to maybe put a Deadringer in instead of the egghead but 3 footswitches in a DD seems the most practical to me.

This is what I have so far:

Gudday all.  I've just built a Madbean Pork Barrel, and it works fine, except it doesn't seem to have a lot of depth and there's no way I could use it in an over-the-top way.  It's built to spec except the 8n2 caps have been replaced with 10n.

It's acceptable, but it just seems like it should have "more".

Any ideas, or what can I do without that led rate mod?

Sometimes, I go nuts and get all ambitious with what I'd like to build, because I think I'd like to have a box that does x, something that does Y, and then I see something like the Zoom G3x and go "Well, f**k it all, because thing does everything I want, and I can probably use my outboard stuff with it too, for a reasonable amount of money with no time wasted".

http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/g3

Then I see a cheaparse unit like this and think "well, bugger me, it's all right there, nearly.  Wonder if I could mod that up or gut it, or whatever.  If the delay and chorus are ok, I'd probably be set".

http://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PPDLA1/Super-Guitar-Multi-Effect-Pedal-With-Overdrive,-Distortion,-Chorus,-And-Digital-Delay-

And then, I see about the only review on the web that I can find, and I think "Nah, I can do better.  Even if I can't, it'll still be better"

Gudday all.  Just wondering where people get their pots from.  I can't seem to find a source that has consistent length shafts - I just seem to get a hodgepodge every tine I place an order.

And where to do people get those minis that get put in the 1590a pedals?  Might start using them as a standard.

I was talking to a guitarist mate about building pedals and he asked if I could build him a "fuzzy" pedal.  I said I had a One Knob Fuzz kit lying around leftover from the kids pedal workshop and I'd put one together for him.  I asked him if he had a nickname, thinking to use it somewhere on the pedal, but when he said "Camo", the inspiration struck there and then.

He hasn't seen it yet, or know about the idea for the artwork, so keep it quiet, eh.

The gutshot is to prove a point I made in this thread http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=12598.0.... !

Gudday all.

I'm currently building on vero a bass DI/Preamp/Frontend as I no longer have an actual bass amp and will be running direct into a powered PA speaker.

It will consist of a yamaha NE-1 clone (Brian, if you are looking to do more bass PCBS, this is one is a must), a sprout for fuzz, and a compressor (if I can get the Really Cheap Compressor vero working).  I might include a balanced out and effect loop/insert if I can find the space in the enclosure.

My question to you, proper non-hack bass players (unlike myself), would you have the compressor and NE-1 footswitchable?  The sprout/fuzz is a given for a footswitch as I'm not much of a dirty bass player, it's just there because the pcb is small and for a bit of fun.  I was going to have the NE-1 permamently on, and have the compressor switchable using a DPDT mini toggle as I'm pretty much a set-and-forget type of bass player.

Would you bother with the compressor footswitch?  For me it's probably more to even out my dynamics (although you don't have to worry about that much when you keep hitting it flat out).

Has anyone tried the Sprout on bass at all?  I'm only putting it in because a) I rarely ever use any dirt on bass, and b) I have a stack of them lying around (two populated) left over from my pedal workshop.  Any suggestions for component subsitutions to tailor it better for bass?

Thanks,
Willy.

Gudday all.  Was wandering around another DIY site and saw someone had made their breaks in the vero strips by drilling right through the strip AND the board...  I just flip it over and hand spin a drill bit in the hole enough to remove the copper.  The downside of that is that I occasionally (very rarely) get the break in the wrong spot.

Who does it which way?

Gudday all.  I tried to make a Tonemender based on a vero layout I saw kicking around, but it's been consigned to the fail bucket - for some reason I had tubescreamer levels of dirt going on underneath everything, and some weird ossilation on the pots when they were turned...  The volume pot just increased the dirt when it was turned down.  I couldn't find the problem so I just ripped off the tonestack schematic and found a few values from around the place to make my own.

It'll go in a box with some sort of boost afterwards to bring the volume back up but currently it seems to have some strange behaviors in that the pots act more like volumes than EQs per se (although I understand that the FMV tonestack is a bit counter intuitive in how it works).

Anyway, can someone have a look at this for me and tell where, if anywhere, I'm going wrong.

Thanks,
Willy.

1.  Don't populate 5 vero projects and a delay PCB in one night.

2.  Build a test station of some sort that you can plug these projects into for rocking before boxing.

3.  Put the IC sockets facing the right direction.  Then, when you put the IC in the socket, alining the notches together, your project will work.

4.  Don't solder 6 projects in one night.

5.  Check all your components and sockets are in the right rows on your veros.  This is seems to be more accurate when you havent populated 6 boards in a session.

6.  Make sure you've put the track breaks in the right spots on the vero.

7.  Don't grab the soldering iron at the tip like a pencil.  You'll only do this twice.

8.  Clean up after yourself so the wife doesn't get too cranky about the loungeroom turning into a mancave.

Gudday all.  Finished my 4th full build, considered entering it in the build off but my stuff is still way too messy to compete.

Anyway, it's just a Soulsonic NoCrackleSHO on vero.  Neater than my other efforts, but not by much.  This time, instead of t-shirt transfers or heavy card, I used some light gloss kodak photopaper to print the design on.  It's stuck down with spray on contact adhesive on the paper only, and the the whole thig gets clearcoated.  Probably not the best idea to use the contact adhesive as you have to clean it up with turps, which will of course eat the paint given half the chance.

The upside is that the photopaper doesn't soak up the clearcoat unlike the card or transfers, and it's easier to get a decent finish.

I also wanted to use a chrome dome knob off one of my guitars I had lying around, but it didn't fit the pot shaft, and then I lost it today anyway.

Gold star to whoever can get the 80's reference.

Gudday all.  I've just sold my marshall and bass amp (for a insultingly paltry amount) and replaced it with a 400 watt powered wedge that I'll be using for bass, guitar, and any vocal duties that I might need it for at some time (probably not all 3 at the same time though), so I want to put together a bass preamp/multi to give me some tone shaping between the bass and the wedge.

I'm looking at getting a cheap behringer BDI-21, but if we can DIY that would be cool, so any sugesttions would be great.  Doesn't really need any OD or distortion, ut whatever.

Gudday all, this might sound a bit odd, but I'm wondering how to go about building a volume pedal.

Why?  Well, I've just moved to a modelling/powered foldback setup using pedals for my sound (dirt, effects, cab sim) and using the foldback to simply amplify that.  I don't want to adjust the volume on the fly with an expression pedal (which would probably be the easiest option), I just want to bend down and turn a knob at the end of the signal chain (but before the amp) left or right and leave it set.

Any ideas for the circuit?  Doesn't have to be complex but I'd rather it didn't color the sound at all one way or the other.

Thanks, Willy.

Got my local Jaycar to fill my BOM for a Haberdasher Deadringer.  While leaving out a 2N5088, they subbed the diodes.  I know I can sub a 1N400x for any other 1N400x, so that's not an issue, but they put a couple of 1n4148 in to replace the 1N914 and 1N43a presumably - or am I wrong?

They also included a large germamium diode with no markings on it besides the polarity band.  Which diode would that be a possible sub for in particular?

I mean, diodes are diodes really, I could probably sub most of them with LEDs if I was so inclined... but I'd like to get it as close as possible to the original BOM.

So to break it down:
Which diode(s) does the 1n4148 most closely replace?
Which diode is the the big arsed germamium, if any?

Thanks,
Willy.

I want to make the multi from hell and it will, of course, have a delay.  I have an unpopulated Sea Urchin board kicking around (thanks Haberdasher), but I see the Cavedweller on the projects page.

Besides the obvious size advantage, what's the functional difference between the two given that they're both pt2399 based delays?

Thanks in advance,
Willy.

Gudday all, after a year of procrastinating about it, I finally ran the pedal workshop for my guitar students who were interested.

I chose Brian's Madbean Sprouts, etched by Haberdasher, got the components from Jaycar, and the outboard stuff from Pedalpartsaustralia.com.  I spent yesterday afternoon sorting parts for the kits and drilling enclosures.

Got a few kids and their dads interested, and we spent the day putting them together.  The first hour was spent learning how to solder....

Anyway, the day was a great success, everyone went home with a working pedal and everyone had a ball.  I'd like to say that everyone's pedal fired up without issue first go, but it just wasn't the case.  I think two fired up first pop, and the others had issues that got past the QC but were solved pretty quick (a dry solder joint there, a solder bridge there) once we realised they didn't work!  Pretty good considering the ages ranged from 6 to 14.

Thanks to Brain, Haberdasher, and To RobA for his time in my troubleshooting thread.

Willy.

Gudday all, got a small prob. Of all the projects to try, this sprout I'm building in preparation for thurdays workshop is not working...

Project:  Sprout
Problem:  Bypasses fine.  Hit the switch and the LED lights up fine, but no sound.
Substitions:  BC548 and BC549 for Q1 and Q2 respectively.

Doesn't seem to be a solder bridge problem.  The offboard seems to be ok too.  Checked many times.

I've had a bit of a probe around with the DMM, and it seems that the voltages on one of the trannies is fine (?), all around 5v or so, but one is a bit low.  I'm not 100% certain I'm doing it right - one clipped to ground, and touching the solder pads of the tranny legs with the other.

Anyone know what the sprout should measure normally?  I'll stick a pic up later.