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Messages - PaulL

#16
That's great..

Stoner Blue sounds like a drummer from an eighties hair rock band.
#17
I've been playing with this for a while and it sounds great, but there is an issue that is the circuit will oscillate at full volume. Below is the tweaked circuit that should stop this.



BOM for circuit


Rough schem of the power supply - Ignore the Tone control circuit at the bottom, this was a preliminary design. The Step Up is actually a 12VDC to 220AC step up inverter bought from Amazon. The output is actually a 220V Square wave. The huge capacitor in the photo above is 470U 400V but a 250V alternative should be a little smaller.


The next stage is to buy the resistors and capacitors to replace the ones that are made from multiple ones bunched together and neaten up the wiring in side.

These 6/30L2 valves are really great things.
#18
The clipping circuit looks similar to the one I designed in my Whiskey Cream pedal (Circuit posted here in Build Reports only last week) Originally I had pots to adjust the clipping shape of both the top and bottom waveforms, but not for bias as I wasn't looking for strong distortion or fuzz.

I came up with the arrangement based on an idea stemming from VI Limiters which are used to steal away base current from driver stages of solid state power amps. This is used as a form of speaker protection. My idea was to implement it as a way of controlling the clipping shape. In the end I done away with the two pots that control the clipping shape to keep things simple and to stop me twiddling with knobs rather than playing. I also played around with the topology and in the end the circuit evolved away from the VI Limiter.

The gain structure in the Not Like A Boss is different from my Whiskey Cream pedal, so they should sound very different.
#19
It does look like one of your diodes is the wrong way round as already mentioned. Also I second the notion that all components need to be soldered on.  Also double check every component is of the correct value. Colour codes and markings first. Later if still having problems after taking the advice already mentioned remove the component and measure it with a multimeter. Also check that you haven't got any stray solder bridging two pads.
#20
Made a couple of valve guards



Just got to work out how to attach them. Maybe some of those super-strong magnets??
#21
That sounds pretty excellent to me. Has a really nice depth to the sound (no pun intended).
#22
Build Reports / Bolsterdrive Valve Boost Pedal
May 16, 2017, 10:04:17 AM
Designed from scratch but built into a gutted Behringer VT999. Only the case, power switch and jack plugs remained.

Went for a bit of a gothic theme with this. The face is lacquered inkjet paper, the side lacquered wall paper - I obtained a sample from the local B&Q. Still perplexed as to who exactly would want black leather-look wall paper - different strokes I guess.

All thats left is to make the valve guards and and replace some components where I had to use multiples because I didn't have the values needed to hand. Took it into the friendly guitar shop and the guy thought it was great, so well chuffed.



This is it coming to the end of the build and before decorating the case.



Valves are 60/30L2 which are surprising good valves. Gives about 35dB of gain full out.
#23
I think it is quite normal for veroboard circuits not to work first time, if it's something that you have planned out yourself. Even simple circuits can get a little confusing so I draw out a plan and then double check it before starting and still can make errors. A bad earth scheme, or a missing earth connection can cause noise and problems like no sound too.
#24
Build Reports / Re: Whiskey Cream Overdrive
May 15, 2017, 10:26:33 AM
And if anyone is curious or wants to give making their own a try here is the circuit. It is copywright me but free for personal use.



You will see that most of it is fairly run of the mill except for the clipping circuit. The tricky parts were the clipping circuit, an idea based in VI limiters used in amplifiers for speaker protection and the gain structure. A few components could do with tweaking like maybe some of the interstage capacitors - they could be smaller in value - but the values shown aren't expensive and they work. Pots are all Linear.

The main issue I run into was stray capacitance between the in and out signal wires coupled them together and caused oscillations, hence the shielded cable you see in the photo in the earlier post.

It would be good to see other peoples take on it.
#25
Introductions / Re: Just Joined The Forum
May 15, 2017, 07:28:14 AM
Quote from: gordo on May 15, 2017, 06:22:12 AM
Welcome aboard Paul.  I saw your Whiskey Cream build.  That pedal is one hell of an intro into this place!  DIY at it's finest, and high marks for creative use of packing tape :-)

Shhhh, no, it's called Filament Tape - sounds much better.
#26
Build Reports / Re: Whiskey Cream Overdrive
May 15, 2017, 05:06:21 AM
Thanks,

Those 10mm LEDs are something, aren't they? I saw them and just had to have them.

The faceplate was done with just a textured injet printer paper with loads of lacquer on it. The paper really soaks up the lacquer to the point where it's really just lacquer with some paper in it. I bet a thin epoxy resin would be better though.
#27
Build Reports / Whiskey Cream Overdrive
May 15, 2017, 01:54:22 AM
This was my first pedal. Been looking for somewhere to post details and the circuit if anyone is interested and someone told me about Madbeans Forum. I designed the circuit myself after having an idea for a clipping circuit that was a little different from what I had seen on other pedals. I used Tina Pro to design the circuit.

I wanted something with plenty of drive, smooth distortion and something that would open up the volume and tone controls of the guitar. This is what happened:-





Gain - obvious
Ice - rolls off the bass and out of band harmonics slightly to give a more focused sound
Tone - flat at zero and increases treble when turned up. This is to help with treble loss if you don't have bleed caps on the volume control of your guitar. Also opens up the guitars tone control to make it actually useful.
Volume - Obvious.
Power shows that the pedal is plugged into power and the other LED comes on when the footswitch is pressed.

Anyway hope you like.
#28
Introductions / Just Joined The Forum
May 15, 2017, 01:36:22 AM
Hello,

I am Paul and have just joined the forum so I can get talking with other pedal builders. This all started for me with an idea that I had after looking at various overdrive circuits, so I designed the circuit and build a pedal. I have so far built 3 pedals, 2 of which are my own circuit design and one was a TS kit. I will be posting details soon.