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Hi

Got a request from a working musician who sold his original Cheese Source but missed the Brown side a bit too much
A while back I traced this out and by coincidence another forum member recently built one!

Sounds great, and amused myself and the client with the play on words.

Yo

Been doing bits and bobs of pedalbuilding recently and Phil from DeadEndFX https://www.deadendfx.com/ was kind enough to send me a PCB set for their take on the Spaceman Orion analog spring reverb, called the Hooke. A couple other people here have built one.

I decided to use a Hammond 1550E case. You have to be a bit careful exactly where you mount the reverb tank given the slightly smaller space than the recomended 1590D case. You can probably see because I didnt want to cut down the spring mounting screws, I had to flip one transistor and one capacitor on the top of the sandwiched PCBs to prevent fouling. Probably 5 minutes more spent measuring better would have avoided that.

Anyway, it sounds really cool - gives my reverb tank in the Fender HotRod Deluxe a good run. Amazing considering its based on a very cheap and small plastic reverb tank.

Gratituous pics to follow







First graphic print came out wrong so I ended up using part of it on the baseplate

Its recommended to put material / foam inside the case but I didnt have anything appropriate to hand and figured I can always add it later

Hi

I have been asked to design a pedal. The general requirements are two dirt circuits in parallel, with a reverb in front of one of them.
There should be the option for each of the effects to be turned off to create combinations. There should also be the chance for a clean blend option, as the pedal will be used on bass.

I remembered I had PCB for a tool from JMK called the  Paralyzer which I felt would work perfectly.
I drew up this block diagram for the client but wanted to sanity check it with you. Obviously I took the block diagram from JMK manual and modified it crudely in paint to get the point across.



The idea is to keep it simple with three manual toggle switches to define the sound structure, with a single stomp switch for global bypass. In a way its similar to the JHS VCR I suppose. He also doesnt want lots of lights etc so just one bpass one LED.

The concept is to have a RAT as the main distortion, with something else in the other fuzz, something simple like a 1 knob fuzz perhaps. Any suggestions there would be cool!


So, will this work? Any thoughts or comments? Am I crazy?
I dont want to take on the project and not have it work and be unable to deliver as its on a time scale to get it done.

cheers

Ian

Anyone tried the (new to me) Hammond 1590B3 series enclosures?
I was searching for some new boxes and need 125b really, but found these
https://www.rapidonline.com/Catalogue/Search?Query=stomp%20box%201590b3

About 10mm wider, a tiny bit shorter maybe but about as tall.
Also, they come in nice powder coats like the rest of their line of more normal sizes...

They also do one thats kinda like a 1590a but a bit bigger called 1590G2
https://www.rapidonline.com/hammond-1590g2cb-die-cast-stomp-box-cobalt-blue-100-x-50-x-31-31-1027

And a taller 1590b called the 1590BS

https://www.rapidonline.com/hammond-1590bsrd-die-cast-stomp-box-red-112-x-60-x-38-30-7026

These all look pretty cool, gonna try the top one at least

On the 12th May I became a father for the first time.
After being 11 days late, a 3 day rollercoaster process through labour  and birth (induction, emergency foreceps, retained placenta surgery) we welcomed our daugher Isabelle (affectionately known as Izzy) to the world. Mercifully with COVID we were looked after very well and I was able to be 100% present.

All fathers Im sure say it, but truly I could not be more in awe or proud of my wife, throughout everything.

This was Izzy when she was born



This was about a week later safe at home settling into life (note the COVID haircut)



Ive been on and off learning the piano...she seemed "interested" here...



We were proud to learn she was soon accepted into Hogwarts (mother is a huge fan)



3 months old, happy again after a bad week due to vaccinations (sorry, antivaxxers)



This series of three were taken today. Im sure only a parent would find this so entertaining, but Jen and I were laughing a lot at this little series.







Its like she called a town meeting then decided to eat one of the inhabitants.

Anyway, hope you like the pictures. Now I have an official heir to my Lovetone pedal collection. She better want to learn guitar....

Ian

Hi y'all

I recently took my old Squier tele apart, and as part of tarting her up / practicing my woodworking and finishing, I replaced a long broken neck pickup.
Alongside this I also replaced the controls and switch with a standard 3-way oak grigsby, and full size pots.
I took a standard tele wiring diagram :



Problem is, its wired right (white hot, black ground) and yet in the middle position im getting a hollowed out sound with little bass. I beleive thats a phase issue.
Randomly, I also got this when I replaced the bridge pickup on my 72 reissue Custom ie- same thing bridge and neck work and sound fine in their respective positions, but in the middle, its ass. I know some people like that sound but not for me, at least not on these guitars.

Any advice as to what Ive done wrong, and how to remedy would be great.
This is somewhat an embarassment as I can clearly wire and solder things....

Cheers

Ian

Hi all

Long time no post.
Im considering attempting to put together a partscaster.
without writing an essay, its been an ambition of mine to have a relic guitar for a long time. I wanted a Danocaster but they are prohibitively expensive, and even now they started production again, its impossible to custom order and they sell them via instagram at 4am to the faster trigger finger...
That or a custom shop Fender, I suppose, and again they are even more expensive.

I figure a more affordable and perhaps fun way into the game would be to source some parts and "screw it together".
I appreciate there is more to it than simply screwing parts together.

Having said that, does anyone have any experience with MJT bodies, specifically a strat style (VTS)?
Suggestions on more economical ways, particularly in the UK, to get a aged finish on a neck would be welcome too.

Thanks!

Hi

Anyone got experience building the harbinger with LDRs other than the ones in the BOM?
Even standard Tayda ones?

Cheers

Ian

First build in what...4 or 5 months...?
Was kindly sent this PCB from DeadendFX (THANKYOU PMoulder)

Went together an absolute treat. I didnt bother with the ferrite bead, and I only had 100k/10k trims (50k/5k specified) but that doesnt make any odds really.
Tuned as per the spec (3.4v Q5 / 1.5v Q3) and sounds really fiery. The filter switches really make massive differences. Ive build three project v's now and this one was a pleasure.

Thanks!

JHS has put out a mass produced clone of his own 1995 Big Cheese
He has called it the Cheeseball which doubles the irony as Vlad from Lovetone talked of releasing a new product in 2015 called... the Cheeseball

This announcement has already drawn some Umbrage from Dan Coggins who designed the Lovetone pedals.

I say all fair in love(tone) and war - I just hope JHS did it right
I await gutshots with baited breath

Inspired by the fact that TGP have been slavering over this for some time, and the schematic is now out there (thanks Dan Schunaker)
I have built a clone of the DRV on vero. Not built anything on vero for a long time, this went together ok - make a slight bodge which the keen eyed will see.

I must admit it sounds really good - doesnt have that sag that most normal Rats do. I appreciate some people like that, but I find it a bit bothersome.
Can't beleive the price these tend to go for.

Because I wasnt bothered to save space this has gone in a 1790xx case  buffered bypass - apparently its a klon buffer but the parts values dont ring true to me from very distant memory... I could be wrong (!) 1983 because the original is 1981 and I was born in 1983 

I havent been building, well, anything, for well over a year I think. I dug out my parts box and soldering iron to build the Dinosaural OTC-201 recently, and as I was digging around for parts, I found a bag which I had clearly purchased back in about 2016 for all the components on the shopping list to make the Heavy Water - our very own AlanP's take on the ProphecySoundSystems Infinitephase. I located the PCB and one night when my wife was on nights, I started around 11:30pm and ended with the circuit ostensibly working around 4am - lights were flashing, "stonehenge" was glowing etc 

A bit of a debug later (sound kinda ground loop) and a decision to make the Phase Range trim an externally tweakable trim care of a bit of Vero, its now boxed up.
This thing really does go from phase 90 to another dimension and back again. Super cool. I heard that DeadEndFX have the blessing to bring out a production run PCB, so watch out for that in due course.

Here are some pics. The toner transfer isnt perfect, but I just got a new printer and felt it was "good enough".









Thanks to Alan for the PCB and listening to me whinge about ground hum on his thread 

Ive had a Dinosural OTC-201 for a long while now - really an amazing compressor.
When I stumbled across Aion doing a PCB I felt somewhat duty bound to build it and do a side by side
Nice story about the reverse engineer here: https://aionelectronics.com/blog/tracing-journal-dinosaural-otc-201-opticompressor/

Suffice to say I can cop all the sounds of the original. I am somewhat partially convinced that the pot tapers arent the same
My clone gets louder more quickly, in a comparative fashion turning up the level and sustain knobs. However, the levels match up at the extremes, so I beleive the pot values are accurate.

Overall, great project. Id have loved to have availed of  Aions fixing and enclusure kit, but alas out of stock. It did mean that I could use a really nice silver hammered paint enclosure I have been stashing for oooh 7 years...!

Enjoy pics.

Following up from my earlier video comparison, I decided to add an XO Memory Man into the mix
So we have four pedals, the same loop, blind test. Two runs, with the order changed.
There will be PCB PIF for the first person to guess the right order - you only get one chance though!

The pedals in the test (from oldest to newest)

- 90s Reissue big box (EC2000) with 2x Panasonic MN3005 chips and true bypass via 3PDT
- 00s Reissue big box (EC2002revE) with 4x Panasonic MN3008 chips and relay true bypass
- Current issue XO (EC-D25revB) with 4x Panasonic MN3008 chips and true bypass via 3PDT
- Madbean Total Recall that I built with 2x Panasonic MN3005 chips, and true bypass by 3PDT

All four have had R2 changed to a 1Meg Trim pot (Analogman Input Impendance mod) and set according to my taste, in the context of the rest of the trim alignment
All four have had the clock capacitor changed, such that the clock frequency is as close to 7.5khz at max delay time as possible, for ~550ms

Answers on a postcard (in this thread)

Round 1
A-
B-
C-
D-

Round 2
A-
B-
C-
D-

Hi

A friend of mine asked me to compare my Deluxe Memory Man pedals.
Here is the video. Below is some blurb from me.

I actually have four. One is a beat up older revision of the 90s reissue, with 2x MN3005 chips, and true bypass by 3PDT
The second one is a really clean later revision of the big box, with 4x MN3008 chips, with relay true bypass
Thirdly, I have a Total Recall that I built with 2x MN3005 chips, and true bypass by 3PDT

Not featured is my XO Reissue in the small die cast case. This has 4x MN3008 chips, and true bypass via 3PDT
I did a comparison myself and this sounds very close to the others, too.

I should note that for all these pedals (even the unfeatured XO), the 100k input resistor has been changed to a 1Meg trim, and typically set to between 300k-500k
Anyone who has built this circuit knows that tweaking all of the many trims is an artform, and the different delay chips, feedback trim positions etc define how much you want to drive the front end of the preamp, hence the variation. This is referred to as the Analogman input impedance mod (although Im sure Howard Davis would take credit also).
Additionally, I have tried to clock the max delay time as close to 7.5khz as I can, by tacking on small parallel capacitors around the 240pF stock cap, which is frequently referred to as the Analogman clock or delay time mod. Analogman goes a bit far in my opinion pushing it to 600ms delay time; mine are clocked for as close to 550ms as is reasonable. YMMV but I dont really need that much delay time (I think the sweet spot is about 400-450ms, depending on play style) and once you go to 600ms+ there is a clear introduction of ring-mod-ish sounding clock noise artefacts.

For what its worth, I think any of the pedals I have really work for the classic DMM sound (eg the Edge, Eric Johnson and many others) and the corksniffers will tell you the MN3005 ones are the best. The honest truth is, whichever one is biased and set up the best will sound the nicest. A poorly calibrated MN3005 will sound like ass compared to an XO, or a 4x3008 clone done right.

The Big Box ones are undeniably cool, but in real estate starved boards particularly for live/road use, I see no reason not to build a Total Recall.

Enjoy, and happy to answer questions.

Hey all

Recently got an EHX EC2000 early 90s MN3005 memory man
it was DOA, expected (acquired as for parts / to fix).
addressed all the obvious issues, replaced all the op amps.
I have fully operating delay controls, but no clean sound mixed in.

Anyone familiar with this know what I should check next?
I havent changed out the compander, or delay chips as that all sounds "legit", and the schematic makes me think its just something simply like a cold joint or a dead cap on the PCB. Nothing obvious to the eye though.

this is the closest schematic I could get
http://bee.mif.pg.gda.pl/ciasteczkowypotwor/SM_scena/Electro-Harmonix/Electro-Harmonix-Deluxe-Memory-Man-Delay-Reissue-(Rev.A)-Schematic.pdf


I have changed out the blend pot, no difference. So I am reckoning its something to do with
R1 / R2 / R3
C1 / C2
R28

Otherwise I dont really see where I am losing the clean sound.
I can of course audio probe in due course.

Scruffy?!

HI

Are any reputable quality PCB makers currently doing boards for the Boss Blues driver BD-2, and the Hot Cake
While I am asking, does anyone know what R Keeley does to the BD-2 for his fabled mods?

thanks

Ian

Looks like Boss listen to the internet

https://www.boss.info/uk/products/dc-2w/
https://www.boss.info/uk/products/mt-2w/

The latter will keep the memes rolling, surely.

I am actually very keen to get the DC-2w assuming the price isnt horrific...

Just had to show off my fresh-from-the-postman Clusterfuzz JR in, I beleive limited edition, doo-doo brown sparkle.
Its really cool!

Thanks so much Brian for this most wonderful of prizes

Hi

Drawing your guys attention to my latest post on the Build of the Year thread, Not to humble brag, I just want to make sure eligible parties see this

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=27400.msg266658#msg266658

My only wish (not quite stipulation) is that if you do win, that the prize attempts to stay in the Madbean fraternity, and preferably not sold, rather PIF'd or traded.

Best

Ian (Lace)