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I commonly see posts about electrolytic or tantalum capacitor's having 'short' life expectancy.  Is this really something to worry about?  I've seen plenty of pedals built in the 60's and 70's with perfectly functioning caps... i'm sure if they're used a lot the capacitance could have changed.  Also it seems that amps with failed power caps tend to be ones that were out of use for long periods of time. 

I found this calculator on the illnois website.  I'm not sure of the "load life expectancy" but I plugged in some common values and it looks like these nichicon caps I have could outlive me plugged in 3 hours a day.

I'm trying to see exactly what component selections the original klons had... or at least one of those versions... I'm not a klon buff.  But I cannot seem to find any gutshots of the klon degooped?  I was under the impression that all of the 1uf caps were polarized, and there is a combination of carbon and metal film resistors... but i'm seeing variation on the web between different projects and whatnot.

can someone lead me to some info for building an exact klone?

With the LED limiting has successfully allowed a deep blue delay clone more headroom on the input by running it at 18v... this is now my 2nd favorite delay ever only short of the deluxe memory man. 

With the moodring now having the LED limiting on the pt2399 would running it at 18v be a good improvement?  i had a ghost echo that distorted a bit with humbuckers when picked hard

So I dont have any 15v regulators.  Would it be possible to build a 15v charge pump using zeners to get the input voltage down to 7.5v or less?  or would that be risky?

Thanks!

Oh, and I'm also wondering if there are any mods out there that I'm missing? 

So... I seem to remember my first zendrive build a few years ago.  bat41's, 2n700's, and ad712 were all i saw as parts recommendations.  I go to look at schematics again and now it seems like i'm seeing more people using the 1458 opamp and even 1n34a's as diodes.  Then I see 2 back to back bat41's with the other one a 1n34a...

Is there any general consensus or is it all unknown?  I'm curious because I just built my first one that doesnt sound good... I used 2 bat 41's (.32mv) , 1xnos germanium measured at .36mv, and 2x2n7000's and an ad712 that I paid $3.50 for. 

I never even thought about measuring forward voltage of mosfets but now thinking about it i'm using 2n7000's i ordered from tayda (I've gotten 1n34a's that measured a .75mv voltage drop haha)

I also feel like increasing the gain increases some dirty undertones... and going counter clockwise on the voice pot really affects how much gain i have... almost more so than the gain pot. 

I've tried several opamps and they do greatly affect the sound but none of them have made it great sounding.  it's not absolutely terrible and it works.  it's just not quite there.

any ideas would be appreciated!

I ordered 4 madbean baby boards in order to attempt my first 1590a builds.

Regarding the jacks- could I use my neutrik open metal frame jacks on some of my smaller baords- I ordered the runt, egghead, bacon bits and afterlife... i realize the runt is probably going to need the low profile jacks so that the board will fit over jacks inside the enclosure.

But maybe the bacon bits or the egghead- could I use the neutrik open metal jacks?
I do have low profile lytics, tants, dc jacks, dipped ceramics and panasonic EC series. So i will be low profile everywhere else... I also have a low profile 3pdt from BLMS- so I could use that if yall think its needed with my regular sized jacks

I unfortunately missed out on the dirtbaby's short stock and I went ahead and tried the LED limiting mod on my deep blue delay... unfortunately I think its killing my pt2399's.

i am definitely going from pin 7 to pin4.

will this mod work on a deep blue clone?  or do i need to do something else to the circuit?

Anyone try the mammoth wah parts?  particularly the inductor and s taper pot? 

should i just throw down on smallbear wah parts?

So i've always felt like parts bought from tayda were of lower quality.  I mean i know the resistors arent xicon the electrolytics are actually like consistently 15% below listed value.  and the faded lettering on the opamps was suspect... I've only recently begun to test this theory.  And I tested it on parts that I thought were the same- Alpha pots.  I have a bunch of 25k linear pots from tayda and small bear on hand.  They are both solid shaft 16mm alpha pots... I guess I didnt think there would be a difference.  But there is!

I had 8 of these from small bear and 8 from tayda (double ordered on accident)
all of the pots from smallbear measured between 24.5k and 25.6k (which I know is tighter tolerance than listed by alpha)  the pots from tayda ranged from 21.8 to 28.7.  i've noticed this before, just never really tried to do a direct comparison with a decent sample size.  I just assumed the pots were the same- i'm beginning to think they're not though... anyone else have any thoughts?

Now I'm wondering about these burr brown opamps from tayda... ive compared the JRC4558's directly and noticed huge differences in sound.  the faded printing is very suspect.

Maybe this is obvious, but what parts are good from tayda- i stopped ordering their transistors, diodes (after they sent me 1n914's labelled as 1n34a's) and fets a while ago.  humppphhhhh.  maybe the question is where is the best place to get quality components for cheap?  mouser absolutely pisses me off- their ordering system and random outrageously ridiculous prices.   

Sorry for the long and somewhat aimless post-- ordering parts is like my least favorite thing to do and I'm in need of some parts soon.

***as a side note I opened up an EQD Tone Reaper and saw they had some TINY 10uf 25v electrolytics from nichicon- i mean they look like the 0.47uf electroltyics found in old boss pedals- i've never seen these before.  anyone use them?  Theyd be killer for 1590a builds that u wanna run at 18v.

The 9v electric mistress projects are popular i see tonepad's project is a 9v version too.  how do these compare to the deluxe electric mistress?  I absolutely love the DEM (I cannot believe it took me this long to try one haha! one of the coolest pedals ever) but I hate how big those dang aluminum big box ehx effects are.

Can anyone tell me how much different the madbean mistress build and a big box DEM are going to sound?  Is the madbean project a replica of the very first mistress?  i'm having trouble figuring out the history and changes of the "9-18v electric mistress"

I was wondering if you can turn down the delay time on the moodring enough to make it reverb only or if there's a way to bypass the delay circuit.  i've built a clone of the EQD Ghost Echo according to the vero layout at sabrotone, but my minimum attack (delay) time is still pretty considerable. 

So can anyone tell me what the minimum delay time is on the moodring or if you can bypass the delay circuit completely and get verb only?  Thatd be pretty ultimate!

Thanks!

I searched around but couldnt find anything definitive. 

what changes were made to the dirtbag from lets say a 90's reissue deluxe memory man?  i'm just wondering because i want to build the new dirtbag deluxe when it gets released, but i'm wondering how close to the big box mn3008 DMM's it will be.  Im just worried i wont be able to capture the authentic magic found in a DMM reissue from the late 90's! 

also I was wondering this about the current lover.  it says in the project that its meant to be run at 9v but can be run at 15v with the mn3007 bbd.  isnt part of the original electric mistress sound due to the fact that its being run at a higher voltage?  what does "its meant to be run at 9v" mean exactly.

I've built a clone of the earthquaker ghost echo previously and have a few qualms with it (maybe solveable, not sure) I wanna have a more pure reverb with the minimum delay setting- like if i turn the delay all the way minimum on my GE clone i still have more delay than i want for that particular use.  probably easily fixable just havent looked into it.  is that possible with the moodring.

also when i run dirt pedals into it, i feel it doesnt have much headroom, even when im using humbuckers it dirtys up a bit.  is there any way to adjust input gain without ruining the circuit or run higher voltages with the moodring for more headroom and less input distortion?  i'm interested in a higher voltage belton reverb in general, would that require any specific modifications to the regulator?

I tried posting this in general discussion but tap a talk aint letting me.  I need a new amp for stage volume and i figured here would be a great place to ask my question.

Been lookin at jc120s because theyre cheap on the used market, loud and have stereo capabilities.  Stereo isnt nessesary but a nice addition.

I was wondering how well these amps work with amp in the box style pedals?  And pedals in general.  Ive loved my blackface 65 and my ampeg amp in box pedals and having a good platform for those would be killer! 

What do u guys think about these ampa with pedala versus a twin reverb or similar tube amp?

I ask because ive heard they dont do fuzz well... maybe amp in box pedal at 18v vould fix that?

Thanks!

I remember finding a link from here at madbean to a DIY site that had projects for some crazy stuff... like a digitally controlled effects loop amp selector project, and a effects loop with analog filters built in... also had some standard pedal projects.  More synthy type stuff too.

now I dont see the link and I cant remember the name of the site.  What happened?  Anyone got any info for me?

Thanks!

I was just looking for a fuzz factory schematic and I saw this... never come across this on the beavis site before.

all resistors are tanatlum unless otherwise noted-- heh... ive actually been wondering about using tantalum resistors in certain places on a little super simple tube amp. but oh well

I know this has been discussed to death, but I've been searching for answers for the past hour and cant find much definitive.

Old big box DMMs- MN3008 vs 3005- really not much difference?  are they all run at higher voltage?  I saw a bunch of people saying 24v but thats not right is it? 
Are all the big box memory man's using either 3008's or 3005's and run at higher voltages?

From video demoes and my own experience the new Deluxe Memory Man in the diecast enclosures dont sound nearly as good... but i've never compared side by side.  They repeats dont seem to meld as well, dont seem as warm, organic, and really dont flow as well when doing rhythmic stuff.  EHX claims they're using NOS panasonic chips- whats the deal here?  mn3205's?  The tap tempo, fx loop, and expression pedal options would make this thing so freakin ultimate... but it doesnt sound the same does it?

I see smallbear still sells mn3008's at $20 a pop- if so many people are getting ripped off with mn3005's is the hang up with making a 4x mn3008 board the difficulty in calibrating?

Does the aquaboy have more like DM2 quality repeats or are they higher quality DMM style repeats?

Thanks so much- itd be nice to have these answers in one simple post for the people.  Sorry, i'm sure its been covered but i havent been able to sort the fluff in over an hour.  I'm about to just buy an old big box DMM and call it a day on that.  now how about them legit mn3005's

I absolutely love belton reverb circuits.  I absolutely wish I could love stuff like the eventide space, ehx cathedral, digitech hardwire stuff, all those other reverbs... I'm a reverb nut and I like huge spacious reverbs just as much as anyone, and I like a lot more than just spring reverb.  But after messing with several of these belton based reverbs I just cant get on with anything else- they sound so f'ing good- I was even disappointed with the strymon Flint pedal the other day.  I mean it was nice, but just not belton nice. 

Does anyone know of any delay or echo circuits that use the belton brick.  I seem to remember reading that someone had an echo that used a couple belton bricks wired up to get you some delay type effects.  I know there's the ghost echo by earthquaker that uses a pt2399 with a belton module- are their any other circuits out there similar to that?  I cant wait to put the ghost echo into the fx loop of my multiplex delay. 

I'm gonna go try the strymon blue sky and see how I feel about it- but I dont know about throwing that kind of cash for another strymon pedal.  Any rack units at better prices that can compare?  Like I said, I love my beltons wayyy more than the strymon flint.

I measured the forward voltage drop on some 1n4729 3.6v zener diodes I got from tayda.  I'm getting between .5v and .75v and I found a data sheet that says the forward voltage drop should be 1.2v for these.

I'm building a clone of the death by audio robot (uses ht8950 chip) should I try to get some that measure 1.2v forward drop or does it really matter?

thanks!

I'm building a rig especially for effects- goin damage control tube pre>cab sim>delay, reverbfilter, modulation pedals>Full range power amp>either a thiele type ported cab with some near full range speakers like EV's or Altecs- gona try full range PA speakers too

anyways- I need a headphone practice option too.  The damage control preamp has a cab sim, but I might like to try the condor and such too.

I was wondering if anyone had experience with a couple things.
-Good cab sims
-Ruby Amp with headphone jack- are impedances important with other headphone amps
- also wondering how well the amp in a box pedals like the wampler blackface 65 work with cab sims direct?  itd be cool to get some alternate preamp recording options.  I love the amp in box pedals into a clean fender amp.  Wondering if using a cab sim with a headphone amp would be a good small practice rig to keep around my apartment?

I see the AMT legend pedals have a built in cab sim and are made for recording direct.  those cool (not really into modern amp sounds like soldanos and mesas)?  or should i go with a wampler black 65 with a built in cab sim and headphone amp for my practice rig?
Thanks a bunch!