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Hey guys, so I've been etching quite a while and I can't seem to find a good solution to removing fingerprints from my enclosures. I have tried using lighter fluid with mixed results. Obviously, you cannot keep oils off completely, but if I want to sell something I would like it to be oil free. Any advice would be great!

Thanks,
Jon

I was wondering what kind of glue people use for faceplates? I'm building a tremolo inside a wah enclosure so the only thing holding the faceplate will be the glue. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! 

Hey guys, here are some builds I've been working on during my break from reality!

Shoot the Moon w/ internal gain trim pot: I was able to gently  bend the legs of the trim to fit it on the PCB. I definitely prefer the gain as an internal trim. Unfortunately I did not have a 100kC for the rate pot, which I think is an improvement over the recommended 100KB.



Ultra-Stoner w/ mid control - what a beast of a circuit this is! I need to sell this thing to make some cash, but I'm having a hard time letting it go!



Galacticon Phase Shifter - The blend knob adds some versatality and additional subtlety for those who like like to use their phaser as a side dish rather than the main course.    I still prefer it with the blend a 12 o'clock like a standard Phase 45. It's subtle enough for me! I'm redesigning this one now with an added switch for the 10:1 cap ratio vibe mod, which sounds really nice!

Hey guys, I am just about finished designing a 1590B version of the Small Clone Chorus and was hoping to get a fresh set of eyes to make sure I did not miss anything when I drew the schematic. It should match the tonepad version found here:

http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=97

I was also curious if the 1uF caps are in the audio path, and if so, if they need to be electrolytic or could be film instead???

Here is my schematic:


(FYI the overlapping lines are not connected unless there is a dot at the junction)
Any help/advice would be much appreciated . 

Thanks,
Jon

Hey guys, I am trying to put together a Weener Wah build and I am uncertain if any of these caps are polarized.  I bought them in a local surplus shop and none of them were listed as electrolytic, but I'm not familiar with these and wanted to double check that these will work in my build. Also, are any of these junk? If so let me know so don't use them...

Thanks in advance!
Jon W

So I am passing sound but have no delay with my Aquaboy DX build. I am using "verified" MN3005's I bought here off the forum and am running at 9V. I omitted D2/D3 as required. Here are my voltages:

IC1 (LF353)
1: 4.47
2: 4.47
3: 4.45
4: 0 
5: 4.45
6: 4.47
7: 4.46
8: 8.96

IC2 (NE570 compander)
1: .02
2: 1.80
3: 1.80
4: 0
5: 1.21
6: 1.18
7: 8.24
8: 1.81
9: 1.81
10: 4.48
11: 4.48
12: 1.82
13: 8.95
14: 1.80
15: 1.80
16: .22

IC3/IC4 (MN3005's)
1: 8.74
2: 4.38
3: 3.31
4: 3.31
5: 0
6:4.38
7: 3.06
8: .60

Edit: here are the correct MN3101 values (I measured the wrong device initially)

IC5 (MN3101)
1: 8.75
2: 4.39
3: 0
4: 4.38
5:4.11
6:4.47
7: 4.08
8: 0.6

Edit: here are the correct TL062 values (I measured the wrong device initially)

IC6 - TL062
1: variable (~0.68-8.3V)
2: variable (~4.0-5.06V)
3: variable (~3.64-4.97V)
4: 0
5: variable (~3.87-5.06)
6: variable (~4.01-5.02)
7: variable (~3.87-5.04)
8: 8.97

HELP Please!!! (Thanks in advance)

Hey guys, here is my latest build. It's a Madbean LaVache with an added 3P4T daughterboard that I designed in Eagle. I designed the daughterboard so I could add a tri-colored LED, which indicates which clipping mode is engaged. I'm glad I finally got around to putting this one together. I really like the way this one sounds and will be adding it to my board before my next show!

Here are the pics:







And the Video demo:

If anyone is interested in the daughterboard, I shared this project through Osh Park. You can order them in sets of three here for about $9 per set:

http://oshpark.com/shared_projects/RPgVw4io

Or you can etch your own! To learn more, check out my build doc here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_GM88jXYKryRjZ1YTZyTExlLU0/edit?usp=sharing

Cheers,
Jon

Hey madbeaners, here is a new one I put together from the Screamin' Baby PCB. It's a stock Tube Screamer designed for a 1590A, based off of the open source schematic Brian posted in the extra projects forum. Thanks again Brian! It sounds great; much better than my tonepad screamer which barely gets above unity volume. I had to get a little creative to fit it in the 1590A with PCB mounted pots on this one. In order to use the right angle 9mm alphas I had to cut off the metal mouting pins on the bottom side of the pots and I elected to place the electrolitic caps on the bottom side of the PCB so there was ample room for the 9VDC jack at the top of the ecnlosure. I also ran out of 1uF MLCC's so I soldered the larger box caps to the bottom side of the board as well. All and all a great solution when your components are larger than the space provided (as long as the pots aren't in the way!). I threw up a pic of the bottom side of the PCB so you can see what I'm talking about. The artwork is from Frank Miller's Sin City. It's Marv! I have used this one in the past on TS-808's I've made but this is the first one I've etched, which means I'm keeping this one for myself (I hate waterslide decals!).  

Here is what I put together over the weekend. It's a Phase 45 clone that I decided to call the Galacticon Phase Shifter. I put it together using a schematic I found on pedal geeks united, which appeared to be very similar to the Madbean Smoothie schematic. In fact, the only difference was the use of a TL074 in place of the two 72's and I decided to modify it and use the 72's to make the layout tighter. I am getting ready to verify a new board with a very similar layout that has the depth mod added on. I like my phasers subtle so I'm excited to hear it in action. That is... if it works!    If so, I will have a few extra boards up for grabs so I will keep people posted...

Cheers,

Jon

Here is a Tone Bender MKII I've been working on for my nephews birthday. He told me he wanted a pedal that would make him sound like Jimmy Page. I told him it would take a lot more than a pedal to sound like Page but I would see what I could do.

I created this layout in eagle and had the boards fabbed at Osh Park. I'm pretty excited that I was able to fit PCB mounted pots and an led inside a 1590A. I used the right angle 9mm alpha's and they work great. The circuit is an MKII with added noise filtering and a voltage inverted. All credit goes to Brian for the voltage inverter (road rage) and Fuzz Central for the MKII schematic.

For the etch I intentionally pulled some of the toner off using blue painters tape. I thought that it would look cool with extra pitting. I was initially going to sand off the black paint and leave only the text/images black, but I fell in love with the black on black look. I actually wet sanded the surface with a 600 to give the raised part a matte finish. It really makes the graphics pop. If I could go back I would call the pedal Black Magic!

I have more of these boards coming soon if anyone is interested in picking one up.

Cheers,
Jon

Warning: Star Wars content below!

I decided to pull apart my cave dweller and redo the wiring and enclosure. The old graphics were done on a waterslide decal and I wanted to make it more durable. It also annoyed me to no end that it said "analog delay" on the decal, which it is definitely not! It was my first delay and I didn't realize it was digital. Anyway, I decided to call it the Dark Side Delay since it is such a beautifully dark delay. The red LED looks super evil!

Here is another Plimsoul clone that I had fabbed. For this one I decided to remove the ground/9V planes in hopes that I could eliminate some noise issues I had with the last one. I also used a 10KB pot for gain and a 50kA for volume to help mitigate the issues. I'm not having any issues with it other than a high pitched squeal when the pedals output is plugged into the amp and guitar is not plugged into the input. Anyone know what would cause this?

I also chose a bolder font for this one and used a brushed copper enclosure from PPP. This is the first enclosure I've bought from them and I am extremely happy with it. These "brushed" finish enclosures are great for laser etching. From what I can tell, the brushed finish is actually achieved by sanding the enclosure prior to powder coating. It eliminates the possibility of blemishes beneath the surface and would be perfect for etching large areas.

I have to say I love this pedal right now. It is a very smooth/creamy OD and it does clean up nicely when I reduce the volume on my guitar. If I could just get rid of that noise I would be satisfied!

So a couple years ago a friend of mine asked me if I could help him sell some things on ebay. One of the items was a Guild Foxey Lady. I was just getting into pedal building and I knew very little about the pedal so I did enough research to find out that it was a precursor to the Big Muff. I wasn't sure how much it was worth, but I did figure that it was sought after. If I only knew...  I posted it for $400 and added a buy it now price of $600, which I assumed was way too high. After 5 minutes I went to double check my post (I forgot to proof read it) and the pedal was sold! 5 freakin minutes!!! I all of a sudden realized what a mistake I made in posting a buy it now price and I will never do that again with vintage gear! Anyway, my friend had no idea it would be worth so much and was happy to get that so I guess it's no big deal. The bummer is I almost just bought it off of him before I did the research for $100 bucks. Oh well!

Here is a Fulltone Plimsoul clone using a pcb I designed using the Soul Trane schematic that Brian generously shared in the extra projects forum. I finally found a trophy shop that does laser etching and I am pretty happy with the results. I think I will be a little more picky with font type next time but it looks great overall. There has been some mixed reviews on this circuit here on the forum but I think it sounds great.

I noticed that the BOM mistakenly calls for 1N914 for the D4/D5 clipping diodes instead of LED's and I'm wondering if that is why some have complained about issues with the circuit when gain and volume are towards max settings. I tried 1N914's and BAT 46's and had issues with them. They still sounded nice (especially the BAT 46's) but I got noise/oscillation in stage 2 with volume/gain approaching max. When I put 5mm red diffuse LED's in the noise went away! I have BAT 46's in there now, but I will most likely replace them once I get some 3mm LED's that will fit with my layout. I have also heard complaints about excessive gain but, although there is plenty of gain on tap, I think the pedal cleans up nicely. I tried the circuit with the suggested 100KA pots for volume and gain and also 50KA's (as others have suggested) and I did not think the 50KA's made much of a difference (if any). In the end, I went with the suggested 100KA's and I'm happy with them. I will try to get a demo up soon if anyone is interested...

Jon

Hey guys, I had a soultrane pcb (Fulltone Plimsoul) fabbed and I'm it sounds great except when the gain is maxed out and volume is high (others have reported this issue). I honestly don't mind too much because I would never want to max out the gain, but I have extra boards I would like to sell and was hoping there was a way I could eliminate the squeal/oscillation. Others have tried changing the volume pot to a 50K. Is this a good solution or are there better alternatives?

Does anyone have a source for a 9MM Dual Gang PCB mount right angle B100K alpha? I was able to find a couple A100K's on Ebay but I can't seem to find one of these.

Jon

I was on the Pedal Parts Plus website today and noticed that they no longer have a $100 charge for screen printing. I talked to them and they apparently got a new machine that does not require them to create a silk screen. They say the quality is better too. I love DIY, but I will definitley give this a try. It's $10 for one enclosure and the price drops significantly for anything over that (I think second one is under $6) Oh and they can now do any image! Full color, etc.  Just thought I'd share with my peeps. If anyone has tried this yet I'd love to hear about the results.  

Jon

Okay, so I am finally taking the time to learn how to debug and I figured I would start with my very first build. It's a BYOC TS clone with extra bells/whistles. I used mosfet clipping option, mosfet boost and IC is Mosfet as well. I actually think that it's possible that one or two solder pads is disconnected from the traces. One of the lugs for the tone pot in particular is mangled beyond belief and that may just be the issue. I was using a crappy Walmart soldering iron and I overheated and melted all sorts of stuff. If I can get this working properly it will definitely be my Frankenstein pedal! Thanks in advance for taking the time to help out. If there is any info that would be helpful that I'm leaving out, please let me know. I don't want to pull the pots unless I have to so I can't really show what's going on underneath. Here is what I've got:

IC1 (CA3260E)

P1 = 4.48
P2 = 4.48
P3 = 4.47
P4 = 0.01
P5 = 4.39
P6 = 5.01
P7 = 4.48
P8 = 8.98


Q1

C = 8.97
B = 2.87
E = 3.67

Q2

C =8.97
B = 2.88
E = 3.69

Q3 (mosfet Boost section, seems to work perfectly)

C = 4.48
B = 4.48
E = 4.01

Q? (mosfet clipping section, seems to work)

C = 0.37
B = 2.36
E = 5.24

Q? (mosfet clipping section, seems to work)

C = 4.02
B = 4.04
E = 4.48

And the horror show Pics:  

I have been messing around with eagle for a while now and I finally decided to send some of my layouts to Oshpark. This one is a modified layout of the open source Shoot the Moon. I love the circuit so I didn't make any changes other than adding a pad to hook the speed indicator LED to the 3PDT so I could shut it off when in bypass mode. I also decided to use a C100K pot for speed, but I looked over my build today and noticed that the supplier sent me an A100K by mistake. No wonder it seemed even more bunched up than my other STM!!!   Oh well it still sounds great to me and maybe I'll change it down the road.

I wanted to try something different with the 1590A so I decided to go with a landscape orientation. This was partially inspired by Jubal81's Voxy Brown from last months build off. What a great build! I loved the layout and thought it would be cool to try the same with a 1590A. It isn't all that practical considering the 1590A is supposed to save space, but oh well! It was still a lot of fun (most of the time)!

I spent quite a bit of time worrying about how I would fit the board with mounted 9mm pots and a 3pdt, but it turns out that was the easy part! The hard part was fitting the input jack and the DC jack next to each other. I had to drill out the corners where the screws go but all 4 screws still fit tight. It worked out in the end but I don't think I'll be trying this again anytime soon! I was originally going to do a laser etch with this one at a local shop but the paint job had too many blemishes on the top surface so I decided to do another faceplate. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out, but I do wish the etch was a little bit deeper.

Not too much to say about the STM that hasn't already been said. It's a great tremolo and it goes from silky smooth to super choppy and everything in between. If I do build this one again I may opt to make the gain pot an internal trim as it is mostly a set if and forget it function for me...

Cheers,
Jon

I finally got around to building my Christmas PIF. Thanks again to BRGPollen for the Little Angel board and enclosure. Since the project is called the little angel I decided to use one of my favorite photos of my daughter looking out at the Columbia River. I know... kind of cheesy but as many of you know, daughters bring that out in us .

My impressions of the Lil Angel... Well... It won't be replacing my Porkbarrel any time soon, but it is really transparent and I was able to find a couple sweet spots that I really like. It can go from very subtle to over the top modulation. I prefer the more subtle settings with regards to both rate and depth...

I decided to mix it up a bit with my drill layout this time. I thought it would be a tight fit but it wasn't really that bad. I used one of those new "Pro" switches that Mammoth sells and it definitely feels a lot nicer than the Taiwan Blue. I am glad we spent the extra $$$ on those switches in the group buy...

Cheers,
Jon