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Kind board members,
Last year I built the BYOC Large Beaver to Triangle era specs and I also implemented the clipping mods suggested by duhvoodooman about halfway down this post.  Basically I added two additional clipping options J201's and Red LEDs that can be selected instead of the 1N914's in the second clipping stage.

The Large Beaver includes a tone stack for the typical scooped mid, along with flat mid, mid boost and tone stack lift.  If I use this pedal I tend to go between mid boost or lift the tone stack completely, in conjunction with the Red LEDs for clippers.  Here's my build report that has a demo at the end:  http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=9471.msg83027#msg83027

That being said, I don't use fuzz very often.  I tend to use overdrive(s) or the drive channel of my Guytron GT20 for crunch/distortion tones.  When I do use fuzz, I think I like the thick, woolly fuzz tone over the scooped tone.

That being said, I can't help to think that I'm missing something when it comes to fuzz.  I'm tempted to build a couple different fuzz circuits to see, but I don't know if I really would get anything "different" than what the Large Beaver provides.  I'm intrigued by the fact that they are typically low parts count so I could whip out a couple different sounding pedals without much hooha.  I have not tried an octave based fuzz, so maybe that's an option. 

So I guess that's the question...what am I missing?  Or maybe I'm just an overdrive guy and the Large Beaver fits the bill, giving me plenty of options whenever I do use it. 

Thoughts?  Thanks!     

Here's a set of 4 Aion Refractors (klones).  These were part of my first batch of Envirotex.  Really like how these turned out.  I'll be using that finishing technique for the foreseeable future, as it produces great results. 

These sound great.  I used 1N695's with Fv that measured around .260-.270, matched as close as possible. 


4 Horsemen by Jonathan Payne, on Flickr


4 Horsemen by Jonathan Payne, on Flickr


4 Horsemen by Jonathan Payne, on Flickr

Saw this on Reddit. Thought you guys might dig it.   "For when you need tone that's all in..."




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here are three Aion Cerulean boards built to Morning Glory specs.  Really just excellent boards and build docs.  He packs a ton of options on this board, either to build a stock Bluesbreaker, a King of Tone or a Morning Glory, complete with a couple of clipping options.  The pads for the clipping options are six pads per side, to make it easy to incorporate tranny clipping or diodes in series.  Anyway, a great board all the way around. 

These, along with the 4 Klones up next, are my first envirotex finishes.  Man I really like how these turned out.  It definitely took some babysitting for about a couple of hours, but once they firm up and you're not getting any running, they do turn out nice. 

As far as the pedal goes, I was looking for something different from the BYOC OD2 (TS 808), Klone and BYOC Large Beaver I have on the pedalboard, and boy is it.  There is a lot more presence in this pedal, and you can dial in even more with the internal trimmer on the board.  The Bright Cut switch helps and I like the inclusion of a Less option for finding the right balance with the Tone knob. 

For the clipping options I went with the 4148's in series for the Morning Glory and then i went with the 2N7000 & 1N34A combo, like the Zendrive, for the second clipping option.  I really like the Zen option.  That'll probably be the setting I keep it on. 

Next up I've four Klones to build for a few buddies.  Oh and I'm keeping the one in the middle, while one is going to a buddy in Birmingham who loves his treble drives and the other to a friend from church that I play with. 


morning glories-1 by Jonathan Payne, on Flickr


morning glories-2 by Jonathan Payne, on Flickr

Doh, so I accidentally reversed the internal trimmer on my 3 Cerulean builds.  I actually don't think it makes a difference, but can someone take a look at the schematic and let me know if I need to worry about desolder three trimmers and swapping it around?  Build Doc is here:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/qd09xn12lnol10q/aion-cerulean-bb-documentation.pdf

Many thanks!!

Hey guys,
Let me run this design by you one more time.  Again, due to what turned out to be rather crappy yellow anodized enclosures from PPP, I'm attempting to camouflage some of discoloration.  This will be for a Morning Glory build.  I didn't want to go with flowers, but I did want something along the stained glass theme.  This design actually incorporates some flowers and foliage in the design so I think it works. 

I worked on the legibility of the knob and switch labels.  It's only a three knob pedal, so I'm not real worried about me or a buddy forgetting what the knobs do, but I do want to be able to read the function.  At any rate, the bile colored yellow-green is pretty close to the color of the enclosure.  Lovely, yes? 

Thoughts on legibility?  Design?  Hate it?  Well, if you hate it, I prolly won't change it because I'm ready to build the freakin' thing. 

Oh, and want to hear something funny?  I was completely re-thinking this design and was like, "I'm going to be like davent and come up with some amazing artistic design that incorporates like a Banksy painter painting on the enclosure trying to cover up the bad spots and then I could do this and that cool thing and it's going to be the most beautiful pedal I've ever made!".  I even went and dug up davent's pedals and checked out the art and started reading through everything he does, and was quickly overwhelmed.  So I came back to this.  It was like I got inspired to draw a picture and thought I'd use the Sistine chapel as inspiration.  Yeah, not so much. 

At any rate, let me know your thoughts.  I'm ready to get one of these built up. 

So I just received my first enclosure order from PedalPartsPlus; 3 translucent copper, 2 translucent gold and 2 anodized yellow 125b boxes.  The translucent copper and gold finishes look fantastic.  However, the anodized yellow boxes look... well, like crap. 




As you can see, there's a lot of discoloration on the top of the box.  Pretty much none on the sides, but there are some spots of bubbling on the sides.  I can't really tell if it's blemishes on the enclosure itself showing through or the actual finish.  It looks more like the finish to me.  I emailed them about it and was basically told that "there's nothing wrong with the powder coating; that's just an attribute of that color.  The anodized colors are translucent, so all the variations on the enclosure will show through.  If you don't want to see those variations, you will need to purchase "non translucent" colors."

Okay, but I can't say I'm convinced it's the enclosure and not the finish.  At any rate, they would exchange them but I'd have to pay shipping both ways. 

So, what do you guys think?  Enclosure or finish?  Either way it looks like I'm stuck with a couple boxes that look kind of crappy.  These were going to friends, so now I'm rethinking my graphics design to see if I can cover up the problem areas.  Probably the last time I order an anodized finish though.  Either that or I'll have to get them to polish the box first. 

Hey guys,
I'm putting together a master parts spreadsheet complete with Mouser part numbers and I was wondering if I should be concerned with the micro current (Zener current) ratings for diodes.  For instance, these Vishay 1N4742's are 76mA, while the Fairchild's are 21mA.  All other values are the same, except for the price of course. 

Thanks!

Full post in Build Reports

I've been sitting on this Multiplex Jr build for a while, but finally got around to it over the weekend.  I actually finished up the box in December, along with a few other enclosures.  Doing them in batches sure makes things easier.

I typically run two delays on my board, one set for short, very slight slapback, which is always on and a second delay for more ambient stuff.  I was really excited about adding this to the pedal board for the ambient stuff, and it does not disappoint.  Great sounding delay and the modulation can get pretty crazy.  No mods, just socketed C13 & C15 to dial back the modulation if I ever need to.  Although I don't see myself doing that at this point.  Great board & great BOM.

I wasted about 1/4" of space at the top on the front, but I would've run into problems with the DC jack if I'd moved everything up.  With board mounted pots, I should've either gotten the ones with longer lugs or drilled the DC jack closer to the bottom of the enclosure.  Live & learn.





And here's the Bearhug I've been working on since last April.  Man, talk about a comedy of errors on this one.  I built version 1 of the Bearhug and could get it working on the test rig, but couldn't get it to work when boxed.  I set it aside and then decided to build version 2 when Jon put out some changes.  Again, got it to work on the test rig, did have to change Q3 to a J201 instead of the 5457 he calls for, still not sure about that, but I couldn't get the thing to work when I boxed it.  Very frustrating.  As I was building the Multiplex I accidentally cut the ground jumper between lugs 2 & 3 on the switch and didn't figure it out until the pedal wouldn't work.  That sparked a thought that maybe I hadn't put the jumper on those lugs for the Bearhug.  Sure enough, it wasn't there.  I know the Madbeans wiring diagram calls for it, and now I understand why.  However, I guess I got used to building pedals which have the LED incorporated into the board, so the ground circuit is routed slightly different at the switch. 

At any rate, I got this thing working full tilt and it is a great sounding little compressor.  I'm going to buy a batch of 5457's from Smallbear and see if it's just a bad batch that I got from Mammoth previously.  Hopefully that will get this thing sounding exactly as Jon intended.  Big thanks to him for helping me troubleshoot this.

So...it's been a while since I've posted.  Life just got a little crazy and I've been battling a 1590a build since last April.  Yes, last April.  At any rate, I just finished up the Aion Refractor Klone and this thing just sounds gorgeous.  I went with N695's that measured around .362 Fv each.  I may try to pick up some 0A126's to try at some point, but these sound really good so far.  I'm really excited to add this one to the pedal board.  Excellent PCB and BOM from Aion, which made the build quick and painless.  Now on the Multiplex Jr which I've been sitting on forever. 






EDIT:
Here's a demo with crappy playing at 12:30 AM.  When I go back and forth on the video timeline between the two pedals, I honestly can't tell a difference.  I think it's playing dynamics that actually introduces any variances. 

Hey guys, not sure if that's even what I'm looking for. However, I play a few times a month at a place where I can't run an amp, just direct to the mixer. I'd really be interested in building an amp in a pedal sort of thing that I could run to the mixer. I have no idea what I'm looking for. The pedal will not be used to drive an external cabinet, but will run direct. I may even toy around with throwing a verb board in there too. The amp type I would be looking for would be a Fender sound.

Any direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This one is for the beginners out there.  This is my second pedal build, not counting my testing rig I did in February.  It's all about small victories right?  So this was my first non-kit build and I think it turned out alright.  It was a bit tight squeezing it in a 1590b, but squeeze I did.  

I was looking for a reverb with tone control and found it in GrindCustom's Tenebrion.  I prefer a darker verb so this fit the bill perfectly.  It's all stock and sounds fantastic, exactly what I was looking for.  

Learned a couple lessons with this one.  I found that I prefer drilling holes before painting.  I completely chewed up the paint in some spots when drilling.  Also, my bit walked a little on one of the holes so I had to "open it up" some.  Some of the black faded on the waterslide decal, but I decided to roll with it.

Here's to taking it one build at a time.