2012 and stuff...

Hi there dudes and dudets!

It`s been pretty quiet around here lately.. Sorry about that. Been busy getting into writing and making music again. Just got my very first mac the other day and a buttload of recording gear. Can`t wait to dig into the world of recording agan. It`s been a while.. A lot of frustrating stuff has come in the way the last couple of years. I`m really looking forward to 2012. Have a lot of catching up to do!

What about another fx?? I have no spesific plans when it comes to fx for 2012, but.. I`m sure there`ll be something worth posting during 2012. I may be looking into getting a powder coating kit when spring/summer comes.. we`ll see what happens. My mind is pretty much set on making music at the moment, so that`s where my main focus will be for 2012. Make as much music as I possibly can!

Anyways... another fx ain`t dead! Just taking a break, I guess. I`ll be back!

So, until we meet again.. Happy New Year!
("let`s hope it`s a good one")

Repairing a piece of history (Boss PH-1)

Boss 1978 PH-1 phaser. Got this one in a trade some time ago. It was defect, and the guy I got it from had no idea what happend to it, he had bought it that way. I popped it open as soon as I got it. Things were looking good..no burned parts or anything obviuos. It passed signal, but there was no phasing to be heard. I snaped a pic and put it aside for a while.

I recently decided to try and fix it so I put a simple audio probe together and started to probe the signal path of the circuit. I quickly found the spot where the problem seemed to be. One of  quad chips was acting stramge. Took some measurements and the readings only made me more sure about the chip. I desoldered it and popped in a socket and a TL074. Now, when I searched the same spot with the audio probe things seemed promising. The two chips were now interacting nicely with each other and passing signal.

So, I hooked it up to my zoom recorder and hit the circuit with a drum loop, tweaked the internal trimmer a little and...BINGO! It works! Nice swooshy phaser! A bad chip, huh. I replaced the other working chip with a socket and a TL074 aswell. The working chip(RC3403ADB) I replaced will go into a OD-1 clone later on. Score! While at it I replaced all the electro caps with some new fresh ones.

The pedal may not be worth as much as an all original one, but damn, it sound nice...! The battery clip, knobs, and screw ain`t original so I`ll just enjoy it as is. I may mod it some later, but right now I just want to play it. The older Boss pedals need a ACA 12volt dc adapter so that`s not too convenient now a days. The status LED also only lights up briefly as you hit the stomp. The old boss pedals started out this way to save battery, but people wanted a "permanent" indicator while the pedal was active. Boss later on changed this.

Sorry, no after pic of the pcb. Got so exited about boxing it up and playing it! Swooooosh....

ProCo Rat 2 Rebuild

Sold my rat I built a while ago. It was so awesome, I decided to rebuild my Rat 2 to the same vintage specs+ better parts. I replaced all the electros in the signal path with tantalum caps, replaced some resistors so there`s only metal film ones, replaced the ceramic caps with film and silver mica caps..and most important I got rid of the lame thin sounding OP070P chip. The LM308N has got more balls! That`s about it! I also tried to make the wires a little tidyer. I will eventually replace the in and out wires for shielded ones.I ziptied the battery wires to the jack terminal for a simple but effective strain relief. Now the pedal sounds like a RAT should!

Here`s first before, then after:

Buffered Splitter

Another cool project finished up! This right here is a buffered splitter. What can you do with it?? You can plug your guitar in and play two amps at the same time for example. That`s cool, right?  I think so!  You can use it for studio work, or in your live rig. Anything you can think of really. Anywhere you would need two equal signals from one source. Lots of options!  9 volts and you`re good to go! Project file by "culturejam" can be found here.

DOD 280 Compressor clone

Just finished this one. It`s a DOD 280 Compressor clone. Pretty transparent compressor, but with a lot of push and squeeze on tap. Haven`t played with it a whole lot yet, but so far I like it! Project for this one can be found over at tonepad.com. Tried out some new finish and labeling techniques...came out pretty cool, I think.

Underneath a boring knob lies a classy one...

Well, sort of... I`m so tired of the boring "Boss knob"! Don`t get me wrong, it`s a nice looking knob..but we`ve all seen it a thousand times..! It`s one of the cheaper knobs to buy for us DIY`ers so many of us use it quit often. So..how about modifying its appearance?
Wonder how it would look if I removed the inlay at the top of the knob? Hm..My guess is that the inlay is glued to the knob so some heat should do the trick to get it off. I threw some knobs in some hot water and let em sit for a while.

Next I took a fine needle and tried to lift the inlay off the knob. Not much room to get the needle between the knob and inlays edges. Watch your fingers! I got the inlays off at last. Like I suspected they were glued down with a little dab of glue. After a little cleanup I was supprised how cool the knob now looked! A little circular pattern was hiding under there. Have a looksie, and judge for yourself.

Hula Loop

Hi there! Just finished a tiny true bypass loop pedal. A nice tool to have for sure! If you have a tone sucker on your pedalboard a tb loop can fix that. Or if you have more than one pedal you`d like to activate at the same time...hook em up to a loop pedal... voila! You can even bypass your whole board if you`d like! Ain`t she pretty?



Layouts for loopers can be found at beavisaudio.com

Battle Fuzz (Russian Green Big Muff)

Here`s a cool little build I`ve been working on the past week. I wanted to build a Big Muff but I wanted a little more than just the scooped muff we all love..?? I decided to go with the Green Russian version as a starting point. I wanted to make it as versatile as I possible could and still keep it pedalboard friendly.

The tone section of the muff circuit is really where you can shape the character of the fuzz the most. I spent some time with the duncan tone stack calculator and came up with a cool way of getting a lot of tones out of the circuit. By changing a couple of resistors and a cap in the tone section you can dramatically change the overall tone from scooped to bassy, mid hump or whatever you`d like. With three toggles I figured I could switch between two pairs of resistors and a pair of caps in the tone section...this gave me a couple of scooped modes, bass mode, "flat-ish", mid hump+ Cool!

Etched my own board, did the whole military look to the enclosure. Put the toggles and and jacks at the top to save space on the pedalboard. Tight fit!! Very happy with the pedal! Sounds awesome! It can be tuned to whatever guitar or rig! Very versatile, just what I wanted!

Some pics of the "Battle Fuzz"...

Swirly Orange Squeezer

I decided to rehouse my orange squeezer build I did some time ago. The circuit is kinda picky about power and the layout of my old build wasn`t really working out as planned. So, battery power only and a smaller, more organized enclosure. JRC chip for some nice squeeze...!

Red Spit Fuzz

Red Spit! This is basically a Way Huge clone of the Red Llama, or a 70s Craig Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz... It all depends on how you look at it. The Red Llama is really just a tweaked Tube Sound Fuzz. Oh, well... So, mine is somewhere in between those two. I didn`t have all the exact part values so I used what I had. Sounds good! The 4049 hex inverter IC is really what makes this circuit. Old school dirt! Fuzzy and thick with humbuckers, and nice clear overdrive with single coils.

It`s too cold outside to paint yet so this one is done with a brush and hammered paint. Clear sticker printed on my inkjet. Nothing fancy, but it works!

Project can be found at tonepad.com or in the book Electronic Projects For Musicians.

another fx laboratory...

Here`s what I`ve been working on lately... The another fx laboratory! A cool little toy for testing out circuits without soldering! Yes! It`s pretty simple, really... A breakout box which connects to the breadboard where you`ll be building your circuit by inserting components and wires into the "sockets". The breakout box has a true bypass toggle(effect on or bypassed/clean signal), i/o for your guitar and amp connections, status led, and a "voltage sag"(lets you tune the voltage being fed to the circuit from 9V and down). A 9volt battery is used as power source. Pretty neat!

I built this on a piece of plexiglass. Everything is secured in place with screws. Some rubber feet and that`s it! I had plans of putting a bright led into the plexiglass for a cool effect, but it did not really work as good as I`d hoped. The bright led would have drained the battery faster as well. A clear "see thru" plastic box for the breakout box would have looked cool, but I went for some shielding over looks with the aluminum box.

It`s gonna be so much fun trying out different circuits, mods, playing with component values, clipping diodes etc.

You want to build one?? No problem! Mine is heavily based on the famous "beavis board". Over at his site there are instructions on how to make your own test rig. One of , if not the best diy pedal site online! Check out beavisaudio.com.

I`m off to the lab! Peace...

Blue Box Octave Fuzz

MXR Blue Box.. Nasty fuzz with added two octaves down! Blend controls the mix between fuzz and octave effect. Play high up on the neck, dial in a nice mix of fuzz and octave effect and you`ve got instant old school Nintendo sounds jumping out of your speaker! Fun!!



The project can be found at tonepad.com.

ProCo RAT Clone

My first build of 2011 is a ProCo RAT clone! Cool square box with a hammered finish and all the mojo parts to get the vintage tones of the original. There`s a LM308N in there like the old ones had, tantalum caps etc. The RAT is my favourite dirt box ever! Now I need to compare this one to my newer RAT2 to hear for myself if there really is a difference between new and "vintage"..if the LM308N is worth the $$$. It sounds GREAT that`s for sure! Etched my own board from the layout over at tonepad. A fun build! I`ll be making more rats soon with some tweaks and mods.



Update... Compared to my RAT2: More output, warmer and more balls!!