DREDD 280

Rehoused a DOD 280 build I did some time ago. Upgraded some parts, and did a proper finished enclosure with a decal. Gentle compression at lower settings, or strict as "The Law" at higher settings. Very quiet operation with a LM358. Transistors are 2N3904(220 hfe), and the vactrol is VTL5C2.

Space Fuzz!

Just finished this modified Fuzz Face. It's got a toggle to flip between germanium or silicon transistors, bass cut, pre gain and a bias pot on the outside for easy access. Very versatile!

I opted for no fuzz control since the fuzz face circuit only sounds good fully dimed anyway, and the functionality of the original fuzz control is kind of lame to be honest. The "Gain" feature is a way better option in my opinion. It basically works like the volume control on your guitar. When you roll it back it cleans up for some nice overdrive sounds. The "Body" pot is basically a bass cut. By blending between two caps(3.3uf and 10nF) you get very full or thinner sounding fuzz. The bias pot can also give you different shades of fuzz, and is a very usefull tone shaping tool. Especially cool are the sputtering effect that makes you sound like you're playing through a broken radio speaker!

Also added some power filtering and a protection diode to the circuit. There is also a couple of small caps on one of the transistors to reduce some high pitched noise in silicon mode.

Shielded cable, and a blue indicator LED in a fancy clear lens. Pulldown resistor on the switch for popless operation.

The transistors used are AC127 for the germaniums, and 2N2222/2N3904 combo for the silicons.

AC127 Q1=67hfe/0.08mA leakage
AC127 Q2=125hfe/0.15mA leakage

2N2222 Q1=120hfe
2N3904 Q2=150hfe

 

Perfect Blue

Octave Down Fuzz build. Mima!

 

Batgirl

Rat build with all the right parts. Two clipping options, LEDs or Silicon.

 

My Little Clone

A pink sparkly Klon! Wired for true bypass.

Evidence Audio Monorail Bend/Stress Test

So how durable is this stiff cable? How much abuse can it take?

I solder my own patch cables out of these and neutrik jacks, and they are great, but I've been worried they might break if im not careful.

So, to put mr. monorail to the test I cut off a piece of cable and started to do 180 degree bends back and forth over my finger. After reaching one hundred bends I stopped to test continuity. Still works like a charm! I then cut the cable open to see if there was anything visible damage wise. And... not a damn thing. The copper shield and core are pretty much like new.

Just for kicks I cut the core copper wire out and continued to do 180 degree bends. I reached 70 pretty hard bends before the core finally broke.

To sum it all up, the monorail cable is surprisingly tough. The bends done to the cable in this test will almost never happen in real life situations if you take normal care of you patch cables.

No need to worry, rock on!

Batmodrive...!!

Here's one I've been thinking about for a while.. Finally it's done! The Batmodrive! It's the RAT circuit with all the right parts+3x clipping selector switch and the famous "Ruetz mod". The clipping switch has the standard silicon, like the original rats, LEDs like the Turbo RAT, and germaniums like the "You Dirty Rat". Basically three rats in one! The Ruetz mod makes the rat fuller and reduces the gain a little. Very useful to have this one available on a switch.

Netune Delay

Just finished this one yesterday. A super cool delay circuit by a cool dude over at the BYOC forum who goes by the name "culturejam". It's a digital delay, but sounds quite analog-ish. It features a "crazy" momentary switch. When you hold it down it does a weird pitch thingy...pretty hard to explaine. Do a youtube search for "Neptune delay". There's a couple of cool demos of it there.

"Clone" Centaur

Here's a couple of "clones". Most of you gear geeks out there know about this circuit. If it sounds as good as the crazy money the originals are going for..? Well, thats up to the crazy to decide I guess. I like it alot! All the right parts and strange values. These two are gone so..need to make another one for myself. Now, where did I put those 392k resistors...

Envy...

Green with envy.. 808 Tube Screamer clone with some basic mods. I can switch between two types of clipping diodes(silicon and LEDs), and two "fat" modes. No mid hump! This one has more gain at maximum setting, and less at the minimun than the stock screamer pedals. I replaced the input impedance resistor with a higher value(620k) and improved on the freq. response of the tone knob. Higher gain transistors(MPSA18) and a MC1458 op amp. Sounds smooth with silicons and crunchy with LEDs. Awesome! The distressed paint job came out pretty cool...I think..

 

Ross Compressor

Here's a Ross Compressor clone I built on a BYOC pcb. Very Nice compressor! This one has the attack pot which is a very nice feature. Tantalums like the original had, and I threw in some high quality parts like WIMA caps and metal film resistors. AND... a very nice and mojotastic RCA CA3080E of course.

BYOC Scrambled Octave

Hi there! Just finished up a BYOC kit for my friend Lars. (Check out his band The I!!) It's the Scrambled Octave kit. Basically a Ampeg Scrambler clone with all the right parts. Great octave up effect! The blend knob is a cool feature..you can clean up the sound all the way down to a clean signal, or go crazy with the velcro like fuzz! Easy build. I want one too...! Recommended!

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"...