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.