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....