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DIY effects pedals


Chris

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This is a great way of spending time if you love fuzz and can't afford to buy ancient tonebenders for hundreds of quid. As for needing knowhow - I failed physics at school, have never worked in elctronics, but I've managed to make a bunch of these using spare parts, the internet and perfboard. Etching your own PCBs ain't too hard either, bit of a waste of time unless you're making more than one box though. If you can solder enough to fix a guitar lead, you could do this too. It takes practice though, like anything else. Starting with a kit is a good idea.

Next one's gonna be an MXR bluebox.

I second the support for Poodle's Pedal Parts. Doctor Tweek is also pretty ace - http://www.doctortweek.co.uk/

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  • 1 month later...

I'm just finishing off this loop pedal, it's evolved over time from a simple A/B to this, the final part to add is a blend control.

P1070815_zps672cd6b0.jpg

 

It gives 4 options:

Bypass all - In signal straight to out jack

Loop 1 - signal sent out to loop 1 and returns to output jack

Loop 2 - signal sent to loop 2 and returns to output jack

Loop 1 + Loop 2 - signal sent to loop 1 then loop to then output.

 

I'm working on adding the blend control so in 1+2 mode you can mix the balance of the two loops.

 

I currently run my wah >fuzz >distortion in loop 1 and delay > trem in 2.  I can now switch between clean delay and or trem to distortion in one button push.  Pretty chuffed it all works as its all ideas pulled from different pedals, schmatics from the web and those awesome ideas you get when you're on the bog! 

Edited by Cabbage
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  • 3 months later...

A lot of builds don't work first time. Figuring out what is wrong can be frustrating, but feels great when you get it sussed. It's nearly always a dodgy solder joint or something wired up wrong, I find that with mine anyway. Check that any polarised components are in the right way around too. The LED's on, so that part of your wiring's spot on!

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A lot of builds don't work first time. Figuring out what is wrong can be frustrating, but feels great when you get it sussed. It's nearly always a dodgy solder joint or something wired up wrong, I find that with mine anyway. Check that any polarised components are in the right way around too. The LED's on, so that part of your wiring's spot on!

 

Yeah the fact that the LED and the bypass worked was a great source of pride for me. Just need to go through the board with a multimeter at the weekend I think.  There's one diode on the board that I soldered in before noticing that it had to go a certain way.  Hard to tell which way it's in now so it was 50/50, sods law that'll be the problem.  The only other thing I suspect is an ugly hack I did on the pot.  It was supposed to have two contacts wired together but I forgot to do it then couldn't get it out of the board once it was in.  So I soldered a wee bit of wire across the back of the pot to link the two contacts instead. 

 

But it's probably that bastarding wee diode.  If it was the pot I think there'd be some sound coming out.

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http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/colorsound-tremolo.html#comment-form that's another good site for DIY stompboxes. Neither of the boxes I built from there worked first time though, so I wouldn't sweat it, I used a multimeter to test mine, put power through the circuit and jabbed at different bits till I found a bit that seemed wrong. I'm pretty sure that's not the right way to do it, but it worked.

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 I used a multimeter to test mine, put power through the circuit and jabbed at different bits till I found a bit that seemed wrong. I'm pretty sure that's not the right way to do it, but it worked.

 

How else would you do it?  That's how I was planning to spend my weekend!

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Clean boost is alive!  Took ages to find the problem. Eventually after going over the circuit to follow where the input signal was being lost it turned out the yellow box capacitor was the wrong way round.  Didn't realise it was polarised (if that's the correct term).

 

Felt fucking ace when the sound started coming out of it.

 

RUVY9Oy.jpg

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Clean boost is alive!  Took ages to find the problem. Eventually after going over the circuit to follow where the input signal was being lost it turned out the yellow box capacitor was the wrong way round.  Didn't realise it was polarised (if that's the correct term).

 

Felt fucking ace when the sound started coming out of it.

 

RUVY9Oy.jpg

The yellow capacitor is not polarised. I think by removing it and replacing it you resoldered a dry joint. In any event well done getting your circuit going...    :o)

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The yellow capacitor is not polarised. I think by removing it and replacing it you resoldered a dry joint. In any event well done getting your circuit going...    :o)

 

Well... that's what I thought at first. Resoldering the points was the first thing I did when it wouldn't work.  After that I traced through the circuit with a multimeter and a note from a synth going into the input.  I could see the 0.07 volt signal from the synth going to the capacitor but it wasn't appearing at the other pin (testing the pin on the capacitor, not the track).  If it was just a solder issue would I not see voltage at the pin then disappear at the copper track?

 

As far as I understood it only the wee capacitors that look like batteries should be polarised but it was hard to go against the behaviour I was seeing. Having said that I am a total noob so it's possible I just fucked up the soldering twice.

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Well... that's what I thought at first. Resoldering the points was the first thing I did when it wouldn't work.  After that I traced through the circuit with a multimeter and a note from a synth going into the input.  I could see the 0.07 volt signal from the synth going to the capacitor but it wasn't appearing at the other pin (testing the pin on the capacitor, not the track).  If it was just a solder issue would I not see voltage at the pin then disappear at the copper track?

 

As far as I understood it only the wee capacitors that look like batteries should be polarised but it was hard to go against the behaviour I was seeing. Having said that I am a total noob so it's possible I just fucked up the soldering twice.

You know you can buy a decent single channel oscilloscope up to 20MHz (well good enough for audio) for the price of a pedal now (about a hundred bux). No more multimeter guessing, you could see a decent representation of the ac and dc components of your signal.

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Maybe if I do a few more kits and decide it's something I want to keep doing then I'd spend a hundred quid on an oscilloscope.  Hard to justify buying one just now though.

 

Feels like poking around with the multimeter and understanding what voltages and resistance are doing at each stage of the circuit is a good way to gain an understanding of what the circuit does. Remember, total electronics beginner here.

 

What benefit would an oscilloscope have over an audio probe I can solder together with a jack and a spare capacitor?  Would it not just be telling me that yep, there's no signal at this point and yup, there's a signal at that point. The same as the multimeter or probe?

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Maybe if I do a few more kits and decide it's something I want to keep doing then I'd spend a hundred quid on an oscilloscope.  Hard to justify buying one just now though.

 

Feels like poking around with the multimeter and understanding what voltages and resistance are doing at each stage of the circuit is a good way to gain an understanding of what the circuit does. Remember, total electronics beginner here.

 

What benefit would an oscilloscope have over an audio probe I can solder together with a jack and a spare capacitor?  Would it not just be telling me that yep, there's no signal at this point and yup, there's a signal at that point. The same as the multimeter or probe?

Yep, you can learn a fair bit poking around with a meter, but a scope will give you so much more info, with  single prod you can see a dc level, ac peak content, frequency content, distortion type simultaneously. In my book you will learn a shit load quicker. You will learn to recognise different types of distortion and frequency response etc.

 

Once you use a scope well it's a bit like comparing fumbling around in a darkened room versus turning on the lights. You will find what you are looking for quicker and you will have a better appreciation of the unplanned behaviour of circuits that you couldn't hope to find with an audio probe or meter. There is a whole heap of possibilities between "yep the signal is there" to zip, nada, nuthin'...

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I spent ages last night looking at old scopes on ebay.  Fuck's sake.

 

Still think I'll pass on one just now.  Want to build another couple of pedals and get some confidence before forking out on more tools and stuff.

The scope(s) i was refering to is/are new, single channel and 100bux. No need to buy second hand.

 

You're right though, if you lose interest in the whole malarkey it is money for nuthin'...

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Toying with the idea of obtaining and assembling this Wooly Mammoth clone:

 

http://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/Fat_Furry_Freak_-_bass_fuzz_monster_kit/p847124_6606303.aspx

 

But I don't really know why.  I've never been much of a fan of effects on bass but perhaps I've been trying the wrong effects and the wrong implementations.  Ach well, it's an interesting caper to get involved in once I finish building my bass cupboard and hand over the Ripper for refinishing - and it's the same price as a good night out on the sauce.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got my rat clone kit from Poodle Parts. Only ordered it yesterday.  Looks much more complex than the clean boost and the PCB is quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. Will need to be much neater with my soldering I think.  Looking forward to getting started on it.

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Just got my rat clone kit from Poodle Parts. Only ordered it yesterday.  Looks much more complex than the clean boost and the PCB is quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. Will need to be much neater with my soldering I think.  Looking forward to getting started on it.

 

I was eyeing it and the fuzz factory clone kit from there.

I'm scared in case I make a total arse of it though.

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