Fumble Boost

A

apierz

Member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
This build was a nice change of pace from my last one, which was a Cornish clone with a packed pcb. This one has just a few parts and came together quickly. I wanted to try this one badly enough that I was willing to try soldering an SMD transistor for the first time. It was not as scary as I thought it would be and went on fairly easily once I found the right tweezers for holding it. I didn't want the hassle of soldering on legs to test the transistors' values in my TC-1 so the first one out of the pack is what made it onto the board. Even with the trim pot at max I could only bias to 6.0V but the pedal still sounds great. I thought that lone solder point was a joke from @Robert so I soldered in my trim pot at an angle to get at the testing points near it. After it was in it soon became clear that the lonely little pad is for measuring the voltage, something that would have been obvious if I actually examined the PCB before I got to soldering.

Because populating the board only took a few minutes, I had plenty of time to think about the best ways to do the jacks, wiring, etc rather than racing through that part before I have to get back to doing something important. I came up with a system I like that made the final assembly much easier than my past builds and so I'll be trying that going forward.

I wanted the pedal to look like the suede covered ODS in the picture. It's a Dark Champagne 125B from Tayda with a UV print and I'm happy with how it came out. The complexity of the artwork vastly exceeds that of the circuitry inside.

In terms of how it sounds, I'm struggling to describe it without anathematized buzzwords like "texture," "clarity," "sparkle," etc. It definitely seems like its doing something besides adding more clipping and is a very nice sounding clean boost. It's paired well with a number of overdrives and I think it will be staying on the board for a while. Highly recommended.
 

Attachments

  • f6l5ymjhswe2rcj1lifi.jpg
    f6l5ymjhswe2rcj1lifi.jpg
    308.5 KB · Views: 37
  • Image.jpeg
    Image.jpeg
    216.3 KB · Views: 31
  • Image-1.jpeg
    Image-1.jpeg
    237.7 KB · Views: 36
  • Image-2.jpeg
    Image-2.jpeg
    194.8 KB · Views: 35
Feral Feline said:
So... what's your "system", care to share it?
Click to expand...
1. I populate the board in the usual order of component height: resistors, diodes, IC sockets, film caps, electrolytic caps, etc... and do a visual inspection for any missed or cold solders.

2. I solder the wires to the power jack outside of the case then put the nut over the wires and secure it to the case. I use wires that are cut about 2x longer than I will need so they can be cut to a good length at the end. I used to wire the power last, because once its hooked up everything attached to it can't be removed from the case without desoldering, but it's such a tiny spot to work in once the pcb is in place that it would always drive me crazy and was usually the hardest part of any build for me.

2. I wire up the audio plugs with one shorter green wire for the ground and a longer wire for the audio, again outside the case.

3. I wire the main pcb to the footswitch breakout board. Since I always use a breakout board for the switch, I should probably stary using some 4 wire ribbon cable, but for now I just use regular hookup wire. I bought a box of Plusivo 22 gauge solid core hook up wire years ago and have barely made a dent despite drawers full of homemade pedals. It's a good size for the pcb pads and for the audio plugs I like and has pretty good rigidity. If I'm not going to put the LED directly onto the board, like I did with this pedal, I'll measure out and solder in two wires for the LED to the PCB.

4. I'll wire the audio plugs to the main pcb and the footswitch

5. I start attaching things to the case. First the power plug, then the led bezel, then the footswitch, then the pots but I keep the pots a little loose. On a build with more pots or with some switches, I might solder those to the board first. I think there's tradeoffs for both ways.

6. Seat the PCB on the pot lugs and solder one or two to keep the pcb stable while seating the footswitch break out board and make sure everything fits ok. If it looks good I'll solder all the pots and switches and then tighten all the nuts to secure them to the case.

7. I cut the power wires to a good length for the space and solder them to the to the PCB. Then the LED if it's not already soldered.

8. I screw in the audio plugs and try to arrange the wires for neatness and to avoid interference. This is when I would do any biasing, if necessary.

9. Plug in the pedal and hope it works on the first try.

10. If it works I can screw on the backplate and attach the knobs. I got one of those Peper's Pedals setter jigs and that's worked well for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top