Productive weekend...3 new builds completed....and they all work! (sort of)

[MichaelW]

Not sure how I managed to spend most of the weekend at my work bench and not winding up with an "Angry Wife Plus" heh.

It was too windy to go fishing, so I wound up building pedals.

First up is a Paragon Mini.

I incorporated some of the mods I messed with on my first full size Paragon build. I used @ckaudioeffects "warmer tone mod" but oddly enough the "Paragon Mini" doesn't seem to suffer from the brightness that the full size one does. I probably could have gotten away with just building it stock. As it is, I actually have the presence trimmers up about 50% but it sounds fantastic.

I also changed R3 and R20 to 10k as per AnalogMan's schematic. The gain pot is a B250k (per @Chuck D. Bones) for what I think is the more elegant "more gain" mod.

The biggest challenge (and goof I made) was trying to expose the clipping switches to external toggles. I was originally planning to only use 2 toggle switches with Boost, OD, Distortion modes for each side. But I found out I could not fit a DPDT On-off-On toggle between the pots.....AFTER I drilled the holes...duhhhh. So I wound up reverting to SPST micro switches and put the second pair on the side of the enclosure. After drilling THOSE holes it dawned on me that I "could" have just put all 4 micro-switches on the left side in a row. Ah well, holes were drilled already and it works. I may buy another enclosure on my next Tayda order and re-house the pedal with a neater toggle switch arrangement. It was a absolute biotch getting all the stuff to fit but well worth the effort. And it sounds awesome.

I socketed the diodes and currently have BA282's and 1S133's in there. I tried some BAT41's in series for the hard clippers and they sounded pretty good with less volume drop (but also 1/2 the gain). I may mess around some more with other combinations. But overall very happy with this pedal. I'm planning to build the whole "family" of KOT pedals in this color scheme. (Paragon, Paragon Mini, and Pauper).

 

[MichaelW]

Next up, I built an Angry Andy Plus (JHS @ Plus) for a buddy of mine. We're both huge Andy Timmons fans and he's been wanting one of these pedals. Way more gain that I would ever use but it was a fun build, except that I'm not sure if it's working correctly. (That's the "sort of" in the title hahah!). I've started a separate thread over in the Troubleshooting forum to see if I can get it sorted. But the pedal sounds fabulous in "non-boosted" mode. Sounds better than I recall my JHS Angry Charlie did when I had it. I built pretty much stock. This was my first dual footswitch on a 125b pedal. I used the PedalPCB drilling template and I think the foot switches are too close together. I made some adjustments on the Paragon Mini which I drilled after the Angry Andy.

 

[MichaelW]

And finally I had a quick Sunday afternoon build of a Mayahana Drive. I actually have the PedalPCB Zen drive clone that I bought off Reverb that I really like a lot. But I wanted one that I built myself hah, and I wanted to house it in a 1590B. It was a super easy and fast build. Only changes to the PedalPCB spec was that I used an NE5532 Op Amp.
Oh and I did not have a 2M2 resistor so I had to Macguyver one together (it was either that or wait for one to ship out to me).

I'm not sure what diodes were used in my other "Reverb bought" pedal but I used BAT41's and a 1N34A with a good vF range spec. It sounds different than my other pedal, but in a good way. It's got a little less gain but overall smoother.
I only messed with it for about 10 minutes this evening with my PRS S2 Vela but plan to run it through the paces tomorrow with my Eastman T185MX and get my Larry Carlton on.....HAH. Love how this thing sounds!

 

[spi]

Oh and I did not have a 2M2 resistor so I had to Macguyver one together

For future reference, that 2M2 is an input pull-down resistor (to avoid popping on switch, doesn't impact tone). Value is not too critical, you can use anything between 1M and 2M2 there.

 

[MichaelW]

For future reference, that 2M2 is an input pull-down resistor (to avoid popping on switch, doesn't impact tone). Value is not too critical, you can use anything between 1M and 2M2 there.

Good to know, I'm still trying to figure out what all these things do, that's a great tidbit of info for me, thanks!!

 

[dawson]

biotch

I haven't heard this word spoken in years, and I'm quite titillated to see it spelled out for the first time ever- your linguistic breadth is much appreciated.

Nice collection of pedals as well!

 

[murrayatuptown]

I haven't heard this word spoken in years, and I'm quite titillated to see it spelled out for the first time ever- your linguistic breadth is much appreciated.

Nice collection of pedals as well!

Funny, Oxford English Dictionary has a sanitized version spelled as biatch, like it's "proper" or something, then gets off the polite rails as biotch. ikipedia takes both as equal slang. Then some people get really fancy with their own "creative" spellings.

 

[murrayatuptown]

I too decided to take the plunge and make a group buy among friends and bought enough parts to maker a few Mahayana pedals. They said "we don't know anything about electronics. What's a diode, anyway?". I kind of thought I'd be the builder.

I knew better than to go shopping when I'm hungry, but maybe ordering parts at 2 AM local time isn't a good idea, either.

I recently bought an absurd quantity of 0-11 'Stonehenge' knobs in four colors. They are for split-shaft splined pots...6 mm diameter I guess. I grabbed everything, or so I thought, in the BOM/parts list at Tayda, placed my order, then realized the day my order was delivered I had purchased solid round shaft pots (1/4"/6.35 mm) without looking, because they were out of stock on many pots...I also forgot 1/4" TS jacks & DC power jacks. So I had to go back and buy a less absurd quantity of knobs that will work, and pay another shipping charge. On the bright side, I have extra parts for the next project.

 

[Einzeln]

Tempted to build the Zen, but also to build the Stage coach ( Barber fww edition Buss ) So I might up building both.

 

[HamishR]

I learnt something from these posts too. I didn't know fish didn't like the wind.

 

[HamishR]

I too decided to take the plunge and make a group buy among friends and bought enough parts to maker a few Mahayana pedals. They said "we don't know anything about electronics. What's a diode, anyway?". I kind of thought I'd be the builder.

I knew better than to go shopping when I'm hungry, but maybe ordering parts at 2 AM local time isn't a good idea, either.

I recently bought an absurd quantity of 0-11 'Stonehenge' knobs in four colors. They are for split-shaft splined pots...6 mm diameter I guess. I grabbed everything, or so I thought, in the BOM/parts list at Tayda, placed my order, then realized the day my order was delivered I had purchased solid round shaft pots (1/4"/6.35 mm) without looking, because they were out of stock on many pots...I also forgot 1/4" TS jacks & DC power jacks. So I had to go back and buy a less absurd quantity of knobs that will work, and pay another shipping charge. On the bright side, I have extra parts for the next project.

Well on the plus side if you order a lot of stuff from Tayda then shipping isn't so much.

 

[HamishR]

Hey Michael you know that the 2N7000s are being used a diodes in the clipping stage too, right? If you ever get around to building another and want to experiment you can sub the transistors out for diodes.

 

[murrayatuptown]

Well on the plus side if you order a lot of stuff from Tayda then shipping isn't so much.

Yes...six pedals, so roughly $26 shipping on two orders is only $6.50 each. I could look at that like buying each pedal a beer, and feel good about it!

 

[murrayatuptown]

I learnt something from these posts too. I didn't know fish didn't like the wind.

Maybe flying fish do, but they are not your average fish.

 

[murrayatuptown]

I learnt something from these posts too. I didn't know fish didn't like the wind.

I am embarrassed to say I didn't look at the 2N7000 or BS170's as diodes...I just assumed they were variable resistors. That might only be relevant to JFET's.

So it might have been a pointless exercise to change my BOM item from BS170 to 2N7000.

 

[murrayatuptown]

Well on the plus side if you order a lot of stuff from Tayda then shipping isn't so much.

Depends how many screwups I make when ordering.

I forgot all the mechanical stuff & placed 2nd order. Mechanical parts were mostly absent from the Tayda Zendrive (oh, man, the errors start at the beginning...this is far stupider than I thought I was capable of!)...

I bought PedalPCB Mahayana PCB's, then somehow drifted over (brain solar storm?) to Tayda. Their BOM is based on THEIR PCB.

That explains the difference in potentiometer lead pitch...the solid round shaft Tayda ones I chose because they were out of stock on split splined shaft pots, have Tayda PCB spacing, not PedalPCB.

I bought Tayda 1/4" jacks with larger hole requirement but they are also too long. No, that's not a fair assessment. I bought the right boards but the wrong...everything else? The pots don't fit the boards and the boards don't fit the predrilled boxes.

I might as well stop thinking about how many other screwups. Maybe hand wiring and mounting the PCB WHEREVER it fits after the mechanical parts are...what's the term... "shoe-horned in"?

Or go back to my original thought of Altoids tins.

Don't try this at home. This project has escalated (no, de-escalated) to Defornication Plan C. Damn. Duh.

I could have bought snake oil swamp voodoo bozo mojo diodes that would fit as poorly, for less money. No, not going there either.

 

[murrayatuptown]

Looks like Michael W's photos show both long and short 1/4" jacks used successfully. Looks like the key is getting the proper pots (16mm? instead of ~ 9mm) because that will offset the PCB further toward the center of the box.

Now I have to look for the no-LED 3PDT switches I bought years ago will probably fit the hole, because the ooh-shiny LED-equipped ones I bought to avoid hunting down the vintage switches also require a wombat-sized hole for the light-pipe bushing (otherwise the LED is only visible inside the box.

Dang, why wasn't the Pedal Goddess watching over me? Oh, there isn't one? So much for Faith (Or is that her name?).

On the bright side, my parts stockroom (once built) will be full.