swyse
Well-known member
- Build Rating
When I first started building pedals I came across vero layouts and then from there I found the kit rae big muff schematics and I realized they all had the same parts layout so I made my own boards to make any muff ever, the only problem was I had no idea what I was doing. I was very fortunate that this attempt worked despite its now clear poor design decisions. This is a circuit board I've been using as a scraper on my workbench for a few years and the enclosure was from my first attempts at an original circuit. It was a sort of low gain bazz fuss with one of the SWTC on the end, it was a nice transistor overdrive for what it was but I never really ended up falling in love with that version and redesigned it a few times. I've had this pedal kicking around unused for years and I just kept it on my workbench to quickly measure a 1590b for reference and that is basically it. Yesterday I was fixing a pair of glasses and saw the enclosure and the discarded circuit board and got an idea and remember I didn't say it was a good idea.
So I had this circuit board, but I needed to decide how to build it up. I have a bag that has salvaged parts from bad ideas or builds I didn't like. I took inventory of my pots and I had enough 100k log tapers for the volume and sustain, but I only had a single 100k linear so I thought I'd try the 50k linear as my tone control. I purchased a bag of 100 2N3904 for a fuzz pedal I make to get the hfe well controlled. I took the high outliers from that bag around 300 hfe and used 4 of those. I have enough resistors to last a few life times but caps are usually not well stocked. On a whim a few years ago I bought 30 or so 47nf caps because in my mind it was the most common value which may have been true at the time for what I was building, who knows. The schematic is somewhere in the violet ram's head/elk sustainar area, but with more 47nf caps thrown in.
After I found my parts I had a bit of a logistics issue. The enclosure was drilled for 3 knobs in a line and my circuit board was designed for knobs in a triangle. Some bending with pliers saved me from using wires and from having a professional build. I populated my board and ran into my second logistics issue when I put the board in the enclosure. It just barely had enough room and is pressed to the switching board and made it very difficult to attach the wires I was reusing. down between the caps. I laid the caps over expecting there to be height issues but I don't really think there would have been.
I use vice grips to desolder pots from boards I don't plan on reusing. I put the vice grips on the pot then heat all the legs at once and it just drops off, but foolishly one time it was above this enclosure and thats why its got a good chip on it.
Anyways, here is a little clip of how it sounds with my $200 strat copy. I'm very happy with the sound, I think the 47nf clipping caps like the green russians might be why.
So I had this circuit board, but I needed to decide how to build it up. I have a bag that has salvaged parts from bad ideas or builds I didn't like. I took inventory of my pots and I had enough 100k log tapers for the volume and sustain, but I only had a single 100k linear so I thought I'd try the 50k linear as my tone control. I purchased a bag of 100 2N3904 for a fuzz pedal I make to get the hfe well controlled. I took the high outliers from that bag around 300 hfe and used 4 of those. I have enough resistors to last a few life times but caps are usually not well stocked. On a whim a few years ago I bought 30 or so 47nf caps because in my mind it was the most common value which may have been true at the time for what I was building, who knows. The schematic is somewhere in the violet ram's head/elk sustainar area, but with more 47nf caps thrown in.
After I found my parts I had a bit of a logistics issue. The enclosure was drilled for 3 knobs in a line and my circuit board was designed for knobs in a triangle. Some bending with pliers saved me from using wires and from having a professional build. I populated my board and ran into my second logistics issue when I put the board in the enclosure. It just barely had enough room and is pressed to the switching board and made it very difficult to attach the wires I was reusing. down between the caps. I laid the caps over expecting there to be height issues but I don't really think there would have been.
I use vice grips to desolder pots from boards I don't plan on reusing. I put the vice grips on the pot then heat all the legs at once and it just drops off, but foolishly one time it was above this enclosure and thats why its got a good chip on it.
Anyways, here is a little clip of how it sounds with my $200 strat copy. I'm very happy with the sound, I think the 47nf clipping caps like the green russians might be why.
