What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

Almost done with this project, which is really a draft version to figure out the kinks. It is a treble booster to be mounted on a strap - since a treble booster really needs to be first in line after the guitar, I’m building this to accommodate a cheapo wireless set up that I will be getting for Christmas.

The board itself is a Fuzzdog Treble Boost Deluxe with a few values modified. In addition to hardwiring the input cable, I’m also using a USB rechargeable 9V. I’m reasonably happy with the way the charge port turned out since I had to shape it by hand with these tiny chisels I had laying around. Because I didn’t want to kill the battery when the thing wasn’t in use, I wanted the 3PDT to both put the effect into bypass and disconnect the battery and LED, and some people here kindly gave me good advice on that.

Does it work? The board worked when I tested it out with just power and an input and output jack, before I wired it up into this whole mess. LED turns on and off. But I need to add a mono plug to the end of the hardwired input cable to really test the whole thing out, and I’m not sure I’ll get to it tonight.

Mike

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Used to be a Decimatorish board was offered by "3PDT" company out of Hong Kong.
Shoulda/coulda/woulda with a few effects there (Roland Funny Cat another). Never did get any of the PCBs.
They liquidated there PCB inventory on Amazon, IIRC.
Now all they do is parts.

Anybody else offering a Decimator PCB?

*clicks around Net*

Hmm
guitar-electronics.eu

DECIMATOR G-STRING PCB

PCB. Dimensions: 74mm x 56mm
guitar-electronics.eu guitar-electronics.eu

Some other unmentionable place, so don't know if that one works or not...

Sabrofied vero.

Mention of a part-for-part "Galego PCB" over at MadBean by Aion's own DoO, Kevin himself.


I'll have to look more into this, later.
 
figuring out how to make this stinking 3-knob Electra Distortion 500D, because everything out there is 0-1 knobs

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Feral Feline said:
I see the Nobleman has pride of place.

Don't know why I never noticed the lamp was a leg, before.
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My wife made that lamp for me. We are obsessed with nightmare before Christmas (all things Tim Burton really 😂) and she thought it would be cool to make Christmas story leg lamp with Sally's leg from nightmare before Christmas. It really tied the room together. 1000010325.jpg
 
I was right! I figured it had to be you or some other creative type in your household. Love it even more now I know the story behind it (also Burton fan here, and Elfman for that matter).

If I ever get 'round to making a Boogie-in-a-box, I've got burlap and other "Oogie-Boogie" man touches planned.


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jessenator said:
figuring out how to make this stinking 3-knob Electra Distortion 500D, because everything out there is 0-1 knobs

EsbLfJc.jpg
Click to expand...
Right. I was barking up the completely wrong tree… turns out the 500D—and it's 6 AKA reboxes—are a completely different circuit from the in-body guitar effect, the Electra Distortion. WhO WoUlD HaVe tHoUgHt? Not me apparently. Well, you live, you learn.
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After following a trail, I ended up at FSB where someone has traced out a Loco Box Mysto-Dysto (a 500D), and I'm going to call that a day.
 
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Curious about this circuit, I got the kit 'whim' it was on sale.

I measured every part, tedious but I want to not just clone it, but duplicate it. Recreate it as precisely as possible, but with metal-resistors and non-boutiquey pots etc —
see if there's mojo in the carbon comp etc. The schematic says one of the two BJTs is a 2N5088 and the other is a 2N5089, but the kit came with two 2N5089s.
Also, I noticed the footswitch isn't drilled on centre, it's a few mm out, but I suppose that's 'cause it's been centred on the astronaut's chest.

Finished measuring and popping the board about a week or so ago, then life happened as it does. Managed to get some time tonight to square away the final assembly.
Plugged in, fired up, pegged the controls and it sounded good — for the few seconds I tested it; I'll get the upright going tomorrow and put it through some knob twirling.

Lotta firsts. Never put carbon resistors in any build before. Never built a kit with pre-ordained artwork. Never used Gørva stuff, though I've started to stockpile it. Been awhile since I dealt with solid-core wiring, had the output-jack's ground break off at the jack and that's why the wire routing on that side isn't as nice. Otherwise things went fairly smoothly, though I spent way too much time making sure transistors were soldered in at the same height, save for one clipping transistor-as-diode which might be as much as 3/4 of a mm shorter than its mate next door. Oh, that'd be another first for me, soldering transistors — I like sockets, so I can play around with different options, but not this time.
Never used ribbon cable before either, seemed flimsy and likely to break. Not as bad as I thought, but I still don't trust those teensy wires.
May be a few other "firsts" I'm forgettin', whatever.

Had to mod it in some way some how, so I changed the red LED to a yellow one (doesn't show well in the pic, but it looks great). Thought about doing a blue LED and they both looked good, but the yellow was closer to the specs of the red and I didn't want to have to change out the CLR to accommodate the blue, though I'm probably overthinking it.

On the TC-1:
RED Vf 1.89v C=6pF
YELLOW Vf 1.93v C=1pf
BLUE Vf 2.72 C=83pF

Another "mod" was to change the power-wire to red, which happened to be stranded 'cause that's what I normally use and didn't have any red-housed solid-core on hand.

So, nothing changed that would affect the signal, just two minor little cosmetic tweaks.

After I compare this with the pending replicant, I intend to sell this — regardless of which sounds better, if either one does at all — and then mod the crap out of the doppelgänger.
That'll be another first. Never sold a pedal.


I guess this post turned into a miniature build report of sorts. 🤷‍♂️


I'll be blunt — after a bunch of crapped out projects for reasons both my fault and some not mine, I needed a win.
This gave me a small win, but big enough I can move on and get Squishyin' now that a BA662 has arrived for that project.

Thanks for readin',
FF
 
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