What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

t1redhands said:
Is there contact between the transistor cases and through-hole plating? Looks kind of like they're connected to the circuit.
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1748643751132.png

So, it's a single sided board. On the transistor itself, the collector is tied to the case. The collector pads are connected to the plating around the hole for the transistor lip AND the two pads for the soldered wire-tie around the transistors - but none of these have any contact with the case as it's not plated through-hole.

There's no contact via any of those holes, but there is through the collector itself.

It's a really, really odd setup and I have no idea why they did it.

1748643815423.png

After looking at it for a bit...I think I'm going to ditch the dumb bias control (largely ineffective) - without a fuzz or volume control, the signal jumps about 30db when you turn the pedal on. A couple of people have added secret volume controls which I thought about, but instead I think I might remove R3, split C2 off (should actually be 20uf in the schematic, not 2u2) and use the single pot as a fuzz control.

Also means I can ditch a lot of the weirdness around Q1 and have a single trimpot for a fixed bias on both transistors - much easier to get working correctly.
 
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I scored this old ass metronome at a thrift store store yesterday
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It’s in pretty good shape, it was just a little dusty, gummy, the wood was a little dry and the beat was uneven.
IMG_2084.jpeg

The serial numbers all matched and after some research turns out the it was built Dec of 1948
IMG_2082.jpeg

I think this thing was ether not used a lot or very well loved then forgotten.
IMG_2083.jpeg

Ether way a little love and some lube this thing is (almost)good as new

 
Paradox916 said:
I scored this old ass metronome at a thrift store store yesterday
View attachment 96377
It’s in pretty good shape, it was just a little dusty, gummy, the wood was a little dry and the beat was uneven.
View attachment 96378

The serial numbers all matched and after some research turns out the it was built Dec of 1948
View attachment 96379

I think this thing was ether not used a lot or very well loved then forgotten.
View attachment 96380

Ether way a little love and some lube this thing is (almost)good as new

Click to expand...
Man, I remember when those things weren’t old ass.
 
I've been inactive for many months with DIY builds - recently got back into it with all of the rainy days we've had in Tennessee. Should be able to get to diodes and caps this week on all of these in progress boards.

Purchased and finished an Aion Gladiator kit build even though I already had the raw PCB and parts still in the to-do list. That sounds great with my Mesa Fillmore 25.

DD 2025-05-31.jpeg
IMG_0960.jpeg
IMG_0961.jpeg
 
drew.spriggs said:
I had already removed the trim pots ages ago to trace - the second measured under 1k, and the 200k was open.

I'm going to guess that could have been a problem 😅
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Nice work. Is the schematic you posted earlier correct? (I noticed you mentioned the C2 2µ2 cap should be a 20µF and the 1K resistor could be a 1K pot(?).)
 
jimilee said:
Well give us the rundown man!
Click to expand...

The board is -
  1. Input > tuner > A/B FX loop switcher
  2. Loop A is the huge Three-Channel Rat
  3. Loop B is the Attack Decay and HX (the Metal Muff isn't currently connected)
  4. A/B output > Opus
  5. The XLR out of the Opus goes to Joyo mixer (or PA at band practice/ sessions). The 1/4" outs will be going to the Behringer interface.



For DAW, I'm using Reaper. Haven't bought any plugins except EZDrummer 3 yet, but I'll probably snag something for mastering once I decide on a set of monitors. Also need to get a mic that isn't a 57 or clone of one🤣

I'm new to this sorta setup, so haven't done anything noteworthy with it yet
 
DGWVI said:
For DAW, I'm using Reaper. Haven't bought any plugins except EZDrummer 3 yet, but I'll probably snag something for mastering once I decide on a set of monitors. Also need to get a mic that isn't a 57 or clone of one🤣

I'm new to this sorta setup, so haven't done anything noteworthy with it yet
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I've used Reaper a whole bunch, so if you run into weird issues you can shoot me a DM.

Also, if you're prone to collecting pedals, be careful you don't fall into collecting plugins too. You really don't need much, EZDrummer is fine and some sort of a mastering suite (or even just a nice limiter) is a good idea too, but a million reverbs and compressors is just like a million overdrive pedals - they're nice to collect, but sort of all the same after the first few, and most people could get by without having any.
 
Fama said:
I've used Reaper a whole bunch, so if you run into weird issues you can shoot me a DM.

Also, if you're prone to collecting pedals, be careful you don't fall into collecting plugins too. You really don't need much, EZDrummer is fine and some sort of a mastering suite (or even just a nice limiter) is a good idea too, but a million reverbs and compressors is just like a million overdrive pedals - they're nice to collect, but sort of all the same after the first few, and most people could get by without having any.
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Awesome, thank you! Only issue I've had so far have been with the ASIO drivers dropping sound, but so far it's been pretty easy to work with.

With the Opus and HX, I don't really see myself needing much on the guitar/ bass front. Might eventually play with the synth vsts, but I'm gonna leave that for a rainy day
 
Cybercow said:
Nice work. Is the schematic you posted earlier correct? (I noticed you mentioned the C2 2µ2 cap should be a 20µF and the 1K resistor could be a 1K pot(?).)
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Schematic I posted is right, I just forgot to change the value on the emitter cap after adding it.

Changing the 1k resistor to a pot is the modification I am going to do to make the fuzz infinitely more useful.
 
DGWVI said:
A different sorta work bench has been what I've worked on this weekend - View attachment 96408

I started jamming/ recording with a local guy, and he's convinced me to setup my own DAW station, so here's where it's at. Just deciding on which monitors and EZDrummer kits I wanna get
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Psst hey kid, get a load of this *opens trenchcoat* *shows you 10 tascam machines*
🧢
🧥🫱🏻📼📼📼📼📼📼📼📼📼📼
 
Be careful with plugins, they are addictive like pedals. One day you look and have 50 of them!

That said, there are a bunch of good free ones available like the Valhalla reverbs and delay. They sound amazing.

DGWVI said:
The board is -
  1. Input > tuner > A/B FX loop switcher
  2. Loop A is the huge Three-Channel Rat
  3. Loop B is the Attack Decay and HX (the Metal Muff isn't currently connected)
  4. A/B output > Opus
  5. The XLR out of the Opus goes to Joyo mixer (or PA at band practice/ sessions). The 1/4" outs will be going to the Behringer interface.



For DAW, I'm using Reaper. Haven't bought any plugins except EZDrummer 3 yet, but I'll probably snag something for mastering once I decide on a set of monitors. Also need to get a mic that isn't a 57 or clone of one🤣

I'm new to this sorta setup, so haven't done anything noteworthy with it yet
Click to expand...
 
DGWVI said:
The board is -
  1. Input > tuner > A/B FX loop switcher
  2. Loop A is the huge Three-Channel Rat
  3. Loop B is the Attack Decay and HX (the Metal Muff isn't currently connected)
  4. A/B output > Opus
  5. The XLR out of the Opus goes to Joyo mixer (or PA at band practice/ sessions). The 1/4" outs will be going to the Behringer interface.



For DAW, I'm using Reaper. Haven't bought any plugins except EZDrummer 3 yet, but I'll probably snag something for mastering once I decide on a set of monitors. Also need to get a mic that isn't a 57 or clone of one🤣

I'm new to this sorta setup, so haven't done anything noteworthy with it yet
Click to expand...
Don’t go paying for plug- ins at first, like @CheapSuitG said there are a ton of free ones. Reaper comes with a lot of mastering utilities that are just as good they just don’t have a fancy looking interface, which actually helps on not unnecessarily overloading your CPU. This is very helpful if you have an old cheap computer (like me🤣)
 
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