What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

Erik S said:
That desoldering job doesn’t look like it would be fun, but I bet you could find those jacks. I tried searching “right angle pcb mount xlr combo jack” and got some stuff in the ballpark.

Does this ncj6fa-h look right?

www.markertek.com

NEUTRIK NCJ6FA-H 3 Pole XLR-F w/1/4 Inch Stereo Jack (Horizontal PCB)

XLR / jack hybrid chassis connector combining 3 pole XLR receptacle and 1/4' jack in the smallest available XLR housing.
www.markertek.com www.markertek.com
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That looks about right but I’ll check the pin layout before ordering anything. I’m already going to buy another box anyway, we could use the extra channels even with the 6 usable on the box. This is more an exercise of can I actually repair it than “should” I. I might just see if I can get the whole soldered panel with the jacks already soldered sent over. A couple screws and a ribbon cable is easy.
 
JohnnyCreepy said:
Before testplay checked voltages and got the relief. Least noisy muff I’ve played thanks to signal threshold gating these ASYs do.
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The Sasquatch II I built is also pretty quiet (due to having a germ transistor too), but to be fair, I also did the noise gate mod to the Fire Red Fuzz I modded and that also works (although obviously it changes the tone too since it messes with the transistor bias, it's a 100k trimmer in parallel with the second clipping stage 100k resistor to ground in a Muff circuit).
 
Fama said:
The Sasquatch II I built is also pretty quiet (due to having a germ transistor too), but to be fair, I also did the noise gate mod to the Fire Red Fuzz I modded and that also works (although obviously it changes the tone too since it messes with the transistor bias, it's a 100k trimmer in parallel with the second clipping stage 100k resistor to ground in a Muff circuit).
Click to expand...
Tomorrow I’ll blast my tube amp and that’s the real test, but todays quick try with
Peavey Vypyr 15W Bassman emulation through 12” speaker was all fine and low noise level was a nice surprise. So far apart how hissy all my past Muff builds have been.

I hadn’t done pcb builds for a while, so it also was problematic to set legless potentiometers to board. Ended up using components legs and bare copper wire soldered to pot lugs. Worked good enough. Got also into first use of table drill press I bought from Lidl month ago and it really made enclosure drilling easier compared to what I’m used to with freehand drilling!
 
With the help of @rwl, working the final details on an oddball fuzz circuit. Instead of using BJTs or opamp, it uses a single reference diode - the TL431, but an optional 2N3904 can be used in series with the TL431.

These shots are of the 2nd revision PCB, but gotta go back in and make some corrections. On the breadboard, everything worked quite well. But when the PCBs arrived and I built a couple out, I thought that every trimmer I had in stock was bad or something was wrong with the PCB. Turns the PCB is fine (except for the changes to be made) and the trimmers all test good with a meter. I just simply musta made an oversight with the breadboard builds when testing the trimmer. In any case, it performs as designed and approaches that "torn speaker" sound, loudly.

rwl will likely do a full write up

Tern_Speaker_Population_02.jpg
 
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I wanted to do something to make the fret ends nicer on my low cost SX guitar so I purchased the Stewmac fret end file and a micro mesh popsickle stick and got into it. On the second time around it clicked for me so I went back and redid the first side, then polished the fret ends, then the fret tops, and then I did a deep clean of the board using my thumbnail to get deep into the fret crevices. It feels really smooth now and plays almost too good!

Today I also cleaned off the paint on a batch of enclosures that had bad primer adhesion. I tried out a new braided wire wheel with my angle grinder and it left deeper scratches in the aluminum enclosures than my straight strand wheel, so I had to normalize the surface with 220 and 400 sandpaper. I prefer the results of the gentler stranded wire wheel but it didn't remove the paint as easily as I would have liked. The paint I use is forgiving to a not perfectly flat surface so I don't have to go crazy with the sandpaper. They all got a bath and I'll follow thru with an isopropyl alcohol scrub down maybe tomorrow.
 
falco_femoralis said:
I wanted to do something to make the fret ends nicer

Today I also cleaned off the paint on a batch of enclosures
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I would have appreciated some pictures! :ROFLMAO:

falco_femoralis said:
deep clean of the board using my thumbnail
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I got one of these a couple years ago. The brush it comes with has a scraper end that was a big upgrade from the thumbnail system for finger gunk removal.

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com
 
Yesterday was good/bad/good/bad in terms of finishing projects.

Good: finished AlephNull’s newer weeble board. Just a nice and simple little vibrato circuit that sounds great. I need to get it into an enclosure and then I could attempt to record some sounds, but I am terrible at guitar.

Bad: finished the Lunar Module. Was testing lots of transistors and settled on a set that are something like 70-90/200ish/230ish in hfe. But there’s a dodgy connection that I found pulling on the board with the offboard wiring. Pulled it out of the box, reflowed everything. had it kind of going, and now can’t find the bad connection.
 
Erik S said:
I would have appreciated some pictures! :ROFLMAO:
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Here you go...

d89fe64924261763ec5df5c01cdf1ea7330d42d1.png
 
pbrommer said:
Yesterday was good/bad/good/bad in terms of finishing projects.

Good: finished AlephNull’s newer weeble board. Just a nice and simple little vibrato circuit that sounds great. I need to get it into an enclosure and then I could attempt to record some sounds, but I am terrible at guitar.

Bad: finished the Lunar Module. Was testing lots of transistors and settled on a set that are something like 70-90/200ish/230ish in hfe. But there’s a dodgy connection that I found pulling on the board with the offboard wiring. Pulled it out of the box, reflowed everything. had it kind of going, and now can’t find the bad connection
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Replaced a few caps and a dodgy pot (wasn’t, but did anyway). Still nothing. Finally found the culprit: bad 1K pot. One half read fine: other half was kaput. Frustrating. Hopefully I can get a build report soon.
 
Just finished my tube amp (Mojotone Studio One 1W, with an FX loop added)

1773688367294.png

1773688383402.png

I am happy with it, sounds great, didn't need to troubleshoot much, had to re-flow 1 joint. I learned everything I could from https://robrobinette.com/Amp_Stuff.htm and https://www.youtube.com/@UncleDoug before I allowed myself to start putting it together.

1 watt is still way too loud for my room, sounds great even with the volume all the way down though. :LOL: I need to wait for the house to be empty before I turn it way up and see what it has in it.
 
Long delayed 4 X EL34 bass amp build is finally moving along again:


PW100_wip.jpg


But today I noticed that the output transformer I bought 5+ years ago is actually the wrong model, so I pinged Heyboer to see if they might cut me a Bro Deal on the right one. The bolt mounting centers are the same for both and this 50 watt one I have actually made 90 watts before clipping on my test bench, which is pretty impressive for a DR503 clone. I paid for a DR103 clone, but at this point can hardly expect them to do much about it after I installed it, cut the lead wires, ran it for a few hours, etc. I may end up just running it with two output tubes, which the power amp board already has a switch for, and being happy with what measured as 60 watts. Probably better for guitar, but not so ideal for bass. 😎
 
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