What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

[jwin615]

Flip the pots 180 on the other axis maybe?

 

[Feral Feline]

Hey I built one of those. Careful my board was backwards. The pot needed to be on the component side. Or else everything runs backwards. I still haven't fixed mine.

Man, I still have some PCBGM boards from when the dude just got started, and nobody knew better. At least you tried yours.
Loath to even attempt them, given the horrorshows.

Ah to build, or not to build?: that is the question:​

Whether 'tis nobler to blindly offer​

Singapore-Slings and use PCBGM PCBs as outrageous kitschy drink coasters​

Or to make solder-fumes, creating a sea of trouble-shooting,​

And by opposing just bin them? Too sly, too deep,​

No more, and by deep, to say we send​

The heart-ache and the innumerable unnatural schlocks​

That finishing them would be error, too, 'tis a confoundation​

Devoutly to be whizzed upon. The PCB's must die, and leep​

To landfill, perchance in a stream; aye, there's a nub​

For in that sling to death, what operable-circuits may come​

When we have shuffled on to error-free PCBs worthy of our toil.​

 

[Feral Feline]

A friend has commissioned me to build him a Hylian (Legend of Fuzz).

I was checking out all the mods I could find only to find he wants it built stock straight up. (I'll probably still add in the R-MOD, a 100k between C6 and VOLUME, though).

I discovered the LoF is 2 DE circuits in one, a Silver Crank running into a God Zilla (sometimes called BIT?).
Anyway, since my friend wants it stock and I'd already been bitten by the MOD-BUG... I thought I'd build one for myself and use up some [*shudders*] "veeroe", so I only ordered one PCB, which I'm regretting.

Trying to implement the circuit-switcher within the context of my vero-layout, I was getting pretty messed up.
I find vero time-consuming to follow if not also frustrating.
I was trying to figure a way to get C2 to be the output cap for the SC and the input cap for the GZ without doubling up that cap when using the two circuits together as LoF. Where to end SC, where to start GZ and feed signal to-&-from all the relevant points on my vero layout?

Another hiccup: I needed to be able to use both the pots, GAIN/FUZZ and VOLUME, for all three toggled options — The vero layout was getting messier and more convoluted and my thermostat was starting to go through the roof


I stepped back, had to, and revisited my basic diagram for A or B or A>B toggling. Just dealing with the large blocks and not the minutiae of the parts-on-vero was a solution-revealing moment...




I realised the output cap, C6, would suffice for all three circuits, no need for C2 as output in the Silver Crank — just leave C2 as the input cap for God Zilla and as a coupling-cap for Legend of Fuzz...


C2 is where the Silver Crank Ends and God Zilla starts.



I only abandoned the vero on DIYLC earlier today, so I don't have a corrected-layout to reveal here, now.
I may yet still veto vero and switch to PERF! Perhaps pick up another PCB during the next sale...




IN CONCLUSION... a gentle reminder...
When things are getting fugly, step back and take a breather, break things down to their basic blocks and be clear on those points before delving back into the deep-end of nitty-gritties.

Thanks for reading,
FF

 

[Cybercow]

Man, I still have some PCBGM boards from when the dude just got started, and nobody knew better. At least you tried yours.
Loath to even attempt them, given the horrorshows.

Ah to build, or not to build?: that is the question:​

Whether 'tis nobler to blindly offer​

Singapore-Slings and use PCBGM PCBs as outrageous kitschy drink coasters​

Or to make solder-fumes, creating a sea of trouble-shooting,​

And by opposing just bin them? Too sly, too deep,​

No more, and by deep, to say we send​

The heart-ache and the innumerable unnatural schlocks​

That finishing them would be error, too, 'tis a confoundation​

Devoutly to be whizzed upon. The PCB's must die, and leep​

To landfill, perchance in a stream; aye, there's a nub​

For in that sling to death, what operable-circuits may come​

When we have shuffled on to error-free PCBs worthy of our toil.​

I've avoided using any PCBGM boards early on as I also noted their bountiful foobars. I recently went for 4 of their PCBs; the JFT Phaser, Tremolo Factory, Watch Tower and the Sabbatical Drive. All of which are yet to be fired up.

 

[Aleph Null]

Man, I still have some PCBGM boards from when the dude just got started, and nobody knew better. At least you tried yours.
Loath to even attempt them, given the horrorshows.

Ah to build, or not to build?: that is the question:​

Whether 'tis nobler to blindly offer​

Singapore-Slings and use PCBGM PCBs as outrageous kitschy drink coasters​

Or to make solder-fumes, creating a sea of trouble-shooting,​

And by opposing just bin them? Too sly, too deep,​

No more, and by deep, to say we send​

The heart-ache and the innumerable unnatural schlocks​

That finishing them would be error, too, 'tis a confoundation​

Devoutly to be whizzed upon. The PCB's must die, and leep​

To landfill, perchance in a stream; aye, there's a nub​

For in that sling to death, what operable-circuits may come​

When we have shuffled on to error-free PCBs worthy of our toil.​

The Bard would be disappointed this isn't in iambic pentameter.

(I liked it, though.)

 

[Locrian99]

Sad day today. Was playing my bassman and suddenly I heard some sizzle, then a slightly pop and then some more sizzle.

54 years of service (pretty sure this one of the factory tubes). V1 and V3 still going, and has some Sylvania 5881’s in it. But V2 is now a JJ

 

[Feral Feline]

The Bard would be disappointed this isn't in iambic pentameter.

(I liked it, though.)

Nobody got time for that!

Writin' OR readin'. ​

I'd never be on a level to even cook the Bard's Bacon.

I'm better off spending time building a pedal.

Ahhh, musrt face it, when it comes to building pedals — I'll never be a Ryan Clarke either. Nor Scott Monk nor Michael Knappe... the list is endless, senseless.

 

[vigilante398]

Probably the most complex pcb design I've done on the pcb mill at home, I/O setup with power supplies for prototyping. UV printed solder mask and silkscreen, though the silkscreen didn't come out great. The board works though, so I'm happy.

 

[Diynot]

Low hanging fruit being only 2 pots and a jack but I’m pretty proud of it.
Sons P bass. Factory jack just wouldn’t hold a cord (we’ll try and steer clear of hot dog and hallway jokes). CTS pots and a pure tone jack. Someone tell me why the convention of ground wiring puts the wires soldered to the back of the pot when you can just use lug 1 of the volume pot. Yes you still have to have the lug grounded to the back of the pot but 1 wire vs trying to wrangle 3-4 seems less of a PITA. But that’s just me I guess

 

[Aleph Null]

Low hanging fruit being only 2 pots and a jack but I’m pretty proud of it. View attachment 119315
Sons P bass. Factory jack just wouldn’t hold a cord (we’ll try and steer clear of hot dog and hallway jokes). CTS pots and a pure tone jack. Someone tell me why the convention of ground wiring puts the wires soldered to the back of the pot when you can just use lug 1 of the volume pot. Yes you still have to have the lug grounded to the back of the pot but 1 wire vs trying to wrangle 3-4 seems less of a PITA. But that’s just me I guess

Looks good! I prefer to use lug one as ground too, but it can be hard to get all the ground wires through the lug hole if you have multiple pickups and a ground wire from the bridge. I'd imagine factory built guitars fold lug one back and use the back of the pot because then you can prepare a bunch of pots in advance and pull them from a bin during assembly.

 

[JasonWickersham]

Spotting holes for the DEFX PLL One today.

 

[Erik S]

for the DEFX PLL One

Or for draining spaghetti!

 

[bluedmc777]

Getting ready to test this one. First non gain related pedal attempt ever!

 

[falco_femoralis]

Low hanging fruit being only 2 pots and a jack but I’m pretty proud of it. View attachment 119315
Sons P bass. Factory jack just wouldn’t hold a cord (we’ll try and steer clear of hot dog and hallway jokes). CTS pots and a pure tone jack. Someone tell me why the convention of ground wiring puts the wires soldered to the back of the pot when you can just use lug 1 of the volume pot. Yes you still have to have the lug grounded to the back of the pot but 1 wire vs trying to wrangle 3-4 seems less of a PITA. But that’s just me I guess

I believe the backs of the pots are grounded in order to provide some sort of balanced signal to prevent eddy currents and noise. At least that would be the theory but it's not really applicable at the low voltages of guitar pickups.

I don't ground all my pots, usually I just use the volume pot as a grounding bus. I've seen some guitars with a ground terminal bus on the back of the pickguard and I like that idea. Ideally I'd have one ground wire running up the length of the guitar and have each component splice onto it where the component is located, but I change up my guitars too much to commit to something like that by trimming the pickups' ground wires that short.