What are your favourite blues breaker mods?

[neiltheseal]

I'm looking to add a presence control to a pro-10 build. By any chance, you can share with us how you did that for your mod? Thanks

Hey. Well I didn't modify the blues breaker PCB, I used EasyEDA to make my own version based on the mods suggested in this thread. Here is my schematic.

Looking at the pro 2 schematic, it looks like you could replace R10 with a trimpot and add a capacitor between the trimpot and Vref.

C7 in the schematic will have an effect here, not sure what. You could always remove it.

Although the presence is mroe of a set and forget for me. You could always change the caps in the tone section to 33nf or more if there is too much treble. Tha'ts what I did.

 

[jcrhee]

Hey. Well I didn't modify the blues breaker PCB, I used EasyEDA to make my own version based on the mods suggested in this thread. Here is my schematic.

Looking at the pro 2 schematic, it looks like you could replace R10 with a trimpot and add a capacitor between the trimpot and Vref.

C7 in the schematic will have an effect here, not sure what. You could always remove it.

Although the presence is mroe of a set and forget for me. You could always change the caps in the tone section to 33nf or more if there is too much treble. Tha'ts what I did.

Thank you for this. Will follow your instructions on my mod. I actually prefer a little more treble than stock. I'm the select few that turn the presence control on my king of tone up to noon.

 

[andrewsrea]

I like to keep it low gain. My mods are to replace R3 and R6 with 50K linear trim pots, so that you can dial in 27K & 33k respectively for a KOT and dial in the resistance to 4K7 & 3K3 to bring it back to BB. You can also experiment with them to come up with your own gain frequency. I also like to insert a 25K linear trim pot before and in series with C7 to act as a presence control.

 

[MindFarter]

Hello All New Member, and noob at DIY Pedal Building
I am trying to build a Blue Breaker Mod for a friend, unfortunately, I do not have a lot of time left due to bad health
I have been working on this design for about a week now, and I want to call it the Big Balls Breaker, after the AC/DC song
All the parts have not arrived yet so I have not been able to breadboard it yet, I have been learning from the Brian Wampler course
https://www.guitarpedalcourse.com is an amazing course for beginners like me.
Between the course and YouTube videos and forums, I have developed a schematic that I think will work.
The Mods: JFET Boost into the Gain with on/on/on switch to toggle between gain, Tone Stack, Treble and Bass, second op-amp and 2-way switch for mono/stereo, and 3 sets of Diodes, Genuine MA859 (can't believe I got them) 1N4148 and BAT41 with an on/on/on toggle switch.
According to my latest MRI, I am demented so please check my schematic for errors, there are bound to be a few.
Please do point out any errors you see. Any recommendations for different resistors or capacitors are always welcome. I will try them all when I breadboard it.
I would love to create a PCB, I have done the schematic in easyEDA and I have put a PCB together and deleted it about 100 times while I have been working on this pedal, I need to make sure the schematic is correct before I create a PCB for the pedal.
Any help with this project is more than welcome and very much appreciated.


Thank you

 

[cdwillis]

I did a quick glance and your gain pot isn't set up right. The lug 1 should be going to the negative pin of the op amp, not ground. Your 100pf resistor needs to connect the positive and negative pins there. C10/C12 and R12/R13 are redundant too. Just use one cap and a 10k resistor. I never noticed any difference between 100nf and 220nf in that spot. Hell, when I play around on the breadboard I just omit that cap entirely and the circuit works fine.

Here's an example of that gain stage from one of my schematics

 

[MindFarter]

Thank you very much, I knew there would be some glaring mistakes that I just could not see.
I will fix the schematic change the caps and resistors by the gain and have a good play around when I get all the parts.

 

[MindFarter]

Corrected, thank you very much.
I have a few questions, as a beginner, I have a B125 enclosure and I am struggling to work out what would be the maximum size PCB I could create for that enclosure, I am not sure how to set up the schematic so all off-board wiring does not show up in the PCB footprints in easyEDA, that takes up a lot of space on the PCB.
Also, I have been contemplating adding a buffer to the input and output for impedance so a longer cord could be used, would this be worth doing, as it would take up more space, I have changed the IC1 and IC2 to OAP2134 so I have 2 TL072 that I could use to create input and output buffers with on/off switches so my friend can choose.
Any advice is appreciated Thank you

 

[Feral Feline]

There are 100s of PCBs right here on the PedalPCB website, most being the N1 size, to ascertain how big you can make your PCB. (Hint, the build docs show the size of the PCB).

WIDTH:
Generally speaking, it can be 60mm wide. That leaves you but a couple millimetres of leeway in an N1 (B125 as you call it).

LENGTH:
How much length the PCB can be will depend on if you're using a 3PDT true-bypass method or a relay-based bypass, and if the latter, whether you include the relay bypass on the main PCB or use a daughterboard for it. Again, check out some PedalPCB build docs; also check out build docs from Aion, MadBean, Effects Layouts, Fuzz Dog, LectricFX, etc... but not DEFX.


USAGE?
Whether or not a buffer is desirable depends on how the pedal is to be used by your friend. Stand-alone, or in a small 4-6 pedal board? What other pedals are on the board, and do any of them have buffers? Does your friend's tuner not have a buffer (or he/she uses a clip-on tuner)?

If it's a huge board and your friend plays big stages without a wireless, then a buffered pedal would probably, but not necessarily, be a good idea.



Hope you're able to complete your project in a timely manner, and wishing you good health to do so.

 

[Robert]

My usual maximum target size is 2.35" x 2.35", working with the existing standard drill templates.

These dimensions will fill a 125B wall to wall.

 

[MindFarter]

Thank you very much for all the information, I really appreciate it.
This is who I am building the pedal for, Jan Satorras, he does not play on stage much any more.

Jan is a Gibson freak has a lot of old pedals, and much prefers analogue to digital.
Here is the Vinyl version of the Prog Rock album we did, Reactivated Tarkus by Urban Trapeze, I had the honour of being added as the manager.

and please note the keyboard player is the composer and plays one-handed.
I mean it is a bit like trying to make an analogue pedal for Frank Zappa or Steve Vi LOL
Overdrive is a favourite so I went with the overdrive as the Fuzz I wanted to build turned out to be more expensive, and I already have a Fuzz Factory berserker kit I am putting together for him.
Something special for Jan would be a modified blues breaker and if I can create the PCB and put my name on it, it would be the perfect gift.
I am having a lot of fun building this blues breaker, guitar pedal building is an art form.

 

[MindFarter]

I really need some help, please. I have spent the last five hours or so trying to work out how to set up off-board components on a PCB on easyEDA. It has not gone well, and I have no idea what I am doing. I can not find a video on YouTube that explains off-board wiring for a PCB, and I can not find anything in easyEDA Docs. I even asked ChatGPT, but that was a massive waste of time LOL.
Can someone please explain to me exactly how to set up off-board wiring to the PCB or link me to a video or doc or something that explains it.
please be aware, that I have been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia which might explain why I can't work out how to set up off-board wiring on a PCB. The footswitch footprint is too big and takes up a lot of space, and I just want to create some holes on the PCB to be able to connect the footswitch to the PCB when I am building the pedal.
Any help is very much appreciated.
Thank you

 

[cdwillis]

If you look on the sidebar under the Common Library there is a pin header that you can use as a solder pad to hook up wires. Here's an example of what I mean too

 

[MindFarter]

If you look on the sidebar under the Common Library there is a pin header that you can use as a solder pad to hook up wires. Here's an example of what I mean too

Thank you very much, I just solved the problem 5 minutes ago, easyEDA says to create a new schematic for off-board connections, but that did not work for me so after a few decent vapes I came up with the idea to just create 4 new symbols with 1 pin and called it WC for Wire Connect and one hole as the footprint, then I just add the pin like a component to the wire, hide the footswitch from the PCB and ...... I am so very happy that worked, the single holes show up with the names I attached. but it will take me a few days to design the PCB by hand, I do not want to use the autoroute.
I have attached my Schematic, If anyone sees a mistake please point it out.
I must have killed off a few more brain cells with that brain fart idea LOL