Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

I've been wanting to try a tight metal...

You should, it's quite good!

Nice. Guitarpcb sells some for 1.89ea but I'd rather wire my own and spend that on all the passive components instead. Theirs are pretty nice though.

I etched my first 20 of those (exact same layout, it's available somewhere on the web, search "M.G daughter boards" or something like that) and the 0.75 or 0.50 (I don't remember the exact price) is more than Worth it. I mean, just the toner transfer, etch and drilling takes forever if you want to do it nicely (they're tiny boards with lots of holes) and at these prices they're definitely a bargain. They're much nicer than the ones I made too, they have a solder mask over the traces, silkscreening, etc...

Not trying to convince you but that added cost to a pedal is, IMHO, definitely Worth it both in time you save and in neatness... maybe even solidity.

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

I gotta say, I expected someone to note the unofficial name of the pedal on the veroboard in the second pic... oh well...

[Chickenwings]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

There's really nothing fancy about the way I build but if you need détails I may do a bit of a tutorial when I build the next pedal if you want.

That would be sweet!

wow...i love this tagboard site!

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.ca/2012/04/vero-build-guide.html

[dominus]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

I gotta say, I expected someone to note the unofficial name of the pedal on the veroboard in the second pic... oh well...

Ha.

I've got a Tight Metal, one of the best distortion pedals I've tried over the past few years. Someday I'd love to have someone build me a rack unit with a bunch of AMT clones along with the Tight Metal and Okko Dominator clones.

[Demanic]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

I'd love to hear a soundclip of that tightmetal. Maybe even along with the boost.

[jimijames]

The ep boost is a great circuit - my guess is you used the one based off of the xotic circuit vs. one with a charge pump? I didn't see an ic so I figured no charge pump.

Where do you get perf board? Or is that vero? Awesome work as per usual.

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

Ha.

I've got a Tight Metal, one of the best distortion pedals I've tried over the past few years. Someday I'd love to have someone build me a rack unit with a bunch of AMT clones along with the Tight Metal and Okko Dominator clones.

that would be quite the set-up!

I'd love to hear a soundclip of that tightmetal. Maybe even along with the boost.

I'm sure there are plenty out there...

The ep boost is a great circuit - my guess is you used the one based off of the xotic circuit vs. one with a charge pump? I didn't see an ic so I figured no charge pump.

Where do you get perf board? Or is that vero? Awesome work as per usual.

You're right, it's the xotic w/o a charge pump (but now that you mention it I'm getting curious). It's vero and I buy it from Tayda electronics in Thailand, it's great quality and cheap. When I really do need bigger boards (which only happened once before Tayda got their bigger sized boards) I buy from eBay, plenty of sellers out there with huge pieces.

I'm about to box a modified Boss HM-2 either tonight or tomorrow... This version has a mids knob. The box turned out nice so I may post it later.

Cheers!

[dominus]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

that would be quite the set-up!

I was thinking of just a simple rack mount case with separate inputs and outputs for each "pedal", not a fancy switching system. Just something to keep them all in one place rather than having a big messy pedalboard. Inputs and knobs on the front, outputs and power supply in the back.

I'm about to box a modified Boss HM-2 either tonight or tomorrow... This version has a mids knob. The box turned out nice so I may post it later.

The HM-2 isn't meant to have useful tones. It's meant to just have one tone.

[jimijames]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

You're right, it's the xotic w/o a charge pump (but now that you mention it I'm getting curious). It's vero and I buy it from Tayda electronics in Thailand, it's great quality and cheap. When I really do need bigger boards (which only happened once before Tayda got their bigger sized boards) I buy from eBay, plenty of sellers out there with huge pieces.

I'm about to box a modified Boss HM-2 either tonight or tomorrow... This version has a mids knob. The box turned out nice so I may post it later.

Cheers!

Just fwiw - I don't know if you followed the whole saga (I only find out about it after it happened) but apparently an Australian guy made the ep-pre boost and then xotic came out with one that was nearly identical in looks.

But as it turns out the Australian one has a charge pump and different transistors I believe. Having never tried either I can't comment. The Aussie company claims that they couldn't get the circuit to sound right without a charge pump though, and forum member LTF (i think that's his name) claims that it two essential ingredients are the 21-24v and the mythical TIS58, the former which is easy to find and the latter which is slightly less easy to find.

I copied the circuit that mad bean pedals uses for their fat pants booster - I don't think it's an ep exactly but it sounds great. The mpf102 is supposed to be very close to the tis58 and fairly ubiquitous so if you don't want to shell out big bucks that's a good substitute.

But! This is just what I've heard on the internet. Again my sources may not be super accurate - as always YMMV. Just food for thought.

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

I was thinking of just a simple rack mount case with separate inputs and outputs for each "pedal", not a fancy switching system. Just something to keep them all in one place rather than having a big messy pedalboard. Inputs and knobs on the front, outputs and power supply in the back.

Very good idea. The AMT stuff is supposed to be very good. I'm yet to try one though.

The HM-2 isn't meant to have useful tones. It's meant to just have one tone.

I know, I had one many years ago and didn'T like it (but to be fair I was just starting and didn't know tone from noise either so). However, I've come to realize that it's been used a lot on many "classic" swedish metal albums. I became curious again. I'd never pay the price these go for on the used market right now but building one cheap is always a nice way to experiment. Based on the tones I got on my test-bench: it's actually good for some stuff!

Just fwiw - I don't know if you followed the whole saga (I only find out about it after it happened) but apparently an Australian guy made the ep-pre boost and then xotic came out with one that was nearly identical in looks.

But as it turns out the Australian one has a charge pump and different transistors I believe. Having never tried either I can't comment. The Aussie company claims that they couldn't get the circuit to sound right without a charge pump though, and forum member LTF (i think that's his name) claims that it two essential ingredients are the 21-24v and the mythical TIS58, the former which is easy to find and the latter which is slightly less easy to find.

I copied the circuit that mad bean pedals uses for their fat pants booster - I don't think it's an ep exactly but it sounds great. The mpf102 is supposed to be very close to the tis58 and fairly ubiquitous so if you don't want to shell out big bucks that's a good substitute.

But! This is just what I've heard on the internet. Again my sources may not be super accurate - as always YMMV. Just food for thought.

I absolutely didn't catch any of this but will do some searching. I don't follow the pedal-world progression or drama. I just like to build, modify and experiement. When I hear a demo I like I start from there and that's about it...

I'm assuming that, if mp102s are ok, pretty much any other jfets can be used with ok to good results. As far as the charge pump goes, I have a small utility box that I built, which is just a simple 9v to 18v converter that I can hook-up in front of any pedal to test at 18v (granted the pedal was built with appropriate voltage-rated caps) so I'll test it later, thanks for the tip!

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

Well, Surgeon,

You never fail to impress. Very nice.

[jimijames]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

Honestly I have no idea whether just any jfet will work, but I suspect that's the case. I don't know a lot about how the individual components function - I just browse the internet and rely on the opinions of people who sound like they know more than I do.

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

Well, Surgeon,

You never fail to impress. Very nice.

Well thank you for the praises doc!

Honestly I have no idea whether just any jfet will work, but I suspect that's the case. I don't know a lot about how the individual components function - I just browse the internet and rely on the opinions of people who sound like they know more than I do.

Usually jfets can be substitued for others without much problems. It just depends on how the circuit was developped (for example, most of wampler's circuits that use jfets won't work even when the jfets are switch with others of the same number and brand, while many others circuits ate perfectly fine).
Mpf102, j201, 2n5457 are all fine in most circuits (there may be small differences in tone but usually not much), especially when there are trimmers on the jfets' gate to bias the voltage...

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

You're welcome. You deserve the praise.

[Surgeon]

Re: Once in a while I build one or two that are worth looking at...

And, as promised, here's the HM2: