mancunianfox

I love working on veroboard but you do have to be careful with your cuts, avoid solder bridges and make sure you place the components are in the right place (believe me, this happens all too often). A great website for vero layouts is [url="http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/[/url]

A noise gate doesn't get rid of the noise. What it does is create a gate that cuts off any signal which is below the threshold. This is why you can't hear the noise when you are not playing. Once you play a note the signal rises above the threshold which opens the gate and you can hear the noise again because this is still a part of the signal. Some pedals will always add some levels of hiss because they add gain to the signal chain. However this can be controlled and reduced somewhat with proper shielding, isolated power supply, good cables etc. Single coil pickups also tend to be more prone to this than humbuckers. It sounds like the ODB is just amplifying the hiss that is already in your signal to an unwanted level so that is probably the best way to start. A gate is more useful as a rhythmic tool rather than something to improve tone.

I use that Harley Benton Power Plant Jnr liam posted and it is great to have isolated outputs. Thomann also do a copy of the T-Rex Fuel Tank. While this doesn't have isolated outputs it could power all of those no problem. It has a 12v AC output which would power your Bottle Rocket as well as your other 9v pedals. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant.htm[/url]

[quote name='Pollinator95' timestamp='1340365465' post='1703346'] They look quite good, did you use Inkscape? [/quote] I used Microsoft Publisher. Hopefully I can get a bit better. Going to try waterslide decals next as I wasn't happy with the way the clear parts of the labels looked.

No point in building the Red Llama if you didn't like the Polish Hate as it is a clone of that. Devi Ever Ruiner is worth a try for the Radiohead tone you are after. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BA7OustDCLI I also love the Boss FZ-2 and (and also it's Behringer clone). This is a Univox superfuzz with an added tonestack. Fender Blender is maybe worth considering as well?

Pics of recent builds. This batch was my first attempt at doing labels. Going to make sure I clear coat them before putting them on the enclosure as I did scrape them a few times with my knife while I was cutting the excess from around the holes!

Al - That delay is a really clean build, great work. I like these Doctor Tweek pots with the plastic caps on them...handy for resting the base of the circuit on without shorting anything! Might look at getting some Tonepad PCB's too.

Few more builds finished for me. Used the labels Al suggested to varying degrees of success. Electronix Submarine, Bazz Fuss with clean blend and Devi Ever Karaoke Party. Pics incoming for soon. The Submarine is a brilliant preamp circuit and really makes my scavenged p-bass come alive. A really easy build too. Don't like the buff and blend circuit I used in the fuzz...probably going to replace that section with a Big Muff tone stack as I know that works well on a Bazz. The actual fuzz circuit sounds great though, I love the Bazz Fuss... Monster 10uF and 4.7uF with an MPSA13, 10k resistor, dirt pot mod and a 1N4001 in the clipping section. Going to try a few different diodes but really happy with the amount of bass this fuzz kicks out. An absolute monster. The Karaoke Party is a nice surprise on bass...much lower gain than Devi's other designs and only a few parts as well. Does a more over-driven sound and a clean distortion/fuzz on full gain with no additional noises going on either. Bit more transparent than the Dark Boost as well because it doesn't add the truckload of low end bass into the signal. Gristleizer and Phase 90 clones next up.

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1338289542' post='1672090'] A buff'n blend would be a nice addition to the Bazz Fuss, and I probably have all the bits for one knocking around - something for the next pizza break! Might have a fiddle with different transistors on the Fuss as, as you say, the 2N3904 isn't very smooth, I'll have to see what I have knocking around. [/quote] If you want to try adding a tone control to it you can find a good article on that here: [url="http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/BigMuffToneControl/"]http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/BigMuffToneControl/[/url] And you can find the tone stack calculator which allows you to tweak the cap and resistor values to change the frequency response and scoop here: [url="http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/"]http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/[/url]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1338279285' post='1671893'] Isn't building these things fun - even when you've very little free time! [/quote] I have just thrown together a Bazz Fuss too, this time incorporating a buff and blend as well. I love this circuit and return to it a lot. My favourite build so far is a Bazz Fuss with a modified Big Muff Tone stack but unfortunately I don’t have it anymore. With the tone knob towards the bass side it would cut through absolutely anything. It is such a simple circuit but really works. I use a slightly different version to you based on the home wrecker article which is worth trying if you can socket the components: 1N914 diode, MPSA13 Darlington transistor in place of the 2N3904 (sounds a bit smoother) 100k resistor should be replaced with 10k with this transistor. 1k Pot in between ground and the emitter of the transistor (Lug one to ground, Lug 2 to Lug 1, Lug 3 to the emitter of the transistor). This acts as a nice little drive control and helps to clean the sound up a bit. I aim to build a deluxe Bazz one day with volume, drive, clean blend, tone stack and a rotary switch for clipping diodes too.

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1335656380' post='1634393'] Thx v much Graphics inkjet printed onto clear adhesive film, then sealed with a few coats of clear acrylic spray. [url="http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.-Adhesive-Papers_075.htm"]http://www.craftycom...-Papers_075.htm[/url] [/quote] Cool, I'll try and find some photo shop templates and give that a go!

[quote name='Al Heeley' timestamp='1335626932' post='1633939'] Here's a delay pedal project at the request of a talented bass pal, Mikey from the forum. This is Sonic Kitchen's Time Machine. PCB from tonepad.com, circuit modified with send-return loop and an op-amp buffer. Found a sexy little indicator LED to install from ebay which is pre-wired to pulse though blue/gree/purple/orange and guaranteed to partially blind direct eye contact in a dark pub gig. [/quote] That looks absolutely amazing! What do you use for your labels? Your pedals are always finished incredibly well. Finished the Devi Ever Soda Meiser earlier today. The noise switch is a bit mental and not particularly useful for bass. Makes a drum machine sound totally nuts though. The fuzz is nice with bass at lower intensities but at higher gains it is a big like an ampeg scrambler and sounds better on a guitar or synth. Blending some low signal or using my Dark Boost to recoup low end helps a huge amount with this circuit.

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]So I finally got back into pedal building after a long delay after my guitars and previous builds (bar-one) were destroyed. Got the itch to build a Gristleizer but thought it would be a good idea to get some practice in first. Did the Moosapotamus Paralooper as I have had a failed attempt at a blender in the past using a vero layout I found. Experimented with drip swirling on the enclosure but wasn’t very pleased with the results. Might need some more practice at that. Actual build was fine although I accidently wired one of the electrolytic caps with the wrong polarity. Once I debugged that it worked like a charm and it is a really handy circuit to have as a bass player. Image of enclosure: [url="http://postimage.org/image/7h5e5sjsn/"]http://postimage.org/image/7h5e5sjsn/[/url][/size][/font] [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Vero Layout: [/size][/font][url="http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/bcreekmur/paralooper.jpg.html"]http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/bcreekmur/paralooper.jpg.html[/url] [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Moosapotamus article: [/size][/font][url="http://moosapotamus.net/THINGS/paraloop.htm"]http://moosapotamus.net/THINGS/paraloop.htm[/url] [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Just waiting for my next musikding order to arrive for my Soda Meiser build [/size][/font]

Bought a midi keyboard from Pete. It arrived quickly and well packed and the communication throughout the sale was excellent. Very happy with my the transaction!

Just made the Devi Ever Dark Boost from the schematic verified by her on her website. Sounding good..whacked two of them on the board with a DPDT to switch between the Dark Boost and Ruiner models. Pretty pleased.

Cheers for that. Done painting and clear coating but not decals yet. Will be giving this a go...very detailed description. Those LED bezels are nice as well. Suprised you don't see those on more boutique offerings really.

How do you do those labels Jack, they look all kinds of awesome!

I'm ordering stuff for that overdrive you have just done. Listened to some soundclips..sounds brilliant, especially at high gain!

I'm with you now. That sounds like a workable suggestion. I'll give that a go. Thanks

[quote name='cheddatom' post='762738' date='Mar 3 2010, 11:06 AM']If you put a buffer on the clean signal, but after the send, it should work. So you have input, split into clean and send, then buffer the clean after the send, and buffer the return, and blend the two.[/quote] Erm, thats what I have done. I haven't been trying to do a passive blend. So far I have built two circuits to get this to work. One that buffers the clean signal and the send (B.Blender) and one that just buffers the clean signal (Minimal Blender). Both work with other pedals but neither works properly with the fuzz face. On the minimal blender (just the clean is buffered) the blend knob pretty much stops working with the fuzz face. All that happens is that the blend knob rolls off some of the fuzz but there is no clean signal. If I put my a buffered pedal in the loop before the fuzz face the blend works properly but then I have the same problem of the fuzz face behaving differently due to the impedance change. I am thinking that these simple circuits that do not like any active circuitry between them and the guitars output are just not good candidates for my effect loop.