Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: richardjmorgan on August 06, 2012, 07:13:07 PM
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I've been faffing about with (and reading a lot about) effects pedals quite a lot of late, and I'd quite like to have a crack at putting something together myself. Where's a good, fairly idiot-proof, place to start with this? I know one end of a soldering iron from the other but that's about it – I wish I'd paid for attention in Technology lessons when I was 13 now!
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Idiot proof you say?
head on over to build your own clone.
They come with step by step instructions and its virtually impossible to go wrong.
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As Toe-Knee said, BYOC
http://www.buildyourownclone.com/
You can buy the kits here
http://www.vibe-o-tronic.co.uk/
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Cheers guys! Now I just need to decide want I want to make!
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A fuzz or tubescreamer would be a good place to start as theyre both very simple. But with BYOC it doesn't really matter as they make everything simple.
I'm gonna take a crack at doing a vero board version of their 10 band EQ at some point.
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There are plenty of people selling kits on the internet as well as BYOC, eg
http://diypedalkits.com/
http://pedalparts.co.uk/category/fullkits/
http://www.musikding.de/Kits/Musikding-Kits:::52_122.html
Unless you have the tools (and the patience), I would try to get a kit that has a pre-drilled box.
Also you will need to consider what tools you need to do the job. Of paramount importance is a soldering iron and appropriate solder.
Trying to build a kit with am antique 12W soldering iron and Maplin's el cheapo lead-free solder will put you off pedal building for life.
You will also need some decent side cutters and some wire strippers, as well as more common tools such as adjustable spanner, screw drivers etc.
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http://pedalparts.co.uk/category/fullkits/
Terrifying dog thing at the top of the page aside, this looks ideal – not as spendy as BYOC and I like the idea of actually trying to learn what's going on in terms of how they work, rather than just putting bits where it tells me. Think I'm going to have a crack at the Bazz Fuzz or Treble Booster.
Also you will need to consider what tools you need to do the job. Of paramount importance is a soldering iron and appropriate solder.
Trying to build a kit with am antique 12W soldering iron and Maplin's el cheapo lead-free solder will put you off pedal building for life.
You will also need some decent side cutters and some wire strippers, as well as more common tools such as adjustable spanner, screw drivers etc.
Hopefully I should be ok; I have some old, non-lead-free solder that I dug out of my dad's garage and I managed to change the pots on my Tele without messing it up too badly (i.e. noise comes out of it and everything's still working a few months down the line).
Thanks again for all the help/suggestions, everyone! I sometimes wonder how anyone managed to do anything at all before the internet.
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I'd suggest (poodle's) pedal parts, they have a fantastic customer service, next day delivery and great quality. This isn't an advert lol... I've ordered a SHO, Rangemaster and Axis Fuzz from them...
p.s if you follow them on Facebook you'll get loads of updates on new pedals etc. Took me 30 mins to put together their rangemaster clone inside my Telecaster and it cost 20 quid....
cheers
George
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If you want to get a bit more in depth and do pretty much everything from scratch check out
http://www.sabrotone.com/
Its a lot more work but I find it a lot more rewarding too.
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
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Start with something from BYOC. Everything's in and they're bloody good pedals as a rule. Their forum is excellent for the beginner and it's not just for BYOC stuff. It is genuinely the friendliest of the DIY boards and there's a lot of good peeps there.
When you want to go on from here it becomes more interesting. Getting into vero will open up a scary amount of options. But if you want to stick with PCBs and sourcing your own parts, there are quite a few places that do that. Madbean's PCB's are uniformly excellent and are all fabbed now. GuitarPCB's PCBs are generally etched but are also excellent.
There are loads of links on my site in the Stompage section for forums/PCBs/projects/parts. http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/index.html Including a couple of tutorials with some finishing methods. Which is by far the most time consuming bit of making most pedals. We spent all of yesterday for example drilling, polising and decalling about 6 enclosures. That doesn't include time designing them and laying them out or indeed applying the envirotex finish. Which in itself takes a few hours then about 4 days to cure.
Actually just assembling PCB's is easy. Wiring them into a box can be as hard or easy as you make it depending on how neat/quiet you want it to be.
When you start to get your head around it all, then you can start modifying things and doing your own stuff. Which is when it becomes really fun.
You don't need much to start off with. An 18-20 watt iron is fine. Get some good side clippers, pliers and wire strippers. An iron stand and sponge (keep your tip clean). A solder sucker, some helping hands (little stand with a pair of croc clips on it) and a digital multimeter (get one with a transistor tester). These are the basics. You can then make yourself things that'll make your life easier like a signal tester, a 'wobble box' (see my site, I couldn't think of a better name for it), and stuff like that. For the enclosures you'll want a drill press, a cone cutter (try to get one that goes up in 1mm increments) and a 3mm drill bit. I pilot everything with the 3mm bit then follow it through with the cone. Makes life massively easier.
What you will find is that you'll be able to make circuits and try them for peanuts. But to actually build a box from end to end is massively time consuming and sadly, not really vocationally viable. As unless you can sell them for £200+, you'll never get paid for the time it takes to make one. Simple as that. BUT, for the DIYer, you will be able to make yourself pedals at cost. Which is a LOT less than you buy them for.
Welcome to the club. It's a very, very addictive hobby. I dare not count how many I've built in the last 3 years, but I'm certainly over a hundred now, oh and for the financials, still in the red ;)
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
Used their Der Kompressor board and it was good. Nothing wrong with that.
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
Used their Der Kompressor board and it was good. Nothing wrong with that.
A bit off topic. But have you built any plexitones using madbeans boards? it seems like an interesting project and something that would actually be useful. Most of the pedals I build I use for a month or so then they get stuck in the drawer of no return.
I really wish someone would come out with a digital reverb PCB it's one of the only things that I actually need.
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Digital reverb?
What's wrong with a spring tank? You could knock a tube-driven one up in half an hour!
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Digital reverb?
What's wrong with a spring tank? You could knock a tube-driven one up in half an hour!
I could but that takes up a lot more space! Then again I would have it always on and in the loop so maybe it isn't such a big deal. I've tried the belton reverb bricks but I wasn't a fan of them.
Do you have any links to reverb projects Frank? If not i'll get cracking with the google-fu!
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
Used their Der Kompressor board and it was good. Nothing wrong with that.
A bit off topic. But have you built any plexitones using madbeans boards? it seems like an interesting project and something that would actually be useful. Most of the pedals I build I use for a month or so then they get stuck in the drawer of no return.
I really wish someone would come out with a digital reverb PCB it's one of the only things that I actually need.
The Plexitone is stonking, but his current PCB is a little iffily arranged and causes some squealing. You can engineer it out (quite a few threads about it on the forum), but I'd wait for a revised board. The original if you want to etch your own works just fine and is lurking in my schematic stash (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/schematics/Madbean/), it's the Boneyard 1. If you do make the mk1, you don't need the boost section. Nor do you need the hi gain really as it just brings in a bigger pot on a stomp. My new one I built as a three knobber, single stomp.
Reverb, 1776 effects (http://1776effects.com/) Rub-a-Dub reverb uses the new Belton brick (get them from Das Musikding) and it's really, really good. I've made a dual short into long reverb for shites and giggles. Not really necessary and an expensive way of doing things. But it's fun and it's nice to be able to compare them back to back.
I've just ordered a pair of short blocks to make a couple of singles that I'll be selling. The shorter block is slightly tighter and cleaner, the long one sounds 'bigger'. There's not a massive amount in it really.
It's significantly better sounding than the BYOC verb I also have. That has a tendency to get noisy at the extremes. The 1776 one on the ickle brick doesn't at all. Goes in a tiny box too :)
The only thing that's better is the WET Reverb. I still stand by that it's the best I've heard to date (and it's the one that sits in my loop permanently).
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
Used their Der Kompressor board and it was good. Nothing wrong with that.
A bit off topic. But have you built any plexitones using madbeans boards? it seems like an interesting project and something that would actually be useful. Most of the pedals I build I use for a month or so then they get stuck in the drawer of no return.
I really wish someone would come out with a digital reverb PCB it's one of the only things that I actually need.
The Plexitone is stonking, but his current PCB is a little iffily arranged and causes some squealing. You can engineer it out (quite a few threads about it on the forum), but I'd wait for a revised board. The original if you want to etch your own works just fine and is lurking in my schematic stash (http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/schematics/Madbean/), it's the Boneyard 1. If you do make the mk1, you don't need the boost section. Nor do you need the hi gain really as it just brings in a bigger pot on a stomp. My new one I built as a three knobber, single stomp.
Reverb, 1776 effects (http://1776effects.com/) Rub-a-Dub reverb uses the new Belton brick (get them from Das Musikding) and it's really, really good. I've made a dual short into long reverb for shitees and giggles. Not really necessary and an expensive way of doing things. But it's fun and it's nice to be able to compare them back to back.
I've just ordered a pair of short blocks to make a couple of singles that I'll be selling. The shorter block is slightly tighter and cleaner, the long one sounds 'bigger'. There's not a massive amount in it really.
Cheers for that. I'll check them out. Thanks for the pointers on the current madbean boards. There's nothing I hate more than having to work around a dodgy layout so you saved me a possible headache there.
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Just edited my above post to add a little more detail.
Reverb weapon of choice: http://youtu.be/paIpgtQ9rcc
If you've got a pair of amps the stereo version is ridiculous. http://youtu.be/xhxCGg6GAow?hd=1
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Just edited my above post to add a little more detail.
Reverb weapon of choice: http://youtu.be/paIpgtQ9rcc
If you've got a pair of amps the stereo version is ridiculous. http://youtu.be/xhxCGg6GAow?hd=1
That is incredible! I think I may just buy one of those.
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That demo sold me one :)
You will get stung for import duty though :( which smarts a little.
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The hardwire supernatural looks to be a more featured new digiverb: http://proguitarshop.com/digitech-supernatural-reverb.html Sounds good in the demos. Though what I like about the WET is the sheer simplicity of it. It's so easy to dial in the sounds you want with just two knobs. At the other end of the spectrum there's the Strymon of course...
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i started with a musikding kit. they're cheap, the doc is straightforward, everything needed comes with a simple click.
the only downside is that the pcbs are badly designed, and it's impossible to have a clean wiring inside the pedal with them.
the tremolo is great!
Be warned though, after the first pedal started, i started to spend all my nights looking at pedal stuff, reading, gathering informations, buying stuff ... and i ended up spending a LOT of money in this passion... :)
In what way were they badly designed? I haven't used any of them but have considered it every now and then.
by 'badly designed' i meant that it's hard to have a clean wiring because the pin 1 of the gain pot is wired on one side of the pcb, and the pin 3 on the other side., in the end, a clean wiring is hard to get.
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Re: digital reverb - I quite like the belton bricks... built as per general guitar gadgets...
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They are your feet!
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Do you have any links to reverb projects Frank? If not i'll get cracking with the google-fu!
This looks rather good ...
http://www.el34world.com/Hoffman/images/revibeschematicToreT.gif
http://www.el34world.com/Hoffman/revibeparts.htm
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Do you have any links to reverb projects Frank? If not i'll get cracking with the google-fu!
This looks rather good ...
http://www.el34world.com/Hoffman/images/revibeschematicToreT.gif
http://www.el34world.com/Hoffman/revibeparts.htm
Weber also do a kit for this.
It's essentially the Fender stand alone Reverb unit combined with the tremolo circuit found on several of the Brown Tolex amps such as the Super and the Concert, which incidentally sounds VERY cool.
The circuit essentially works by splitting the audio into two, one half is high pass filtered and the other low pass filtered. These two filtered signal and then varied in amplitude in opposite phases and summed to give the final audio output (did that make sense??)
This circuit was only used by Fender for a 2-3 years in the early 60's, probably because it employs 2 1/2 valves, and for the same valve count you can have tremolo AND reverb in an amp.
This circuit has a good reputation, although there are a couple of quirks.
Firstly the "dry" signal passes through the filtering/ summing stage. This may be good, bad or indifferent.
Also the reverb and tremolo are in parallel. Again I have no particular opinion on the merits of this.
Weber also have another interesting kit:
https://taweber.powweb.com/store/5h15t_schem.jpg
This combines the Fender reverb unit with a Vibro Champ style tremolo. Again this is a cool trem. This kit has the trem after the reverb rather than in parallel (I think before would be strange...).
Incidentally (shameless plug), I've been prototyping a high voltage MOSFET LFO based on one of RG Keen's circuits which can be used to add trem to a valve amp.
I retro fitted this as a bias mod trem in one of our 15 W amps (another shameless plug), with excellent results, and hopefully will be offering this as an inexpensive kit to retro fit trem in the near future; I need to do a slight PCB tweak.
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I need to clear some workspace and start soldering again. A valve reverb is definitely missing from my life.
Best I ever heard was on a friend's ancient old Ampeg Reverb-o-rocket, stacked with big meaty 6SN7's and probably never revalved from original. He sold it because some moron in a shop said no one made octal tubes any more.
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I need to clear some workspace and start soldering again. A valve reverb is definitely missing from my life.
Best I ever heard was on a friend's ancient old Ampeg Reverb-o-rocket, stacked with big meaty 6SN7's and probably never revalved from original. He sold it because some moron in a shop said no one made octal tubes any more.
The Ampeg circuit does indeed sound great.
It's a transformerless design and requires a higher impedance tank, although these are now easy to source due to the proliferation of solid state reverb drivers.
This is another interesting circuit which I (hope to be) experimenting with soon.
http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard2/reverbdriver.html
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Blimey yes, SRPP looks interesting and saves the expense of a transformer. And I was thinking all reverb tanks were 8 ohm, seems they go as high as 2k input impedance.