Time to play "Catch Up"

Alright, so after the mahem of the lats build I took about a week and a half off from building. Now I'm gonna box up a few projects that I have sitting on my bench. Pretty sure I have 5 or 6 projects that are ready to be boxed. I remember building a bunch before Matt (the crazy multi build I just did) got in touch with me. I think I even have artwork for some of them too. Here is the list of stuff waiting to be completed.

Tap Tempo Tremolo
Analog Delay (DM 2 work a like)
Voodoo Vibe clone,
Dead Astrnaught TremShifter
Shoe Gazer clones (2 of them)
Fuzz Factory Clone
Wampler Pinnacle Clone

So as you can see I have my hands pretty full for a couple weeks. I should blow through these pretty quick though. Most of them have been built and tested, They just need an enclosure and some art work. I might try and do a couple of face plates for the "fancier" builds (analog delay and voodoo vibe). Or maybe and etched enclosure here and there. We shall see. Thanks for reading!

-Mike-

Let the Madness Ensue...

Hello Again,
     Now let me first say that this was probably the most complicated build that I have ever done. There are 3 effects plus a order switch and an FX / blend option in this. It was very hard to wrap my head around but in the end I nailed it!! Here is the breakdown of the pedal.

**Main Circuit**

The main tone of this is based on the DBA Sound Saw. What this is, is a two channel frequency filter circuit. The bypass switch turns it on and the filter switch switches between the two channels. Channel one high lights the lows and allows more of a bass-y boost. Channel two accents the highs and mids giving the tone a cutting edge. There is a volume and filter knob for each channel.

**Fuzz Tone**

The fuzz section of this is modeled after the DBA Harmonic Transformer. This fuzz is EVIL! I love it. It is controlled by 1 knob and 2 toggle switches. In this built you'll notice that there are 3 toggle switches for the fuzz, the 3rd switch is simply an on / off option. The knob controls the over all fuzz volume. The switch on the left is the on / off, the switch in the middle is the sign wave switch (changes from triangle to square wave), and the switch on the right is an intensity switch. 

**Delay / Reverb Tone**

This is one of my favorite delay / reverb designs, the circuit is a Madbeans Moodring. This reverb is great and the delay is simple and easy to dial in. This has no on / off switch but the "Ring" knob essentially acts like an on / off. all the way to tho the left is off and all the way to the right is "muffin maker"! 

**Extra Options**

-Blend-

You'll notice that there are 2 extra jacks on the side of the enclosure. These allow you to add another effect and blend it into this circuit. The top jack is the send and the bottom is the return. The blend is panned from left to right. Left is no added effect and right is full effect volume (set on external effect) added to this circuit. 

-Order Toggle Switch-

There is also an effect order switch built into this as well. What this does is puts the fuzz in front or behind the reverb. This gives you a multitude of options. putting the fuzz in front of the effect will give you the "wall of sound" type of effect that a lot of guitarists go for.

So needless to say there was a lot to take in to consideration when building this. The enclosure was designed and etch by Dan at ADD Effects. He and I have worked together on several builds now and I don't see us stopping any time soon. Well that's all I have for now. Here are some pictures for you. I will get the videos posted soon. Thanks for reading.

Videos are coming soon!!!

-Mike-

VIDEO TIME!!!

A couple of customer builds

Hello All,
    So I have here a couple of builds for people that have emailed me for a special request. The first is an A / B / Y switch. This was done for a forum member by the mane of Space6oy on the ILF forum. He wanted this as an alternative to getting a Morley switch. The reason he didn't want the Morley switch was because it only runs on batteries. So I did a custom dill and art lay out for him and put it together. Here are a couple pictures.

      Next we have an UglyFace. This is actually a GCFX Machete. The Machete was based on the UglyFace which is a IC driven filter fuzz. There were aftermarket mods done to most of these that incorperated an LFO section to make it crazier. I Have never played one before I built this. now I "NEED" one. It's pretty cool, I'll post the video after I upload it. Dan Minner from A.D.D. Effects did the enclosure for the UglyFace. MARVEL at his work!

     Again thanks for reading! Please check out the links on the side for my face book and what not, Thanks again.

-Mike-

Super Busy!!!

Hey All,
    I've been so busy lately. Still building and what not. I had a customer get in touch with me for a pretty complicated built and have had a lot of other things on the docket. I finally finished boxing one of my prototype boards last night. I'm going to test it tonight and make sure it works and fuzzes and works fine. I also have been working on a few projects with Dan Minner at A.D.D Effects and talking about possibly doing a short run of pedals. Pretty exciting stuff. I also populated a bunch of boards for me and my friend Matt. Here are some pictures for you.

Here is a picture of a few of the projects i have going on right now!

These are the enclosures I did for the Prototype fuzzes I did. They came out pretty bad ass!

I scored these aluminum knobs on eBay. 422 of them HOLY CRAP!!!

I'll do a full build report on the Fuzz once I test it and I'm sure it is 100% Thanks for reading.

-Mike-

Stomptown Tremolo

Hello All,
     Here is, believe it or not, my first tremolo build. This is a Stomptown Lycanthrope board. I received this over a year ago and thought I lost it. Then I opened this enclosure up, for another build, and found this board tapped to the inside of it. So, I built it up and boxed in this blue sparkle enclosure. I must say kudos to Jon @ Stomptown. This board is beautifully laid out and is a very easy to build. It fired right up, no issues or troubleshooting needed. Plus the rate LED flashing when the pedal is on is cool.
     The tremolo its self is super smooth and very musical. The controls are responsive and well laid out. Like most Tremolos this uses an LDR (light dependant resistor). The LDR requires a light source to create the tremolo effect. There is an LED on the other side of the LDR creating that light source. Many people "roll their own" I used a Vactrol on this build. This is a pre-rolled LDR made by Silonex. The part is NSL-7053, these are supposed to be pretty comparable to the Excelitas VTL5C1. I don't have any of the VTL5C1 s to A / B it against but this Trem sounds great.
    I didn't do any art on this build on purpose. I got this enclosure from Pedal Parts Plus as a missdrill. I loved the blue sparkle and didn't want to cover it up. So I used a silver paint pen and just threw the logo on it. Here are a couple pictures. Thanks for reading.

-Mike-

I'll try and do a demo for this soon. Thanks again.

Holy MOTHER OF ELECTRONICS!!!

So a while ago a fellow builder (Dan Minner) and I started to collaborate on a multi build that was based heavily on the "post-rock" and "post-punk" genre of music. Specifically for ambient and textural sounds, more or less that "wall of sound" type effect. This was going to be very in depth and complicated for us. The original design of the enclosure/s was scrapped due to a fabrication issue and we ended up using the biggest Hammond Enclosure we could find. This resulted in a pedal that is almost the size of a sheet of paper. It's massively AWESOME. Dan did the layout for the knobs and all the art work on the enclose. I Etched all the PCBs and assembled this monster. Here are the Circuits that the pedal is made up of.

Way Huge - Red Llama Clone - This is controlled by the Level and Gain controls on the pedal. It is a fuzz type effect and also acts as the main on / off of the pedal. None of the other effects will come on with out this engaged. You can how ever turn the other effects on before engaging the RL.

Dead Astronaut - Flying Saucer Reverb - This is a VERY spacey / oscillating reverb. This is controlled but the Reverb Mix, Damp, Tone, OSC switch, and hidden Bright switch (red cap). This is probably the most versatile reverb I have ever had the chance to play with.

Mad Professor - Deep Blue Delay - This is a great clean sounding PT2399 delay. It leaves nothing to be desired in the delay field. This is controlled by the Delay Mix, Feedback, and, Delay pots. Great for those longer, almost oscillating repeats.

Parasit Studios - Sonic Reducer- Your 8 Bit MADNESS! This is controlled buy the 8-Bit toggle switch, Rate, and Resolution pots. This adds that extra weirdness that both Dan and I love. Plus Parasit Studios has some of the coolest original design effects out there.

Now this being my first multi build it was a bit of a challenge. I had to figure out how to wire 4 circuits together. Most people start out with 2, but no...I HAD TO DO 4! I did it though. This thing is awesome. I will try to do a demo of it this weekend, Thanks for reading. for now here are some pictures.

Once again Thanks for reading. Here are some links for you to check out!

Dan's Facebook - ADDPedals

Parasit Studios - 8-bit goodness
Other Layouts we used - effectslayouts

UPDATE!

I Finally did a demo for this. Here it is, Enjoy!

What is on the rise...

So moving forward with 2016 I have a TON of projects planned and already in the works. Currently I have 3 pedals I am working on.

-The first is a buffer for Darren Hawe. I've had the circuit done for a while now but I messed up the paint and had to redo the enclosure. It is going to be in a 1590A (super small enclosure) and its has a pretty bad ass image.

-The second is a Voodoo Vibe clone that Dan Minner did the enclosure for. I've run into a couple of speed bumps with this. I ordered the wrong switches, then the switches didn't fit, not i have to off board wire all the pots and switches to get it to fit. It's gonna be a pain but I'm almost done with it and in the end, it will be worth it.

-The third is another collaboration with Dan but this time its a MASSIVE multi effect build! There are a total of 4 circuits in this. It's gonna be pretty epic. We had a email thread of about 100 emails (no word of a lie) and it came to a "post rock wall of noise" type build. I'm super excited about it!

Another Project that I am planning for is my fund raiser. This is going to be a limited build. I plan on building 10 pedals and selling them in order to raise some money to purchase some larger equipment that I need (drill press, powder coating system, and a few other things). I am having my friend Greg Murphy, who is a local artist and tattoo artist, do the Graphic for the pedal. I am going have the image professionally screen printed and then assemble the pedal myself. There are a few more things i need to work out but I am planning on having this done by March-ish.

Thanks for reading the update and be sure to check back in!

-Mike-