Auto Tron

Hello All,
     Sorry for the length in between posts, I've been super busy plus my kids Daycare has been closed for the past 2 weeks (vacation). So, I haven't had a whole lot of time. But I was able to finish this one up for a customer. It is a clone of the Mutron III. There are a couple of mods done to the circuit to make it a bit more "buildable". The Original pedal worked off of 24 volts and used the VTL5c3/2. The VTL is a vactrol with 3 legs on the resistor side (one is common). These have been discontinued and are expensive. This uses 2 of the more standard vactrols. This also has a charge pump built into the circuit so the power is now a standard 9 volt power supply. The last mod is a volume mod. The original does not have a volume control. This does.

     I did the art layout and paint on this enclosure. It isn't actually paint, It's alcohol ink. This was fun to work with. I put a bunch of drops of different colors on the pedal and blended them with a Q-tip. then before it dried, I lit it on fire. Yup thats right, the alcohol caught and created a smother blend. Then I clear coated the enclosure to create and even surface for the decal and applied it. Then clear coated again and drilled and assembled. Here are a few pictures of the finished product.

Thanks for reading!

-Mike-

2 in 1

  Not what you think. HAHA! I finished 2 pedals in one night! These have been waiting to be boxed for a while. The first is the Wormhole. This is a deadaustronaut Tremshifter. The layout was done by perfboardlayouts. The enclosure was etched by Dan at ADD effects.. It was an enclosure that he wasn't going to have built so I bought it off him. I etched the board and did all the wiring, and boy was there A LOT of wiring.
     The Effect is an optical tremolo with a envelope filter in front of it. There are two rate and depth knobs, one for the tremolo and one for the envelope filter. The output knob is a "master volume" for the effect. You will also notice the 3 switch. They are Shape, Filter, and Tone. The Tone Switch switches caps to brighten or darken your guitar tone. The Filter switch turns the envelope filter on and off, and the shape filter changes the shape of the optical tremolo.
     Over all, this is a very fun pedal. It will certainly make its way onto my board. Here are some pictures. I'll get a video up soon.

Next we have my third prototype of the HUNTER FUZZ! This is a Shoegazer clone that I did the PCB layout for. This one I built for my friend Matt. The left side is the "Torn's Peaker" and the right is the "Soda Meizer". Each has it's own stomp switch and Volume and Texture knob. Not much else to say except beware of nightmares...

I will try to get videos for both of these up soon. Thanks for reading.

-Mike-

And another ones down!!!

Hello,
     Mike again, just letting you all know that I finished another build! Two in such a short time?!?! what a success! This is a Madbeans Kracken. I wanted an envelope filter and figured this was a good place to start. The circuit is a modified Mutron Micro V. The additions were two pots so you can adjust the Attack and Decay. I built this pretty close to Brian's specs. No fancy mods or outrageous switching options. All in all a fantastic sounding pedal. Building this also gave me the chance to test the other CA3080 chips I had in stock (all good ones). The switch board is a 1776effects Opto-Tron optical bypass board. This switch option uses a DPDT switch with an opto coupler to reduce bypass noise and tone "suck-age". I't also been a pretty big discussion on the forum about how much some people don't like the "China blue" 3PDT switches. So, I thought i would give the optical bypass a try in a pedal for me. It's good, and I think I'll use it in a few other builds. Anyways here are some pictures of the Kracken.

 

 

IT'S SO ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading guys and gals. I'll post a shitty demo when I record it.

-Mike-

Been Busy...

Hello Everyone,
     I have been very busy lately. With the recent home purchase and the 46577 feet of snow we got I've been kinda poking a projects here and there. Here are some projects I've been working on.

Reverb for Darren

- Board is done, tested, and sounding awesome!
- Enclosure is etched, painted, and drilled (I finished the clear coat last night)
- Waiting for final assembly and Demo.

Here is a picture of the board

High Gain Distortion For Matt

- Board is made, populated and waiting to be tested

- The enclosure has a decal on it and been clear coated. Also waiting to be drilled

- Waiting for final assembly and test

Picture of board

Madbeans Kracken for me

- Board is Populated, Tested and complete. Sounds great and enveolpe-y

- Art is done and laid out on the enclosure. The enclosure is painted, drilled, and needs clear coat

- Needs Final assembly and test

Picture of the artwork

Development HELL

I have been in the process of designing a ringmod from John Hollis's Frobnicator schematic. I have had to redesign the board a few times and correct a few mistakes. I think I might finally have it. Over the weekend I etched the latest version of the board and last night i populated it. I will try and test it tonight and verify that it works. This is a ringmod / tremolo and it should be very cool if it works. Here is a picture of the layout. I will post a picture of the board I etched later tonight.

Ringolo (old) Layout

That's it for now. I'll post more in a day or two. Thanks.

-Mike-

Previous Pedal Boards

Hey guys, My wife and I are in the process of buying a house and I don't have a ton of time to build right now. Plus all my stuff is in a box buried among the chaos right now. I thought it would be fun to give you a "filler" post. I am going to post all my different pedal boards over the years (past 6 or 7 years I think). This isn't the first but it's the oldest the I can find a picture of.

Version 1
This was a crappy guitar case I cut in half and put split hinges on. The pedals are as follows.

Top (left to right)
Line 6 Otto Filter, Boss FZ5 Planet Waves PW40.

Bottom (left to right)
Dunlop High Gain Volume, MXR Phase 90, Electro Harmonics Memory Toy, Boss CH1, Boss BF2, Hand Built AB switch (built by me)

Version 1.1

Top (left to right)

MXR Phase 90, Line 6 Otto Filter, Boss FZ 5 Planet Waves PW40. 

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, AKAI Head Rush II, Electro Harmonics Memory Toy, Boss CH1, Boss BF2, Hand Built AB switch (built by me)

Version 2.1

Top (left to right)

AKAI Head Rush II,Boss FZ5, Line 6 Otto Filter, Planet Waves PW40. Hand Built AB switch (built by me)

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, MXR Phase 90, Boss CH1, Boss BF2,  Electro Harmonics Memory Toy, Peavey Amp Switch

Version 2.2

Top (left to right)

AKAI Head Rush II, Line 6 FM4 Filter Modler, Boss FZ5, TC Electronics Poly Tune

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, Boss CH1, MXR Phase 90, Boss BF2, DeltaLab Rock Distortion, Peavey Amp Switch

Version 3.1

Top (left to right) 

Line 6 DL4 Delay Modler, Signal Flex Power Supply,  Line 6 FM4 Filter Modler, 

Middle (left to right) 

Behringer Reverb/delay, Boss NS2, Boss FZ5, ElectroHarmonics #1 Echo, Custom Amp switch

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, MXR Phase 90, Boss BF2, Boss CE5, DeltaLab Rock Distortion, TC Electronics Poly Tune

Version 3.2

Top (left to right) 

Behringer Pitch Shifter, Boss RC2, Boss PS3 Pitch Shifter/Delay, Line 6 DL4 Delay Modler,

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, DeltaLab DD1, Boss CE5, Boss BF2, MXR Phase 90, DeltaLab Rock Distortion, TC Electronics Poly Tune

Version 3.3

Top (left to right) 

Peavey Amp Switch, Behringer Pitch Shifter, Line 6 DL4 Delay Modler,

Bottom (left to right)

Dunlop High Gain Volume, DeltaLab DD1, Boss CE5, Boss BF2, MXR Phase 90, DeltaLab Rock Distortion, TC Electronics Poly Tune

Version 3.3

Top (left to right) 

Ibanez DE7, Behringer Vintage Phaser, Boss DS1

Bottom (left to right)

Ernie Ball Volume, Peavey Amp Switch, TC Electronics Poly Tune

Version 3.4 (Current)

Top (left to right) 

Ibanez DE7, Custom Built Phase 45 Clone (built by me), Boss DS1

Bottom (left to right)

Ernie Ball Volume, Peavey Amp Switch, Custom Built signal buffer (built by me) TC Electronics Poly Tune

Well there you go guys, hope you enjoyed the show!

-Mike-

Updates and things...

Hello Readers,

    So it's been a long time, not really but, I figured I'd give you an update. My Customer Tom (the guy who I built the Elephuzz for) loved his pedal. Just after that was posted my buddy Matt asked for a clone of the Boss ML-2. To that I said "yeah I could do that OR...build you something WAY better!" So I have etched the board and populated it. I have also drilled the enclosure and started painting. He wanted a charcoal color and orange and purple LEDs. As he said "kind of an ode to Portal" the video game. I had the decal all laid out before he told me that and wait till you see what I came up with! it's pretty bitchin'! I'm not gonna spoil the art but here are a couple pictures of the board.

 

I did etch an extra board for myself (the white one on top is for me) and created a switch board as well. Keith on MBPF did a wiring diagram and I decided to make a board for it. More updates on this to come. I'll do a separate write up, as I always do, once I am finished with the build. 

    Second I have been working on my own PCB design. This has been the thorn in my side for a couple of weeks now. I did the design (what I thought would work) and ordered the prototype pack from OSH PARK. Needless to say, once populated it didn't work. I have been trouble shooting and testing this thing for 2-3 weeks now. I have 3 pages of hand written notes, attempted 6 or 7 different things, and even went as far as to redesign the board. I have taken a break here and there from it but, DAMN is it frustrating! I guess that's one of the pains of doing your own desing tho. Maybe i should have started with something a little less painstaking. Perhaps a fuzz or distortion NOT A FUCKING RING MOD. Sorry just venting. More to come on this too.

     While taking a break for the ring mod madness I decided to populate another board and take my mind off it. I went with the "Kracken" by Madbeans. This is a modified version of the Mutron Micro V envelope filter. The Mutron was a one knober, this has controls for "Attack, Decay, and Range" It also features a Hi/Lo frequency switch. This is a GREAT filter! It sounds awesome and was fun and easy to build, I have the art done and the enclosure drilled. Just need to finish painting and apply the decal and clear coat. Here is the artwork I used on the pedal. The LED indicator will be where the eye is.

This will be in a Hammond 1590B enclosure. It will also be a permanent fixture on my board. Can't wait to finish this and post it. 

     Finally, I also finished up a Hamlet Delay. This is a fabricated board by Jon Patton. This has to be one of my favorite PT2399 delays. It's the most analog sounding and cleanest I have built. It does take a little dialing in but it is worth it! The PT2399 delay is often advertised as an "analog" delay...LIES, ALL LIES! They are analog voiced, That is the difference. Any ways no pictures for that yet, I'll post them ASAP. Thanks for reading guys. See you soon.

-Mike-