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-

Sneak Peak

So a little while ago Darren asked me to build him a reverb pedal in the small Hammond 1590A enclosure. It took a little searching and asking around then someone in the MBF suggested I do Jon Patton's Rub-a-Dub. The board with the Reverb Brick just barley fits in the enclosure. Well with out getting to in depth (thats for the full write up) here is a couple sneak peak pictures.


                          

I don't want to spoil too much...STAY TUNED!!!

Just a quick update!

Hello All,
    So I am now in a temp operating position. I threw together a workbench and solder station. I also started to assemble the Mini verb for Darren. I drilled the enclosure, populated the board and did a test fit. Every thing is lining up but its tight. I also got a few more orders and requests for more builds. I think I need to keep a spread sheet to keep track of who wants what. I also decided to revisit the Ringmod that I was designing a while back. I found a couple errors in the schematic that I drew in Eagle CAD. I did some shuffeling and I think I have a layout that will work. I will do an etch before I order a prototype for OSHpark. That's all for now, I will do a build report for the Reverb once I am done with it. Thanks for reading.

-Mike-

I found some awesome new knobs!

Hey guys,
    So a while ago I got a couple of freebie knobs from a forum member on the MBF. I LOVED them! I have been trying to find the manufacturer of them for a while and after countless Google searches I finally found what I was looking for. Here are a few of the options that they offer.

Here is a picture of the knobs with no insert. There is a set screw in the middle of the knob that tightens onto the shaft of the pot. The insert (or pointer) then goes over the set screw concealing it completely. Its a pretty sleek design. The knobs and inserts are made from a textured plastic.

There are some of the insert / pointer options. They have a few more available theses are just the ones I found to be more appealing.

This is one of the original knobs I got from the forum member. It has a 31mm diameter and uses the blue insert like in the picture above.

Here are what some of the inserts look like on the knobs. I really like the disk insert (the one on the right) and will probably use it on Darren's Reverb build.

Well that's all for now but I just figured I'd share these with you. 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-

Just another update...

So I am just writing an update to keep everyone that reads up...well, to date. I haven't had much time to build or populate in the past couple weeks. My wife and I are currently trying to buy a house and it is a very taxing and time consuming process. That being said I did paint and decal a couple of enclosures but when I applied the clear coat the paint did some weird texture/wrinkle thing. So, I had to strip the enclosures and still haven't repainted them yet. I am hopping to repaint them this weekend weather and cold permitting. I also had a request for another build. My pal Darren from Mask & Raid requested a 1590A Reverb pedal. It's doable, gonna be tight but doable. I have a layout and everything, just need the enclosure. Then once I get the board built its time to paint and drill the enclosure. I'm going to try a "reverse etch" for the art on this. The 1590A is kinda small and hard to get graphics on so it might be a good candidate for an etch. Well there you have it just a quick update. See ya!

-Mike-

P.S. I think i found a better way to "fix" a miss drilled hole. But, more on this later.

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-