Time to Verb it UP!!!

Hey Everyone,
       I know it's been a while and there are many reasons for that. First is I've been super busy at work and haven't had a ton of time to devote to building. Second is I've had a couple projects on my bench that have been giving me a lot of trouble. Third I tore my left calf muscle a couple weeks ago. The last reason has been tough, physically any ways. Getting up and down the stairs isn't the easiest with this stupid cast on.
   
     Anyways, here is one of the projects that has been giving me some trouble. Its a Madbeans Moodring. This wonderful circuit is a reverb, using the Acoustitronics Brick, with a PT2399 delay circuit incorporated to add delay in series with the reverb. The Delay portion of this is works with the reverb and blended in after the reverb. The delay "time" is labeled as "Space", If it is turned all the way down then the delay is off. The "Mood" knob controls the tone for the reverb. The "Dwell" knob controls how much reverb is fed into the delay / pregain stage. The "Ring" knob controls how much reverb is mixed with the dry (non affected) signal. Finally the switch labeled "Kill" is a dry kill. This cuts all of the dry signal out of the output. This allows for some really cool ambient sounds.

     This is by far one of the cooler reverbs I've played with. I love the tone and over all ambience of this pedal. I was able to get this in a 1590BB. It took a little fudging but I did it. The board was designed to fit in a 125b. The enclosure is a "mis drilled" powder coated enclosure from Pedal Parts Plus. I admit the In / Out / 9V jacks are a little awkward but I kind of like them like that. The Space Ship you see on the pedal is the Ishimura form the video game series Dead Space. Layout and design of the graphics were done by me. Thanks for reading. More to come soon.

To Delay, or not to Delay?

     This one has been in the works for quite some time...haha see what I did there. Anyways, This is a Hamlet Delay board that I purchased from a forum member over at MBP. The board was tested and verified by me when I first got it but I changed a couple things (components) and couldn't get it to work properly after that. It took about 8 months and another pot but I was able to get it going. The delay is nice and crisp sounding. I love the delay length you are able to get out of the pedal. Also the rhythmic delays sound really good too. The tone and overall level are adjustable via trim pots on the board. The circuit was designed for the "Tails" option, which I love. This means when you turn the pedal off it will repeat the last note played for it's set "cycle". The pedal uses a standard DPDT footswitch which means it is not "true bypass" but it also means that there isn't any "tone suck-age" in the guitar signal. These is quite a bit of myth around the "true bypass" movement and it's pretty believable. But that's a discussion for another time.
     One of the issues with most PT2399 delays, which this is, is that the PT2399 delay chip leaves a lot of digital artifacts or distortion in the audio signal. This is very noticeable on a lot of delays if you turn the Mix up with the repeats. It almost sounds like a "bit rate" noise. This pedal uses a charge pump or pre-amp and with proper biasing and delay level the pedal does not seem to have any artifacts or distortion in the repeats. It's really a great design. Hats off to Jon Patton (midwayfair) on this circuit.
     The pedal operates with the standard controls: Delay (this controls the length in between repeats), Mix (this controls the over all volume of the repeated signal), and Repeats (this controls how many repeats you would like for the "note" played). As I said above the overall level of the delay is controlled with an on board trim pot as are the tone and bias as well. The art I used was adapted (like that fancy word I used there) from an actual Hamlet Play flyer. The enclosure was a scratch and dent from Pedal Parts Plus. It was already powder coated the green sparkle color. Her are some pictures of the build. I will post a video later.

Its amazing what people think is "Electronics Garbage"

So today is Earth Day. A day where most office buildings have an electronics recycling day. I was walking into work and I spied something that didn't look right in the pile. It was a Peavey bass head. It took a second for it to register, It was only 8 am and I hadn't had any coffee yet. I snagged it. I looked it over and it turns out it is a Peavey 400B from 1978. That's right...78! I haven't had a chance to test is...I've been at work all day and we, surprisingly don't have a bass cab here. But, i did take it apart and it looks good. It's old and it smells like a homeless man's foot but I think it might work. Here are a couple pictures.

Just thought you'd like to see my find!

-Mike-

Paging Grodan Freeman...Dr. Freeman?!

     This my friends is the BLACK MESA! The layout and design of the board was done by Madbeans Pedals. The circuit is designed around the gain stage of the Mesa Triple Rectifier. This, as you can see, was a complex build. There are quite a few parts and lots of things that could go wrong. So because I built this for a friend I decided to treat it as an "attention to detail" build. This was very fun and challenging at the same time. After the frustration on the Uproar I need this to go smooth. That's not to say that this didn't have it's own challenges. The decal took 3 attempts. On the fourth it worked. The fourth came out the "best", as you can see it came out wavy. I suspect it's because I used cool water instead of warm when applying the decal. This caused some of the edges to not adhere to the metal and allowed the clear coat to get under the decal.
     The circuit, overall, is VERY cool! The board is designed with a "boost" option. It's hard for me to call it a boost. I consider it more like a switchable contour setting. It does boost the signal a bit but not dramatically. Overall, The amount of gain available and the vintage / modern switch make this monster a substantial beast!. It's a great sounding build and this thing has all the tone you could ask for. The switch wiring was a bit difficult and it took a TON of patience and quite a bit of attention to detail. All in all it was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoy reading. I'll post a video of it soon. Thanks for checking it out.

 

Video Coming soon.

-Mike-

Lets start a...UPROAR!?!?!?

Hello All,
       Here is a build report for the Uproar I did for a coworker. The Uproar is a clone-ish of the Shur Riot distortion pedal. The board was designed and laid out by MadBeans Pedals. The 3PDT board was given to me by Laurence from BitchesLoveMySwitches. I exclusivly get my enclosures, jacks, and most of my knobs from him. he is THE BEST!! The PRES MOD was also incorporated along with the Clip switch. The PRES MOD cuts the mids and adds a capacitor in series with another to "boost the highs and lows". This gives it more of a "tube" like distortion feel. The Clip switch allows you to choose different clipping diodes to the circuit. There is a combination of LEDs, Germanium diodes, and silicone diodes, to add different textures and warmth to the overall sound. All that is tech talk for "FLIP THESE SWITCHES AND GET YOUR FUCKING FACE MELTED!!" But seriously, this thing has enough gain and volume to keep up with any boosted 5150 or 6505.
     The build overall was very frustrating for me. It was my fault, and that was the more frustrating part. I had the board all together and I was testing in then I noticed the Gain and Vol knobs were working backwards. No biggie, I thought, WRONG! After 2.5 hours wasted on rewiring and audio probing the board meat its death at the rate of anger against a brick wall. I still can't find all the pieces. The second board came out much smoother and went together like a charm. The only oops I had was I accidently wired the 9v from the board to the GND on the 3pdt daughter board. Once again rushing and not paying attention cost me an hour of testing and cussing. But needles to say I got it together and the thing sound FUCKING METAL!!. In the end I am Pleased with the pedal and my coworker loves it.

Time for some pictures! Unfortunately these will have to do, I didn't have a chance to record a demo.

Top view

                          Gut Shot                                                                           Top view

 

Top View

This is a 125B enclosure. I did the paint as a distressed look. I feel like a distortion pedal needs to look a little beat up. The art is done on a water slide decal and the clear coated over with enamel spray clear coat. 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-

DVERB!!!

    So I finally finished the DVerb For Darren. I called it the dverb because its...well for Darren?! Well here is a little info on the curcuit. The schematic is a 1776 effects design. The layout was done by Jon Patton (midwayfair on the MBF). He had also suggested a couple mods to bring the dry signal up a little closer to unity. The 3PDT board I used is one that was designed by Rej at GrindCustoms. I used this because it had the pull down resistors on the board which made it easier to eliminate the popping of the switch when it was pressed. This was a VERY tight fit and it took a lot of measuring and test fitting to get it in to the 1590A. This is the first enclosure etch I have done and I think it came out pretty good. This is also the first reverb pedal I built. Lots of springy cathedral goodness in this singal knob pedal. Well without any more delay...here it is!

And yes I HAD to use the BIGGEST FUCKING TRIUMPHANT KNOB I HAD!!!!. Just seemed fitting. Here is a quick video I did too.

Well I hope you enjoyed the show! Thanks for reading.

-Mike-