Here's my first DIY pedal

A7X

Just thought you guys might enjoy this.

Here is a pedal I built from online plans I got from here, http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/circuits/brown-sound-in-a-box-ii-bsiab2/

It is a jfet design distortion which is designed to emulate a marshall type distortion, and is based on the super lead I think, Im not sure.

This is a really great distortion, and sounds very valvey. I made a few changes but its pretty much as the schematic shows.

I dont have a sound sample of it yet but here is a video of someone elses on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYP_BdNu5oo



If anyone is interested in diy effects I recommend this one.

Hope you like.

NoQuarter

Looks great, where did you get the parts? The box in particular.

Paolo_M

Looks great!!
Any gut shots?
Looking forward to the clips, no uTube at work...:mad:

"Brown sound" would indeed be refering to a Marshall Super Lead.
A '68 model to be exact, made famous by EVH on the early Van Halen records.

68 lost souls

Looks good. Almost finished my first 2 pedals too just have to wait for the right weather and exams to be over to paint the cases. Interested in hearing yours. My 2 are a fuzz face clone and a buffer pedal. HAve the parts for an optical tremolo aswell.

Did you print the PCB yourself? Something I havent done yet mainly because I dont have the right equipment yet.

Any other boardsies into building pedals?

A7X

king-stew wrote: »

Looks great, where did you get the parts? The box in particular.

I got alot of the parts from a kit I bought from America on this website www.beavisaudio.com Its called the beavis board all the info about it is on that website. I highly recommend it for starting off, as it gives you all the components you need to prototype many pedals on breadboard.

But you can get everything at this German website www.banzaimusic.com which is where i got everything else. Here is the enclosure I used http://www.banzaimusic.com/Eddystone-enclosure-B.html
The only problem with them seems to be that whenever I order alot they are always missing at least one item but the ship it at a later date shipping free, but i have to keep reminding them about it. ( or else im just impatient )

Paolo_M wrote: »

Looks great!!
Any gut shots?
Looking forward to the clips, no uTube at work...:mad:

"Brown sound" would indeed be refering to a Marshall Super Lead.
A '68 model to be exact, made famous by EVH on the early Van Halen records.

Yup. It was built to try emulate the Van Halen sound, which I find it does very well but not totally it. And for anyone who has looked at the schematic I changed The J201's to 2n5457 which makes it less mushy I feel and also a bit less gainy but better IMO.

Heres two for ya paolo

68 lost souls wrote: »

Looks good. Almost finished my first 2 pedals too just have to wait for the right weather and exams to be over to paint the cases. Interested in hearing yours. My 2 are a fuzz face clone and a buffer pedal. HAve the parts for an optical tremolo aswell.

Did you print the PCB yourself? Something I havent done yet mainly because I dont have the right equipment yet.

Any other boardsies into building pedals?

I didnt etch a pcb i used vero board but Im thinking of etching one for my next pedal as there are tried and tested pcb's which have left these high gain pedals without any oscilations in them and I am having a bit of trouble with mine at loud volumes.

I have the equipment to etch them now as I had to etch the enclosure to create the design.

Im planning on building a buffer too. What design are you using?

For anyone who is interested in this sort of stuff I HIGHLY recommend this website http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php
It has everything you will ever need.

If anyone is interested At looking at the different stages of the enclosure build, you can see them here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/46097958@N02/

68 lost souls

I got a kit for the first few pedals. Got Them of das musikding, built an amp I got from them in a kit as well. They are pretty good to deal with only problem I had when I ordered my amp they left off some rubber gromets to protect the cables to the transformers when they came through the chasis but they posted them out for free within a week.

Here is the buffer pedal I ordered.

http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/info/p2193_The-Buffer---Buffer-kit.html

I like the etching on your case, Ive been using clear acetate to for decals and clear laquer over them. Was going to etch a pickguard when I get the equipment.

Here is the amp by the way.

A7X

68 lost souls wrote: »

I got a kit for the first few pedals. Got Them of das musikding, built an amp I got from them in a kit as well. They are pretty good to deal with only problem I had when I ordered my amp they left off some rubber gromets to protect the cables to the transformers when they came through the chasis but they posted them out for free within a week.

Here is the buffer pedal I ordered.

http://www.musikding.de/product_info.php/info/p2193_The-Buffer---Buffer-kit.html

I like the etching on your case, Ive been using clear acetate to for decals and clear laquer over them. Was going to etch a pickguard when I get the equipment.

Here is the amp by the way.

The amp looks great. Whats it like?

Paolo_M

A7X wrote: »

Yup. It was built to try emulate the Van Halen sound, which I find it does very well but not totally it. And for anyone who has looked at the schematic I changed The J201's to 2n5457 which makes it less mushy I feel and also a bit less gainy but better IMO.

Heres two for ya paolo




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That's some nice shiny soldering there, good job!!
How is the board mounted in side the pedal?

It will be possible to build the pedal like you have it and (with awareness of sensitive signal wires, phase and general layout) avoid any oscillations.
It would be much easier to use an established PCB design though!!

You gonna go get an acid bath for the PCB etching or what way were you planning it? Etching a PCB something I still haven't done, properly anyway...

Mataguri

How easy are these pedal kits to build for someone who has basic soldering skills from installing guitar pickups and absolutely no knowledge of electrical diagrams?

68 lost souls

The pedal kits that I used required a bit of reading ability but the amp was much easier even if it did take me longer. The amp came with a step by step guide which was fantastic and it taught me a lot. Id say wiring the pedals took under an hour each of actuall soldering. The case takes the longest purely waiting for paint to dry and also drilling the holes correctly.

Its infectious though, you cant just do one.

Mataguri

68 lost souls wrote: »

The pedal kits that I used required a bit of reading ability but the amp was much easier even if it did take me longer. The amp came with a step by step guide which was fantastic and it taught me a lot. Id say wiring the pedals took under an hour each of actuall soldering. The case takes the longest purely waiting for paint to dry and also drilling the holes correctly.

Its infectious though, you cant just do one.

Its not something I'd ever considered before opening this thread however the subsequent Googling has filled me with all sorts of ideas. Im loving the look of http://store.triodestore.com/diy-marshall-jcm800-2204a-50w-tub800220450.html and the wiring diagram is the type I can understand, simple and colourful

68 lost souls

There is a great website here http://www.ax84.com/ It has some very detailed guides. I printed off some of the guides and have been reading over them, they really explain the circuitry and why the values that are used are used and current flow though valves etc. Well worth studying the site.

In terms of pedals http://www.buildyourownclone.com/index1.html is a great site and for diagrams once you hav elearnt how to read them http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schempage.php?cat=1 is brilliant.

A7X

Paolo_M wrote: »

That's some nice shiny soldering there, good job!!
How is the board mounted in side the pedal?

It will be possible to build the pedal like you have it and (with awareness of sensitive signal wires, phase and general layout) avoid any oscillations.
It would be much easier to use an established PCB design though!!

You gonna go get an acid bath for the PCB etching or what way were you planning it? Etching a PCB something I still haven't done, properly anyway...

Thanks very much Paolo, Ive done a good bit of soldering now in college and that so its getting better. The board is just sitting there, but that case is very packed so it doesnt move, and I have the backing of the case insulated as it would touch off it and short out.

Yeah I tried my best to do a good layout but when it got down to putting it in the box i miscalculated how big the feckin board would be, but oh well. I also put the input beside the output on the switch so im guessing that might be the culprit and the box is too small to shield the input wire with a spare guitar cable so I dunno.
Im gonna try putting a phase inverting buffer before or after the pedal and see how that affects it. What do you think?

As for the PCB, I had to get all the stuff for etching as I had to etch the design into the enclosure as I like that effect. So Im thinking of etching a PCB for my next pedal and see how it works out. Maplins have a good etching kit with ferric chloride, which is what im using, so that should be all you need.

Mataguri wrote: »

How easy are these pedal kits to build for someone who has basic soldering skills from installing guitar pickups and absolutely no knowledge of electrical diagrams?

The pedal kits generally come with detailed instructions but I'd check that they do first before buying. They also have the PCB's marked with where all the components go so it shouldnt be too hard if you are able to solder. The most work for you may be the enclosure if you have no experience working with metal, but the BYOC kits come with pre-drilled enclosures so they are probably your best bet.

Mataguri wrote: »

Its not something I'd ever considered before opening this thread however the subsequent Googling has filled me with all sorts of ideas. Im loving the look of http://store.triodestore.com/diy-marshall-jcm800-2204a-50w-tub800220450.html and the wiring diagram is the type I can understand, simple and colourful

As great as that seems I really discourage you to jump straight to that. You dont yet have the electrical experience to go messing with high voltages yet and it wouldnt be wise to start there. Start off small and work your way up gaining knowledge, you will have more chance of success and instant pleasure in building something that works. Read some articles here www.geofex.com. Its specifically effects related and is written by the incredibly knowledgable man R.G Keen.

But thanks for that link all the same Might give it ago some time.

Im so glad you guys enjoy it. Im really glad to see ppl here are interested in DIY effects and other guitar related DIY.

If most of you havent go see Paolo's Amp. Its AMAZING. ha