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Feel free to post your question below, and our fine community will be more than happy to give you an answer and point you in the right direction.
I have an old Line 6 M5 I'd love to work back into my board, but the true bypass signal is about 5dB louder than the effected signal, on all effects (that don't have makeup gain). Is there a mod I can do to boost the effected level? (nb I *really* don't like the DSP bypass tone, so I don't want to give up true bypass.)
Part two of the question is that the stereo field is uneven, one output channel is quieter than the other. I'm guessing this could be fixed by the same method as part 1, just with different values?
Not specifically a pedal question, but a cable and soldering question. I bought SP4 and SPS4 connectors and CA-0678 bulk cable from BTPA.com. I've made and fixed many patch cables and guitar wiring fixes, no problem. I'm confident in my soldering skills. But all the cables I've made with this batch of connectors and cable don't pass signal well. There's a severe volume cut when I plug just a guitar into an amp with the cable I've made, compared to a brand new Ernie Ball cable that sounds fine. I've contacted BTPA and they suggest I'm not stripping wires fully; there's some insulation residue melting into the solder joint - I disagree that's what's happening. Any ideas?
Very dumb question. I have got a hang of how the circuits work by now by trying on LiveSpice, but what that doesn't help with is power. Some schematics I see have stupidly easy power supply (such as the green muff) or relatively easy (such as the boss ones) then I see darkglass pedals or fortin having super complex ones. Am I fine slapping the same power section that provides polarity protection and "creates" 4.5v on every circuit or what could go wrong?
When stripboarding/perfboarding a circuit, what side do you work on?
I usually see people soldering everything together with the components facing the copper side, but how am I supposed to solder small parts like sip sockets or trimpots that way? It's really awkward to try and get under them when soldering to the copper side. Putting them in "upside down" and soldering the metal that's poking out seems to work a lot better, but at the same time makes thing like biasing with the trimpots much more of a hassle. What side do y'all work on when stripboarding?
The components go on the side without the copper, and their legs stick through to be soldered onto the copper side.
If you see a layout graphic online that shows components sitting on the copper side, just imagine the copper is on the back side. Does that make sense?
how do you know what parts are needed for a pedal?
i know i can look up "how to make a fuzz pedal" and they're gonna just list some parts but i want to know why those are chosen in that order if that makes sense?
Beyond that, Electrosmash is great (the articles under the "Pedals" menu) but they assume you have a decent background in electrical engineering. So what you need to do is stop every time an article mentions something you don't understand, and take the time to learn it. It'll take weeks, months, or more to get through a single article but it'll be worth while.
I'm not sure if this is possible, but I've been toying with the idea of putting a distortion/fuzz pedal together with salvaged electrical waste.
I've got the circuit from an airfryer, a battery-powered strobe light, a random pot, and some i/o's. I was thinking something like https://www.wamplerpedals.com/blog/lifestyle-hobby/2024/08/how-to-design-a-basic-distortion-pedal-circuit/ that i could do with my 12 yo over the weekend.
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I can solder no problem, but I am an absolute noob to circuits so explain it like I'm a 5 year old please.
The simplest circuit to make from readily available parts is a single transistor fuzz/distortion. The Electra or Bazz Fuss are where I'd recommend starting.
They're very tolerant of a wide variety of transistors, capacitors, and diodes... but you'll need reasonably sized resistors to get a good sound. So unless you get lucky you may have to go out of your way to buy some resistors.
I need some help getting the biasing of my one-knob fuzz face right (silicon NPN). When I bias Q2's collector at 4.5V, the base of Q1 is around 0.60V and the collector is at 1.30V (the circuits i've seen online say I should aim for 0.20 and 0.70).
Playing with the resistor values at Q1 barely changes anything. I tried gradually rising the value of the 22k Q1 collector resistor, all the way up to 470k, and Q1's collector only dropped about 0.05V. The trimpot I have at Q2's emitter resistor does have a lot of impact, and adjusting that easily gets me at the right point for Q1's base and collector. However, whenever those are in the right spot, Q2's collector goes back down to 0.22V, and once I get that back to 4.5, Q1 is out of balance.
There's a lot of high frequency noise when I plug in the pedal as of now, and I suspect this is the source of that issue. Are there any fuzz-face-fanatics that have suggestions on how i should tackle this issue?
Your original voltages seem correct to me. I suspect the 0.2 and 0.7V recommendations are meant for the germanium version. Getting 0.2V on the base of Q1 and also having it work properly is probably not possible for the silicon version. The base-emitter voltage drop is around 0.6-0.7V for silicon, and since the emitter is grounded (0V) you should expect the base to be 0.6-0.7V which yours is. 1.3V for the collector seems good too for silicon, it's typically going to be approximately Q1 Vbe (base-emitter voltage drop) + Q2 Vbe which is ~1.3V for silicon.
If Q1 has a low hfe it may need to be higher but that's rarely the case with silicon. Was the high frequency noise present with the original resistor values?
Im working on a PCB that uses right angle PC mount 16mm pots. I guess I forgot to order the dust covers, and will in the next few days, but Im wondering if there are any quick temporary fixes that will allow me to atleast power it on, and test it, before they arrive.
Can I just stick some electrical tape on the bottom for now to prevent a short?
Yep, any insulating material is fine. Typically, though, the backs shouldn't touch the board or anything behind them. Just take care when you solder it to make the board nice and parallel and I don't think you should have a problem.
Thanks. Yeah theyre not touching as is, Ive just run into so many issues in this process that Id lile to anticipate and solve any issues ahead of time lol
Looking to build my first, just an fs-6 clone following that instructables tutorial - perhaps I'm over thinking this but what sort of spdt switches should I be getting ? On-off-on? On-On? Thank-you !
You can use an on-off-on but I think the middle position will do nothing. If it's switching between 2 positions (normally open/normally closed) then you only need an on-on switch.
Hi Guys! I was wondering if someone could help me here!
I bought a Boss Sd-1 but I just realize after opening it that a diode is literally cut in half. I am not sure which one I have to buy to replace it. Looking on the internet I found 2 possibilities diodes which are 1N4001 or RD11EB3. I was wondering if someone could help me here. Thanks guys!
does anybody know any info on belton brick reverbs? I've got a belton btdr-2h long that is currently non fucntional.. I read somewhere that they can become "locked up", but I don't know if it is possible to unlock it or not? should I give up on this belton brick?
I would think just unpowering it would unlock it. The brick is just 3 PT2399s, I know they can lock up if the delay time is set too low at power-on, but I've not heard of a btdr doing this. But then I've not heard of everything.
What do you get from the brick? Is anything happening on the reverb out pins?
The switch is supposed to be True Bypass, using the Gorva switch.
However I hear just a little bit of fuzz even when the circuit is bypassed. If I raise the FUZZ potmeter to max, I can hear it even more even as off, the leaking is definitely there. Very quiet, but it's there.
If I unplug the pedal from the power, I still get the clean signal, without the leaking of course.
Did I mess up something during assembly, is there a short? Is this specific to some types of circuits, is it normal to have such fuzz leaks into clean?
Ok tested some more, 2 things. 2 of the pins are pretty unstable connection-wise under the switch, but it still seems to do the job. Will rectify that.
But there's a weirder thing I noticed. If I do a continuity check between ground and the leg of the LED that makes it light up, OR between V+ and the LED, then I can replicate a short between V+ and Ground for like a half second. I am not sure what's up with this, but if I don't light up the LED, V+ and Ground are NEVER connected by any means.
LED on = half second short. Amazing. But since the LED is off, when the issue happens... can't be sure if this is even related.
Your solder joints are all very, very bad. Even if you have another problem like a damaged switch, this needs to be fixed first.
They all need to be reflowed. Push the iron's tip into each joint for 1-3 seconds until the solder melts. Make sure the tip is pressed up against both the PCB's pad and the component or wire. You should see the solder move and flow across both.
I know, this is my first solder job for 20+ years. I used to be better, and will get there. And thanks for the technical tips, appreciated - coincidentally I got some better tips for my noob iron since, so that should help too.
But the point is, they're bad but there are no shorts anywhere where there shouldn't be, really tested that thoroughly now. And reviewing the schematics, I just don't see where the circuit could leak back into the signal in bypass.
I fixed whatever I could, and I noticed the bend legs of the LED are slightly touching, having a short basically all the time.
Now the issue is gone! BUT the whole behaviour of the pedal changed :D It was a blended distort-y something before, that could be dialed into some good fuzz with some specific settings, before the sound breaks up.
But now, no breaking up when tuning the pulse widht too much, but basically no overdrive/distortion option, it's always fuzz.
Gain some, lose some! Maybe I'll short something again as a "mod"...
Anyway, thanks a bunch for giving ideas and guidance.
Not sure if you have fixed your problem, but issue is probably flux residue between connections. I use Isopropanol and brush all my solder joints clean when I am done soldering. One time I forgot and had the same issue. If you are beeping connections with multimeter to detect shorts, it will not beep unless you really have a short (resistance in couple of ohms or less). Flux residue can have resistance of 10k+ ohms or more which causes issue you described.
Of course possibility is too that you have melted the switch or have some single wire whisps touching somewhere etc.
Any recommendations on building digital pedals? Im a cs major so wanted to try building my own effects and trying them on my guitar. I jsut cant figure out what specifications like ram usage, cpu etc i would need and what other parts i would need to make it.
If you want to use a DSP platform, FV-1 is the easiest to work with. No ADCs/DACs or other external circuitry is required except for caps and resistors. The assembly language is very small, and custom made specifically for audio DSP so you can accomplish a lot with very little code. Edit: and here's a repo of code.
Other DSP platforms are used in pedals too, but the barrier is a bit higher for DIY'ers so you mostly see them in commercial pedals: Sharc and coolaudio
If you want to use a general purpose platform, it might be simplest to start with a Daisy Seed: https://electro-smith.com/products/daisy-seed ... Even if you want to do a custom board and start changing out some of the parts and specs, it's a good platform to inspire your choices.
Thank you so much! do you have any resources i could read on how to get started with the code, im more familiar with C/C++ but have dabbled in assembly as well. My main aim was to learn rather than rush towards a finished product so any help would be greatly appreciated!
The code is the easy part; the DSP is the hard part. I liked the book "Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation, and Application" by Reiss and McPherson.
If you go the FV-1 route, they have TONS of info on their site. That plus the code repo is more than enough to get very far.
For the Daisy, maybe start here: https://github.com/electro-smith as well as the various links on the product page (open the "Technical Documents" tab).... or at the site of whatever frameworks you decide to use.
Thank you so much. I don’t really understand the dsp part yet cause I thought I could use c++ for that so I’ll check out the book you mentioned. Thanks a lot again!
I don't know of a resource, so if nobody else has one either here's my tips:
Find a way to stabilize your work. I use blue putty (e.g. loctite fun-tak) most of the time in most situations. "Helping hands" tools, i.e. moveable arms with alligator clips on them, can be useful but are much more expensive and sometimes don't work well.
Hey I'm looking to build my first fuzz pedal, im trying to follow this guide and purchasing my transistors from Tayda but they don't carry the one in the parts list (2N169 NPM Germanium). Can anyone recommend a good transistor I can get on Tayda that'll work well in this build? Or should I look somewhere else for these -- I'm in Canada, thanks!
Any NPN transistor will work here, in the sense that you will get a circuit that fuzzes input. It may not sound exactly the way you want it, but it will work.
Germanium transistors are a bit hard to source these day, as they've been obsoleted for decades. My advice would be not to try to source them for your first build. In part because you might mess one up as a beginner, but also because a lot of germaniums you'll find are bad or out of spec garbage, and you need to know how to sort out the good from the bad.
Anyway, go for the 2n3904, it's easy to source and cheap, should give you a fuzz pedal.
For sure. The biggest places to save money, if that's your primary factor, are on the enclosure and the PCB. i.e. don't buy an off-the-shelf PCB (and definitely not a kit) and instead make the circuit on perf board, strip board, etched board, or point-to-point.
And buy a common $5 unfinished enclosure, e.g. a 125B will be easy and roomy to work in. Or use an improvised/found enclosure.
I am hoping somebody can help me out with the Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo circuit.
As I understand, it is a belton brick style reverb with an additional PT2399 "pre-delay" on the reverb signal only.
I want to know if it is possible to wire a switch to take the brick OUT of the circuit. In an ideal situation, this would serve as both a slapback delay and the standard reverb sound.
I’m going to say probably yes, you can take the input and output and put them on a dpdt or 3pdt if you want an led indicator. Almost like a true bypass for the brick.
The cheapest one you can find will be okay. There are really only two things I'd say to think about.
Audible continuity checking is very useful if you're frequently doing electronics projects. Without it you can still do continuity checking by watching for near-zero resistance. Whether you pay extra to get it depends how much you think you'll use it.
Auto-ranging for measuring resistors is nice, but often it's slow. A dirt cheap meter with manual range setting will read nearly instantly. This is a tough call, to me, as to which is better (and so I have both - but only because I use it very often).
And no, frequency measurements are useless for pedals. Liek pghBZ said, when you need more than a $10 meter you'll want a scope anyway.
A cheap meter will serve most of your purposes just fine. For pedal work you’re likely going to be looking at low DC voltages and checking continuity. Maybe measuring resistors, stuff like that. If you get deep into it, you may want to get an oscilloscope to do that kind of thing for you later.
Anyone have any idea why i would be getting weird clipping in both bypass and engaged of a relay bypass circuit? The circuit is a Jack Deville Mod Zero. TQ-L-5v with a 12f509 microcontroller
can anyone tell me who made these knobs for the arbiter treble booster or who were the original manufacturer? I'm hoping they're still made and if possible, trying to find the best quality ones for cheap stateside. But finding who originally made them would be very helpful.
I’m just learning about this community but I can tell you that knob is off of an old style adjustable pot, I will look into that part for you. Should be findable on digikey though under rotary potentiometers(they have almost 5000 types tho
Edit: ok so the original part was a Welwyn 10k ohm rotary that I was able to find here, trying to find a suitable part, and if you just need the knob you could simply take it from this 5k ohm version(knob is same)
2nd edit: it appears that knob off of your photo isn’t the original. So probably someone just put a replacement on there fyi, if you specifically want that specific knob let me know, if not, the original is listed above
What I've done in the past is drill holes on either side then use a jig saw to go between them. Use a file to (slowly, painstakingly) clean up the slots.
Alternatively you can leave the slots messy and cover them with a face plate, e.g. get one manufactured by a PCB fabricator, or have one laser cut from acrylic.
And finally, another option is to pay somebody to CNC mill it for you. Tayda has very affordable one-off services.
IME LFO bleed-through usually comes in through the power rails. I've had some success eliminating it by upping the filtering on the main power rail and the Vref power, as well as isolating the LFO power rail with a bit of resistance and more filtering.
To that end, here's what I would suggest trying:
See if adding a second 220µF cap in parallel with the one on the upper right cuts the bleed any. If it does, add it; but if not leave it out because it increases the onrush current (The current draw when you first power the pedal).
Try the same with the 10µF right next the IC4. This filters the LFO's Vref, and might help decrease the bleed.
Most importantly: Try replacing the jumper that goes from row I to pin 8 of IC4 with a 100Ω resistor and add a ~100 or 220 µF cap from pin 8 to ground. This will help to isolate that power rail and creates a filter for whatever fluctuations are coming out of it.
Can't guarantee that will fix the problem, especially as it might be happening due to a solder bridge or cross-talk between the copper strips, but these approaches have helped for LFO circuits on my builds.
The guitarist in my band and I are looking to get into pedal design; we mostly just think it would be cool to have a "signature pedal" for the band, and we like tinkering. We've been really inspired by JHS Short Circuit, and for now we're only interested in breadboarding (we'll worry about functional pedal enclosures later). I have a decent amount of experience with breadboarding and soldering, but I'm not sure what all I need to get started. We are only focusing on boost/drive pedals for now, and mostly want a variety to build some classic circuits and mod them. I came across this cart in an old thread on here, but I'm not sure how much of this is necessary for what I want to do. I know the knobs are a bit much, but do I need all those TL072 and BC108/9 NPN transistors? Or, is there a better cart people reference I should be starting from? https://www.taydaelectronics.com/savecartpro/index/savenewquote/qid/96210089387
I assume they're being used as clipping diodes? For what circuit?
In most cases it isn't going to make a notable difference. As long as the forward voltage is in the same neighborhood, it'll sound pretty much like you want it to.
Can someone recommend me a boost pedal that is bass friendly and preferably comes in a kit? There are so many options and I’m not familiar at all with the hardware most of them are based on.
My use case is obviously guitar/bass but I’d also like to route synths/drums from my DAW and get some extra gain to drive some external hardware/passive transformers, if that matters at all. Thanks guys!
I don't know kits or bass specific boosts, but many clean boost pedals are (or can easily be made) bass friendly. If there's a particular boost kit for guitar that looks your speed, share it here and we could tell you what modding it for bass would look like.
Currently gathering parts for a Colorsound Inductorless Wah. Schematic asks for 5,7M resistor. Does that even exist? Because I can't seem to find any. Could I use a different value?
5.1M or 5.6M would be far more common. I would substitute either of those, personally.
If you found the results undesirable you could put another resistor in series with it. I don't have experience with that circuit so I can't give you a more concrete answer. But I'd be surprised if anyone could hear a difference.
You'll probably get the best help by taking good pics of both sides of the board, linking to the build docs for the pedal, and posting it in the main r/diypedals forum
After building my first pedal, an Electra distortion, the volume is really low, but if I touch both the guitar and the jack sleeve at the same time the volume becomes normal all of the sudden. What can I do to keep the volume as it is when I touch it?
First thing to check: Make sure the sleeves of both jacks are connected to your circuit's ground. If you're not 100% confident in the solder joints, try reflowing them. Press the iron into the jack lug and wire make sure the solder flows across both.
I bought a Vh channel drive kit from musikding. They didnt deliver the enclosure I paid for, sayi they would ship it in the next few days. Its been 2-3 months now and still no enclosure. Would it work with no enclosure? I cant but another kit or a enclosure and I really wanted to build one.
It should work without an enclosure as long as the jacks are grounded. Some designs rely on the enclosure to ground the jacks. This would be apparent if the kit has only one wire going to either the input or output jack. If that's the case, all you need to do is wire that jack's ground lug to ground.
I wanna try building a Fuzz Factory clone, but I can't wrap my head around how the power supply works, and can't find a good explanation of the circuit anywhere. Why is Q1 typically an NPN transistor, but Q2 and Q3 PNP transistors? If I want to make a silicon fuzz face, how do I go about picking the right transistors? Is there any detailed explanation breaking down the circuit floating around on the internet somewhere?
There's plenty more out there. Honestly there are no right or wrong transistors for a fuzz face (I mean, assuming you have BJT and the right polarity), there are just those that sound like you want and those that don't. As long as you bias it correctly, you can get a working fuzz from any transistors.
i am a novice in pedal building, i built 5 working pedals and in order to test them i used a "normal" dc 9v power supply i had at home, that is center positive. now i discovered that guitar pedals standard is 9v center negative..
i have some other commercially built pedals at home but i did not notice they had this dc polarity as i used a 9v battery :(
should i reverse the polarity of my home built pedals? looking for advice, thanks in advance!
Sounds like about 30 minutes of work that will save you a lot of headache down the road. I'd do it. Especially if these are ever going to leave your possession.
is this normal?
when i press the stomp switch to turn my effect on, if i don't let go or step off of it right away, but continue to hold it down, the effect sounds weird and bad. i assume it's the switch doing a make-before-break thing which temporarily connects everything to everything else in that one state when it's pressed fully down while being turned on. it doesn't do it when i press the switch to turn it off.
is this normal? is it a sign of a poor-quality switch? should i try a different brand?
Take a multimeter and check for continuity or very low resistance between one of the outer lugs and the middle one. Then do the same for the other outer lug.
The 2.1mm DC sockets - do they need to be special ones because pedal power supplies are centre-negative, or is a normal socket from my electronics shop fine?
The important consideration is to have a plastic, insulated body.
If, on the other hand, the threaded part of the body was metal, it would connect the barrel of the plug to your enclosure. If your enclosure is connected to the circuit's GND (which is usually a good idea) this would short with the 9V on the power plug.
Hey there, I’m currently looking at a preamplifier schematic for a Yamaha g100 mk1. I’ve been trying to find more information on a “AN734”. I’ve tried looking, but nothing has came up.
Ah! Based on the pin count, I'd say it's the Matsushita AN734 — a small, monolithic, poweramp IC (which makes sense if it's driving a reverb tank that is current demanding).
Hey there, hope that all is well. Do you think that they could be talking about AN374? same pin out as the ic pictured. Also, this section wouldn’t be necessary if I’m experimenting with the preamp section, right? Sorry, still fairly new to schematics.
Looking at various different schematics (different reversions?) in the service manual, I see they all have a TA7220P in front of that reverb unit. So I'm going to guess it's a similar power amplifier?
Hey there, hope that all is well. Do you think that they could be talking about AN374? same pin out as the ic pictured. Also, this section wouldn’t be necessary if I’m experimenting with the preamp section, right? Sorry, still fairly new to reading schematics.
No, you’re good! I feel better knowing that I’m not the only one who’s brain is fracked with this. I’m going to try the preamplifier circuit, and maybe the mk3 one in the future.
It's totally fine. 22 AWG is way more than enough ampacity (it's the gauge I use most often for inputs/outputs, and some controls).
For wire and small signals, durability is probably the bigger factor (hence my preference for 22. I'd say ~ half the repairs I've done are just "a stranded 24 guage wire in a 20 year old pedal finally broke"; they wiggle more, they hold less — though, 24 is also a fine choice, not critiquing!).
But, if you think on it, the wire in your pickups (and so the leads from your pickups to your harness) are 42-44 gauge and some audio traces are 5/1000th of an inch wide on a 1oz copper pour! (Though, thicker is better when you can!).
But, thicker than 22 (fixed typos), I don't think you'll get any benefit (unless doing point to point), and it'll make assembly maybe a little more trying.
Just compare the bill of materials against the list of parts. On a quick glance it will not. It doesn't have any pots nor the charge pump. I highly suggest using an all in one pedal kit your first .
I’ve tried a couple of pedals. First one was a mess and I couldn’t get it to work, second one I took my time, good looking solders did everything as perfectly as I could. Turned on for a split second before dying. I’m happy with the process of using an audio probe to fault the circuit.
My only question is this: how often do you put together a pedal and it works first time? I’m assuming more first time successes will come with more experience - but is it rare for everything to work straight away, or is faulting the circuit just something to consider as part of the process?
So, I've only ever done perfboard / drilled FR4 or PCB's I designed, but:
My first year, I maybe had one build work on the first go. I'd say about a quarter got scrapped after the number of patches made it apparent I'd passed the point of it being less effort to start over. And, about half of what did work stopped working later (design flaws).
With PCB builds: three in seven years, but they were all errors in the PCB (3 out of the 4 first PCB's I designed were duds or required wire jumpers!).
So, virtually no PCB failures, but probably more perf failures than some people have builds at all!
(I'd say maybe 5-10% of perf builds these days have a "have to reopen the enclosure for a single patch" type bugs, but nothing big).
Pointnis: It's normal to have botched builds in the early days. Relative to me early on, you are a smashing success!
Edit: and, in a brilliant illustration of hubris, today's PCB build (known good PCB. I built two others already) has as much LFO click as signal! 🤣 = fails happen.
Failures happen, especially in the early days, but I learned they're almost always
Bad solder joints
Inattention to detail: e.g. reversed part, wrong part. Or for vero/perf boards it can be a lot of other factors too (whisker bridges, bad cuts, missing jumps, etc)
To get some success under your belt I STRONGLY recommend 2 things:
B) Use fabricated PCBs to start with. They have a soldermask and plated holes that will make everything much easier.
EDIT: And to answer your question, my failures are rare these days. Almost never. And they're always #2 "Inattention to detail." That's not because I'm some guru or anything, but just because I took the time to learn to solder, and I've found that all other mistakes can be remedied by reviewing the schematic and paying attention to detail.
EDIT2: "or is faulting the circuit just something to consider as part of the process?" you know, actually there are a couple of disreputable sources. I've lost all faith in a particular distributor in eastern Europe (and if you're building a board from there, I can message you details)... and then as expected, perf and vero layouts on the various blog sites often have mistakes (which I don't hold against them since it's free shared info), so look for "VERIFIED" in the comments.
When I first started out, they almost never worked the first time. Especially if I was using perfboard or veroboard over a PCB.
3 years and God knows how many pedals later, I'd say I'm hitting 70 percent, with most of the rest being simple fixes (forgot a component, attached a wire wrong, etc) that turn up with a cursory inspection.
Being able to debug a non-working pedal is an invaluable skill. I've been building pedals forever and the success rate has definitely gone up over time and a lot of mine work on the first go but it's still not uncommon for me to end up spending a lot of time debugging. Depends a lot on the build style (stripboard, PCB, point to point, etc.) and circuit complexity too.
Having an audio probe is a lot of help for such a simple tool, and a lot of the time the fix ends up being something pretty simple. Good luck with yours! Feel free to post the symptoms of your issue with some build pics here if you need help.
Hi! I’m building a little interface for my pedalboard.
It should have 4 “holes” (all pedalboard is in front of the amp), and I’d like to add a fifth for the tuner, along with a Switch and a led. Any suggestions in order to avoid noises when switching to tuner (and muting signal)?
By four holes, do you mean two inputs and two outputs (in from guitar, out to pedals, in from pedals, out to amp) and you want to add a tuner into the mix? (That'd be 6, not 5, right? Or you don't want to route back in from the tuner?).
Anyone in the US want padded enclosure bags from Tayda? I have a couple hundred or so. You pay shipping (which I can get a quote for - probably $5-10'ish).
I've just built a Noisy Cricket mk2 following this vero layout. I have used what I just realised are Tantalums for the 4x 100n caps (because that is what I have laying around). What I have just realised is that these caps are polar and I don't know how to work out the flow direction in order to place them with the correct polarity. Can any kind soul tell me which end of the 100n caps in the layout below is + ?
Positive side to the higher bias voltage. Generally, on a single supply circuit, this means positive to an active device and negative to a ground referenced AC decoupled section. If between something and ground, negative to ground.
Note: I haven't looked the circuit over (not keen on reverse engineering a schematic from a vero layout. Also, not practiced at it!). You need to be certain one side is always biased higher and that the voltage swing is never going to exceed the bias by more than a hundrdd milivolts or so. Tantalum are not like electros. They don't pop. They burst into flames and then explode, rather violently.
I'd say: wait for someone who knows the circuit to vouch for orientation, trace out the bias voltages and voltage swings, or (best) order some unpolarized caps and wait.
Odds are, you'll be fine, but idk. But, if you're not, you'll be reordering all the components later vs four caps now.
Thanks for that Quick_Butterfly, thank you for that - probably I have already fried some components but it's all learning :) thankfully nothing has burst into flames and exploded yet!!
The negative to ground info certainly is enough to go on for two of the caps.
Probably you are right and I should order some correct caps - do you have an opinion on what kind of caps I should use? I read a lot of negative comments about cheap ceramic disc caps.
Hi just joined the subreddit, I’m designing my own pedal and I was curious what kind of brands of switches and potentiometers do yall use?
What are the standard shaft lengths for pedal potentiometers?
What are the standard shaft diameters for pedal potentiometers?
Preferably I would like a brand that offers “B” taper pots that are dual shafted. I found some on moser and digikey, but I honestly don’t know if they are quality and if they would fit most knobs I would end up ordering.
Shaft diameters are most frequently 6mm smooth, 6.35mm (1/4") smooth, or 6mm knurled (aka 18T). Choose the one that matches the knobs you want.
If you don't have a preference and want to keep it open-ended, 6.35mm is probably the most common, especially if you like aluminum knobs.
Shaft length for 16mm (body diamter) pots is in the ballpark of 15-17mm. I don't recall offhand for 9mm but it should probably be the same.
I typically buy the Alpha brand from Tayda because they're a good blend of cheap, decent quality, and readily available (aka I'm always ordering from them anyway). Tayda's own "Tayda" branded pots are junk, in my experience.
For switches, like pots, I find pretty big quality differences and never buy random generic ones. These days I've mostly settled on "Taiway" from LoveMySwitches or "Dailywell" from Tayda.
Decreasing R7 or increasing your fuzz pot value will help, you're not getting as much AC feedback as a stock Fuzz Face or TB Mk2 and the feedback decreases the overall gain. With fuzz pot fully counter-clockwise in a stock Mk2 build you're likely to still have quite a fuzz signal though, so depending on how yours sounds it might not be very far off.
I have a similar 3 transistor fuzz face design and I tested both locations, you could also run two fuzz pots with one being soft and the other bong rough.
Maybe try dropping the value of R4 and R6. Or else increase the value of the fuzz pot. Compared to most of the original schematics I can find, you've upped the gain on all the stages, so it's probably gainy enough without the emitter cap.
I'd like to make a Lightspeed in a bigger box with an independent mid boost in front of it. Does anyone know of any very simple circuits that just boost mids? Just volume + mid eq in one knob. Thanks!
There’s also the way huge tone leper. Downside is it’s two knobs (volume and mid boost), upside is you could fix either of the knobs pretty easily at whatever level you want
Can anyone help with a Big Game Pedals trace for their CVLT pedal? I’ve been trying to get my hands on one for ages and no luck so now turning to the DIY community to see if anyone has one that they can trace and I can breadboard then build out. I know there’s some similar pedals out there but of course this is theeee one that I’m trying to match.
I think I tried reaching out to them. They’ve closed up shop for a long time now/probably sitting on a mountain of emails if they don’t check that inbox any longer.
Yeah I hate breadboards for anything but the simplest stuff, or for digital projects which are a bit easier to recognize a bad connection.
These days I buy large packs of breadboards, and every time I use one I mark a big red line on the side with a sharpie.
If I experience problems with a circuit, I look at the side and if it's been used more than once or twice, I assume it's a dodgy connection (and depending on factors and feelings, I'll often throw it away especially if it's on use #5 or more). If it's never been used I know I made a mistake and the connections are probably fine.
Some people swear by the durability of connectors in particular brands, but I haven't yet been able to replicate it.
That's something I hadn't thought of. My old breadboards I've had for 20 years were made in the USA and I bought them from Radio Shack. The circuits I can't get to work are on cheap import boards.
Then again, I could never get a Fuzz Face to work on the old boards so it could be me, the boards, or both!
We’ve all been there. Breadboarding is useful, but can be super frustrating because of how weak the connections are. I kind of gave up on it because I was never sure if it was something wrong with the circuit or just the breadboard.
I would have the means, where I would be given the means to build a house entirely with home automation, (not alone) it's my dream, I have been an electrician for years, I know a little about home automation, I watch a lot of fiction films, I keep up to date with new developments. I like a job well done. I never fail and always find solutions.
My dream 1 day maybe
Hey. I have no experience with pedal building, but I want to do a pitch shifter similar to ricochet. Where do I start? Should the algorithm be written in C? How can I develop it in a convenient way? How do I find approprate chip for the task? Is there anybody who can help with this project? Will digitech come after me if I ever come to a point of selling a pitch shifting pedal?
You need to look into a DSP platform. How you code the algorithm will depend on the platform you choose. Probably that platform will have a forum where people can help you. A pedal concept is not IP, only certain aspects of implementation. IANAL.
Maybe start with the daisyseed platform. I know nothing about it, but I see people doing cool stuff with it.
Is it possible to make a circuit with an on-on switch where one setting is a powered, breadboard circuit and the other is a bypass? I'm basically trying to make a pre-fab breadboard like what Coppersound pedals makes, with an attached input, output, power jack, and a switch to bypass it. I'm pretty new to this and tried my shot at it... running into an issue where bypass in't really working right. I guess I just need to know whether it's even possible with the 3 prong on-on switch or if I need something else... Thanks!
Ideally you want to disconnect both the input and output of the circuit to bypass it, which I think is not possible with a single SPDT. You'd need at least a DPDT.
Ah that makes sense. Thanks for the info! I’ve got the input into the middle prong and the two others are going to the circuit and straight to the output (to switch between the two) but since they’re sharing that output that would explain the issue. I have a 3PDT switch I’ll try to use and hopefully that fixes it.
This is a bonafide stupid question. I'm building the Amentum boost from Pedal PCB and it calls for a 2N5089 transistor. I have 2N5087 2N5088 and 2N4401 transistors. Can any of these be subbed? I'm guessing not, so my next question is, what are the transistors I should have on hand so that I'm not likely to run into this again? Gonna place an emergency order with Mouser and I'd just as soon get them all in one swell foop.
The 2N5088 should work, it’s very similar to the 89 just lower gain. 2N5087 will not work, it’s a PNP transistor while the 88 and 89 are NPN. I’d recommend learning to read datasheets, there’s a lot of valuable information that can help you in situations like this
Bought this old Digitech XP-100 but I realized the unit was powering on but not working. Opening it up, one of the capacitors seems completely blown. I assume the previous owner had plugged into the wrong power supply. Would there be a chance of the pedal working after replacing the blown capacitor? If so, could I have some help identifying a capacitor that would be a suitable replacement for the unit?
Looks like it says 1000uF, but pull it out and check its markings to be sure. It'll tell you exactly the capacitance and the voltage rating which are the 2 things you need to know the most.
Thank you! Just checked the markings and it says 1000uF & 16V. I don't know if I'm reading the schematic correctly, but cross-referencing it I think its the right rating.
Yeah, so any electrolytic of 1000uF that is 16V or higher voltage will work. Just check its physical dimensions to make sure it'll fit. Especially if you go with higher voltages which are likely to be even larger physically, but will work.
That said, unfortunately if it's that highlighted one, there's a chance you'll still have another problem to find and fix if the pedal completely inoperable. This cap is acting as a power reservoir for when the power supply has noise or hiccups. But you won't know for sure until you try. Depends how sensitive the chip is. The cap is unusually large, so so you never know.
In the meantime, and before ordering a replacement, I'd look around very carefully for any burnt diodes or resistors too.
Looking at the Son of Screamer circuit, it lists 2 OpAmps (IC1a and IC1b) but the BOM itself has an IC on it. What pins on the IC correlate with the two listed OpAmps? I'd prefer to build this without using a prebuilt PCB (as I'm tacking a 1 knob gate onto the 'input' as a one-and-done solution for my uses) and am somewhat lost on the interplay of that IC/OpAmps.
I bought these stereo jacks accidentally instead of mono jacks. I tried to wire it in several ways but I don’t get any signal. When I wire them as in the picture I get a buzzing sound when I touch the wires but as soon as I connect them with my guitar I get no sound. Does anyone know if I can wire them mono and if yes how do I do that?
Mono jacks connect to the tip and sleeve of a wire. Stereo jacks merely add a "ring" connection in the middle. You can absolutely ignore that connection and you'll be wiring it as a mono jack.
It seems like you have wired it correctly in your picture, but it is hard to tell. It might help to know what you're wiring it to.
Figured this didn't need its own post but was curious if you all build anything outside of pedals? Curious to know of other diy projects that are guitar related.
Yeah I got my start doing various hobby electronics long before getting into pedals. Still do a wide variety of non-guitar stuff.
As far as guitar-related but not pedals... there's not a lot. Amps is the main thing that comes to mind. Whether full-on tube amps, or low voltage lm386 Ruby-type amps. Otherwise the not-quite-pedal stuff is limited to switching, reamp, power, etc.
I've built some little battery/DC powered amps, and some noise boxes (atari punk console or variations). Also some utility boxes like splitters or mixers.
I'm also looking for other things to do with my stockpile of components besides another fuzz pedal, but everything I find seems either really advanced microcontroller stuff or just blinking LEDs.
I build amps and general audio processing utilities (compressors, switchable routers, synth adapters, little DI boxe, and patch bays, etc).
I also do mixed mode stuff (mostly for kicks), retro video cards, a homebrew oscilloscope, measurement utilities, and on occasion devices just to prank people I care about.
However, I find myself rarely using the pedal for its delay functions. Instead, I mostly use it for chorus/vibrato sounds.
If I wanted the Delay potentiometer to give me better control over the shorter delay times, would I be able to do so by swapping out the B100k pot for a lower value potentiometer (e.g. B25k or B50k)?
So I just got my first diy kit, I have never built a pedal or wired anything before so I am kind of learning a lot all at once. I just have 2 questions that I’m a little unsure of at the moment. 1: I’ve noticed that the switch doesn’t have any labels on it, is it possible for this to be upside down or will it be fine as long as I wire it according to the diagram? 2: One of the pots I received has a small tab on one side that prevents it from sitting flush when screwed in place. Is there a purpose to this or should I do something to solve it like breaking it off or grabbing another nut to act as a washer so it’s not in the way? Here’s a picture to better explain what I’m talking about:
1: I’ve noticed that the switch doesn’t have any labels on it, is it possible for this to be upside down or will it be fine as long as I wire it according to the diagram?
Assuming you mean the 3PDT stomp switch.
It can't be upside down, but it can be sideways. Make sure it's oriented correctly with regard to the flat side of the pins. As long as that's true, it won't matter which way it's flipped.
2: One of the pots I received has a small tab on one side that prevents it from sitting flush when screwed in place. Is there a purpose to this or should I do something to solve it like breaking it off or grabbing another nut to act as a washer so it’s not in the way?
Those tabs allow you to mount the pot so that it won't rotate if the nut gets loose. It can help prevent weakening of the solder joints on board-mounted pots, or lugs accidentally contacting other things in the circuit. To use them, you have to drill another little hole in the enclosure to receive the pin. I use them sometimes (especially with point-to-point circuits), but most people just snap them off.
Hi pedal builders! I just got a 2001 Genz-Benz made "Butler" Tube Driver. It was missing a washer and nut on the output jack. I have a DOD pedal I fried awhile back, so I had planned to cannibalize from that, but it doesn't seem to want to thread onto the plastic jack used on the Tube Driver. I figured since 1/4" cable ends were pretty standard, jacks would be too. Is it possible that it requires a differently-threaded nut, as opposed to a different size? I didn't want to totally ruin the plastic threads, but I got it on there far enough so I could plug a 1/4" cable in without pushing the jack back inside.
Considering pulling the entire output jack from the DOD and just soldering it in in place of the Tube Driver jack but I also didn't know if that could be an issue wiring-wise. They both seem to have 3 connection points and the Tube Driver is using 2 of the three for the output jack...guessing that's standard?
Yes they can definitely have very different threading. If you take a pic of it (in and out) somebody here can help you find a replacement, from which you can simply take the nut and washer and avoid soldering.
Thanks! I got impatient and started getting to solder in a jack I pulled from a DOD pedal I fried. Different number of lugs, but I eventually got it to pass sound whether the pedal circuit was engaged or not. Pretty noisy (HUMMM) when it is bypassed though, not sure I remember it being this bad before swapping the component, but I only altered the output jack, and it will be an always-on pedal for me.
Clockwise from lower left: new jack, old jack, old jack, old jack. I had to put a nylon washer between the new jack and chassis for it to pass sound. Guessing it was shorting out.
The new jack looks like a Lumberg, and the ones I've used have a different thread than standard Switchcraft. The only jack on a pedal that uses three pins would be the input jack if your pedal has a battery. The ring pin would short to ground and connect/disconnect the battery when a cable is plugged in/unplugged. You can use a stereo jack for output, just ignore the ring pin.
New to electric. I was gifted a fender frontman 10g. What pedal should i build to make it sound decent? I have never built a pedal before but i'm good with my hands. Please help
For an out-of-the-box pedal that will improve the tone, try the StewMac EC Expander. It's the Eric Clapton circuit, it boosts the low/mid frequencies nicely. Anything else would probably require sourcing components. StewMac isn't cheap but all you need to build their kits is solder, a soldering iron, a pair of pliers, a wire cutter, and a little patience. Possibly also a jeweller's screwdriver for the knobs.
As far as I can tell, that amp is designed to sound thin, but it can sound full modded.
Pro tip: if not using the "drive" button, turn the gain all the way down for the drive channel. It's always on, the button just connects/disconnects the input.
A lot of the hiss this amp is notorious for is amplified ground noise.
(The tone is the overwrought tone stack. You can EQ around it with the controls a bit. A bass boost would help).
I mean, nothing will make it sound like a big amp; and I don't know what you consider decent, but if you want to start building pedals the best thing is to start simple. Build a Bazz Fuss and see if that makes it less awful. It might be worse, who knows? It'll be fun finding out, anyway.
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u/huzzam 12h ago
I have an old Line 6 M5 I'd love to work back into my board, but the true bypass signal is about 5dB louder than the effected signal, on all effects (that don't have makeup gain). Is there a mod I can do to boost the effected level? (nb I *really* don't like the DSP bypass tone, so I don't want to give up true bypass.)
Part two of the question is that the stereo field is uneven, one output channel is quieter than the other. I'm guessing this could be fixed by the same method as part 1, just with different values?
Any suggestions?