Topics

I had a spare Cosmo board lying around and thought I'd try building the Lunar Module on it, as outlined in these threads:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2150.0

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2219.0


Forgive the hodgepodge of parts and huge cap - this was very much a spare parts build. Nevertheless, I can't get the bloody thing to work. I can get the tiniest amount of signal to pass, but no fuzz whatsoever. I took voltages last night and neglected to record them, but IIRC Q2 was getting little to no voltage at all.

Can you guys take a gander at this and see if there's an obvious error or omission?

Howdy friends - having a problem with a Kingslayer build. Ironically, the 4th or 5th one I've done.

I was getting some motorboating even on settings with the diodes still in the circuit, so I started poking around a bit. Turns out my 9v1 Zener is hot to the touch. I took voltages and also noticed that I'm not getting anything above 9v on either of the ICs. I should be getting higher off of the TC1044SCPA, right? I swapped the charge pump chip out for another and had the same problem.

Any ideas?

[glowsheep]

I just realized that I posted this in the May contest forum but not here in the Build Reports. So, for those of you who haven't seen it.... meet the Funky Grizzly.

Straight up Nautilus build with VTL5C3 optos. Sounds bloody fantastic. The enclosure is penny vein from PPP. I designed the artwork (hat tip to the Oatmeal... again) and had our ever-so-talented Haberdasher do the etching on the control plate. It came out even better than I could have hoped!

I've been gigging with this in my funk/soul cover band and it's an absolute blast. Filters are the best. There's a demo below the pictures. Congrats to glowsheep for correctly identifying the tune in the video!

I never have time to build anymore. Moving sucks, and I haven't even moved yet. Nevertheless, I managed to find a couple of hours over the weekend to rock some things that have been lying on the bench for awhile. First up... one of VIPFx's lovely Pastie Drives!

Stupidly versatile. The mid contour switch is like 3 pedals in one. This covers the standard TS territory nicely, and then some. Highly recommended.

And the artwork... speaks for itself. Obviously.

After having these two fine circuits sit on my bench for considerably longer than they deserve, I finally found time to rig them up the way I'd always wanted. This is a dual drive consisting of the MadBean Grapevine in the first stage and Raulduke's wonderful Prince Albert circuit in the second. The Grapevine is rigged with an optional 18v switch, which I highly recommend with that circuit - you get a considerable gain in headroom and overall ballsiness. (Yes, "ballsiness" is a tone term. It should also be noted that the spell correct did not flag it as "not a word") I did not add an 18v option to the PA side, as headroom isn't really an issue there.

Hooked up with my Strat, I was able to dial in some pretty neat sounds with the PA side - it adds a good deal of warmth and bottom end to the sound... nice, chunky midrange in that thing. The EQ controls are interesting... the bass and mid controls, at least to my ears, are more dramatic than the treble, which was subtle at best. I tested through a Chieftain and a Super Reverb with similar results.

This morning I decided to plug in my Les Paul. Holy mother. Yep, that's where this thing shines. I'm a Strat guy at heart and no stranger to dialing in single coils, but this thing just flat out works magic with 'buckers. I was able to nail the Jimmy Page thing (as you would expect), but also managed to push it into high gain territory and get some stellar results.

Final note: the Grapevine side of this was my first Madbean build EVER. It didn't work for over a year because I had D1 in backwards. By the time I figured that out, I had ravaged the board for parts and wasn't sure if it would even function anymore. Nevertheless, I built it back up and it fired on the first try. So... my first build is finally done!    This build was, in part, inspired by midwayfair's "Build-a-versary" thread a month or two ago.

Howdy friends!

Sorry for the two month hiatus. Life has been nutty, and pedal building has had to take a back seat lately. Nevertheless, I found some time this week to bang together this little beauty.

Hats off to Chi_Boy for the absolutely fantastic pcb. I built it to spec (socketed the diodes in case I get adventurous later) and I'm really quite impressed. The Bass knob is pretty crucial to tailoring the drive to whatever amp you happen to be using, and the clipping switching is nice. I find myself on the "Fairy Dust" setting more often than not. Sounded great through my Super Reverb, and absolutely killer through my Chieftain... I always liked the ZenDrive through the Chieftain, so I'm not surprised.

I was feeling particularly snarky the day I was putting the artwork together. It's sort of my own little tribute to TGP. 

Howdy friends -

I've done some Googling on this, but wanted some second opinions in here. I've built up another Dual Fuzz Face, and I'm having noise issues. The first time I did this, I used a PCB for the PNP side that had a bipolar charge pump built in. This time I did both on stripboard, still using a bipolar pump on the PNP side. The PNP side works fine - great actually. The NPN side is extremely noisy at all settings... unless I dial the PNP knobs to zero (even if that side isn't engaged). Some questions:

1) I'm guessing my issue stems from the + and - sides sharing the same ground. Agree or disagree?

2) Assuming that's true, would replacing my current bipolar supply with a Road Rage solve the issue?

3) Is there a way to solve it without adding a RR board or a second, independent power supply?

Sorry for the blurry pic. PNP side is on the left. Thanks!

Inspired by a comment left by Juansolo the other day, I'd be interested in seeing some of your "finished but unboxed" piles, just to see how we all compare... I'll start the bidding:



There's probably a couple more underneath the Meat Sphere board...

A few months ago, Mr. Kokura offered a very limited run of vibe boards, and I was lucky enough to claim one. I've never owned or built a vibe, but I've always wanted to do so. In the included documentation, the following lines appeared:

"The enclosure recommended for this project is a 1790NS, but a 1590Q and even a 125BB could be used with some careful measuring and adapting work. Truthfully, for the extra couple bucks - get a 1790NS or 1590Q and make your life easier."

Here's how I read it:

"Hey Dane! Bet you can't fit this thing in a 125BB with top mounted jacks and a clickless bypass unit!"

So... that's what I planned to do. I came up with badass artwork... double-checked dimensions... drilled the enclosure perfectly to my design... everything was great. This being my first vibe, however, I failed to realize just how much space that big copper dome occupies. So much space, in fact, that the board would not fit in the enclosure face up no matter what I did. So... I had to wire it upside down. Knowing that I'd have to get to those trimmers from time to time, I knew I'd have to leave my wires longer than usual in order to get the board back out.  Enter "Danko's House of Spaghetti":



Nevertheless, I crammed everything in and it fired up perfectly on the first try (rocking before boxing wasn't a great option in this scenario). Here's everything situated:



Looks sorta clean, right? 

Sounds amazing. Plenty of throb, nice wide range on the depth and speed controls... I'm in heaven. Box is blue anodized from PPP (their anodized finishes look AMAZEBALLS after lacquering). Finished product:



Special thanks to Jacob for providing this project. This should get you all salivating for the upcoming Harbinger 

I posted a quick and dirty demo in the A/V forum if you want to hear it:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=8136.0

I don't normally do videos, but when I do, I do them in pajamas and slippers.

Signal chain:
1975 Strat --> Afterlife Compressor --> Sonic Vibe --> Aristocrat (Angry Bird) --> Matchless Chieftain --> Port City 1x12 --> Crappy camera microphone

I'm running low on enclosures.

Having had my Mudbunny (Mayo specs) built up for months, I couldn't wait any longer to put it on the pedal board.  Thus... I improvised.

I like to think of it as sort of a "Trojan Horse".  At the very least, I look forward to the comments from certain gear snob friends when they see a DS-1 on my board. 

This one has SE4010 transistors from Small Bear, and they have plenty of gain.  I know these have a reputation for not generally having a great deal, so perhaps I got a particularly good set.  Either way, I swapped in some 2N5089s for comparison and ended up keeping the 4010s in there.

After an hour or so of diode swapping, I ended up keeping the stock 1N914s in there.  Germaniums were lowering the gain too much (though I liked the tonality of them), other silicons just weren't... Muffy enough. 

FINALLY.

The first Current Lover I built never worked.  Despite some excellent help in the Tech forum (thanks Scruffie, Bean, everyone else), I never figured out what was wrong with it (LITERALLY a ghost in the machine...) and it has sat on my shelf for almost a year now.... taunting me.  So... when my second attempt at this circuit fired up on the first try, I was pretty elated.

This is running an MN3007 at 15V using an ICL7660SCPA charge pump.  I had originally used an LT1054, as I thought this thing might benefit from the extra mA output, but it was causing a little bit of whine in the sweep.  Took awhile to bias it up to a good compromise between noise and depth, but I think I've found the sweet spot.  I'm a huge Andy Summers fan (if the artwork didn't give that away already), so I'm pretty stoked to have a proper Mistress on the board now.

This was also my first try at a matte finish.  Doesn't seem to protect as well, but looks pretty great in person.






My other build this week was for a friend who wanted a pedal like my Boost-E (seen here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2428.0) but in a 1590A.  The Bacon Bits is a lovely sounding boost.  I like that it starts at unity gain and boosts from there.  This one's got an OPA2604 in it, which is giving me plenty of headroom.

Ok, so I wasn't able to get all of my Christmas present builds done before the big day... but my rhythm guitarist was still quite happy to get this one.  To explain the artwork...

I hate clowns (as most decent people do these days).  In our Christmas production at church last year, there was a woman playing a clown role who claimed to be a massage therapist.  Between services, this clown (who called herself "Velva" and would not give us her real name) noted that our hands must be tired after playing for so many hours and proceeded to grab my bandmate's hand and begin massaging it.  I can honestly say that a clown massage looks exactly as disturbing as you might think it would.  The bassist and I watched in horror until it was over, and have made fun of our friend for this encounter ever since.

So, when it came time to decide on the artwork for his delay, I figured I would build him a permanent reminder of that fateful day.  I'm just that good of a friend.

Oh yeah, what it sounds like... I'm actually impressed with this little fellow... it's absolutely wonderful for volume swells, and makes a great little slapback as well.  Mine oscillates pretty early in the "dwell" sweep (probably need to swap in some different PT2399s until I find a particularly good one), and it also seems to dampen the clean tone a bit when on - perhaps this is intentional?

SmallBear was out of 5mm pots in the required value, so I used their 9mm "mini" pots instead.  They're so darn cute.... like 16mm pots had babies.

This thing is a blast.  Easily the most silent and transparent compressor I've put together.  I tend to prefer more subtle compression (Afterlife being one of my favorites), and I was amazed at how well this thing interacts on the attack.  While it wouldn't be my first choice for chicken pickin' levels of squish, this thing is PERFECT for fast funky chopping and percussive work.  I'm not sure if the faster attack of the compression itself (as described by Jon in his thread) is to credit for this characteristic, but I absolutely love it.

Of all of the Christmas present builds I've done thus far, this is the one I've been most tempted to keep for myself.  May have to do another one of these. 

The first pedal I built for this friend was a Sabertooth with the "What the Fuzz?" graphic (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2971.0).  I decided to play it safe and continue the Family Guy theme with this one.  Really starting to love doing colored decals over polished enclosures...

"Nooooo.... I stay."

I had originally built this board up for myself, but I find myself using the Kingslayer pretty much all of the time so I figured it'd be more fun to give it away.  Most of the Klones that I see on the market have some iteration of the "horsie man" on them, so I decided mine should have a fellow riding a velociraptor instead. 

I used two of those colorful 1N34A workalikes from SmallBear in here, and they sound absolutely fantastic.  What a great diode. 

In an effort to thin the ever-growing herd of unboxed PCBs littering my desk, I've decided to give pedals to a few friends for Christmas.  I named the first of these the "Target Fuzz" after an inside joke I have with a buddy regarding where he apparently buys all of his clothing.  It's a Snack Shack, etched by Keefe, with the most mojo-y parts I happened to have on hand at the moment.  Transistors are 2N3904 and BC182L, per the BOM.  Sounds massive, and actually plays great with the volume rolloff.  It's not terribly gradual; in fact, the fuzz backs off almost immediately into this very meaty overdrive tone.  Almost don't want to give it away... 

I had prepared this box awhile back to rehouse my original Sunking build  (part of my "Pixar" series seen here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2428.0) with some added clipping options, top mounted jacks, etc etc.  However, after reading several glowing reports of folks with their new Kingslayer builds, I decided to throw that circuit in the box instead thinking I might like it more.  I do.  A lot.

For clippers, I'm using a pair of the famed LM313Hs on one side and a pair of OA126s that I picked up from midwayfair on the other (still lovin' my diode kit).  These two sound remarkably similar despite one being silicon and the other germanium... both have a lot of headroom.  The OA126s seem to have a little more bass, and I find myself using that side more at the moment.   I've got asymmetrical BAT46s as the soft clippers, and they sound lovely until about 3 o'clock on the gain, then they mud up a bit.  I'm getting my favorite sounds with the gain around 3 o'clock and the soft clippers off - crazy touch sensitive, just fun to play.

Hat tip to Jamiroking and his Dudetaur for the bypass switch idea.  I've attached my adaptation of his scheme below for anyone who wants to put their buffer on a switch.  Sorry my illustration isn't quite as pretty as his... it works nicely though.

This is the War Kitty.

Specifically, it's an Afterlife with JMK's Clean Blend circuit attached on a board etched by Haberdasher (thanks Keefe!) followed by a FatPants, all in a 125B with top mounted jacks and all that jazz.  Hat tip to the Oatmeal for the kitty artwork.  Wiring isn't my prettiest, but it's functional and quiet.

As far as utility goes, this is probably my favorite pedal that I've made all year.  The Afterlife sounds particularly lovely to me, as I've always preferred more subtle compression.  The blend circuit allows me to jack up the sustain while preserving the attack, and works really well.  The FatPants is my favorite booster EVAR, and the 2012 version sounds even better than the last one I built (the old 1590A one).

While I had initially intended for the comp side to be left on all the time and the boost side to be optional for solos, I'm absolutely in love with the sound I'm getting through my Chieftain with both sides on.  Just ballsy and awesome.  Thanks again for the lovely projects, Bean!

Saxophone player: Can you build me a fuzz in a tiny enclosure like your EP Booster?
Me: Yep.
Saxophone player: Ok, I want a picture of...
Me: Nope.  That's up to me.

16mm pots, open jacks, standard power jack... it can be done!  Heck, anything can be done (see: midwayfair).  This sounds... like a Fuzz Face.  Definitely has a sweet spot just before the fuzz knob reaches its max.  Did some tranny swapping until I found a 2N3904 and BC546B that worked quite nicely together.  To my ears, the 2N3904s I was trying were leaner than the BC546s I had, which seemed to have a little less top end sizzle.





For those not privvy to the wonderful phenomenon that is the Epic Sax Guy, please direct your attention here:

and then here:

Howdy friends -

Is there any sort of cheeky method for putting the KingSlayer buffer on a switch to go between buffered and true bypass?  There was something similar posted in a thread here for the Sunking that I never got around to trying... http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5238.0

Thanks!