Sonic Nirvana v2- A new and improved Sansamp Classic clone!

[Invertiguy]

I originally cloned the Sansamp Classic for a Nirvana-loving friend of mine a few years ago from a schematic I found over on the DIYStompbox forums, and while it turned out nicely enough it was my first attempt at PCB design and as such left a lot to be desired layout-wise. After I got a few more projects under my belt I decided to try again with a version optimized for top-mounted jacks (I never liked the side-mounted jacks on the originals, especially the DC jack) and otherwise changed up to allow easier wiring, with the idea of possibly making a low-volume run to sell on Reverb since the originals were scarce and expensive at the time. As it so happened, shortly after I finally got around to ordering the revised boards Tech 21 announced that they were reissuing the Sansamp Classic so I ended up shelving the whole idea. That is, until a fellow who had seen my original build contacted me on Reddit asking if I could put one together for him as well. He was in the process of attempting to digitally model the effect and despite having an original on hand wanted another reference copy to verify voltages and waveforms since the board on the originals is encased in some sort of plastic or ceramic. I didn't really have a reason to refuse him since I already had the boards and most of the parts on hand and was kind of looking for a reason to throw one together anyway, so here we are!



The enclosure is a powdercoated 1590BB2 from Tayda. I decided to give their drilling service a try in order to avoid the hassle of hand drilling and was pleasantly surprised by how well it came out. It was quick and easy to use, accurate (except for the LED hole being higher than planned but that was user error) overall and well worth the additional $4.50. As nice as having predrilled holes is though it didn't save me from having to use a Dremel and a file to make the rectangular hole for the DIP-8 switch, which was by far the hardest (or at least most tedious) part of this build.



Another, non-glamour shot view of the front. The graphics are nothing special, just a waterslide decal sealed on with epoxy resin. Getting the hardened resin out of the rectangular hole after the fact was NOT fun and left a rather rough edge.



And of course, the guts. Going for a layout with top-mounted jacks rather than side-mounted like the original and reissue meant ditching the battery, but in this day and age it's pretty much a non-issue. I also had to move the voicing switch on the side down a bit which I admit looks a bit wonkier than the original. Other than that, though, everything fit rather nicely!

And finally, here's a quick demo of me badly playing a bit of "Serve the Servants" by Nirvana:

[jimilee]

Very cool man.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cooder]

Most excellent, great stuff with the layout and DIP switch integration!
Looks too!

[jjjimi84]

That looks great and sounds great!

[Bio77]

Haven't seen you in awhile and you show up with this beauty. Nice!

The DIP switch selection is super cool   

[shedland]

Nice looking pedal,

Are you looking to sell any boards on here?

[Invertiguy]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I've got to admit that even though both of the Sansamp Classic clones I've built so far were for other people I'm still a bit sad to see them go. I really have gotten a bit fond of this circuit and how much versatility it offers. Maybe one day I'll actually build one for myself 

Are you looking to sell any boards on here?

Sure, why not? PM me and we'll work out the details.

[nzCdog]

Wow, thats cool! Nice build

[JackSkellington]

I seen the Sansamp Classic is back on the market.
I never had it, nor built it. Periodically I search some info about it, and every time I see that the schematic is not accurate at 100%, often it had oscillation problem.
I guess the PCB is design by you.
Do you mind to share the schematic you used? Just if you can!
Thanks!

[Invertiguy]

I seen the Sansamp Classic is back on the market.
I never had it, nor built it. Periodically I search some info about it, and every time I see that the schematic is not accurate at 100%, often it had oscillation problem.
I guess the PCB is design by you.
Do you mind to share the schematic you used? Just if you can!
Thanks!

The issue with verifying any of the schematics out there is that the boards on the originals were encased in some sort of ceramic/epoxy combo which made non-destructively tracing them impossible so you kind of had to take it on faith. That doesn't seem to be the case with the reissue from the one gutshot I've seen but I haven't really seen anyone poke around in one yet either. FWIW the schematic I used (which came from GilaCrisis on the DIYStompbox forums) only gave me problems when I tried to build it on perfboard and that was almost certainly a result of the multiple long runs of wire in close proximity to each other going to the DIP switch, which is a recipe for oscillation no matter how you slice it and is the primary reason I ended up making a PCB for it. It seems to sound about right based on the demos I've listened to which lends at least some credibility to the accuracy of the schematic, although to be fair I've never had an original or a reissue on hand to compare it directly.

In any case, here is the schematic I found for it originally:



And here is the schematic for my board with a few minor improvements to the power supply and a conversion to true bypass: