La Vache

[mikitz]

I'm using tagboardeffects layout... hope that's alright!

It sounds great but...
There is a background hum that gets louder as I turn up the volume pot. I've never had an issue with my power supply before (although it is unregulated). The hum goes away with a battery.

For anyone who's built/tried a la vache, is this just an inherently noisy circuit? It is like a medium to low hum. It doesn't really get noticeable until the volume is past 12.

[pickdropper]

Really dig that graphic.  Simple and cool.

[selfdestroyer]

Great looking pedal and the artwork is very cool. Mark is one of the people that got me into building pedals. His layouts are great and he has a nice following now so circuits get verified a lot faster.

As far as the noise, did it hum befor you boxed up your effect? I have built a few of these pedals from multiple sources and I know at one time I did a vero of it but I do not remember any hum.

Cody

[mikitz]

Thanks for the positive feedback! I found the graphic here http://openclipart.org/user-detail/johnny_automatic nice thing is the clipart on this site is totally free to do whatever you want with it. This artist has some great material for etching IMO. I'll have to contact him once I do a few more and thank him. If anyone is interested I sand the top down to 600 grit, transfer the graphic with an iron, put it in ferric chloride for just under 10 minutes. Then spraypaint the graphics black (masking tape is good for the empty areas), sand up to 1000 grit, then clear coat.


About the humming... Yes the pedal hummed before boxing but went away with a battery. It also does not hum under any circumstances when it is switched to bypass. I'm breadboarding the circuit this weekend and I'll report back how it compares. Based on your comment above I think it might be a bad connection somewhere although the circuit sounds great... strange!?

[jubal81]

That's udderly outstanding. Love the clean, simple look.

[mikitz]

Ok I fixed the hum...  put a 100 ohm resistor just after +9V and it is now quiet until gain gets maxed which is understandable. This old crappy power supply served me well with many other pedals, but it seems La Vache is more prone to 60 cycle hum?? Anyway, case closed. My regulated psu is in the mail too.