Tap tempo Dirtbaby, Afterlife, VFE Pale Horse

[Boba7]

So here are a few pedals I really enjoyed building in the last 2 or 3 months. The three of them are for me and required a good amount of planning and patience.

First is yet another Dirtbaby! (now I got 2 of them)

I read countless times that it was impossible to use the taptation ICs and keep the modulation, so I decided to just give it a try! And it works absolutely beautifully. I had to go through 6 good PT2399s to find one that would keep in time with the tap tempo AND not produce too much noise above 700ms. Not counting the 10 or so I got from Tayda or other more respectable sellers.

So it's a fully functioning Dirtbaby with
- tap tempo (JMK mini board - no subdivisions. I can pretty much tap dotted eighth anyways)
- external tap jack
- 3 position tone switch
- relay bypass (1776 board)
- slam switch (the 2nd footswitch has 2 switchable functions)
- slam intensity trimpot (the trimpot close to the power jack)
- kill dry dip switch (next to the slam trimpot)

If anyone is interested, I modded a couple values in the 2016 edition Dirtbaby:
- C13 lowered to 10nf for a slightly brighter sound, C12 raised to 150nf for a little less noise, R4 is 22k, R35 is 56k, R37 is 120k.
- The 3 position tone switch adds 1nf or 2.2nf in parallel with C10 for a slightly darker and then much darker sound.
- The depth pot is A100k cause I find the range more pleasant (especially since R37 is a lower value)
- C3 is a standard electro with positive leg going to R37. R38 is a jumper. I still had a bipolar when I took the picture. I thought it'd help with the tap tempo/modulation issue. So far there hasn't been a problem!


Next is an Afterlife with sensitivity mod (thanks Jon Patton)

I had to use a relay bypass board (my 1st time in a 1590a) cause it was popping a lot with a regular 3pdt. Otherwise stock.


And finally a VFE Pale Horse on vero!

Let me say it is the very best overdrive I've built and played with. It can do everything a TS9 and a Timmy can do and then some. It has much more gain on tap, and all its range is lovely. It's absolutely amazing. Only thing is if I turn all the knobs cw it starts squealing. But why would I do that... And a simple buffer stops the squealing, so that'd be an option.
Instead of the compression pot I chose a 3 position clipping switch: 2xred leds, 2x1N914, 1x2N7000.

The enclosure is from Tayda, and because the top left corner is a little odd they gave me a discount on another order. Nice.

[bluescage]

Very nice builds! Love that crowded Dirtbaby.

[dan.schumaker]

Tap Tempo Dirtbaby is awesome!  Good job making that work!

[bcalla]

All impressive, but the Dirtbaby blows my mind!!!

[Boba7]

Tap Tempo Dirtbaby is awesome!  Good job making that work!

It was actually very easy... I replaced the resistor going from pin6 to the modulation section with a jumper, and connected the taptation board directly to pin6, and that was it!

Thanks guys!

By the way, the Afterlife looked way better internally when it had a 3pdt, the wiring was much cleaner, but the popping was too much for me so...
(and for those wondering, on the Dirtbaby, the voltage regulator is underneath the board)

[mrclean77]

The Dirtbaby is just ridiculous! Sometimes I've put off by over complicated stuff/adding too many option, but that really seems like it would all be useful and utilized often.

Great stuff!

[Aleph Null]

All lovely! Particularly the Dirt Baby. How did you secure your vero board?

[Boba7]

Thanks guys!

Sometimes I've put off by over complicated stuff/adding too many option, but that really seems like it would all be useful and utilized often.

Yeah I totally understand that, and that was actually my point with this build, to have something very practical, that would pretty much end my delay search. I have a Line6 Echo Park for its tape and digital modes but that's it... ... well... for now anyways! (still want to build my Aquaboy with modulation ahah)

I drilled holes in the backplate to access the kill dry dip switch, the slam intensity trimpot and the onboard delay volume trimpot (useful when in kill dry mode)

How did you secure your vero board?

On the Pale Horse? On the top left of the veroboard there's a little plastic thing (can't thing of the name), that is glued to the pot underneath. Otherwise some of the wiring is solid core, so that helps too.

[Timko]

The DirtBaby is really quite a work of art. I love the jigsaw puzzle of how you fit all of those things in there!

[rumbletone]

Awesome!! May try some (or all!) of these mods on my 2nd dirt baby build (the first one went straight onto my gigging board and hasn't left since).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[diablochris6]

These are beyond slick. Great work at getting all those features in the Dirtbaby.

[Boba7]

Thanks guys!

Timko > yeah it was quite a fun puzzle to solve. I should have taken pictures of the process. Started with the footswitches then the tap jack on top of the switch (so very tight!) then tap tempo board and relay bypass, and finally the already prepared main board with leads going to the tone switch and to the toggle switch for slam switch. A tall BB enclosure would have been way easier, but the challenge was nice!

rumbletone > yep, I fell in love with the Dirtbaby immediately too. My favorite PT2399 based delay.

diablochris6 > thanks, means a lot coming from you!!

[Addy Bart]

These look great! Stylish outside and nice and tidy inside.
Are these the new colour enclosures from Tayda?

[Philthy]

awesome builds - well done

[Boba7]

Are these the new colour enclosures from Tayda?

Thanks! And yeah all three come from Tayda. For the price the quality is really good.

Thanks Philthy!