Sludgehammer - a “make it work” story!

[greysun]

Hello hello hello!

Upon realizing the usefulness of my on-loan sansamp bass driver DI (programmable version, see pic), I decided I needed one of my own - then I saw that Brian created a board - then I saw that I had more than 90% of the parts on-hand to make it, including an enclosure and knobs. So... I made it.






It works and sounds great - even a little better than the original! The balanced output volume is low - is that normal? Don't plan to use that feature much, but curious. Interestingly, I think the programmable one has an audio pot for the Drive - I can get to the same sound, but at very different points on the pots. Used with a bassBB for distortion, it rips... I plan to have a buddy use his cricut to make some knob labels for me and then I'll call it done.

ALL THAT BEING SAID... Let's dig into some of the more questionable looking aspects of the actual board:

First questionable item: "Wow, there are some big caps in there!" - first off, thank you for noticing! (hehe) WAY BACK when I started building pedals, I ordered a bunch of 47n and 100n film caps without knowing they would be enormous, and I have been trying to use them up since (only 5 left after this one!). As there was space opportunities on this board, I got creative with bending leads and heatshrink (see pro-tip after question section).

Second questionable item: "Those are some funky looking ceramic caps in C3, C6 and C13. And what's up with that resistor in r19?" Again - going WAY back to when I started, I ordered far too many 470pf caps and found that running 2 of them in series got me almost right on the money at 220pf (measuring tolerances of them all, yada yada) for C3 and C6. C13 is the same deal - I had excess of a couple values and got right at 1.2n. R19 is some resistors in series cause I forgot to order a part. A little creative bending, soldering and heat shrink (again, see pro-tip after question section) and everything just kinda worked out.

Third questionable item: "what's up with the jacks? why didn't you use the enclosed ones like you did for the balanced out?" Now THAT is a great question - I ordered enclosed jacks, but the drilling template put them right at the bottom edge, which made it so I couldn't close the thing. I had some smaller jacks for a 1590a project I was working on and an extra open jack, so I got creative and made it work. I'm not hearing noise, so I'll call it a "make it work" win!

Fourth questionable item: "dude - your LED leads aren't cut. Are you TRYING to piss off the volcano?!" WELL... fun story - I soldered that last. I try and use bevels always (just a note that a 5mm bezel won't fit next to the switch for this build, so use a 3mm bezel if you go that route), so for the LED, I needed to get it boxed up to get the height just right for the LED to stick into the bezel direct from the board. Instead of just marking it, pulling everything out and soldering it like a normal person, I just soldered it right there, and my tools are no longer sharp enough to chop leads. (note to self, get better tools and don't take shortcuts). Truth is that they aren't going anywhere or touching anything, so I'm not worried about it.

My heat shrink pro-tip that everyone probably knows - I used a bit on the larger caps to cover up exposed leads that might touch other components or pads (I did this for the 1/2w resistor, and 4 of the 100n large caps I used). I ALSO slid a bit of heat shrink up one of the leads for my series caps/resistors so I could seal around the connection. It looks better(ish) and made then more of a single solid unit.

All in all, a fun build and very useful pedal for me. I'm recording a bit this weekend and will maybe post some video clips. Maybe... hehe.

RECOMMENDED!

[mauman]

Congrats!  If it works, it's right, I always say.  Keep 'em coming!

[jessenator]

Nice build!

I remember ordering >100V caps still have a few of them too. I remember thinking, dang these cost a lot per piece.

[greysun]

Congrats!  If it works, it's right, I always say.  Keep 'em coming!

Nice build!

I remember ordering >100V caps still have a few of them too. I remember thinking, dang these cost a lot per piece.

Thanks jessenator and mauman! It's definitely working great and records well, so I can't complain at all - and I *will* get rid of all those large caps - I don't care what it takes, lol! My hippie brain won't let me waste them, but I need the space in my components "jewelry case." Beauty be damned!

I use a jazz bass setup (housed in a non-reverse tbird body) and have it set for a little bit of grit. When combined with the direct out, it gives a nice tone that works great with my fuzzed out guitars but holds its own well, and also works great with straight and overdrive guitar sounds. For the songs that need bass distortion, I have a Bass BB clone that I etched some years ago that works perfect with it (Just put it before the sludgehammer and it's awesome. So the sludgehammer will take other pedals well, too!)

Again - recommended!!!