Need help fitting pedal inside a 1590B

[iBANEZAce]

I looked around this forum and several sites but couldn't find any links that show a good way to arrange pedals inside a Hammond 1590B enclosure.

The pedal is a Toneburner MKII, 2-knob version. I don't necessarily need a battery since I have external power...

Let me know if anyone has a link or something to help me layout this box before I start drilling like crazy and end up with a wasted enclosure.

Thanks in advance.  

[Mark Hammer]

There is no "best" way, but I note the following.

1) Stompswitches need to be placed away from the very edge of the pedal if possible or else there is a risk of flipping them when stomping.  Besides, placing them near the edge/skirt alters the angle of your foot when stepping in a way that places greater stress on the switch, shortening its life.

2) Batteries need to be kept still, and are often encased in a barely-painted metal shell that can easily short things out.

3) Some, but not all jacks are deep enough that a pair of them pretty much stretch across from one side of the 1590B to the other (this assumes you do your builds MXR style rather than Z-Vex style).

What this suggests is the following:

a) The battery gets situated against the front skirt.

b) Just in front of the battery comes the stompswitch.  The battery is propped up on one side to afford a smaller footprint inside the box.  Note that battery casings vary in size and squareness of corners depending on brand, so leave a little slack in there to cope with battery-size tolerances.  Since battery cases can short out against stompswitch lugs too (and since I have no idea if you are using X-wing type switches or small vertical-lug 3PDT switches) I recommend a small piece of heat shrint over the lugs that are closest to the battery case.

c) Jacks are installed just ahead of the stompswitch.  Rotate the jacks around to see if it is possible to install them a little closer to the switch without having the plugs short out anything.

This leaves a fair amount of room for the board itself in ther rest of the box.  You may have built the circuit on a PCB intended for a 1590BB, in which case you probably need to use a 1590BB, but if you made it on perfboard there should be plenty of room for board and pots.

I use the 12mm (or is it 16?) pots.  A trio of them can easily fit in a 1590B if you place them in a V configuration, with two closer to the rear skirt, and one just ahead and between them.

[iBANEZAce]

Thanks for the quick reply Mark!

I built the schematic using the layout from Fuzz Central. http://fuzzcentral.tripod.com/benderII.html

I read that this pedal would fit inside the 1590B, but it turns out that the PCB from Fuzz Central is just a tiny bit too long to fit the the 1590B the good way (horizontally like the battery would be) so im trying to find a way to make it work...  :?

I need only to fit the PCB (above), stompswitch, two pots, two jacks, and the power jack (little black plastic ones from SmallBear) but for some reason this enclosure looks a lot smaller from the inside!

I decided that I don't even want to put a battery in here, so any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[iBANEZAce]

Well, I got it to fit. I ended up having to sacrifice some traces and Dremel the PCB down to a size that would fit better.