Making my first pedals

[Ben N]

I guess vero would be easier (never used it), but the cool thing about perf is how easy it is to go from schematic to layout--and thereby to visualize the schematic as you build. Seems to me that vero imposes its own linear logic, which, to me, anyway, is further removed from the sense of the circuit and possibly more conducive to a paint b y numbers approach. And we don't want to be too linear with a fuzz, right? 
Anyway, either way is really fine, just a minor point.

[BAARON]

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=101   Get a few of these for sockets, and just break off however much you need (with angle cutters or needle nose pliers) for each socket.  Pretty versatile that way.

[greekorican]

http://diystompboxes.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15&products_id=33

Would these work? And tell me if I understand this correctly. If I want to socket a capacitor, I snap off two, because there are two leads, right? And for a transistor I need three (There are three leads, aren't there?)?

Thanks for all the help, I can't wait to get started. My friends don't think I can actually build a pedal, I can't wait to prove them wrong.

[Br4d13y]

those are exactly what you need!!!  good luck, and always remember that we are here when you start debugging (which almost always is needed) to help you get the most possible out of your build

[MikeH]

I would say absolutely make your first project a booster or simple fuzz/od/dist.  The hardest thing to do as a beginner is to debug a build that doesn't work right the first time.  When you build more complex things, this is almost always a necessary step.  Keeping your first build simple will a) increase the likelyhood that it will actually fire up the first time, and b) if debugging is necessary it will ensure that it will be a much simpler and straight-forward procedure.  And at that point you'll be hooked and you will get to that analog flanger or optical compressor faster than you think.

Good luck!  Your friends are going to be eating those words when they beg you to build them a pedal.

[greekorican]

I've been searching for a bazz fuss schematic, and there are tons of them, all are slightly different. I think I am going to make one using a schematic on this page: http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html. The one thing I don't like about it is that there is no gain control, its a volume control instead. I can't seem to find the original schematic, where it has a gain knob. I would like to have both a gain knob and a volume knob, I don't really like the idea of using the volume pots on a guitar as a gain control. To add a gain knob, could I just get another 100k audio pot and put it before the cap to the left of the transistor?

I think that the 2 angled lines connected to the input jack are a switch. Can anyone confirm this? I also don't see how bypass is factored into this pedal. I'd like to make it true bypass if possible, but I don't see how the signal would bypass the circuit if the pedal was off in that schematic.

I want to figure out all the parts I need so I can order them and get started. I think I'm just gonna order lots of parts so I have a stock built up. I plan on building more than one of these. So far I see that I need for one pedal:

2 audio pots (If I want to put a gain and volume control)
A transistor
A diode
2 caps
a battery clip
a stereo and mono jack
sockets (not sure how many I would need, but I would like to socket almost everything so I can mess around with different cap values, etc.

I plan on using this pedal with a bass. Can you give me some parameters for parts? I plan on socketing just about everything, because I know I will probably want to mess around with different caps, transistors and diodes. I'm not sure what difference it will make having different resistors and pots. Should I just stick with 100k pots and resistors, I'm not sure what effect they will have on sound. Can I socket pots?

Thank you guys so much. I can't believe how much i have learned in just a couple days. Just a few days ago I had absolutely no clue how to read a schematic.

[sean k]

Good Golly, I started doing this stuff about ten years ago and I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I really mean that.

Started out with tubes and building amps and thats a good place to start because its a given, well almost a given, that you fold up your own enclosures and leads into a way of building that is very hardware orientated.

The thing is, and I'm not saying that you should go out and build tube amps, that these beasties where the beginning phase of electronics and many components had to be made from scratch so its a wonderful field to get a knowledge of electronics by working in the original mode as it were.

One of the most impressive things I've seen in recent months was a bit of wood with 1/16 nails hammered into it and a fuzz face circuit wired up accross the nails. Maybe inelegant to many but to me it highlighted the underlying principles of electronics. The wood acted as the insulator base, the nails were the conductive joining points and the conductors and semi conductors where joined by those.

Get a breadboard kit.

I went straight into PCB making because I'm an artist first and have an underlying curiousity about chemicals so it was a given for me to go into etching staight away but I kinda wish I'd known about breadboards.

Have an open mind and open eyes. A piece of wood with a few nails and 5 dollars worth of components combined with bits taken from old appliances can do exactly the same thing, maybe even better( dare I mention MOJO), than spending 50 or 60 bucks doing it "properly"

Dumpsters and salvation army stores are very handy in keeping prices down so you can buy up those discretes that are getting a little hardy to find these days.

[Br4d13y]

your gain control is right

the angled lines are the tip connections for the jacks
the best switch wiring i have found is on the beavis audio site, you should look there, tons of info about the basic components of stompboxes
the only thing you don't want to socket the resistor though, thats a bias resistor, keeps the transistor at the correct operating voltage

[MikeH]

I actually just built a Bazz Fuss the other day; I built a flipster bass preamp from ROG and I had room in the box, so I thought a little fuzz might sound good before the flipster.  It really is a cool circuit, and is a PERFECT first project.  Very good in terms of 'effort to reward'.

[MikeH]

And most scematics don't even show bypass switching.

Basically, you just figure out what style of bypass switching you want to use (eventually you'll have a few different styles up in you noggin and youll use whichever is appropriate for that design) and know that every switching style has an 'effect in' connection and an 'effect out' connection, and you can plug any circuit you want in there.

[greekorican]

What about tinkering with different parts/values? I need some parameters for parts to order.

Also I need to learn about how perfboards work. I can't seem to find anything.

[Ben N]

http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html

Sorry about steering you wrong before--this article goes through the part substitutions.

[.Mike]

What about tinkering with different parts/values? I need some parameters for parts to order.

The Bazz Fuss is really simple and fun to build. It was my third build, and I learned a lot from it.

The components that are ripe for experimenting are the input and output capacitors, the diode, and the transistor. The input and output capacitors make big differences in the overall frequency response of the effect. For example, the input capacitor is 4.7uF. As you reduce that value, less bass passes into the circuit and you get more treble. Some values to try would probably be 10uF, 1uF, .1uF, .01uF, .001uF. You could also try different types of capacitors for more subtle variations, comparing electrolytic to ceramic to film. For the diode, the Home Wrecker page lists a few different types to try, like 1N34A (germanium), 1N914 (silicon), and LEDs. You can also try using multiple diodes at once. For the transistor, you can try a number of different types. I ended up liking the MPSA13, which is very high gain. Note that the lower gain transistors (Bazz Fuss v1) use a 100k collector resistor, and the higher gain transistors (Bazz Fuss v3) use a 10k collector resistor.

Also I need to learn about how perfboards work. I can't seem to find anything.

Even if you aren't building the Beginner Project, many of your perfboard questions will be answered by reading the build pictorial: http://www.diystompboxes.com/beginner/build/npnboostbuild.htm



Mike

[greekorican]

I looked at the tutorial, but I am still a bit unsure of how to wire a perfboard. I did a search, but I can't seem to find anything really in depth. Can anyone help me out?

At first I thought that all the holes in certain rows were connected, but it doesn't seem that way after looking at that tutorial. I have definitely read some article about some kind of circuitboard where certain holes were connected to others, and you formed a circuit by just soldering components in the correct holes (Or maybe I understood completely wrong), but I can't seem to find it again. Can someone help me clarify this?

Also, How big of a section of perfboard do I need for a bazz fuss? And which components go on the perfboard? I'm thinking that I have to wire the input/output jacks and the switch to the perfboard, right? I don't see how I can mount them to the perfboard, and then fit it inside the stompbox without breaking something.

Thanks

[Br4d13y]

the board material your thinking of is vero, the strips are all connected horizontally, and you cut where you want to end a strip

perf can seem tricky, but its just a lot of bridging things with solder

you don't need to mount jacks and switches on perfboard, this is what we call off board wiring, it truly is the devil but you will get used to it

you could also be thinking of pcb( printed circuit boards) a lot of the guys in the forum etch them for pretty cheap, pm john lyons, he does some good stuff, and will do most any layout

[greekorican]

Nevermind this post, I found what I was looking for