Anyone mod a TS to Grand Laff specs.

[Doug_H]

One of the things in the photo I don't like is the way there are wires run "over" the jacks. There's more vulnerability to breaking a wire if someone takes off the back to change a battery. I keep my jack/switch wiring tucked under the jacks, away from fingers.

My "stellar" comment was based on reputation and comments I've heard. (Should have used quotes, I suppose.) Looking at the photo, the wire bends look real pretty (although as mentioned, that doesn't mean anything) and the soldering is clean. I don't see anything that particularly distinguishes it from other commercial gear I've seen though, construction quality-wise.

I've noticed some amp builders put a lot of emphasis on making the insides look pretty enough to eat off of. Doesn't tell me anything about how it sounds or how reliable it is though. I suspect some of this "dressing up" is done to impress neophytes who don't know any better (the majority of the customers). Funny... Some of the classic amps/pedals were a complete mess inside according to the latest boutique "standards". I'm not suggesting we go back to adopting Fender grounding schemes... Then again, everything doesn't need to look like it was assembled by Harry Joyce either...

[Jay Doyle]

The tone kit must have to do with swapping out the two socketed resistors in the upper righthand corner of the PCB in the picture.

I'm with Doug, I want my wires below the jacks. The wiring being bent at right angles is nice and all but the input and output are still next to each other on the switch and not on the outsides with the LED switching running down the middle.

Also, for TS type circuits, I put the protection diode in series rather than as a shunt as you aren't going to be using the whole 9V anyway due to the diodes limiting the headroom and it is safer for the circuit.

Not many of us would spend that much on a pedal, but we are a very, very, very small percentage of the guitar public...

[analogmike]

There is a major problem, it uses solid core (not stranded) wire. We got a few in for repair, and when repairing one broken wire, 3 more will break.... ugh....

[soggybag]

The PCB looks a little messy to me, not that I'm an expert or anything, the parts look over crowded and stick out at all angles.

[PaulC]

I'm going build a TS type pedal that sounds good and get Someone on the net to gush about it. They'll say something like "kicked the CJOD and Tim off My board." I'll keep My contact info scarce for awhile. Then I'll surface and act like I hate to build pedals. Then after some arm twisting I'll say "Oh,ok but I'm a one man operation here. I can only build a few each month" Then I'll change the color every 20 pedals and use different color led's from time to time. I'll be so swamped with orders I can quit My day job!  My apologies to Anyone Who might be offended by My sarcasm.

Yeah - I get tired of seeing that being done myself...   with all the tim's being kicked off of people's boards you'd think I sold 100x more than I have!!

I don't hate building pedals myself, but I'd much rather spend my time building amps.  It's way more butch to be working with 450vdc instead of 9vdc!!

Later, PaulC

[Doug_H]

I don't hate building pedals myself, but I'd much rather spend my time building amps.  It's way more butch to be working with 450vdc instead of 9vdc!!

And I hope you keep doing that... I heard your Colonial a year ago at an amp show and it sounded great!!

[PaulC]

Thanks Doug! 
BTW the 450vdc thing was a joke.  I like anything if there's "potential" with the design.

PaulC

[theman]

I don't hate building pedals myself, but I'd much rather spend my time building amps.  It's way more butch to be working with 450vdc instead of 9vdc!!

And I hope you keep doing that... I heard your Colonial a year ago at an amp show and it sounded great!!

yeah ... i played a patriot not long ago, and that thing was awesome. heritage makes some great amps.

i have a timmy, and that pedal is the most bang for the buck of anything out there.  in fact, i'd say it kicked a lot of other pedals off my board that were more hyped than anything, and certainly more expensive!

paulc ... keep up the great work!

[Torchy]

I modified a Tonepad layout to include the leds/diode lift/diodes switching on-board. Only adds 3mm to the board width.

[SteveB]

Well, I tried it last night, & I don't hear all that much difference tone-wise with the LED's other than a volume boost, & perhaps more fuzziness. Certainly not more crunch.

I have a 4n001 & a round epoxy diode for the 808 position, & that sounded so much lower in volume than the comp cut (naturally) & LED's. I tried yellow LED's & smaller red LED's, & both had similar sounds. The comp cut or diode lift mode is a tad louder than the LED mode, & those are louder than the diodes. I don't know if it was my imagination, but my stock diodes seemed louder when they were by themselves on the board as opposed to the wiring diagram shown below.

I hooked it up like this: (Drawn by Kahel)

Now, I didn't replace the 51k resistor with a 10k, nor did I change the drive pot to a 1 meg. Well, I replaced my 51k resistor with a 22k a long time ago, so that's actually what's in there.

Steve

[hairyandy]

The silicon diodes are much quieter than the LEDs and the "diode-lift" postion on my build as well.  I think that's just how the cookie crumbles...

Andy

[Jay Doyle]

The diode lift mod will allow the output signal swing to be the full output of the dual opamp you are using, 7-9V peak to peak depending on the chip, two LEDs will have about 2.4-3.2V p-p output swing, depending on the type, and two silicon diodes will have a 1.2V p-p swing...

That is the reason for the volume difference...

[SteveB]

Okay, switching revisited 24 hours later, & I ended up putting it into the circuit & in my box. I guess last night was one of those "WTF? I musta' done something wrong?" nights. The extreme volume differences threw me off, but after reading the corresponding posts, I see that it is supposed to be that way.

I have a FD2, so I was well aware of how loud the the diode lift would be, but thought the 2 LED's would not be as subtle as they are, nor as loud. BUT....after all that, I'm really digging the versitility.

Thanks for all the help!
Steve

[dosmun]

My favorite setting is the LED's with Humbuckers.  Nice ballsy sound.