Progress! (Its all your fault, by the way)

[slashandburn]

So I decided to finally share some pictures of my builds. I've been hovering around here for about a year and half, finding this place when I was looking for help building a Ruby and. I thought this would be a shortcut to building tube-amps. It's turned out to be a rather lengthy detour but I'm in no hurry to move on. There's way to much fun to be had here and I feel I'm still just treading water (in the shallow end!)

Anyway. You lot can hold yourselves somewhat responsible for these. I seriously doubt I'd have made it this far without the help of this forum. I started etching less than a year ago, I couldn't bear working with plastic boxes, aluminium tape  and stripboard any longer. I really wish I'd made the jump sooner. I quite enjoyed getting creative with MS Paint too though I should really look into learning something more sophisticated for graphics. So much to learn.



These are all LM386 based amps a-la the Ruby and Noisy Cricket.  I had no jfets so adopted an OP-amp buffer which quite quickly morphed into a Tubescreamer gain stage. They don't really do clean but being a bit of a metalhead that doesn't really bother me. They're also really handy for hooking my audio probe up to. I stuck a Big Muff tone control between the pre and power amp chips too. I'm not sure I'm totally happy with it, I had to improvise with capacitor values and didn't keep a good record of deviations from the original circuit, but it's functional at least.

I have a bunch of other low power power-amp chips to play with but haven't really found the time or motivation yet. The 820M sounded okay on the breadboard but I haven't spent much time with anything besides the 386 to be honest. 

After I got those working I moved onto simple pedals with a view to better understanding some of the more fundamental stuff around using transistor as buffers, boosters and distortion circuits. I'm not sure I learned anything besides "maybe go with something more spacious than a 1590A for your first pedal" and "if you insist on cutting off redundant solder lugs from jacks, cut the correct ones" but if nothing else I got some decent looking shiny boxes.



I digress, the LPB1 is the only one properly finished and fully operational. You'll need to excuse the green stripes too, it's a gift for a fan of a certain football team.

On the Fetzer I foolishly didn't leave enough clearance for the Jack sockets from the 3PDT. I've managed to squeeze in a DTDT and just need to sort out a millennium bypass.

Anyway. Cheers Everyone. My knowledge is still lacking in a lot of areas but you've helped me make massive strides in a pretty short space of time, often without me even having to ask anything.

[Cozybuilder]

"I feel I'm still just treading water (in the shallow end!)"

Great line, could be the basis for a country song

[slashandburn]

Ha. Thanks. How about:

My feet can touch the ground but it don't really feel too stable,
I dunno why I etched, I should've just went with a label.

[stringsthings]

Those etches look really good.  I've been doing this for years and still haven't etched an enclosure.

[slashandburn]

Thanks David, they're far from perfect. And I'm not showing you all the ones I made an arse of. I didn't expect to get so into it. It should've been simply a means to an end  but has spiraled into a hobby in itself.

It could have turned out so differently if I had somewhere local that sold decal paper. There's something wrong with a town where you can easily buy Ferric Chloride and Caustic Soda on the high-street but not decal paper.

[duck_arse]

the hoops!

you've been holding out on us, but now we all know what to expeckt! they look the biscuits.

[slashandburn]

you've been holding out on us, but now we all know what to expeckt! they look the biscuits.

Ah if my track record is anything to go by, this could be as good as it gets. Once I get stuck into more complex circuits I'd expect my care to detail to slip. I do appreciate the compliment though. Assuming you like biscuits.

the hoops!

It's been dubbed "Jinky". Hey, since we're talking football, here's a work in progress. God knows who he'll be managing by the time it's finished, hopefully he's still gegenpressing!

[slashandburn]

I hadn't done much for a while then from out of nowhere, this happened. It's all set up to be Anchovie's Noise Ensemble. Seems I'm getting better at this.