Silicon Tone Bender

[soggybag]

This is a Silicon Tone Bender with BC109 transistors. Sounds great. I got the schematic from the "other forum" provided by user Mic Tester.

I had built one of these a long time ago on strip board. I decided to do an update and make a PCB. I had these PCBs fabbed at PCBWay.com. Their service is pretty fast and easy to work with, plus you can choose colors!

[mdcmdcmdc]

I like the enclosure! Is that the black sand finish from tayda with some engraving?

[ElectricDruid]

Very nice! I love the footswitch wiring, very neat and tidy. I might have to steal that idea!

[soggybag]

I like the enclosure! Is that the black sand finish from tayda with some engraving?

Yes, that's "1590B STYLE ALUMINUM DIECAST ENCLOSURE MATTE BLACK SAND TEXTURE" from Tayda.

I engraved it with a desktop mill. The engraving was deeper than I had intended. It's really hard to get the depth right on these enclosures they are not flat on top! I hate to waste anything, and this box didn't look so bad so I used it.

[soggybag]

Very nice! I love the footswitch wiring, very neat and tidy. I might have to steal that idea!

Thanks for noticing that! I'd like to propose this as a standard to the DIY community! I wrote a blog post about it here:

http://www.super-freq.com/pcbs-with-pots-and-led/

The idea would be to plan PCBs with the posts and LEDs mounted to the board, and place all of the off board wiring along the bottom edge.

The wiring on the bottom would include the following left to right.

- input ground
- circuit input
- LED to switch
- LED to ground
- circuit output
- output ground

I've benign doing this on the all of the boards I have made recently. It makes them easy to put together.

The fact that I have given up on batteries really helps also.

[Kevin Mitchell]

Great, I've been side stepping a desktop mill for years and this pedal might do me in 
Really like the PCB layout! Simple & elegant.

I too have a bunch of 0 ohm resistors without a purpose. I take it that's why you used one on the bypass switch instead of an insolated wire 

Well done!

[Gus]

note the date of Doug's circuit.
https://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DougH/fuzz/hotsi/GS_Tonebender.gif.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Funny the distortion section(first posted on effectroincs?) and first stage gain section were made using parts you could buy at radio shack in the 90's.
Things you can buy today without problems were harder to get back then.
The 5K bias control was picked because radio shack did not have a 2K and here are a few more part selections made like that

Then this https://guitarpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hot-Chilicon-v3.pdf and
https://guitarpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BD_Sriracha-Fuzz.pdf

Have you seen this?
https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=114210.msg1059856#msg1059856

[soggybag]

Great, I've been side stepping a desktop mill for years and this pedal might do me in 
Really like the PCB layout! Simple & elegant.

I too have a bunch of 0 ohm resistors without a purpose. I take it that's why you used one on the bypass switch instead of an insolated wire 

Well done!

The mill was expensive. For me it's more useful than a 3D printer. I originally got it to make PCBs but it's so cheap to have these manufactured these days I use the mill for enclosures 90% of the time now.

My mill is big enough to work with 1590B and BB enclosures. 1590XX and DD enclosures are too big. The XX box would fit the bed but there's not enough room for the bracket so there's no way to hold the enclosure in place. I might be able to mill one o these if used double stick tape or some other strategy.

[soggybag]

note the date of Doug's circuit.
https://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DougH/fuzz/hotsi/GS_Tonebender.gif.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Funny the distortion section(first posted on effectroincs?) and first stage gain section were made using parts you could buy at radio shack in the 90's.
Things you can buy today without problems were harder to get back then.
The 5K bias control was picked because radio shack did not have a 2K and here are a few more part selections made like that

Then this https://guitarpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hot-Chilicon-v3.pdf and
https://guitarpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BD_Sriracha-Fuzz.pdf

Have you seen this?
https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=114210.msg1059856#msg1059856

Hey this does look exactly like the Gus Smalley Tone Bender. Like I said I found this at the other forum. Someone had posted it there under a different name. I should have given Gus Smalley some credit!