Pictures!

[Pettol]

Very cool design!

[peterg]

Thanks guys!

[Luke51411]

Winged RAT from Madbean's slow loris and utilizing Grind Customs lumen opto bypass board.

I'm no artist...

[pickdropper]

Riot + EP Booster for my friend Jimmy.

[Ripdivot]

Riot + EP Booster for my friend Jimmy.

Very cool, how did you do the graphics?

[pickdropper]

Very cool, how did you do the graphics?

I used a laser engraver.

[KSG]

Hello, guys!
Here is another girl from my harem, a little bit nervous one:

the guts with "mojo big can russian rocket jfet" pairs:

schematic is here:
http://gtlab.net/gtlab4/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/boogazzy.jpg
I just omitted active bypass and added to each 2P2T my favorite slo-glo.
To avoid ultrasonic feedback I had to use screened wires (from cellular hands-free) and also grounded first gate with 220 pF.
Its crispy sound reminds me the frying chips! 

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Dragon 900 Delay (Ibanez AD900). Another fantastic creation from the mad scientist Larry (armdnrdy)

Hands down THEE best analog delay I have ever played, built, or anything else 

Etched PCB. Modded to have Dark or Bright repeats. Definitely handy for different pickups or depending on where you are focused on the neck.

[skullservant]

First build in a while for my pedalboard.

It's got a switch for channel switching on my amp, a mute switch, input, junction output to my pedals, two return junctions for stereo fx, stereo output, tuner output (always active), and a buffer inside.

[snarblinge]

KSG where did you get the pad per hole, I plan to get some like that made next time I fab boards, but if someone has already done it...

[KSG]

the pad per hole

- what do you mean? 

[davent]

the pad per hole

- what do you mean? 

That's simply the boards that you use to layout and build the circuits on.

[KSG]

Metallized holes perfboards? Yes, it's my choice. Extremely rigid and reliable. Besides, it's very convinient for further modding.

[midwayfair]

LEDman vs. The Cads -- kgull's Mutron II PCB.



Before I get into what a mess I made of things with this build: Major kudos to Kgull for an amazing layout.

I had one problem after another with this build. I fired it up the first time and my rate indicator blinked but not the one for the effect. Scratch my head, poke everywhere, remove and replace some chips ... woops put a TL in backward and popped an LT1054. Crap. Toss it. Poke around some more, eventually get the bright idea to remove the LED and test it ... oh, it's a dead LED. Toss it.

Replace the LED. Something not working now. What the heck? Oh crap, I mixed up the leads on the power and ground when I plugged them back into the breadboard. Popped another 1054. Replaced ... oh crap, I had popped the Zener a minute ago, didn't I? Replaced it.

Everything's finally working in the LFO. Plug in all the audio chips ...... only dry sound, no phasing. Well that's weird. Do some audio probing, figure out that one of the chips must be dead. Unfortunately, I'm out of TL072s, and I only have a couple TL062s. Replace the chips one by one until I get audio at the phaser section ...

Put one in backwards. Smoke from the 1054.

ARG. Replaced.

Go to box the thing up, and here's where it gets really stupid:

(a) I wanted to use up this box, but I had already drilled it. It's got an extra hole. Hey, I'll just add a dry lift for a vibrato mode. More on that in a minute. Annnnd my rate LED won't reach.

So I desolder the rate LED, add legs ... resolder and ...

What the? Now the rate LED isn't blinking. I pull it and test it ... still works. Look all over the board. Eventually (not even lying -- like a half hour to find this) I find the lifted trace, after scraping away a bunch of solder mask and being completely unable to find the trace to pin 2. Resolder ... still not working. Huh. Somehow managed to blow the LED WHILE TESTING IT. Replaced. Finally everything's working again.

(b) The Lumin board is the only optical bypass that will fit. And it's masked on both sides ... so of COURSE I put it on the switch upside down. And I don't figure this out until after I had wired everything backwards. But I get everything soldered up, test the bypass, everything works.

Oh, I forgot ... I wanted polarity protection. Desolder the power wire and install a 5817 between the jack and the switch PCB. You might guess where this is going ...

Plug in ... nothing. Not even the bypass LED. How is that possible. 0v on all the power pins. What the hell?

Eventually -- again, not even joking, at least a half hour -- I figure out that I'm getting 9V at the input on the board because my probe is hitting the lead of the diode itself, and I see that I lifted the pad for the power trace on the Lumin. Desolder the diode, use a new one and go to the other side of the switch (thanks for putting two pads, Rej & Jason!).

Finally ready to go.

With that much troubleshooting defeated, I felt a bit like a superhero, so I went with a comic book theme (Baltimore Comicon is next weekend, too, though I'm not going).

If you don't get the pun in the name of the pedal, most photocells use Cadmium Sulfide, abbreviated as "CdS." So, the enemies are the cads, crowding around LEDman.

As for how it sounds, it's different enough from the other phasers I've made that I think it's worth a build. (I prefer the Stage Fright overall for intense phase, I think.)

I used Smallbear's 9203 photocells. These have a high dark resistance; I found that to get the most out of this pedal, having the LED go darker gave a more pleasing sweep on the treble side of things. I actually used a 2K trim for the LED limit, and it's dialed almost all the way up; I also have the 10K balancing trim past noon. The sweep sounds a little lopsided no matter what, but this gives a really wide sweep and seems to get the most out of the circuit.

My one mod was the dry path lift, to create a pitch vibrato effect. I don't think this was worth it. It's a subtle difference with the Regen fully CCW and sounds kind of interesting -- but it's basically unnoticable at higher regen settings except that a very small amount of extra bass comes back in when in phaser mode. It's possible that there was a better way to implement the mod and maybe lifting the Regen as well would have helped make the Vibe setting more noticeable, but I couldn't do that with only a SPDT, and I couldn't fit a two pole switch.

[kaycee]

Heck! Jon, that was enough to make a Nun swear, good grief, nightmare build!

This one is a Face Bender, switchable between Fuzz Face and Tonebender mk2 via the little toggle on the face. Silicon version, much easier to bias up than the germanium one.





Q3 has an external bias control, there's a trim on Q2. I've made the switching so that FF input is through a 2U2 and not the Mk2 100nf interstage capacitor as a lot of people seem to have done with Face Benders.



Fuzzy Pollocks mk5, 3 in 1 fuzz, Jordan Bosstone, Germanium Face Bender (Fuzz Face and Mk2 Tonebender). Theres a switch that changes the FF input and output caps from TB mk1.5 to FF values. The insides are a disgrace, but it went through a lot of protos to get to this.

[tasos]

Hey guys,
this is a boss slow gear clone i made.The guts are awful i know 








There you go!A little demo i filmed 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqYFHVOwH3E

[Luke51411]

Kayce, is the Face Bender finish alcohol ink? They both look great! I'm going to start using alcohol ink and stamps on a few of my builds so I was just wondering if there is anything I should know to get consistent results.

[kaycee]

Yes, that's right Luke, alcohol on the Bender and I just threw paint at Fuzzy Pollocks.

The inks are easy, I did a little tutorial over at BYOC in the DIY discussion forum I think, I'm on there under the same name. Covers stamping as well, could help you out a bit getting started.

[Metaldestroyer]

Fuzzy Pollocks mk5, 3 in 1 fuzz, Jordan Bosstone, Germanium Face Bender (Fuzz Face and Mk2 Tonebender). Theres a switch that changes the FF input and output caps from TB mk1.5 to FF values. The insides are a disgrace, but it went through a lot of protos to get to this.

Nice! Reminds me of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)

[tubelectron]

Very cool design!

Indeed ! It reminds me an old 70's audio equipment...

A+!