Pictures!

[davent]

Oh man tom, that looks phenomenal. I'm glad I didn't order the flanger yet, I'll wait until this is ready to ship as well.

Unfortunately, it looks like I just won't be able to fit these in vertical enclosures with top mounted jacks. With the flanger it looked like it could possibly work, but certainly not this. Oh well, for these beauties, its worth the extra board space, and even the *shudder* side mounted jacks.

If that's in a 1590BB you could top mount using a 1590Q which is a square based on the long side of the 'BB'.

dave

[balkanizeyou]

This one was made for a guy that's a big fan of comics. I don't even know who the hell is Silver Surfer, but shhh!
Still haven't learned how to take good photos either.
Pre-glitter version:


Post-glitter:


As a bonus, my first eurorack synth module. It's a minimoog VCF from yusynth.
A valuable lesson I've learned - apply the decal and clearcoat AFTER drilling the panel, not before - could have saved me a lot of scratches on the panel! Oh, and mounting holes for the PCB are a thing, so design the panel so that the screws don't cover the text.
But oh well. Still haven't bought the knobs of course.

[Stamgast]

Hi all,

Let me introduce myself first. I'm Martijn, a 37 yo Dutch broadcast senior sound engineer (A1) who plays some piano, guitar and bass. My knowledge of electronics and schematics is a bad, just a tip of the iceberg I guess. But while behind the sound desk I came with the idea to build a stompbox, using a DIY kit. Bought a Fuzz Face kit, a soldering iron and some other tools. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot, I learned. My soldering skills were good enough to make a fine microphone cable but something delicate as a PCB wasn't in my heat sensitive fingers so far.
All and all I'm happy with the result and the skills I've learned, so I've decided that I wanted to share some pics with you. Don't hesitate to comment, all good for the next pedal.


Fresh out of the box. I ordered this kit at Jeds Peds.


All parts except the knobs and the LED lens. The knobs were from Thomann and the lens, with some tools, from Conrad.


Soldering the PCB...


First time soldering a PCB. The result is not very neat, I'm a bit ashamed...


More parts ready to get soldered


The PCB with all components soldered. Some connections weren't good, a capacitor wasn't soldered good enough and one of the legs of the Fuzz-pot wasn't making proper as well. Jeds Peds helped me with it.

https://flic.kr/p/PnsEPQ
Testing the sound and biassing the transistors. I think a fuzz should sound dirty and grumpy, but that's my opinion.


Test fitting of the knobs for the scales. The knobs are not what I first had in mind but are nice enough, I reckon.


Just before taking out the electronics for laying down the scales, text and after that, transparent lacquer.


All electronics are out again. Tested the whole circuit with the foot switch and stereo 6,3 mm jack.


Texts are there with the scales. Yes, these go to eleven... I used SENO tranfer letters to do them. Next time they will be stickers, I think. It took a lot of time to do this neatly and had to do a part again because I rubbed it of while degreasing prior to lacquering.


Input and 9 volt ports. The polarity sign was done with a capital C, a period and pieces of arrows.


Finally done. The right side. Only a few rubber feet at the bottom to prevent damage and moving.


The left side. I used 4 layers of primer, 10 layers of red paint and 5 layers of blank lacquer.


Top view. Very happy with my first stompbox. Next time, I might use normal paint instead of spray cans. Next time? Yes. It was fun to do so I'm thinking about doing a delay or a opto compressor.


(All photo's were made with an iPhone except for the last 3 ones. Did those with my DSLR and a flash with a soft box. Placed the stompbox on top of my washing machine)

[ElectricDruid]

For a first build, Martijn, that's beautiful. Congratulations!

Your soldering iron looks like it has a pretty large tip for PCB soldering, though some here might disagree with me. I prefer something much finer.

Good luck with the next one!

Tom

[stallik]

Pretty amazing for your first build and such patience with the lettering.
If I may, one suggestion on your next build would be to populate the physically lowest components first as it's much easier.
Looking forward to your next build
Oh and welcome!

[Stamgast]

For a first build, Martijn, that's beautiful. Congratulations!

Your soldering iron looks like it has a pretty large tip for PCB soldering, though some here might disagree with me. I prefer something much finer.

Good luck with the next one!

Tom

Thanks!
I tried to change the tip of my iron. Of course, the screw broke off... I might order a spare iron to plug into the station, they're not expensive and will be absolute helpful the next project.

[ElectricDruid]

Also I only just noticed, but you actually made holes for the anti-rotation tabs on the potentiometers! Wow!
I always just break them off with pliers. But I'm a lazy scumbag, and I mostly mount the pots on the PCB anyway, so it isn't so important. It's hard for the pot to start getting ideas about turning around if its legs are soldered firmly into a board, even if the locking nuts come loose. In fact, that's one of my reasons of preferring board-mounted pots (the other being "I hate wiring", of course...)

Tom

[dbp512]

Funny, I'm pretty much the exact opposite. I wire almost all my pots/switches offboard. Sure dealing with wires is a pain, but I'm a bit anal when it comes to the position of my controls as I prefer all my builds to have an similar layout. When I started building I used stripboard, so that might have something to do with it. I'm not sure what I'll do with your flanger and digidelay. Time will tell.

[duck_arse]

I'm worried about that one giant eye of yours, Stamgast, but welcome anyway, nice looking pedal, extra points for using blank paint.

[runmikeyrun]

DAM meathead clones.  Built three- one for each guitarist and one for myself (bass).  Bass version is slightly tweaked in reference to input/output cap values.  It's an interesting variant on the fuzz face. 

I built the deluxe version, well sort of.  The bias trimmer for Q2 is nice to have.  I used a concentric pot for sweepable input cap range (dark control) and output cap range (low cut control).   I skipped the attack external pot in exchange for an internal trimpot.  I set the gain to have the best range of gain when turning the dark control.  I did this mostly in the interest of conserving space and limiting the number of knobs, and also because the dark control reduces/increases gain in a usable range.  I thought a gain control would be superfluous.  I really liked using the concentric pot, although I wish the control was shorter.

Technical stuff of note: I've used several different rattlecan clear coats and this time I tried Rustoleum 2X.  It's the best clear I've used, hands down.  It laid down like glass and is very durable- usually tightening nuts on pots, jacks etc causes little wrinkles or chips.  Not this stuff.  Stinks to high heaven though. 

We are getting a doom project rolling so this is gonna be the foundation for our tone. 

As for the graphics, I usually do stuff that's inside jokes or something crude.  The guitarist gives middle fingers after every song, and we were at a show with a dog this summer and he kept yelling at it when it barked saying "damn it, sandy!"  No idea what the dog's real name was[emoji23]



Ham fisting my way through

[diydave]

a westbury W-20, with a 6112 submini tube and a nixie powersupply.







sounds nice to.

[Elijah-Baley]

Wow! May we know something more about this project?
Thanks!

[bluebunny]

Finally got around to boxing this one up.  It's Jon's "Falstaff" booster:




Hopefully having a few days off over Christmas will allow me to process some more of the backlog.   

[Cozybuilder]

Finally got around to boxing this one up.  It's Jon's "Falstaff" booster:

That looks like you etched my hero, Pink Jimi Photon 

[steveyraff]

Just finished these two builds. One guy wanted a Woolly Mammoth clone, which was pretty straight forward.

The other wanted a Human Gear Animato with a blend control. Got some help on here as to exactly how to use the Split'n'Blend circuit as a daughterboard within the same enclosure. Also made use of a Sziklai pair the same as the original - NTE 102 and 103 transistors. They were a bit of a nightmare to source, but got them eventually. Trying to keep it real 'n all lol It turned out a fairly busy build - I just can't believe it worked perfectly the very first time I fired it up! I've had serious head scratchers with WAY simpler builds. I was actually dreading it when I first hooked it up for a test drive - amazed when it was good to go straight away lol Oh - the guy is a Mighty Boosh fan apparently. Old Gregg is a character from that show.

By no means a pretty gutshot, and a bit messy looking - but personally I find keeping the wiring slack prevents problems when boxing it all up. Allows for a little more movement when trying to squeeze it all in there. Wish I was one of those people who can do those lovely looking symmetrical wiring jobs - but just glad it all works! lol

[bluebunny]

That looks like you etched my hero, Pink Jimi Photon 

You're giving me ideas...  I think PJP deserves to be immortalised in a pedal graphic!   

[duck_arse]

That looks like you etched my hero, Pink Jimi Photon 

You're giving me ideas...  I think PJP deserves to be immortalised in a pedal graphic!   

not going to fit in a 1590a, is it?

stevey - nice of you to look after the wooly feet.

[steveyraff]

stevey - nice of you to look after the wooly feet.

Yes well, frostbite is to be taken seriously - even for the Woolly Mammoth.

[Kipper4]

nice Stevey

[steveyraff]

nice Stevey

Thanks