Putting a scrambler and a mosfet booster in the same box??

[bertmar]

Hello!
Im thinking of putting my scrambler and my mosfet booster in the same box. Is this a good idea? Will it be noisy? How should I do it, is it just to connect the output of one with the input of the next? What about the batteries, should I use two like Im doing now when theyre separate?

Lot of questions...


Martin

[smashinator]

Hello!
Im thinking of putting my scrambler and my mosfet booster in the same box. Is this a good idea? Will it be noisy? How should I do it, is it just to connect the output of one with the input of the next? What about the batteries, should I use two like Im doing now when theyre separate?

Lot of questions...


Martin

I'll just go straight down the line:

Sure, if that's what you want.
Possibly.  Try and find out.  Boosters and distortions tend to be noisy because they're amplifying EVERYTHING that goes into them.  So a little bit of hiss turns into a LOT of hiss.
Yes.
Sure, or use a power adaptor, or use one 9 volt and change batteries more often.

Be sure to post pictures when you're done.   

[Mark Hammer]

This needs to be an FAQ if it isn't already.

Scrambler? 4-transistor octave unit.  MOS-Fet booster?  1-transistor gain stage.  Stick 'em in a box and you have a 5-transistor octave fuzz with some extra gain up front.  Lots of things have 5 transistors in them, so why should the fact that we call these 5 transistors two different "pedals" matter?

The one thing to be sensitive to is layout.  The other is switching.  The third is battery consumption.

Battery consumption should be fine.  A little faster for the combo (since they both remain powered up, and any LED indicator to let you know which is and isn't on will also eat up current), but not unreasonable.

Switching is whatever you need it to be.  Some combo pedals need order-flipping capability, some don't  Some players like to have global bypass, some are happy with individual on/off for each sub-circuit.

Layout is important because high gain circuits can "bleed" into each other and cause instability if wires come too lose and/or proper internal shielding is not observed.  Just make sure that the input of the booster, and the output of the Scrambler aren't too close together,  or have physically criss-crossing wires, keep your pot leads short, and you should be fine.

[Dragonfly]

Layout is important because high gain circuits can "bleed" into each other and cause instability if wires come too lose and/or proper internal shielding is not observed.  Just make sure that the input of the booster, and the output of the Scrambler aren't too close together,  or have physically criss-crossing wires, keep your pot leads short, and you should be fine.

Heres an easy solution....put the scrambler and the mosfet boost on SEPERATE boards, and wire them as i show below....

Use the mosfet booster as "effect 1" and the scrambler as "effect 2". with this wiring, you can use the boost, the scrambler, OR you can use the combination of the "boost into the scrambler" ! this wiring also allows seperate LED's for each effect...

hope this helps,
   andy

[bertmar]

Hello!
Thanks for all ideas. I already had two populated boards so I just connected teh input of the booster to the output of the scrambler and it works great. Will post pictures when my digital camera starts cooperating.

Does anyone have a name suggestion? Its a built in a heartshaped chocolate box (no chocolate left).

Martin