hello and can you help me?

[fredy]

hello everybody, i have just finished making myself a 5watt valve amp and it is far to loud to crank up to get the desired amount of drive, also, even when it is cranked to 11 the amp doesn't have enough gain for most lead work.
i have been thinking about making my own pedal as they cost far too much to buy from a shop.
I want a pedal which can boost the guitars signal with out increasing the volume of the amp so that it pushes the pre amp harder. I  would also like a biult in treble booster, overdrive unit and volume boost to cater for all my overdrive needs. The amp its slef sounds great and i wouldnt really want to colour the tone of it with this pedal, except when i use the overdrive, so i am looking for a transparent boost.
How much would such a project cost? and where can i learn about how to design and make such a pedal?

thanks

[petemoore]

  Here, there, and everywhere near here, and there...
  Geo
  AMZ
  Runoff Groove
  Lots of links to lots of info's
  Mosfet Boost...count the parts, I think somehting like a dozen...can't be more than 15 buxx to get a circuit board working from perf for that.
  The box, jacks, switch, and pots are what cost more. Addem up and probably like 30-40 Buxx.

[burnt fingers]

I'm all for the DIY drive boxes for tweakability but as far as cost savings, you can get a Boss or Digitech distortion box for about $35.0 to $40.00 new and probably a lot cheaper used.  Once youv'e got the box, switch,pots, parts,perf or PCB board fpr a DIY project you may not be saving any money. 

I am not trying to discourage you, I just want to make you aware of the realities of DIY.

Scott

[choklitlove]

dont' forget http://tonepad.com

[petemoore]

I want a pedal which can boost the guitars signal with out increasing the volume of the amp so that it pushes the pre amp harder.
  >>To get what you've said here, would depend on where the Volume Control pot is located in the schematic of your amp. Inherently, " boost the guitars signal with out increasing the volume of the amp", is a misnomer or depends on turning the volume down on the amp output section.
   I  would also like a biult in treble booster, {>LPB and Rangemaster qualify here<}overdrive unit and volume boost to cater for all my overdrive needs {>For OD and Boost...just about any TS type pedal does that, and you get Tone knob<}
.  The amp its slef sounds great and i wouldnt really want to colour the tone of it with this pedal, except when i use the overdrive, so i am looking for a transparent boost.
  You'll find the Mosfet Boost to be semi-transparent [or very transparent].
 

[Joecool85]

What about an attenuator?  There was a guy that used a lightbulb an epiphone valve jr as one so that he could get that cranked sound without the cranked volume output.

[aron]

i have been thinking about making my own pedal as they cost far too much to buy from a shop.

I think this is the limiting factor. It's going to cost money, no matter what. Get one of the Danelectro Fab series pedals for less than $20. Done!

[fredy]

true, i could go and get myself a boss for cheap but thats a one trick poney. I am by no means a pedal junkie (to much hassle involved) so having an ober trive, treble booster and boost all in one would be great and getting them all seperate would cost a fair bit. I would love to get an attenuator for my marshall as that is far too loud for home use but my 5watt doesn't have enough gain on tap even when it is cranked so an attenuator is not what im after. However, an attenuaotr for the marshall for high gain stuff and an A/B/Y bpx to switch between amps... hmmmmm....

will it really cost more to make than buy?i can probably find an old metal or wooden box to keep all the gubbins in saving me some cash.

thanks for the help.

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

probably more to make.

getting started in DIY costed me about $100 before i even got my first project running. pretty awful, i know...

if you have most of the parts (resistors, caps, trannies, switches, etc) it may be more cost efficient for you to make... but you will need to shop around and find that out for yourself...

[aron]

so having an ober trive, treble booster and boost all in one would be great and getting them all seperate would cost a fair bit.

If you think about it, something like the Danelectric Fab Overdrive is very close to what you want. It's an overdrive, lots of people use this TS type of overdrive as a boost and it would only take 1 capacitor ahead of the pedal to turn it into a treble booster. The biggest problem is how to get that cap in front of the pedal. The easiest way might be to make a separate A/B box that puts the cap in series or not.

[fredy]

thanks again for the help, i have heard the fab in action and i wasn't impressed. I have tried a hot head though and i was very impressed with that but i think it would colour the sound of my amp too much. Would it be difficult to mod to make it more transparent?