Build report: Green Ringer!

[dacaumodo]

I completed my Green Ringer today. I used JD Sleep PCB layout. The circuit proper was a breeze, took me about an hour and a half to solder (I had the PCB ready ). Worked first time, not debugging necessary.
The longest part was designing the drilling layout, preparing the enclosure, fitting in all the elements inside; etc. I used a small enclosure, which was a pain, but I managed to fit everything in and it looks slim.
I had to play around a lot with the placement of battery, jacks, etc. inside the box, so the placement is somewhat unorthodox. Notice the incovenient location of the jack plugs... and the off-axis footswitch. Anyway I'm pleased with it.
I used varnish on the box and it turned out strange, with a lot of not so elegant bubbles. I'm not ready yet to go all the way with proper painting. Close up it looks like it had the smallpox in its youth. I'm not sure I'll write anything on top. I like it mysterious like this...
The sounds is great. I love this pedal, unlike anything I tried before. It can be hardly noticeable, and the be very harsh and weird. Does interesting things to arpeggios. Above the 12th fret on the G, B and E strings, it produces a nice octave up. Below that it's not noticeable on the small amp and at the volume I used or my first test drive.
I use it with a strat and it sounds better, fuller, with the neck pickup i think. I've got to try it with my other guitar, that has P90s on it.

I used a green led, of course.

Pic (no shot of the inside, I was too lazy to unscrew everything!):

[R.G.]

From the Guitar Effects FAQ, first edition, back in the mid 90's:

Effects are hard to build -* mechanically *- not electronically

so it doesn't surprise me that you'd find:

The longest part was designing the drilling layout, preparing the enclosure, fitting in all the elements inside;

[Meanderthal]

 Glad it worked out for ya! I perfed mine right off the schematic, so it's a small "board" and wouldn't have been a problem fitting it in an enclosure had I actually liked it. Although I think I have a few of the same enclosure that I ordered by mistake- hard to squeeze a switch in there because there's not much clearance. If it's the same enclosure(can't really tell how much height from above) that must have been a tight squeeze!

I must have done something wrong on mine. Sounds sour and garbled like the 12 string sound intro to floyd's wish you were here! Or maybe that's what it's supposed to sound like and I just have bad taste or something...

[oldrocker]

After I perfed up my GR I decided to try the Ne-Octavia and since they sounded so similar I put them in the same enclosure.  One input jack and two output jacks.  Unlike the Muff Fuzz box I did I have two MF's in one enclosure with a toggle switch to flip between the Op amp version and the transitor version.  The Green Ringer and Ne-Octave has to be unplugged to switch between them.  But it works pretty good.

[dacaumodo]

Glad it worked out for ya! I perfed mine right off the schematic, so it's a small "board" and wouldn't have been a problem fitting it in an enclosure had I actually liked it. Although I think I have a few of the same enclosure that I ordered by mistake- hard to squeeze a switch in there because there's not much clearance. If it's the same enclosure(can't really tell how much height from above) that must have been a tight squeeze!

I must have done something wrong on mine. Sounds sour and garbled like the 12 string sound intro to floyd's wish you were here! Or maybe that's what it's supposed to sound like and I just have bad taste or something...

I'll post some soundclips soon, so you can compare. It is more of a noise maker than anything IMO. You couldn't use it all through a song I guess. But it provides some cool, industrial-type sounds. I can quite understand someone not liking it though. My wife made a funny face when I demonstrated it to her...

[dacaumodo]

After I perfed up my GR I decided to try the Ne-Octavia and since they sounded so similar I put them in the same enclosure.  One input jack and two output jacks.  Unlike the Muff Fuzz box I did I have two MF's in one enclosure with a toggle switch to flip between the Op amp version and the transitor version.  The Green Ringer and Ne-Octave has to be unplugged to switch between them.  But it works pretty good.

Good idea. It would be nice to be able to footswitch between the two though. I might build another later on, with a more straightforward  octave up as companion, or perhaps with a scrambler... Green Ringer/Scrambler combo! The neighbours' cat won't like this box!

[oldrocker]

Oh yeah,  the Scrambler is awesome.  The Green Ringer and Scrambler would be a good combo too.  Have you heard the Ne-Octavia?  You can buy the transformer it uses from Rat Shack.  It has a gain knob on it too and can get pretty freakin loud.  I like all three.  They all have their unique sounds and uses.  The Scrambler has so many different sounds in it.  It's definatly not a one trick pony by any means.