Show us your BIG effects

[jessej]

That looks very interesting. It's like the big brother of the Drone Lab 2

If you don't mind, I'd be very interested in building that one and buy a pcb from you and perhaps when you source down components, I could order the same ones..
If you think it's ok, please keep me posted/pm etc! 

Do you have more info of this somewhere, like on a blog or something?

[jessej]

I keep on hitting quote instead of modify. sorry, delete this uneccesary post.

[sean k]

A reverb I made years ago, as I was learning, which didn't work so well so I've got it back out and I'm changing out the two 12SL7's for a 6SL7 and a 6SN7 parallel'd up for the reverb driver, I've got a 2.5k imp input tank so it can be driven straight off the plates albiet with a high current tube, plus I've changed the schematic a little and ripped out the point to point and am going to a turret type thing for easy tweakin'.

Also opened the tank up so I can play that with feathers...

[Taylor]

Nice! My favorite reverb ever was a tube-driven "Premier 90" spring unit. Dumped it because it would zap me with voltage sometimes, but I've never found another that sounded as good. In hindsight, maybe such a nice reverb sound is worth the fear of electrocution. I'm a reverb guy, though; I wouldn't put my life on the line for... a chorus, for example. That would be crazy.

[cloudscapes]

That looks very interesting. It's like the big brother of the Drone Lab 2

If you don't mind, I'd be very interested in building that one and buy a pcb from you and perhaps when you source down components, I could order the same ones..
If you think it's ok, please keep me posted/pm etc!  

Do you have more info of this somewhere, like on a blog or something?

oh man, I havent thought about this in a long time!  
the initial plan was to have several PCBs. one per voice (6), plus one master one with sequencers, mixers and the like. in the year since I last thought about it I've learned a helluva lot. I still want to build a synth (this new year, for sure) but it'll be different.

think of a toned-down DSI mono Evolver. a few (at least 3) digital oscillators with 2399-based pitch LFO/vibrato. multiple waveforms, sine, triangle, square, ramp/saw, PWM and "drawn" shapes, a few programmable LFOs with same said shapes, a couple envilopes, resonant filter and programable 2399 delay. I'd like to have polyphony too.

I'm already well ahead in programming the oscillator chips (one osc per 20-pin chip)

[sean k]

But aren't you supposed to be able to fix things like that?

I gotta few yaps a month or two back because I'd inadvertently wired the neutral wire to the effects power supply earths and because the supplies were floating I'd get zapped everytime I unplugged something and became the earth. Ended up it was just a little solder blob on one of the transformer lugs accross to the earth. Everything worked fine if I plugged everything in and didn't change anything while it was all switched on but if I changed anything on the fly...shocking!

Ended up frying something on my trusty old hood amp which was raised slightly above earth for some reason. Won't chuck it out though... I'll fix it someday.

I've also got some long tanks, an 8 ohm iput and a 100 ohm input. Three tanks would be a very nice wash!

[Taylor]

Well, I had it before I did any DIY stuff, but even now tubes scare me off. I figured grounding the thing would be easy, but apparently it involves new transformers or something, I don't know. I'm still too dumb with electronics to mess with high voltage. I need those 9v training wheels, if you know what I mean.  Not ready to have my mistakes carry consequences.

[sean k]

Well, there you go, I love the idea of high voltage even though I suppose it scares me too, not enough to not use it though... because I love the dangerous stuff. But really I've never had a shock from High voltage DC, it's there, you know what it's for and you act accordingly. And if you do the math, after checking your resistance from hand to hand and hoping it's a couple of megs at least ('cause it's the people whos external resistance is down at a few hundred kilo ohms who really feel the shocks), and realise whats in the wall is far more dangerous.

We have 240 VAC rms which means a wall voltage zap is about 700 Volts from positive peak to negative peak and my resistance is about 2.5 megs so 700/2.5M = .2mA. so a shock from 350VDC is going to be half that and not much more than a twinge given what wall voltage feels like... hey, it isn't pleasant at allbut it's not enough to stop you doing whats right and proper...Home Made Tube Amps!

[sean k]

My latest all tube amp all wired up and ready to go.

Getting it all into such a small space was an absolute mission.

6BM8, 6AU6 and 6AV6.

[bassybeats]

This is one of two i have been working on..don't know how it lives up to your Big effects..let me know..



Left to right: Big Muff Pi, Tone Bender 3 Knob, Tyrobrache Octavia, Orange Squeezer Compressor

Number two to come: Marshall blues breaker, NPN Ge Fuzz face, Lava Rim 2, MXR phase 45.

All true by pass, but are only fixed arrangement at the moment.

[bassybeats]

This is one of two i have been working on..don't know how it lives up to your Big effects..let me know..



Left to right: Big Muff Pi, Tone Bender 3 Knob, Tyrobrache Octavia, Orange Squeezer Compressor

Number two to come: Marshall blues breaker, NPN Ge Fuzz face, Lava Rim 2, MXR phase 45.

All true by pass, but are only fixed arrangement at the moment.

[Taylor]

I approve! It has a certain psychotic industrial feel (the guts especially). Sort of like the film Eraserhead.

[glops]

bassballs,

the graphics look pro, nice.   But I also love the way the box looks, as is.  Nice and raw and nasty.  Nice job.

[trevize]

looks like my band new ep!

[jkokura]

Not super big, but it's 3 circuits crammed into a 1590DD so I think it qualifies!



More details over on page 605 of the pictures thread.

Jacob

[Top Top]

A delay/flanger/spring reverb made from a karaoke boombox.

The delay comes from the built in echo of the boombox (all bent to hell). The speaker outputs from the boombox drive a reverb tank (that's what the top two RCA jacks are for - send and receive)

I built a mixer, LFO (to alter delay time), and a preamp/booster for the reverb receive. I still can't get the switch for the LFO shape to work for some reason (only works on triangle), but other than that, it works and is a really interesting sounding effect.

Knobs - gain, delay time, repeats, feedback (repeats without LPF), LFO speed, LFO depth, LFO Shape pull switch, mix for delay/reverb/dry, master vol, and bypass slide switch.

It is housed in a repainted mailbox 

[Taylor]

Really neat, especially that all your gear matches. I'd be interested to hear what that sounds like.

[Top Top]

All this equipment is part of my live setup, which is why I have been going for the matching look. Being able to customize the look is half the reason I am building my own stuff (the other half is that it fits my budget).

I have a soundclick page with some effect samples, I should add the echo to it. It sounds pretty lofi/dirty. I have the delay time extending out way further than it should and taken without any low pass on it. In chorus/flange/vibe setups, it can get similar sounds to a memory man or something like that, but a little dirtier.

The spring reverb is super dirty sounding because I have to crank the input to move the springs... but it is cool sounding in it's own unique way.

[mr. mügatu]

and this one:

Do you know where I can find an undrilled enclosure exactly like that?

[diydave]

This project holds 7 fx:
- tillman's pre-amp
- sho
- fuzz face (silicone)
- tubescreamer / rat (interswitchable), rat with ruetz-mod + clipswitch
- rebote delay
- eazy vibe

I like to call it... Dave In A Box



quite some wires though