Building the Echo Base PCB

[Taylor]

Sometimes people actually do use A and B the opposite way, so it's easy to get confused. I should probably start labeling things "lin" and "log" instead of A and B to avoid that.

[pgorey]

That could be helpful, but I should have paid closer attention.  You did a great job with all of the mods explanations and the guide in general.  I generally just need to slow down when building AND ordering parts.

[pgorey]

I finished the board, switches and I/O connections and everything worked the first time powering up!  This design sounds so so so good.  Really inspiring and warm delay and fun to go crazy with modulation.  One thing that I have noticed on the runaway mod is that the distortion and feedback creates a volume or apparent volume boost of about 2 x the loudness of the dry signal and normal echo signal.  I love the distortion and wash of feedback but is there a practical way to keep the volume maybe just a slight bump above regular dry / effect volume?  I'm designing the enclosure tonight and will post pics later this weekend when it's all finished but here is the rough enclosure build:

http://imgur.com/mby17B2

I'm pretty sure I'm going to name my clone the Void Walker - a nerdy shout out to my love of the the video game Destiny. 

[duck_arse]

I finished the board, switches and I/O connections and everything worked the first time powering up!

don't you love it when this happens?

[pgorey]

I imagine it will be a rare occasion but YES!  Any ideas on keeping the runaway mod volume closer to the original clean / effect signal?

[Taylor]

Nice! For the feedback volume, one solution could be to use the other pole of your self-oscillation switch to add an extra resistor onto the Level pot when the oscillation is switched on.

So you'd have a resistor, maybe around 22k to 47k, that's connected between the right and center lugs of the Level pot, only when the switch is activated.

[pgorey]

Here are the shots of the completed echo base.  Thanks Taylor, I will try that mod.  Unfortunately, there are only two lugs so it sounds like I need to have a STDP momentary switch?

http://imgur.com/a/fXKwb

[Taylor]

Looking good. Yep, you'd need a DPST switch to do that.

You could try instead experimenting with the resistor on the feedback switch - increasing the value would make the feedback stack up more slowly, so you might be able to get the sound you're looking for without launching so quickly into maximum saturation.

[pgorey]

Coming back to this, and sorry for the delay.  I found some time tonight to try increasing the resistance on the feedback switch.  I first started with adding  15k to the original 27k and then without much change at all threw a 150k on top of that and I'm not hearing any difference to the charge time before saturation.  It gets there in about 1 second.  I'd like for it to take maybe 3-5 seconds.  I tried upping to 1M2.  Same result so the resistance change doesn't seem to be changing anything - leads me to believe I have it in the wrong place right?   I am using a momentary SPST foot-switch with only two lugs.  One lug is soldered to 3rd lug on the feedback pot and and the other is soldered to a resistor pack of 27k, 15k, 1M2 that also connects to the left sid of the 20k resistor below the feedback pot.  All looks groovy to me but no change?  Where did I go wrong?

[slacker]

Aplologies if I'm wrong but it sounds like you've added your extra resistors in parallel with the 27K, they need to be in series to increase the resistance, or just replace the 27k with bigger values.

[pgorey]

You are correct, I added them in parallel.  I will try to replace and update shortly.  Thanks!

[pgorey]

Ok, now for some other questions.  The feedback pot causes self-oscillation and overload / saturation before the 3/4 mark.  Is this a typical characteristic?  Can I tone that down a bit to get more feedback without distorting?  Also, which pins should be linked on the tails connections so I can remove the switch and always have tails active when I bypass?

Thanks!

[pgorey]

I'm sorry for clogging up this thread with additional quick follow ups.  Replacing the 20k under the feedback pot with 100k as previously recommended by others helped get more usable range out of the feedback pot before oscillation.  I get to maybe 9 out of 10 before distorting etc.  I put on a 68k in place of the 27k in the runaway mod and that was cool but sometimes too slow so I switched to 47k for the sweet spot.  Completely personal preference though.  Thanks for all the help here Taylor and to everyone else who has responded.  Truly a fantastic sounding pedal and I am constantly inspiring looking through the massive thread at everyone's mods and builds. 

[Taylor]

glad to hear it!

For the tails switch, you can wire the center and right pads together to keep it permanently in tails bypass.

[WorthTheWords]

Hi all,
I need some help figuring out drill template/organization of pots for my echo base build. I'm adding in the knob for waveshape, a second stomp switch for the mad dub mod, and a toggle switch for tails. I'm having trouble figuring out how to organize everything so it'll fit easy in a 1590BB. It doesn't look like all six knobs will fit in one row, so I may need to drop the waveshape pot down, but then it'd be underneath the board, and I can't quite figure out how to best do that. I'm hoping to use board mount pots for the 5 pots that that is an option for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If someone has pictures (inside and out) of a build with the waveshape knob and how you organized that pot inside the box, that would be really helpful.
Thanks!

Joel

[snarblinge]

Buy a 1590q, my fav, for all two stomp builds, same height and width but square.

http://snarblinge.tumblr.com/image/9992205158

[WorthTheWords]

Thanks! Do you have a picture of the inside of that build? So I can see the wiring and how you position the shape knob relative to the board. I'm guessing based on the spacing of the knobs that you wired your pots instead of using board mount?

[WorthTheWords]

Thanks! Do you have a picture of the inside of that build? So I can see the wiring and how you position the shape knob relative to the board.

I found your inside the box picture on your website. Thanks again for sharing. If I go with wired pots instead of board mount I might be able to make it work. Anyone else have a similar picture for a 1590BB?
Thanks

[snarblinge]

yeah my aesthetic bent just cant handle board mounted pots, not until I can be bothered fabbing my own boards, so I tend to add complications, and potential faults with many jumpers..

good luck.

[suryabeep]

I don't know if this is already up, but anyway, here's a template for anyone going the whole hog on the Echo Base using a 1790 or a 6500. It's got 2 footswitches for bypass and 'chaos' (I call it chaos just cuz), 6 knobs, 4 toggles. DC jack and in/out aren't there cuz I figured people would want to do it either top mount or side mount (I prefer side mount, again just cuz). Hope this helps!

pdf at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxSd6GuyaQOAckNTc3NBeXFwSW8/view?usp=sharing