A DIY guitar electronics diary
Populated the Openhaus vero board. Have yet to find any 2N1306 germanium transistors, but I substituted in a pair of 2N388 to ensure everything works as it should. I also had trouble finding and 470uF caps rated 25V or more that was actually able to fit physically, and decided to try a pair of 220uF, which worked nicely. The bass- and mid pots sounded like I had the wires reversed, so will have to have a look at that.
Here’s what it looks like right now:
Here’s a vero layout for another compressor; the ColorSound (SolaSound) SupaSustain. Note that this one runs on +18V and won’t work with a regular +9V battery.
Did a vero layout for the MXR Phase 90 effect yesterday. Looked over it once after I was done, but can’t yet guarantee that it works. Will have to make it one day soon.
Since I finished the DynaComp project a good while ago I’ve come to really like this effect, and I thought it was time to give this pedal a nicer representation. I originally housed it in an unfinished Hammond 1590S, a fairly large and unwieldy metal box, but yesterday I finally got around to giving it a new home, a nice and shiny red 1290, making it look a lot more like the original. Incidentally this is the first time I work with the 1290 enclosure as well, and it really was a tight fit, but the small size really makes up for the extra effort.
Before and after pictures:
Populated a vero board according to my layout last night and I can now confirm it. What an obnoxious effect… 
Note: I had missed one label, “Volume 1 -> Ground”, which has now been corrected.
Having completed the power supply I felt confident and decided I’d try a tube amplifier. Since this is my first attempt I’m sticking to something relatively easy, like a single ended 5 watt thing. I found a schematic for the Bad Cat Mini II amplifier on schematicheaven.com and also discovered a thread on freestompboxes.org where a couple of members had actually built this thing.
It took me a long time, but I managed to source all the parts eventually.
This is very much a learning experience and gut shots of an actual Bad Cat Mini II amplifier helped me figure out approximately how to lay out the various parts in a practical manner. Turns out the chassis I ordered is a lot bigger than it had to be, but that’s OK. Would have been a lot worse the other way around.
I’ve spent some time reading up on amplifier specific issues and considerations. I tried to implement star grounding, but none of the switchcraft jacks I’ve used are isolated. Once I’ve got the speaker cabinet ready I’ll have to evaluate whether I need to isolate these to reduce hum. Gave the amp a test run with an old speaker I had lying around and it worked quite well on first attempt, albeit at a very low volume. After some investigation it turned out I had the filament wiring on the 12AX7′s slightly wrong, but having fixed this the amp now works like a wonder. Time to get started on the cabinet…
It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.
This is the first time I’ve been working with 230VAC which was both scary and exciting. This power supply is based on a Weber transformer with eight 11VAC 300mA and one 9VAC 2A secondaries. The 9VAC secondary was left as-is and will be used to power my Podxt, and after digesting lots of information from geofex I figured out how to make eight isolated and regulated 9VDC outputs to power all the effect pedals I could ever want or need.
Update: Now that I’ve actually started using it I’m thinking it would have been nice to also have +18V, -9V and a bi-polar +9V/-9V. Once I find the time I’ll have to modify this thing.
Received my Dirty Little Secret PCB from www.madbeanpedals.com a few days ago and quickly populated it, boxed it and tried it. Not as hairy as I had imagined, but still an interesting effect. Will have to give it another go soon.
Finished up my Baja Trembulator build yesterday and what a beauty. It sounds great too.
And yes, I accidentally soldered the IC3 socket the wrong way.
Ordered a PCB from madbeanpedals, and decided to make a vero layout while I wait for it to arrive in the mail.