Is it kosher to discuss the crossovers?

[jswingchun]

Nope. Not that smart. But I know how to find stuff, modify it, and buy it right.

You are plenty smart enough to etch boards. It's really easy. I was making effects pedals for a while and etching boards was a fun albeit stinky part of that process. Directions can be found all over the interweb.

[LelandCrooks]

I was making effects pedals for a while and etching boards was a fun albeit stinky part of that process.

I need a good distortion pedal. The cheap ones suck, the good ones are 2 or 300 bucks. I know enough electronics to know there ain't much in there. I could build it. Any suggestions?

[Harley]

I need a good distortion pedal. .. Any suggestions?

Take up bass.

To gig you take, Bass guitar, amp, cab/s, leads. That's it.....oh a tuner for when the guitarists forgets his and a spare set of drum sticks for the drummer too....

Us bassists don't need such gadgetry to sound good

[jswingchun]

I need a good distortion pedal. The cheap ones suck, the good ones are 2 or 300 bucks. I know enough electronics to know there ain't much in there. I could build it. Any suggestions?

There are plans and PCB layouts on http://www.generalguitargadgets.com. I have built a few of the designs there. He sells kits and PCBs, but also has the plans and layouts downloadable for free. I used to hang out on http://www.diystompboxes.com forums, there are a lot of plans and PCB layouts in the gallery there. The forum is a lot like this one, lot's of helpful people. I quit building pedals when I decided to start building PA cabs. Also, I don't know enough about electronics to troubleshoot stuff when it didn't work right. If I built a pedal and it worked, I was good, if it didn't, I was stuck. It was fun and I would like to take it back up, but time and where to devote mental energy is always an issue. It takes a lot of time and doesn't really save you much money because buying parts in small lots is expensive.

Best place I found to buy parts:
http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html

Here are a couple pedals I have built. First one is simple blend circuit, second one is an delay:

Take up bass.....Us bassists don't need such gadgetry to sound good

I play bass, and tote around eight pedals. You are right, I don't need them to sound good, but they add to the fun!

[novasak]

I'm working on this one at the moment. If I can manage to make more than 2 test models, I'll send you a PCB and a parts list and/or parts.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/insanity.GIF

[LelandCrooks]

That would be hugely appreciated.
Save me a pile time and learning curve.

[kynetx]

I need a good distortion pedal. The cheap ones suck, the good ones are 2 or 300 bucks. I know enough electronics to know there ain't much in there. I could build it. Any suggestions?

There are plans and PCB layouts on http://www.generalguitargadgets.com. I have built a few of the designs there. He sells kits and PCBs, but also has the plans and layouts downloadable for free. I used to hang out on http://www.diystompboxes.com forums, there are a lot of plans and PCB layouts in the gallery there. The forum is a lot like this one, lot's of helpful people. I quit building pedals when I decided to start building PA cabs. Also, I don't know enough about electronics to troubleshoot stuff when it didn't work right. If I built a pedal and it worked, I was good, if it didn't, I was stuck. It was fun and I would like to take it back up, but time and where to devote mental energy is always an issue. It takes a lot of time and doesn't really save you much money because buying parts in small lots is expensive.

Best place I found to buy parts:
http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html

Here are a couple pedals I have built. First one is simple blend circuit, second one is an delay:

Take up bass.....Us bassists don't need such gadgetry to sound good

I play bass, and tote around eight pedals. You are right, I don't need them to sound good, but they add to the fun!

OH MY GOD. Those are the coolest pedals on the whole damn planet. I am a massive Futurama fan. I don't care what they do, I want them.

[jswingchun]

OH MY GOD. Those are the coolest pedals on the whole damn planet. I am a massive Futurama fan. I don't care what they do, I want them.

Thanks, I like how they turned out. I especially like the Bender Blender pedal. Both of those pedals have the designs acid etched into the box, so they are cooler looking in person than they are in the pics. Doing the art on the boxes was actually my favorite part of doing the pedals.

[Tom Smit]

Both of those pedals have the designs acid etched into the box, so they are cooler looking in person than they are in the pics. Doing the art on the boxes was actually my favorite part of doing the pedals.

If you don't mind, would you start a new thread to describe how to do that? (I'm too lazy to search, and it could benefit others)

Thanks

[DrDoug018]

One thing that would be interesting to know is the size of each of these boards. I know you can sort of get a sense by looking at the pic, but it would be interesting to know actual dimensions. When I was building mine, space was a huge factor as I was trying to fit them on the inside of a DR200 access cover. Therefore, the board my filters are mounted on is 5" x 4" (inches).

Mine from above is on a 4"x6" board. The components were glued to the board with hot melt, and I then glued the board to the bottom driver access cover with PL

Thought I read somewhere that hot melt was a little dicey and that somebody had a component or two come loose but everything seems to be pretty solid.

Doug

[bzb]

In the plans, I have the jack positive going through the 5.6uF cap, through the 4ohm res, to the NEGATIVE lead of the piezo array.

Is this correct (or does it even matter)? I noticed some guys have it labeled positive to positive for the tweeter... I'm just about to solder it up, and would like the wires to be correctly labeled/colored.

[LelandCrooks]

Correct. Check polarity after finishing the cab.

[bzb]

Alrighty, thanks Leland. I guess I'll shrink wrap the ends and label em later. Here's my ghetto fabulous one.

[Mark Coward]

I was making effects pedals for a while and etching boards was a fun albeit stinky part of that process.

I need a good distortion pedal. The cheap ones suck, the good ones are 2 or 300 bucks. I know enough electronics to know there ain't much in there. I could build it. Any suggestions?

One of the best bang-for-buck I found - get a Boss DS1, the orange distortion pedal, usually cheap used on Ebay. Get one of Monte Allums mod kits

http://www.monteallums.com/pedal_mods.html#bossds1

The "Rectifier Tri-Gain" is the one I did, it makes it into a different animal that's quite versatile. You can switch between an LED or Silicon diode, the LED is a cleaner/warmer boost. After the mod you can use the pedal for clean or slightly dirty boost, which is impossible with the stock unit.

You can get tubescreamer and fuzzface clone kits to DIY/ I made a FuzzFace from scratch that turned out quite well and I etched the board etc. Fuzz and clean boost pedals are simple, the tubescreamer is a fairly complex circuit. It's all fun to do, I just don't have time anymore and have sold most of my pedals and tube amps.

I've tried just about everything out there, tube pedals etc., and the best single pedal IMO is the Xotic Effects BB PreAmp. You can get them new for $168 shipped, don't see many used ones and they hold their value well. It has this organic tube amp "feel" that nothing else I've used has:

[mpm32]

Is Doug's drawing correct?

The pics are nice, and I like Harley's but it's hard to see the connections in the pics.


Thanks