Effect Pedal building

[chopstuck]

Funk,
did they turn out like the lovepedal cot or one of the many flavors of that pedal ?
Did you use the veroboard or something else for the construction ?

I have tried the Lovepedal amp 50 and I have to say it sounds great.
It has no tone controls just a bias knob but it just plain kills. It's too small for battery power or my big feet.

[funkmeblue]

I built it from vero board. There are severlal different versions of this pedal, they all use the same transistor with different clipping diodes. And it's small enough to be built into a guitar

[dorrisant]

I built a COT last night... quick and dirty. Did it on a business card in about 45 min... Record! I used the anti-stat package as an insulator. How's that for green?
Sounds awesome! Kinda ugly though.

[IMG:766:432]http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad30 ... 430653.jpg[/img]

[IMG:766:432]http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad30 ... 353976.jpg[/img]

[IMG:432:766]http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad30 ... 459341.jpg[/img]

[IMG:432:766]http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad30 ... 497685.jpg[/img]

Now I'm working on a Buzzaround. Thanks for bringing this thread up, guys. I had forgotten about some of these pedals. Also waiting on parts for Dyna Comp/Ross... I gotta put this COT together for real too.

Tony

[chopstuck]

Circuit card ?

Kick ass !

I like the Buzzaround too.

I have to get my Small Bear order in.

[Structo]

I finally scored all the parts for a Buzzaround.

I got some AC176 NPN Germanium transistors so I can have a negative ground.

I will include the Master Volume mod so it will have four knobs.

Stay tuned!

[dorrisant]

Tom,

How are you implementing the MV? Front end?

Tony

[Structo]

Well I finally got this Buzzaround done.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting old or what but I made a lot of wiring errors.
Could be my eyesight as well...

The circuit board wasn't that great.
Single sided home made from GuitarPCB.com

I'm used to double sided, masked boards.

Anyway, the AC176 transistors I got from Germany are crap.
I don't think one of them was over 116 gain and all of them are leakers.

I think these were all rejects that somebody had tested.
Not much recourse when the seller is on the other side of the globe.

I even picked up a trio of AC176 which were supposedly gain staged for a Tonebender.
Not sure what the guy measured with but the Hfe readings were all way off (higher) than my Peak DCA55 tester shows.

I the fuzz to work but it is so low gain it's pretty worthless.

The Master Volume mod is easy but I'm not sure it is implemented correctly.
On the original Buzzaround, the Timbre (tone) pot is the output pot as well.
I think the Master should have been substituted for that but now I have four holes in the box so I can't change it.

Mammonth Electronics has some pretty cool painted enclosured.

The one I got is black sparkle and it looks pretty cool.


[img:400:300]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fAW5 ... G_1018.JPG[/img]

[img:400:287]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-dIFx ... G_1015.JPG[/img]

[chopstuck]

I always wonder when fleaBay sellers have bulk packs of transistors and say "untested'.
Possibly that's code for tested and failed.

It's too easy to measure them and mark them up 500% as "tested units".

Good TV quote applicable here:

"Yea, people are mostly crap."




- Victor from the TV show "Dollhouse"


PS............... Really NICE enclosure BTW !

[Structo]

Yeah, I should have known that a bag of 100 AC176's was too good to be true.


Thanks about the enclosure, I wish I could say I did it.
It really is black, glossy with all those multi-color sparkles.

http://www.mammothelectronics.com

They offer about 17 different finishes and also drilling options.

I almost got this one, green sparkle.
It would make a killer tubescreamer clone.

[img:447:412]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S1Om ... parkle.JPG[/img]

[David Root]

I just noticed this thread, good timing as I just bought components to build the MXR Dynacomp using Chris G's original board.

I want to reproduce a '70s Dyna as close as possible. Some say pedals have no parts mojo but if so why do people pay over $400 for an original Ross compressor? I have a real '75 Phase 90 and it is better than the new ones.

So I have some differently sourced RCA CA3080 incoming, CC 1/4W resistors, '70s 2N5088s and 1N4148s, funky old ceramic & tant caps, etc etc.

How to test the transistors? I see Tom uses a DCA55, looks like a good tool, but what about testing the CA3080? B&K 575A? $1200!!! I don't think so.

Anyone with some wisdom to impart to this pedal rookie?

[dorrisant]

Dave, I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but you might try here:

True gain and leakage for Ge Trannies

http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.com/2012 ... m.html?m=1

Tom, check out the Buzzaround-Alike. There are both PNP and NPN versions and it replaces the non-critical first two stages with a single op amp stage. It also uses the other half of the op amp as an output buffer. You don't have to have matched sets of trannies... just one. Maybe this would make that beautiful box sound the way you want. Less hiss than the original too.

http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9401

Tony

[Structo]

Thanks Tony.

Yeah the Peak DCA55 tests most semiconductors.

For instance it will tell you if the transistor is silicon or germanium.

But what I don't understand is how it formulates the gain.

Because I can take the same transistor that tests at 90 on the Peak, and then test it with a DMM I have that has a transistor tester and the meter will show maybe 180.
The Peak does show the leakage but it is tested at 5.xx ma

According to the Peak tester, just about all the transistors are junk.

Thanks for the link Tony, I am a member there but I hadn't seen that thread before.
I will check it out.

[dorrisant]

No problem Tom... Glad to be helpful at all.

Here is another link from that site that might help with an Buzzaround clone build...

http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1211

Thanks for the Mammoth link... they have the proto boards made for 1590Bs. Sweet!

Tony

[davent]

Small Bear, as well as being a great source for all parts pedal, has an interesting article on putting those low gain germaniums to use.

https://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/Ge ... nPairs.htm

http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/StoreFront

dave

[tele caster]

Hey Tom, Madbean has a much better documented Buzzaround project. Check out the link
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/B ... bleBee.pdf