PT2399 Delay no 1

Another pedal I've used Inkscape art (left pic) for Tayda printing service. I've placed a few 3mm green led's on the radar screen to look like blips when it's on.

The circuit is The Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay with a volume control ( which was one of the draws to building this. I didn't beat my memory boy off my main board, mostly as it's more digital sounding compared to the more organic, analogue, darker toned EHX machine. Not to say its not good, its an excellent sounding delay. I had this on my board for ages as a 2nd option delay.

Thanks to drdfx this was made with the use of his pcb layout

 

Timmy the Kid

This is about when I discovered Tayda and Their printing service. I've used Sketchup for many years to design things before I commit to making, so I was able to eventually use Inkscape to start drawing designs in vector format according to Tayda requirements, mostly no overlaps, sized right etc. With the use of another program called Scribus I was able to convert the finished drawing into the correct layer format, change colours to CYMK, apply the right Roland swatches for the clear and white layers and end up producing a PDF that worked. Above are a png of my inkscape drawing and photo of pedal.

Another great pedal really. I use it often as a booster/ stacker booster, but useful on its own in many ways. So many transparent overdrives and their all good. worth the build for me

 

Fuzz Factory from Musikding

 

The Factory

 

 Ok, so starting off I got a kit from Musikding in germany. “The Factory”. To New Zealand was very reasonable I thought. Against my principle of “from scratch” I know. I needed the matched germaniums, AC125’s in this case and putting together an easy circuit and the offboard wiring from a kit seemed like a good way to introduce myself to making these things.

The kit was great, easy to follow and easy to make if you’re good at soldering already.

This circuit is crazy, thats for sure.

My artwork at this stage is printable clear sticky film with clear-coat topping.

Incidentally, in my search for germaniums AC128’s at the time, i came across some from Ali-express. 10 for $10. What the hell, got a pack to see what you got. I don’t know whether they purposely plant them or it was just sheer luck , but there were 2 out of the 10 with the perfect HFE/gain measurements. One at 70 the other at 110. They sit in this now and doing the job very well. AC125’s will go on a future project. I'm aware Ali-express is risky, and it is. Last resort perhaps. I have had a fair success and some failures here for parts i cant find elsewhere for a reasonable price.  

Barbershop

 Raw, gritty, warm, smooth, open and transparent are all terms that have been used to describe this overdrive. It sounds great with any setup, but truly shines when used to dirty up a tube amp.

Another early pedal. I'm still using the decal film. The circuit is the fairfield circuitry "Barbershop"

A very nice organic transparent overdrive. After playing it for awhile, bliss really summed it up for me . Sounds just like demos. Circuit in vero layout is here : https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/search?q=barbershop

Introduction

Hi All,

Thought I'd start this up as maybe a bit of help for those of you who are a bit like myself. Basically I have always enjoyed making things for myself, fixing things myself if I can (this is often budget driven), and being willing to research, mostly via the internet what it takes to achieve the result. My main profession is now teaching construction trade skills, having been a contractor for 30 years prior. I started playing guitar about 25 years ago and for many years, just for the love of making music, have been the lead guitarist in a garage band. our biggest gig if you could call it that is the annual new years eve party we hold which gets a good group of followers.

Over the years the geek in me has got into the gears and repairs side. firstly fixing and making cables, patch cables- then all the other guys. I started out with a Marshall Valvestate VS265 ( which I will always keep ) and an early Epiphone Les Paul- second hand. After a few years problems arose that meant professional repair costs were not viable, so as above, i started finding out about electronics. Replacing old filter caps, scratchy pots, old cold solders etc. Then started rewiring and hotting up the guitar. Then I pimped up a few guitars for mates. Then I started delving into world of magical Pedals!!

Still with the Marshall. one clean, 2 overdrive channels, built in chorus & reverb and pickup options were good, but I started wanting more options and differences in sound for some of the songs my group started coming up with. Started buying some as I could afford. EHX Memory boy first- mxr phaser- EHX flanger - I started getting a collection of varying modulations just to see what I can do with them. Then I want more dirt options. Different flavours so to speak. The Marshalls kinda one toned . I'm into this enough now for a Tube amp methinks. Scored a Trace Elliot Velocette fitted with a greenback and manufacturer weaknesses modded out. It's peaches and cream with pedals and still my main playing amp today. During that time ( I had some extra dough) I laid my hands on what is the perfect guitar for me, The Fender Strat Mahogany HSS. Think Fender Deluxe with a Darker tone. If you find one- get it is all I can say. Now the doors open for some different gain sounds. Coincidentally, one of my first pedals here was from ( I didn't know it at the time) one of the revered pedal gurus Bajaman. He convinced me to get one of his real tube overdrives while he was doing some repairs to a PA speaker that were a bit beyond my capabilities at the time. It gave me the Marshall sound back for my now clean tube amp. Started getting a few other options OCD v3, got the MOOER Black secret for the RAT, tube screamer ( not such a fan ) all tried and true. Started building custom pedal boards to fit all this. Adding 5 switch true bypass looper for different layers of sound, buffers, booster, inbuilt tuner. Now gaining a lot of knowledge about placement issues, getting this lot to sound good. My age of less is more and tone hunt had really begun. So modding my existing pedals came next. Adding script mode to MXR Phaser, true bypass the wah etc. You can see where I'm Heading. I've got to take a look at making my own pedals. If you know me, not from a kit - from scratch.

It's absolutely amazing the amount of free information available if you want to start this journey. I've been looking, learning ,making and evolving for a couple of years now. I think I’ve got to a point I can save anyone starting out much time with shortcuts to helpful websites, places to get components and all the bits and bobs you’ll need, circuits I think are worth making. Tayda printing without Adobe illustrator. Things like that.

I can also show off the pedals I make LOL.

I’m no expert, It’s amateur to amateur talking/listening

Once I figure out how to create some navigation on this blog I’ll start adding some stuff that hopefully you may find useful.