Giving Myself a Little Push: Build 106

This year has been a whirlwind; an odyssey filled with ups and down. To get back to myself I've had to keep doing what I love doing and relearning each day how things used to be. A few months ago I only had a handful of builds left to do, but after seventeen builds I now have six builds left to do. I keep adding new ones to the build list because I need something to keep myself busy, you know?

Recently added to the docket was a pedal I had never heard of before; the Keeler Designs Push. A layout popped up when I was looking for circuits to build using my small scraps of stripboard and this one piqued my interest. So I threw everything together and I build it. Joe Perkins does an amazing job at selling this pedal. The pedal itself sounds amazing, but The Darkness posters on Joe's walls, and him throwing in some The Darkness riffs won me over. I had to build this circuit simply because of his demo. Thank you Joe!

The circuit itself is very simple, but the sound it produces is what I would consider far beyond it's circuitry. Clearly it's not, because that's how it works, but my mind is still blown at how so few parts thrown together in such a way can produce such an amazing tonal range. Some circuits I've built in the past have very few components but once they're built the circuit is a complete total beast. I'm super glad I built this one! This build was my 106th total, and like I said earlier I still have six circuits left to build, with a few ideas waiting in the wings still. I seriously don't want to build as many as I did last year, but I'm already over half way there. Is there a pedal builders anonymous?

My Faux Faux Analog Echo

On August 31st last year I built what I consider to be my favorite delay pedal (so far). I love my Disaster Transport Jr. clone, and I like the Mugig delay pedal I bought off Amazon almost five years ago, but I just like the Faux Analog Echo clone more. I do plan to build a Deep Blue Delay clone sometime soon, simply because I have the parts to do so, and maaaaaaybe because I saw one on Gary Moore's pedalboard. I'm not sure it's going to be much different from what I already have, but I figured I may as well build a clone, just to have one. One can not have too many delay pedals, especially when some can be set to a faux reverb.

When it came to housing the Faux Analog Echo clone I wanted mine to look like as close to the original version as possible. Since it's for my use only I don't think there will be any problems with that. So the enclosure had to be orange, the knobs had to be white and I decided to go with a white power input jack as well. The LED placement is in a completely different place, but it is blue just like the original. Once it was all wired up and ready to go I had to insolate the board from grounding out on the bottom plate of the enclosure. I use folded up parchment paper for that, if anyone is curious.

Sure, it might be a bit confusing without spending a little time with it first, as to what knob does what. When I put one of my clone circuits in an enclosure I always set it up to have the same control layout as the original. So if the bottom plate of the enclosure says it's a clone of this pedal, or that pedal, all someone needs to do is look up that pedal and the controls will be the same. Plus I make little instruction sheets for all of the pedals I make. Even though I know these pedals are just for my own personal use it feels nice to create something and give it a bit of the whole "production" treatment. I don't think I'll be producing pedals in large quantities, maybe a few for friends etc., but to feel like I'm giving each pedal a bit of fanfare does feel like I've actually done something.

Sometimes Scraps Work

I have a ton of offcuts from the stripboard I've used throughout the years that are just too small for most circuits, which really limits what I can build. Or does it? A while ago (maybe a year or so) I saw someone solder together two pieces of scrap stripboard. Since then I've always toyed with the idea of finding two pieces that butt up together, could be soldered and used to create a pedal circuit. Recently I watched a demonstration of the Colorsound Power Boost and fell in love, but the smallest layout I could find was eighteen spaces wide, which is six more than my current biggest piece of stripboard. Now was the time to test my soldering skills, and the theory on whether or not it would work.

I found two pieces that fit together the best, which wasn't very well at all, and soldered down the seam. I decided to give myself one column grace to avoid soldering components onto the seam and potentially accidentally breaking one of the necessary seam solder joints. As I tend to do with projects like this, I worried this project was doomed from the start so I avoided doing it for a week or so. In the interim I built an MXR Micro Amp clone. It was slapped together using the small scraps I have and spare parts. Instead of the C500k potentiometer it usually requires, I used a C250k and it works pretty well.

Forgive the messy solder, but it should be easy
to see where I seamed the two boards together.

Enough waffling about that build, I decided it was time to either do one of the larger builds, ala my Zoar or CC1 clones, or finally get down to business and complete the Power Boost. I chose the Power Boost, and it went together a lot better than I expected. I was worried I would get too close to the seam and cause a catastrophe, but I never broke any of the seam solder joints. Thankfully! When it came to testing the circuit it works really well, but there are a few issues that need addressed. The layout suggests using a B10k for the gain, or try anti-log. I can already tell I'm going to be removing the B10k pot and trying one of my anti-logs. The A100k I had for the master volume is a bit janky, so I'll need to replace that later down the road, or figure out what's going on with it as it's not working properly at the moment. The bass control also seems to be a bit weak, but that could be my fault somewhere in the soldering. I didn't do much troubleshooting as I was pretty glad it worked at all.

Apart from the few things that need fixed, it does work. It gives that Colorsound Power Boost overdrive and as soon as I get everything fixed it will be a success. I'm still undecided on whether I'll be using this method in the future to create more stripboards for other projects. I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I do prefer to give myself an extra column to make sure I don't solder too close to the seam, which might be too much for some circuits to fit inside an enclosure. For those of you keeping track this is build number 104 and I have seven more kits I've put together left to build. I know, the build number goes up, but the kits I've put together doesn't go down. Funny that, isn't it? I have a modified circuit that I'm really excited to try, but nervous I didn't get the layout right. As much as I love the input cap idea for the Texas Ranger, I'm not a fan of it for a Fuzz Face, but the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz is just that. So I've taken a layout and omitted the input caps and I'll be socketing the input cap to see which one I like the best. I call mine the Tweaked Fuzz. I just hope I did the layout right. *gulp*

Mystery Build: Fruitful or Failure?

Apart from the Univox Unicomp, every build this year had been functional, for better or worse. Worse being the case of the Bazz Fuss rebuild. I check pedal layout sites everyday, throughout the day looking for ideas on what to build next. Even though I've already built my 100th circuit I still want to keep building. I really should stop, but in my current situation I have to find something to keep my mind occupied as much as I possibly can. Months ago a layout popped up that caught my attention, and as I do I downloaded the layout to get the stripboard cut and gather the parts. A few days later the layout was removed from the website and I was left holding the bag, or rather bags of parts.

I don't know why it was removed, it's really none of my business, but at that point I was already too invested to not go ahead with the build. For months I agonized, not from this build but with life in general. Paralleling that was a slight agony from having this build bagged up and ready, but not knowing if it would become a waste of parts or not. I can't look at a layout and say "Yep, that's viable!", or "No, that simply won't do. Move this here and that there and voila!". I consider myself the da Vinci of paint by numbers, when it comes to building circuits. I can solder the parts in place, but if the layout is wrong I can't begin to tell you why, or where. Luckily for me there is a community out there that want to verify layouts quickly, but for this particular one, that was impossible.

I recently decided it was time to stop agonizing and start solderizing. Does that work? I'll go with it anyway. Everything seemed to fight me, and I know from past experiences that if things are fighting me during a build, it's not going to turn out the way it should. There was even a brief thunderstorm during the build to kind of drive home the point that this just wasn't going to work. I persisted and finished the build. During the testing phase my assumptions were proven right. The output was very low and things didn't quite work the way they should. I looked the board over and realized I was a dope and didn't install one of the capacitors right. (Remember the da Vinci comment I made earlier?) The problem being if it works with the capacitor in wrong, fixing it wasn't going to completely cure this build's ailments.

After the capacitor situation was fixed I tested the circuit again and there was no change. With both the volume and gain maxed the output was below unity, with very little overdrive. I did my standard x-acto knife through the gaps and cleared away any unseen solder bridges, but that didn't help either. I sat there for a moment fiddling with the controls and when I moved the bass potentiometer it came roaring to life, but only briefly. Something about the bass control was messing up the output? It was then I noticed a rather large solder bridge that I somehow missed before, so I broke out the soldering iron and cleared it away. Afterwards the output was much better, and the gain control added a little more dirt. The problem now is even after clearing that solder bridge and getting more output volume, the bass potentiometer controls the gain somehow. *shrug*

The circuit functions, the pots do approximately what they're meant to do, and it gets somewhat close to what it's supposed to clone. I wouldn't call it a complete failure, because the issues I initially had were of my own doing. The bass control also controlling the gain isn't something I quite understand yet, and may never will. I'm hoping it's an easy fix, but I've been over the board a few times to make completely sure I placed everything where it should be. If it were a complete loss, like the Univox Unicomp that doesn't work at all, I would be far more frustrated. If that were the case I would have completely dismantled this build and distributed the parts to other projects that need them. Maybe at some point in the future I'll be able to explain what it is, and maybe even get some support on the build, but I won't be holding my breath. Mostly because holding your breath is a bad thing.

The 100th Circuit Build!

A handful of years ago I first heard the name César Díaz while watching a rig rundown for Warren Haynes. César Díaz was a guitarist turned tech; his name mostly being associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan as his amp tech. After doing some research on the Díaz amps I found he also did pedals, the first of these that caught my attention was the Texas Ranger. This was César's take on the tried-and-true Dallas Rangemaster treble booster. The circuits are approximately the same, but with a switchable input capacitor that allows the player to dial in the amount of bass they want. For quite some time now I've wanted to build a Texas Ranger, the main problem was I didn't want to mess with the rotary switch. Instead I added a toggle switch to a Naga Viper clone, which wasn't a very well thought out mod, and called it the Texas Rattler, my take on César Díaz's take on the Dallas Rangemaster. Essentially it's the same idea, but the Naga Viper uses a potentiometer to blend between tone caps, while the Texas Ranger uses a rotary switch, and mine just kind of, well does whatever it does.

Recently I went through a circuit build spree and decided I finally needed to build a Texas Ranger clone. In my previous post I acknowledged my lack of ability to create a layout from a schematic, so I used a layout for a Dallas Rangemaster and just swapped the parts values over. I had my layout looked over by the DIYPedals community on reddit and once it was approved I decided it was time to get to work. I was scared of things not working out very well, so I ordered a handful of varying transistors from Tayda Electronics, just in case. I know from experience that most of them work and sound essentially the same, but sometimes you need a BC108 or a 2N2222a for the cool factor, you know? Oh yeah, I also bought an Alpha rotary switch. I'm not half-assing this build.

The build was fairly easy, except nobody, myself included, found the error in my layout until it was literally staring me in the face, but we'll get to that in a little bit. The build went together nearly perfectly, but it seemed a bit out of bias. In the end I settled on a 2N2222a as the transistor of choice and then I went to work on getting the bias correct. I initially tacked on the 4.7k resistor and tested the voltage, getting 7.7v, which was a tad too hot. I went all the way down to 2k, which gave me 6.7v which was still a bit off. I read that the suggested resistor was a 2.2k in the forum post where I found the schematic, which brought me up to 6.98v. Close enough! After giving it a listen I decided that was the resistor I would settle on. Now all I needed to do was solder it in.

And that's when the mistake became glaringly obvious. I had placed that resistor over the solder hole for the input wiring. Yep! Nobody had noticed that mistake. It happens, so I'll have to figure out what to do when I go to put this circuit in an enclosure, but otherwise it works. Well, I mean it functions. You remember the rotary switch I was so worried about? Turns out I should have been, because it's backwards. When I soldered in the capacitors I tested it on my component tester and it worked exactly as the switch should, but once it's in the circuit it's backwards. It makes no sense. I had to painstakingly desolder the lowest and biggest caps and swap them around, which fully remedied it! With the 2N2222a and the correct bias this circuit now sounds great!

I'm super glad I finally decided to build this circuit. I'm even more proud that I created the layout for it, even if it did have a huge mistake, and it's just swapped component values on a Rangemaster layout. I'm completely stoked at how good it sounds, even if the lingering doubt that it sounds anything like a real César Díaz Texas Ranger haunts my thoughts while using it. Although I have to say, my main concern was the low setting (100nf input), but after listening to a demo of both the Texas Ranger and the Texas Twang clone mine sounds really close to the youtube demo I heard. Mostly I'm glad this is my 100th circuit build. If I found a real César Díaz at a thrift store I would certainly pick it up, but I can't afford one on the used gear market. For now, such as with all of the clone pedal circuits I've built, I'll enjoy it for what it is.

Overindulgence: Circuit Building Madness

(Sorry, it's a long one!)

Sometimes when we go without something for an extended period of time we tend to overindulge once we have another chance. Since my last circuit build was the Plimsoul clone on April 13th, I recently went a bit overboard with circuit builds, building a total of ten. I set a new personal record by building four small circuits in one day, and within 24 hours I had built a fifth small circuit. They were a Klon style buffer, a Lovepedal Champ clone, a(nother) Naga Viper clone, a Diaz Square Face clone, and a Cornish TB-83X clone, respectively. Things didn't stop there though as the urge to solder continued to strike, so I built a Dallas Rangemaster clone, a Menatone Blue Collar clone, a concoction of an MRX Distortion Plus, DOD 250 and YJM 308 all in one, a Cornish SS-2 clone, and a Lovepedal JTM clone.

The Klon style buffer is, well a buffer. The Champ clone sounds great, although I did sub BAT46s for the required 1N60P diodes. This Naga Viper clone is my second, but this time without the stupid modification I did to my previous version. The Diaz Square Face was built with sockets, like the real thing, but mostly to test different transistors. The TB-83X is another treble booster and I was really surprised at how much I like it. The king of all treble boosters, the Dallas Rangemaster, needed the right transistor, but turned out alright. The Menatone Blue Collar is REALLY good! The MXR/DOD mixture is cool too as I opted for an input capacitor switch (MXR/250 10nf and YJM 308 1nf cap) as well as a clipping switch (no diodes/boost, 1N4148 or BAT46 clipping). The Cornish SS-2 is pretty nice too, as is the Lovepedal JTM clone.

Even though I own a real DOD YJM 308 pedal and have both an MXR Distortion Plus and DOD 250 clone, I felt mixing them together into the same circuit - or something that felt similar - was a worthwhile adventure. I've never really been happy with my MXR Distortion Plus clone as the distortion doesn't start until the gain pot is fully dimed. Since I've never touched a real MXR Distortion Plus I can't be 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the way it should work. The only thing I can think might be wrong with it is maybe there is a solder bridge somewhere, or it's the cheap 1N270 diodes I used. They sound perfectly fine in all of my Klon clone circuits, as well as anything else I've used them in. *shrug* I also sourced a W100k for the volume pot, which is accurate to the DOD portion of the built. 

Another pedal I've already built, the Naga Viper clone, is meant to fix a poorly thought out mod I did to my first one. I wanted a Diaz Texas Ranger, but I didn't want to fiddle with the rotary switch, so I added an on/on switch to choose input caps instead. Although the pedal works, and it gives a quasi-Texas Ranger experience, it still doesn't hit the mark. My options were simple; take out the switch and put in the potentiometer to make it a Naga Viper, or leave the past as it is and build a completely new one without the mod. I chose the latter, obviously. I have to say I'm glad I did. Although my modded version has a capacitor still on the board that is useless (again, my stupid mod!), it will stay as built. This new one will become the Naga Viper clone. 

This was all followed by a bit of self reflection. Up to this point I had built a few treble boosters, but again what I really want is a Diaz Texas Ranger. Since I'm still learning I searched high and low for a Texas Ranger stripboard layout, only finding a schematic and a tagboard layout, which were useless to my tiny brain. So I decided to slap my own layout together. Truth be told, I used the same NPN Dallas Rangemaster layout I used to build my Rangemaster clone and just swapped the values to the Texas Ranger values. Building the Rangemaster clone was quick and easy, but finding the right transistor was a bit of a journey. With all these tiny builds I eventually had to work on bigger ones, such as the Menatone Blue Collar and Cornish SS-2 clones. The Blue Collar is a really nice bluesy overdrive, and I'm glad I built it. The SS-2 is a pretty nice distortion, again I'm glad I built this one too. The Lovepedal JTM was built because it's tiny, it's simple and it sounds good. Glad I built it also!

Those of you who have been following my circuit building journey might be wondering how many builds I have done, and if I've decided what my 100th circuit build will be. Well, the Lovepedal JTM was actually build number 99, and I still have six circuits to build. So what's left to build? The Diaz Texas Ranger will be build 100, which I'm extremely excited for, but also scared it won't turn out right. A EQD Zoar clone, which is a big project. A Cornish CC-1 clone, which is also kind of big. I've decided to finally pull the trigger on building a Ruby Tuby guitar amp, just because I can. A Keeler Push clone, something I hadn't heard of before, but sounds good. I also want to build another Stupid Box clone, because I have spare parts to burn.

Now, here is where things get a bit complicated. I'm compiling parts for a 5 watt Champ style guitar amp. This is going to take time, as I'm exceedingly scared of high voltage, for obvious reasons. I feel if I can compile the parts and build the tagboard portion of the amp I will at least have part of the amp done. Then later on I can deal with the high voltage parts down the road, as I feel more comfortable. I'm not currently factoring the Champ style build into the number of circuits I have left to build as it may never be finish. It's a plan I would like to accomplish, but still firmly on the back burner. My main purpose for a 5 watt Champ style amp, even though I own Kali (my Kalamazoo Model 1) is just to see if I can, and to test pedals. Buddy, my Noisy Cricket amp, is great, but there is a huge difference in testing a pedal with Buddy vs Kali. Plus, more amps are better! The Ruby Tuby will also be mostly for practice, and not for testing pedals.

Finally there is a mystery build, but there is a potential set of problems with it. It's a circuit that sparked my interest as soon as I saw the layout, but the layout was later removed from the site for some reason. As I do, I downloaded the layout to get the parts together and cut the board, but I have no clue why the layout was removed, or if it even works as presented. The board is cut and the parts are all setup so I'm pretty dedicated to the build at this point. If it doesn't work I'm all on my own, but if it does work I can't explain what it truly is, to avoid getting in trouble by the layout creator. This is the type of situation I wish I were more capable of looking at a layout and knowing whether it will work or not before I get myself this deep into it. Wish me luck!

What Did I Just Watch?: Cockneys vs Zombies

I am a rabid fan of Shaun of the Dead. It's one of my all-time favorite movies. When it comes to non-Romero zombie movies it's one of the best, in my opinion. Followed closely by the one episode of Spaced, in which I'm sure gave life to the concept of Shaun of the Dead. You know the one. Recently free streaming platforms such as Tubi and Pluto brought a movie to my attention called Cockneys vs Zombies. Since the DVD of the movie likened itself to Shaun of the Dead, in a way, I had to give it a watch. I will be doing my best to #NoSpoilers this, so if you want more details just go watch the movie yourself.

The plot of the movie, to me, seemed interesting, although not completely original. We have a pair of brothers in a single-sided relationship, where one is always bailing the other one out of trouble, paralleling the friendship of Shaun and Ed. Things progressed a bit too quickly for me. It's a bit like the writers had a lot to say, but only had an hour and thirty minutes to say it, so there wasn't really time to let things sink in. The zombie outbreak sprung up super quick, and took control even quicker. The action takes place over a larger span of the movie than it does in Shaun of the Dead.

I know, I know. It's NOT Shaun of the Dead! I did like Cockneys vs Zombies as its own thing, I just felt that it went more action based than it wanted to allow the story to grow organically. Things just felt hastened to push the fun, violent action scenes, but that's just my opinion. You know what I would love to see? A series of movies, with the blessing of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, showcasing other people's adventures, or misadventures, during the exact same outbreak in which Shaun of the Dead took place. In most of them it would even be a nice little Easter Egg to see Shaun's group in the background in various stages of their journey to the Winchester.

Cockneys vs Zombies had its moments that made me laugh at the comedy, recoil at the horror, and even some "DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!" moments thrown in at both the comedy and the horror aspects. The sentiment of the plot is actually kind of nice. The ending throws a few, albeit brief, surprises in for added affect. One little spoiler: Even as an American, the football supporter zombies gag was fucking hysterical. I just wish it had lasted a bit longer, pretty much like everything else in this movie. Is Cockneys vs Zombies anywhere near Shaun of the Dead? No. No, no, no, no no. Is it a decent zombie film? Yep! Will it become part of my Halloween movie lineup? Maybe. Maybe this is just a movie I need to watch a few (hundred) times to appreciate. I don't think it's bad. I'll certainly be giving it another try!