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*