Transitioning to a New Website!

Hello All!
Because of the tremendous response to my Blog, and the limitations inherent in a blog type site, I will be transitioning all of this material, and all new updates to my new website for effects pedals - check it out at:
www.ampedals.com

Update Log

Hey everybody - now that pretty much everything is up here, I'm going to use this post as my update log. That way you don't have to scroll through everything and compare it to the last time you were here :-D

Mar 29 - Drivenstein Build Report: Pictures and Description
Mar 08 - Added Pulsor Sound Sample!
Feb 23 - Added Sound Samples of the TriceraRocks
Feb 22 - Added the TriceraRocks Pedal Pictures and description
Feb 18 - Added the TS Ultimate Sound Sample

Drivenstein Distortion

This pedal is the Frankenstein of Distortion pedals, we've used sections from a variety of your favorite pedals (and amps) to create a pedal with a life of it's own!

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

It's got 6 Knobs and a 3-way selectable switch!
Top Row (EQ): High (L), Mid (C), Low (R)
Bottom Row: Volume (L), Saturation (C), Drive (R)
3-way Toggle Switch: LED Clipping (C), Asymm Clipping (Up), Combo Clipping (Down)

This pedal took me a while to get around to building, mostly because I was worried I wouldn't like it. Well let's put that worry to rest right now. It rocks.

The build went really smoothly, I wired up all of the pots and switch outside the enclosure, and then soldered in the in/out wires from the board to the on/off switch - that made it really easy to get everything connected. It worked the first time I fired it up, all except for the down position of the toggle switch. I quickly realized that the way I had originally wired it, I was grounding out the signal, so I made a quick fix and it worked marvelously!

The toggle switch toggles between three clipping settings. The first is the LED post gain stage setting. It's the loudest because LED's clip at a higher voltage than the other diodes I used, and they also clip "harder" so the sound is edgier. The Assymetrical Silicon Diodes post gain stage is the next, and it sounds awesome, but clips a LOT more, and is softer because it clips at a lower voltage. The final setting is BOTH the LED's clipping and asymmetrical clipping diodes in the gain stage of the pedal. This makes for a crazy combination, and sounds really hard.

This pedal in general sounds really hard, but with the 3-band EQ it's easy to get the sound you're looking for.

Sound Samples:
1 - Drivenstein Volume, Sustain and Drive knob Demo
2 - Drivenstein 3-band EQ Demo
3 - Drivenstein Clipping Switch Demo

TriceraRocks

This pedal is based on the extremely rare Ampeg Scrambler distortion pedal from the late 60's. In the factory schematics, they show that there are 5 diodes for the distortion circuit, however, most people who have studied these pedals have commented that only two of them were actually put into the pedal. Because I didn't know how it would sound with the other diodes, I decided to make them switcheable - thus the three switches (tri... thus the name) at the top of the pedal. Check out the rest of the photos here.
The controls are:
Texture (red) - this is the "distortion" control, it makes the sound go from a fairly heavy distortion to just plain out of control.
Blend (green) - this blends the distorted sound with the clean signal, which works really well for adding just a touch of distortion.

Switch (L) - controls a feedback loop of the distorted sound
Switch (C, R) - Work together to make a symmetrical clipping stage with the other two diodes that are always in the circuit.

This was the most challenging pedal I've made to date. The biggest reason for this is that I wasn't using the exact transistors needed, and apparently the ones that were suggested as a replacement don't really work. I had the circuit built right, but the transistors just weren't right. That was problematic.

After extensive troubleshooting, I got the clean stage working (with the blend rolled all the way to the clean signal, I was getting something), but the distorted signal was not coming through at all. After trying the recommended (MPSA-14) transistors in every combination I could think of, I tried some other transistors (5088's) and immediately the circuit worked! It was a huge relief. I think it sounds a little different than it's supposed to (perhaps not so much of an octave fuzz sound) but still a really far out, distorted stompbox.

Here are some Sound Samples of this pedal:
1 - TriceraRocks Blend Knob Demo
2 - TriceraRocks Texture Knob Demo
3 - TriceraRocks Diodes Switches Demo

Thanks for listening - let me know what you think :-D

"Wailer" Crybaby Mods

For this project, I added external controls for every paramater that's adjustable in a Wah. I used my drummer's stock Crybaby wah and added:

1. Six Selectable Frequency Ranges: Silver Knob(includes the Jimi Hendrix Wah range, stock, and 4 others)
2. Volume Boost: Green Knob (needed because of conversion to true bypass)
3. Variable "Q": White Knob (changes the shape of the filter, from wide to narrow)
4. Variable Mid Boost: Red Knob (Adds some mids and smooths the transition from heel to toe positions)
5. True Bypass with LED Indicator
6. Removing the stock input buffer and Adding an Output Buffer (so the wah is useable with any low impedance distortion pedals - i.e. germanium fuzz's)

Check out all of the pictures here.

This was a great project, mainly because I didn't have to make the PCB and wire up all the components- they were all there already! The hardest part was drilling through the Solid Steel enclosure - I've never done steel drilling before.

During this whole process I forgot that I was removing the output coupling capacitor from the signal chain by adding the output buffer, so I was getting a HUGE pop when switching the wah on and off. Then I tried putting a coupling capacitor on the input (useless...), and then I realized I needed it on the Output. As soon as I put one on, there was NO pop whatsoever, it's really quiet.

Here are some Sound Samples that highlight all of the new features!
1 - Introduction and Stock Range vs. Jimi Wah Range comparison
2 - Low to High run through of the Six Range settings
3 - Filter Shape control: "Q" value mod
4 - Volume knob demo
5 - Mid Boost knob demo

Thanks for listening - let me know what you think :-D

TS Ultimate

This pedal is now fully working! It is by far the best sounding pedal I've made thus far - it takes it's basic design from the famous Ibanez TubeScreamer series (and adds some cool stuff to them!). It has some great features:
Knobs: Volume (white) - Tone (brown) - Gain (blue) - Boost (red)
Switches: TS808/9 (L) - Subtle/Xtra (C) - Symmetric/Asymmetric (R)
Footswitches: On/Off (L) - Boost (R)

Click here for the rest of the TS Ultimate pictures!

The switches are my favorites - The first switches between the TS808 (the original TubeScreamer) and the TS9 components - giving you the sound of either in one box! This is pretty subtle, and depending on what effects come after the TS Ultimate, you may not even hear the difference between the two. This works best with the TS plugged right into the amp.

The symmetric/asymmetric switch toggles between two types of clipping (asymmetric is more like a tube amp, symmetric is more of a hard distortion sound), and the subtle/xtra switch selects between two different types of asymmetrical clipping (the asymmetrical switch has to be up for the subtle/extra switch to have any effect). Down is a subtle asymmetry, and up (xtra) adds a very noticeable "warmth" to the tone of the distortion. These work best when the gain is cranked or the boost is engaged.

This was a great project, and it actually worked the first time I plugged it in. It took a lot of planning time, figuring out all of the cable routing and making sure that the switches were wired correctly. For pictures of the build, click here.

These sound samples were recorded using an Ibanez JetKing, running through a Fender Blues DeVille reissue.

1 - TS Ultimate running through the Distorted amp channel

Thanks for listening. Let me know what you think :-D

Tube AMP Fuzz

This pedal is based on Craig Anderton's Hex Fuzz - uses a 4049 Hex inverter for a cool OD/distortion sound. It works really well, and has tons of gain. The knobs are (brown) Volume and (red) Fuzz.
Check out the rest of the Tube AMP Fuzz pictures here.

This circuit is really easy to build - I etched my own PCB. Once the board was etched and clean, I wired it up in less than an hour. I had a cold solder joint on the output coupling capacitor, so it took a little debugging to get it working, but once I did I was very satisfied with it! I may even suggest using this as a clean"ish" boost pedal - with the fuzz knob all the way down it adds just a touch of crunch when really whaling.

Let me just reiterate how loud this pedal gets: It gets REALLY loud. Unity gain is less than 1/4 of the way up, and if you turn it up to 1/2 by mistake... it'll rattle the windows.

Sound Samples coming Soon!

Schematics and PCB layout are taken from
http://www.tonepad.com/

Lightspeed Compressor

This pedal is based on the DOD 280 Optical Compressor. I used a few different parts from the normal pedal (higher gain opamps and transistors) so it smashes a little more, but based on the update below, I think that they were actually a great change!
Check out some more pictures here.
The knobs are (white) volume and (blue) bias, which is setting the compression threshold. Because it's using an LED/LDR as the compression control, this has what is called "optical memory," which a lot of people think makes compression sound a lot more natural than transistor based compression. The idea is that when the LED is on, and then turns off, it doesn't turn off instantaneously, it's like a light bulb whose glow slowly deteriorates after you turn it off (over a few seconds) until it is finally all the way off. While happening much faster than a light bulb, (much less than a second usually) it's still a lot slower than electricity through a transistor, so it's really smooth going from on to off.

The hardest part of this build was getting everything in the 1590B enclosure. These things are small. I'm going with 125B's from now on. It just makes life easier :-D

**UPDATE** Jon, one of the guys in my band, used this as a lead boost last weekend and said he absolutely loved it! He said it sustained brilliantly and sounds really great. He was really impressed at how much it evened out his solo's and allowed him to hold notes forever (he actually held a note for a whole verse just to see if he could during practice!).

Sound Samples coming Soon!

Once again, the schematic and PCB layout are used with permission from http://www.tonepad.com/

Tremulus Prime

This is the third guitar pedal I have made. It's actually a circuit design from 4ms pedals that has never been widely distributed - really boutique stuff! It was challenging, both because it has six knobs (and I was using solid core wire to connect them!) and because it uses an LED/LDR to control the tremolo effect. It's a mainstay on my guitarist's pedal board now though. It's so versatile, it can go from a light vibrato to a fully helicoptered "metal" sound, and everything in between!

Check out some more pictures of the Tremulus Prime here.

The controls:

Spacing (Blue/Green) - Sine/Square wave blend (Red) - Depth - (Yellow)

Volume (Grey) - Fine Speed (Pink & Grey) - Coarse Speed (Pink & Black)

The LED to the right of the footswitch blinks with the rate of the LFO, and is always on (as long as the input cable is plugged in), so you can adjust the speed at any time (even if the effect is off).

This was a great project, I had a lot of fun designing the enclosure - figuring out all of the spacings required for the pots, LED's, buttons and jacks, and still making it look good! I will probably be using this layout for other pedals that need lots of knobs (get ready for the DriveOver Pro!)

Sound Samples coming soon!

PCB design and schematic used courtesy of

www.tonepad.com

Pulsor Tremolo

This was the second pedal that I made. It's based on a vintage (and rare!) ElectroHarmonix Pulsar Tremolo, it's got Rate (Blue) and Depth (Brown) knobs, and a "chop" switch (center) - it changes from a subtle tremolo to a "helicopter" type effect that moves from fully on to fully off.

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

It's a great sounding pedal! I get the enclosures pre-drilled, but this one I had to drill the hole for the mode switch in the middle. It was actually quite easy.

The build went pretty well - I learned from my mistake of grounding out the volume pot of my first build by insulating the pots from the enclosure (with post it notes- they're pretty thick!). However, I did manage to put the Op-Amp in the socket backwards. That took a little bit to figure out, but after burning my finger on the chip (which is not usually a good sign) I put a new one in and it worked like a charm!

Here is a New Sound Sample, recorded using Chris' Custom Pulsor, running directly to protoolsLE and using AmplitubeLE as a cab simulator:

1 - Pulsor Features Demo

Thanks for listening!

BluesBaby

This is the first stompbox that I ever made. It's a bluesy overdrive pedal (based on a vintage Marshall BluesBreaker) with gain (red), volume (brown) and tone (white) controls.

Check out some other pictures of the BluesBaby Here.

The board etching and component soldering went well - I used solid core wire for the pots so it was tricky getting the three to go where I needed them. Once I thought I was done, I tested the pedal and was getting no output. I realized I hadn't insulated the pots from the enclosure so the volume pot was grounding out all the time. I put a couple pieces of paper in between them as insulators, and it works great now!

Sound samples coming soon!

All schematics and PCB layout used courtesy of http://www.tonepad.com/

See a Pedal that strikes your fancy?

Hey Everyone! If any of these pedals or mods look interesting to you and you think you might like one (or two!), or just want more information, please send Aaron an email at: bassamp4jc@gmail.com

I'm currently taking orders - lead time is usually between 3-5 weeks (doing things right takes time :-)

Any customizations that you want - enclosure color, knobs, or LED color are easy do.
Anything I can do to make you happier with your pedal - just let me know.
Thanks for coming by!

General Introductions

Hi there. I decided to start a blog about the guitar effects that I'm making because I thought it would be the easiest way for me to give quick updates and new information to all the people who are curious about what I do.

To start, I should tell you that I've been working on electronics since I was in High School. I worked for a company in San Diego as an electronics technician - soldering, testing, and calibrating equipment - for two years before I went to college. In 2006, I got a degree from USC in Electrical Engineering, and worked for Blue Microphones as an assembly, test, and repair technician. More soldering, and also a lot of work getting little pieces to all fit together. When I moved on to my current position (as a systems engineer, where I don't get to solder or work with hardware), I started to miss working with real parts to make real stuff. I started making my own XLR and 1/4" cables, but got bored with that real quick. That's where these stompboxes come in.

A few months ago, the guitarist in my band left his amp in my car. My wife didn't want the amp in the car she had to drive one day, so I brought it inside. I noticed that both of the input jacks on his Fender Blues DeVille reissue were in bad shape. I thought to myself "hmm, I wonder if I could fix those," so I went online, did some quick research and realized that it was as easy as removing the old jacks and soldering in some new ones. And the best thing was, I loved doing it.

A few weeks later I was in a quandry about how to connect two sustain pedals (latching and non-latching models) to my one keyboard, and I decided to sketch out a way to have them both plugged into a box (much like a DI), and have an output from the box to my keyboard so that they could both simultaneously control the sustain. I figured it out, and wired it up with parts from RadioShack and it worked!

After that triumph, I began wondering what else I could create in a DI type box, and wandered into the world of Do It Yourself (DIY) guitar effects. I found a couple great websites (ex. http://www.tonepad.com/) that have awesome layouts and schematics, and found some great places to order parts from, and decided to give these pedals a try. And the rest is history :-D

Currently, I have made Seven different pedals from four different categories:
Compression
Distortion
Tremolo
**NEW**Crybaby Wah Mods
They all work (and sound) better than I ever expected them to. Please check out each of them at their individual blogs.

And thanks for stopping by.

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