DIY Shredder

[Brettski]

Has anybody here built one? I've been looking at some non fuzz (ISTILLLOVEFUZZ) type distortions and came across the "Brown Sound in a Box" style pedals that sounded pretty cool to me. The Wampler Pinnacle, MI Audio Crunch Box, etc...

I stumbled upon a youtube vid of a guy (and his goofy daughter) demoing a pedal called the Shredder from BYOC. I'd heard about it but never heard it. Anyhow, here's the vid: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndm4JG3mQr0[/youtube]
I've never built anything electronic before but I HAVE to put one of these together. I think this one sounds better than the $200 fancy shmancy pedals OTHER geeks make so I figured SCREW IT, I'm geek enough.

[veteransdaypoppy]

I believe I heard somewhere that it's basically a Marshall Shredmaster clone. I was in the market for a shredmaster a hundred years ago but i lost interest when the wolf computer jumped on my board

[Brettski]

Wolf Computer? That's totally different!!! I know how that goes though. I don't think I'll ever have my Pigtronix Polysaturator. I keep getting distracted by other flashy devices.

I'd like to have some dirt on my board that cleans up a little with the volume knob. Dev's stuff stays evil till the bitter bloody end and sometimes that can be a little obnoxious. That being said, i have a Hype, an aenima and a shoegazer on my board

[veteransdaypoppy]

Well, I have a Mode 4 Marshall amp with the crazy overdrives, so a Marshall Shredmaster seems kind of unnecessary if I tone up the ODs real nice. Distortion just got old to me, I'd never owned a fuzzbox til I bought a Big Muff (about a year later), which I circuit bent to have a silly oscillating drone kind of thing. Then when I first heard the WC I decided that it was to be my tone of choice.
But if you don't have $200 or so to dish out for the groovy-retro-lookin Shredmaster, I'd definitely invest in the Shredder. It's a fantastic pedal, and I know that Jonny Greenwood used the Shredmaster for the majority of the crazy distortion on The Bends.

And Jonny Greenwood knows his schtuff

[TheAttackman]

Byoc is titz mcgee I'd def recommend...
Just start easy... Plus u get a free booster for a warmup...

[Brettski]

its a Shredmaster clone, yup, and it rocks pretty hard. Love mine.

BTW that vid is Brett & Sadie Kingman. Sadie is the cutest ever

But more importantly Brett is one of the guys behind the new DVK line of pedals... awesome player and really cool guy too.

Yeah, Sadie's pretty adorable! Brett's a fantastic guitar player and seems like a genuinely good person. I think he'd fit in pretty well around here. Did you find the Shredder difficult to put together? I actually passed one electrical engineering course so I have a considerable amount of theoretical knowledge of electronics, especially RC circuits. I just don't know anything about them in practice other than what I've learned from Beavis Audio, buildyourownclone and Devi.

I have a high gain Marshall and a Triple Rectifier, but I really enjoy the simplicity and clean tones of my Fender Hotrod Deville. I just can't beat the damn thing. My fuzzes sound huge through it and I employ them constantly, but I would like to have some of that Marshall sound in there from time to time. Hopefully, the Shredder'll do the trick. Otherwise, I'll be hunting more high gain OD DIY stomps. It sure beats paying $200 over and over again for boutique OD pedals.

[veteransdaypoppy]

Most kits that you can buy aren't all that complicated. the PCBs they send you really help to simplify things. This is coming from a dude who mostly builds stuff on perfboards straight from a schematic. I'm only 20 years old and I've never really taken an engineering course or soldered, drilled, or anything involving pedal-building. And now I've got a functional Uglyface, two true-bypass/feedback loops, and soon a Hugger of my own design, using a schematic of a boost I found on some dude's website. (The schematic was actually terribly laid out on Notepad. Took me forever to figure out what was what and where it goes.)The Mellowtone Fuzzkit will be my first project using a PCB. And if the hype about PCBs is really true, it should be much easier than the ol' fashioned way.

[TheAttackman]

Most kits that you can buy aren't all that complicated. the PCBs they send you really help to simplify things. This is coming from a dude who mostly builds stuff on perfboards straight from a schematic. I'm only 20 years old and I've never really taken an engineering course or soldered, drilled, or anything involving pedal-building. And now I've got a functional Uglyface, two true-bypass/feedback loops, and soon a Hugger of my own design, using a schematic of a boost I found on some dude's website. (The schematic was actually terribly laid out on Notepad. Took me forever to figure out what was what and where it goes.)The Mellowtone Fuzzkit will be my first project using a PCB. And if the hype about PCBs is really true, it should be much easier than the ol' fashioned way.

its waaaaaay easier.. that being said im 2/3 on pcbs.. i still cant get my octafuzz to work.. i just suck at wireing....
but ya i looove byoc... just again. start SIMPLE! i started way over my head

[Brettski]

yeah honestly the BYOC stuff is easy as paint by numbers... and the instructions that come with each kit are pretty thorough. I've breezed through every BYOC I've done (3 now)

I've got an OLC Matchbox kit waiting to be put together... I'm still kinda trying to wrap my brain around it. No instructions, just a schematic. i know i'll figure it out once i've got the mental energy to really dig into it but if its an intermediate kit the BYOC stuff is like a bike with training wheels. don't hesitate, definitely give it a go if you think you're even remotely handy with a soldering iron.

Have you tried the DIY layout creator program? You can find it here if you haven't.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Hom ... ator.shtml

I'm using it to make layouts of the Aenima and Soda Meiser so I can build, circuit bend, and ruin the crap out of them when I'm a little more experienced. Thanks for the info on BYOC. My shredder arrives Monday and I'm gonna dive right in. I picked up some scrap metal that I'm experimenting on finish wise, and I'm gonna build the confidence boost first to get a little more deft with the soldering iron.

Oh, and Beavis Audio has a great section on how to read schematics. I learned a lot from it even after analyzing circuits in a classroom for sixteen weeks. It's more practical than theoretical.

[veteransdaypoppy]

I used the DIY layout creator to design my own hugger, but i put the damn transistors in wrong. I unknowingly soldered them in and when I went to unsolder it, it fried
But I'll have a new one soon I'm sure.

[Brettski]

It's the novice but costly mistakes we must all endure. I'm sure I'll botch something on my kit tomorrow. In the meantime, my scrap metal experiment went well, so at least I won't botch the enclosure. I definitely learned to let the primer dry more.

[Brettski]

Quick update. I built the fucker and I can't get it to work. The LED comes on, but there's NO output of any kind. Any ideas? Here's some pics for any who might feel enough compassion to help.

[bigchiefbc]

Do you get any signal when its bypassed?

[Brettski]

Do you get any signal when its bypassed?

Yes, the signal is perfectly clear when bypassed. One of the lugs on the switch overheated and ended up tilting a few degrees from vertical. Someone in another forum thought I might have fried it.

Possible?

[TheAttackman]

yes. first check/re-solder the in/out from the pcb to the switch... then use a multimet or the signal checker and check lug 1-2 then 2-3... put the knob halfway...