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Time for a dry run on assembly to locate input/output and DC power jacks...





Only found a couple problems with how I soldered to the pins on the pots. No way I could have known that without having done this before, so I forgive myself those mistakes...they're fixed now.

Beginners: be careful to solder to the pins of your pots at an angle such that the wires will not short out against the pedal body when you tighten the pots down.

HighDeaf1080p wrote:Only found a couple problems with how I soldered to the pins on the pots. No way I could have known that without having done this before, so I forgive myself those mistakes...they're fixed now.

Beginners: be careful to solder to the pins of your pots at an angle such that the wires will not short out against the pedal body when you tighten the pots down.

I usually wrap/bend them around the lug and cover the soldered lug with shrink-tubing.
Prevents any and all shorts.

Good call. So noted for all future builds. Not worth desoldering and resoldering 18 pins/wires at this point, since the guts of this are likely going to be replaced by V2.0 in a week or two anyway, once that clean boost stage is worked out and tested. On that one, I will definitely heat shrink everything I can conceivably do. On this version, I still plan to heat shrink the LED, since it will be right under the circuit board.

ALSO, I have a slightly different, skirted knob coming for the "calibrate" control...we will see if I like it better once it gets here. I think the smaller knob and large black skirt will add something to the aesthetics...but if not, I still have the knobs shown above, which rock.

UPDATE: DC Power Jack and input/output jacks are installed...

Home stretch baby!!!

It's 99% assembled...just found out I don't have an Allen wrench small enough for the small knobs.

But the "shorting out/tesla coil" LED is working exactly as planned, and the pedal is making the correct sounds!!! Turns on and off as expected too...i am very thankful. Demo vid coming SOON!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dUTjOD4i0[/youtube]

Ok, through near-final assembly, and extensive testing last night, I have verified that it works brilliantly, but that it absolutely DOES require the extra boost stage in the revised schematic. While several great sounds are there at unity gain or just a hair above...there are many amazing things to be had at well below unity gain...so, a-boosting we will go.

Given that, I have done a small vero layout for the boost stage this morning, and will work on getting that incorporated into the pedal while I wait for the tiny allen wrench needed to install the 4 smallest knobs. It fits perfectly in that blank upper right-hand corner of the vero board that's in the pedal now (seen in the photo above). For now I will just stick a tiny 7x13 hole second board on there with double stick tape, since future ones would likely be on PCB's anyway.

Here's what I believe to be the final, final, final schematic. Hopefully they wont, but if any minor tweaks happen during the clean boost stage getting incorporated, I will update.

This is some top quality shit, we need more threads like this. Great work!

Thanks man!!

I just had a really rough evening with the breadboard. I thought I'd test the Veroboard layout I came up with for the clean boost before I soldered the thing...and lo and behold...i couldn't get it to work to save my life. I worked to bias the BS170 and ended up with different resistor values and still couldn't get any sound out. Then on a lark I decided to try a second capacitor on the input, and like magic it fired up. I don't understand why I need two 100nf capacitors in a row, but whatever.

Now I'm trying to decide if it changed the sound of the pedal or not, but it definitely fixed any volume issues. Dear god it's loud now!

I'll fix the schematic tomorrow to reflect the changes and then do some more sound testing. if it seems everything is kosher, I'll start working on soldering up the small added veroboard that I can stick in the pedal. But whew, I'm exhausted right now from hours of frustration. Glad I got it going finally.

I think your breadboard or your caps have a thin oxide layer that is causing a bad connection. moving things around and jamming them sideways is probably what fixed it if I had to guess. it is for this reason that I have mostly abandoned my breadboard. I use it to test fuzz face germanium and test LED brightness. that is all. building on vero is a better way to test things. you can add sockets to vero.

Yea maybe. I'll investigate deeper tonight, as well as more testing to make sure I'm not altering the sound of the pedal and only increasing volume...because something seems different. May have some minor fiddling yet to be done before I have it perfect.

At any rate, I will probably record a soundclip demo tonight to put up here, since I have a friend coming into town tomorrow for a 5 days, and will not have much chance to make progress. I know several people are anxiously awaiting a demo.

Once I get the small knobs on and get to a final place with this boost stage, I will then do a demo video, showing the pedal while I play so there's an indication of what knob settings get you different sounds.

are you just putting a BS170 on the output? you do know that the only chance you have of boosting it before the input and making the output louder is when the diode knob is in the middle. when there is no resistor in front of the diodes then it will always limit the volume at the output no matter what. BS170 can crackle when the knob is adjusted and the second problem is maybe it is too bright for my taste. TL072 is not a bad choice when you consider the frequency response at the output is pretty much identical. the crossover distortion from the opamp does not matter at all on the output of a distortion.

What I did was took the two gain stages that sounded how I wanted (but too quiet), and removed the final passive volume pot, and replaced it with the entire schematic for a BS170 based transparent clean boost. Reviews seemed to indicate it was very transparent. I removed the input capacitors on the BS170 based circuit, assuming the output capacitor on my already existing circuit would serve that purpose, but it doesn't appear to do it. That's what I'm investigating tonight. Essentially what I tried to do was remove the volume pot to make my previous fuzz/distortion run at full volume, and then stuck a boost pedal behind it. Once I got it running by sticking both sets of capacitors in line between the two circuits, it works as expected...but VEEEEERY loud, and seems like the tone changed...maybe too bright/harsh? But the boost circuit didn't seem to brighten things up at all when I just hit it with my clean guitar signal. When I stuck a 1M resistor between the gain stages, and the boost circuit, it got too dark and muffled, so maybe I can find a happy medium there to dial back the brightness with a smaller resistor, but I also have to make sure the boost stage isn't adding distortion and break up...things didn't seem quite as "clean" as before when I backed all the knobs off, but maybe its just that the volume of the thing is driving my amp to break up some more. Maybe there's a way I can get the boost stage to boost less. Haha.

I'm in way over my head, but the fact that finish line nirvana is just within sight makes me keep plodding forward. My task now is to figure out which direction "forward" really is.

You planted the boost element in the middle of the circuit? That will change the sound as the transistor operation isn't linear, generally speaking.

Boost at front for dirt, boost at rear for clean recovery.

Also, don't rush yourself for our benefit, this is your journey!