FY2 tag board layout - first bash

[Ben79]

Not sure about the fuzz lugs and I left off the volume pot because I always just leave mine at max. This is my first ever go at a tagboard layout so I'd be grateful for any feedback.

[Dr Satan]

Looks right to me. You can always swap the outer lugs of the fuzz pot if it doesn't change the fuzz in the manner in which you are accustomed. There always seems to be some ambiguity in the way people label their schematics in relation to how they number the lugs on their pots. I've seen it done different ways, and no way is really wrong so long as the middle is 2. I look at mine from the back, lugs pointing down, left to right, 1 2 3 so that in a full CW position the resistance between 1 and 2 is at minimum and between 2 and 3 is maximum.

[Ben79]

Thanks Doc. Just waiting for some 1nf poly caps to arrive then I'm gonna put it together. It'll be my first tag build - I'm quite excited. I've learned from the kits I've made to read pots the opposite way - 321, left to right, from the back. The fuzz pot is just a subtle tone control so it really doesn't matter in this case which way it rolls.

More soon....

[selfdestroyer]

I am very interested in this build also. Keep us posted. I really want to take a stab at tag boards. DAM makes them look so cool and clean.

[Ben79]

Found some time today to put the board together. Prefer using tag board I think. Hacked some inline pin sockets to use for the transistors which are just wired to the board. I remember reading that the 1M2 resistor on the collector of Q2 can be lowered so I wired in a 220k trimmer in series with a 1M resistor in place of the 1M2. Probably won't make a difference to the sound but we'll see....

No footswitches so this is gonne have to wait til next week to get finished.

[Ben79]

And it works!!

Stoked.

Been working on a graphic for the enclosure....



More to come...

[LaoWiz]

Board and graphics looking great. Where are you chaps buying tag board? Did some quick searching recently and couldn't find anything. Just big tags for amps...

[Ben79]

This guy on ebay does them for an ok price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36-way-Solder-Tag-Strip-Board-2-Strip-CN152a-/160766668584?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item256e70af28

There must be a gnarly old electronics guy somewhere selling tag board, clinging on to the bare branches of his independent business as the cold waters of Capitalism slowly rise to liquidate and drown him. But I haven't found him yet.

[Dr Satan]

Board and graphics looking great. Where are you chaps buying tag board? Did some quick searching recently and couldn't find anything. Just big tags for amps...

Search for "terminal strips" or "solder terminal strips" you'll have better luck.

http://www.surplussales.com/Electrical/ ... rip-6.html

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... ips/1.html

If you're in the UK, Maplin has them.

[skullservant]

Soooo goood

[Ben79]

Only taken me 4 months to get round to putting this together....



Mounted in the enclosure with an old brass standoff from a radio. Works well as a ground and holds it tight too.

It sounds good. But different to my original. I've had about 4 of the originals pass through my hands and kept the best one so I'm using that as the dna mother for my clone experiments. Tried lots of different trannies and they make no discernable difference to my ears. I also read that lowering the value of the 2m2 bias resistor on Q1 can have an effect so I put a 2m and a trimmer in there - doesn't do anything but it's only 220k so that's only a maximum drop of 20%. I think the key is in the caps so I'll breadboard it and start deviating from the schematic. Something needs to be done to get...

less mids
less cluttered highs
bit more low end

Any suggestions?

[eatyourguitar]

change the input cap to 220nf for more low end. that is an easy fix.

what does less cluttered highs mean exactly? does that mean less highs?

why less mids? I though these all had scooped mids by default. is your scoop not scooping? try the tone stack calculator in BMP mode to draw some pretty pictures that will help to understand the way your mid scoop works.

[Ben79]

what does less cluttered highs mean exactly? does that mean less highs?

When I play it side by side with my original, I hear (though it's more a picture in my mind) a more distinct high end click in the waveform - like an old motorbike - whereas the clone is more noisy up there, more like a regular distortion pedal. The overall sound is also more compressed I think but that might just be the eq.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try the cap and have a look at the eq modeller- that sounds really useful.

[eatyourguitar]

I plugged your circuit into the tone stack calculator and got this huge mid scoop at 1200hz. it was super deep and super pointy. I don't see how you could actually want more scoop. your problem must be too much Q on the notch filter or not having the center frequency where you want it.

as for the sound difference of the original vs the clone, I would scope them both to find out why. then do some mods and scope it again. I have a sine generator and a 2 channel scope now but I have no vintage pedals to do this kind of work. I have had good success in the past cloning stuff side by side without the scope, just using my ears. but that was mostly EQ stuff. getting a fuzz to click like you say is something a scope would be very useful in diagnosing.

[Ben79]

OK, I have a signal generator and my friend has a scope. I'll talk to him and see what we can do.

Like you say, the scoop is there but it's in the wrong place, I think it needs to be a bit higher up the spectrum.