what do you want a PCB for?

[eatyourguitar]

what do you want to build that you can not find a PCB for? maybe you want a modded muff with the mods actually on the PCB not all hacked up. is there a demand for super compact 1590A boards or do you want a bigger PCB with lots of easy to read labels?

right now I am working on a modded devi bit PCB and a modded earth sound research graphic fuzz PCB. I invented the anti-whistle mod that basic audio is probably using but wont share. whatever. maybe he will read this and finally share his mods after I shared mine. I know ben is hot in the pants for a big fat injection of graphic fuzz he told me so. modded muffs are maybe on the horizon I just can't decide what to leave in and what to leave out. I did build a 10 knob muff. what do you want a PCB for?

[Chankgeez]

I invented the anti-whistle mod that basic audio is probably using but wont share.

I don't understand this sentence. If you invented the mod, don't you already know how to do it? Why would you need him to share it?

[eatyourguitar]

I invented the anti-whistle mod that basic audio is probably using but wont share.

I don't understand this sentence. If you invented the mod, don't you already know how to do it? Why would you need him to share it?

he asked for help on the other forum. he was totally stuck. I tried my hand at it. he went back to the shop and cranked out some products without actually saying what schematic he is using. he then added more mods to the circuit for his product but never came back to the forum. too busy making money to confirm or deny if he uses the thing I gave him. maybe he has secrets that are worth money to his business. I just never would have helped him if this was just work so he could make money. or fine go make money with my free help but I expect you to share your work with me too. not just one way. I have contracts with other guitar pedal companies that I will not talk about. I am behind the scenes. I'm fine with that if I get paid. if you are just doing it for fun I will always help you if I have time. thats just good business and being a good person.

[Chankgeez]

Ah, gotcha. He's improved upon the mod.

I don't know how recently this was, but, yeah, John has been really busy lately. Too busy to post on forums. Sorry to hear he hasn't got back to you.

For what it's worth, I don't think he really sells very many of his version of the ESR Graphic Fuzz. It's not one of his standard production pedals. So, I doubt he's really making any money off of it.

[crochambeau]

My impression of Muff type circuits is that they are veering into the realm of over saturation. Naturally, I might be wrong, but...

Were I designing PCBs for weekend warriors, I'd want to set them up with a choose your own adventure type platform. Sort of like a deluxe proto-board but tailored to standard sound applications with something like n transistor sections, an opamp or two, tone stack and/or clipping section configurations, that sort of thing. Publish a couple/few solid builds on it and then let the experimenters drive a forum.

Sorry to hear about friction in the realm of open source design, sort of reaffirms my stance of being as helpful as I can within the confines of remaining vague. I'd love to see someone run with the idea I outlined above, I'm way too immersed in my own work to develop it (and, somewhat oblivious to what's currently available, so I may not be helpful at all here).

[eatyourguitar]

My impression of Muff type circuits is that they are veering into the realm of over saturation. Naturally, I might be wrong, but...

depends on what you build. there are so many that I don't really follow trends. I just know about the possible mods and use them as needed if I want that result. everything can be used as a concept and then tweaked for less clipping and less gain. everything can be adjustable on a pot or trimmer. the only problem I have is pulling the trigger on a set of features and therefor making a list of things to omit.

Were I designing PCBs for weekend warriors, I'd want to set them up with a choose your own adventure type platform. Sort of like a deluxe proto-board but tailored to standard sound applications with something like n transistor sections, an opamp or two, tone stack and/or clipping section configurations, that sort of thing. Publish a couple/few solid builds on it and then let the experimenters drive a forum.

this is a good idea. it does make the documentation much more difficult. it would be like writing a book on the subject and maybe I will. good idea.

Sorry to hear about friction in the realm of open source design, sort of reaffirms my stance of being as helpful as I can within the confines of remaining vague. I'd love to see someone run with the idea I outlined above, I'm way too immersed in my own work to develop it (and, somewhat oblivious to what's currently available, so I may not be helpful at all here).

there is no problem with basic audio and I. I only mentioned it here so that he might give us the schematic. that is all. I agree that sometimes it is better to tell people to go try something on a breadboard than to just give them a schematic. I think sometimes they learn more with less help.

[crochambeau]

Yeah, documentation could be a huge timesink on that sort of thing. Though I think a couple demonstrator circuits to illustrate the potential patterns (I'm visualizing doing stuff like glomming an 8 PDIP footprint with transistor footprints to conserve space - and establishing a signal path on top of that) would be all you'd need to fling it out into the universe.

I think sometimes they learn more with less help.

Agreed.

[Chankgeez]

If it helps any, eatyourguitar, someone's got a Dirt Halo up for sale on Reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/1897971-basic-a ... m-shop-usa

[eatyourguitar]

I don't have money like that nor am I about to try that hard to get something I might not like or use. I rarely buy something to trace. at least I haven't done it yet. there are schematics floating around from group buys where the group will reverse engineer. they tend to target the bigger guys or ummm medium sized high margin high visibility guys.

honestly I never liked the original earth sound research graphic fuzz in its original form. first of all, you can NOT have an automatic battery shut off when the input jack is disconnected. there is just no way. maybe there is a way but the parts count and complexity is way beyond the parts count of the original. second, you can not share a 9v power supply with other pedals, the ground needs to be isolated because it is not a common ground pedal. that is why I always build them with a power switch and I never ever build them with a power jack. you need to remember to turn it off or dead battery. it whistles, I think it was missing some input and output capacitors. some really questionable engineering. split supply is not bad you just can't do that without a cap. and so that is the dilemma. ESR probably discovered this circuit by deleting parts until it sounded like shit then they decided it was a distortion or something. I will do a PCB for Ben and anyone else that wants one. its a pretty interesting sound sometimes but it just doesn't appeal to me if it is not practical. the anti-whistle mod works but there is some magic lost when the thing becomes well behaved and predictable. some of the high frequency clap is just muffled. hard to explain, you gotta try it.

[crochambeau]

Depending on what the PCBs run, I might be interested in a graphic fuzz. I believe the other guitar player in my band used to have one, and had it - and a bunch of vintage synths, essentially stolen (technically misplaced, but...) by some space cadet hippie repair man years ago.

[eatyourguitar]

If it helps any, eatyourguitar, someone's got a Dirt Halo up for sale on Reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/1897971-basic-a ... m-shop-usa

actually I just went back and noticed you got the money shot right there. it is an isolated power supply chip. now I know pretty much most of what I need to know. I probably would not do it that way. too worried about clock bleed from the charge pump.

here is the datasheet.

[Ben79]

I will do a PCB for Ben

This Ben?

Since asking you about the schematic I went ahead and built one using the hand-drawn schem on the other 'DIY' forum. It worked but I was not impressed by the sound *always possible I messed it up somewhere but it seemed to be doing what I expected*. I didn't get any whistling but the constant resonant peak that sits awkwardly on top of that generic opamp fuzz annoyed me and I think I could get a more interesting tone from a Harmonic Energizer or some other wah with a Q control. But this makes me interested in the circuit as a starting point of something that I don't like and trying to develop it into something that I do, especially since it's only a few components.

A PCB seems overkill to me for something so simple anyway. I know PCBs are strong and reliable but I like the satisfaction of laying out a schematic on padded perf board which I do on the fly. I don't really like using vero either, can't be bothered cutting it or cutting the tracks, but some schems are a bit daunting so occasionally I'll just use someone's layout. So I'll only go to a PCB for something with a high parts count like a Muff or a Tone Machine....or a Standard Fuzz (and get one of the electrolytics the wrong way round ) etc. though I did old school perf a Standard fuzz once just for the hell of it.

I'd be into a PCB that had some openendedness so I could tweak it and learn something and was a circuit that could do interesting things that capitalised on its higher parts count - something with envelope control, resonant filtering, oscillations, momentary control, LDR/expression pedal control....maybe even a patchbay so that lfos or envelopes could be routed to control different parameters. But then that's probably gone beyond the realms of the weekend warrior.

[eatyourguitar]

this is done. scrap the ESR I guess. the parts count was really low. I still have a lot of old projects. I might order a batch of everything I ever did and put it on my site.

[eatyourguitar]

This is a done deal. Legend of Fuzz build guide is up.

[moid]

I don't suppose you've ever seen a schematic or layout for a Devi Destructo Noctavia pedal have you? It's something I've wanted to build for ages but have never seen any clear explanation of what was inside it. Thanks.