#tagboardeffects

wonder if I’ll be able to maintain numbering these correctly :P

I’m thinking of making another Tube Screamer merged build (Ibanez TS808 and TS9) [credit to “IvIark“ on Tagboard, pretty sure I’ve done a bunch of their builds]

I’ve heard the main difference between the two TS’s are two resistors [essentially], Electrosmash had a good analysis on it, I think the TS9 was the one with higher resistance towards the output (10k > 100k; 100R > 470R).

I was trying to draft out a way to wire a single two-way switch to swap the two resistors in separate areas at the same time using possibly a 2PDT On-On Toggle, but I’ve only really used that to alternate the path for one component (diode selection for clipping). Debating on just wiring two switches that need to be flipped to the same orientation (like Up/Up to be the TS808 and Down/Down to be the TS9). The main issue with that is that I’d have a total of 3 switches mounted on the pedal if I do the diode clipping toggle switch. Also.... that’d clutter up the simple 3-knob layout for a Tube Screamer.

I’m using stripboard, not a PCB, so I think this is more of an “offboard” or layout editing issue.

I might make the main board, omit the two resistors and socket them, then breadboard some options or something.

Regardless, I have other builds I was going to do, so this is a back-burner idea.

This will be a quick post - but I'm really happy to be doing it.

So after a few years of faffing, making and learning my kids have finally taken the bait.   First to fall was my youngest who uttered the immortal words "Dad, can you help me make a pedal?"

I nearly burst into pride-filled-joy hearing those words - how could I refuse!? She wanted to do as much as she could so we opted for a simple circuit (a Rangemaster) and I pretty much left the rest up to her...

First of course we needed to make sure the circuit would work, so I printed out the layout from TagboardEffects and gave pointers.  She counted out the width & height of the vero/stripboard and hand-drilled out track breaks.  She wasn't confident in using the soldering iron so I stepped in and installed the parts (checking values ;p) for her.  In all fairness she didn't make any mistakes!

Circuit built - the design came next:

Unicorns - rolls eyes - I should have guessed...  Next she needed to get it onto the computer (wow my desk is a MESS!):

And then convert it to vector:

I'm not silly - and neither is she - so she was happy to play Minecraft whilst I etched the enclosure...  She did however want to spray paint it.  It gave me an opportunity to try my new toaster-oven-baking technique... :P  She did the sanding too which in all honesty took FOREVER!!!!

Unfortunately we ran out of weekend, but she asked me to finish it off "cos I can't do the wiringy bit anyway"...

So here it is all finished up:

Giant 10mm LED, unicorn horn (chicken head :P) control.  Switch on top.  Sounds great.  Not that it is important when "LOOK! THE LIGHT COMES ON!"

Evening.

Bit of an early posting this evening as I've got loads to be getting on with.

I've had one of those days today, you know the one where you wake up at 08:00am full of verve and you just cane everything you feel like doing?

Well, post shower and breakfast I decided to get stuck into the CrabbMixerPedalThingamjig.

Collect all the parts together ready for install.

The first thing to do is drill the enclosure.  I like to use a stepped drill bit, for a number of reasons, the primary one being that I'm lazy.  

Centre-punch, pilot drill and then final drill.  Easy.

Nice and clean.  Oh yeah, forgot about this,.. I was kindly gifted some AWESOME coffee.  Unfortunately I'll need to drive to Audlem apparently to refill.

Once drilled I like to test fit.  In all honesty this is really a confirmation that ALL THE PLANNING I did before is correct.  Not just the outside layout, but inside too.

For this build I wanted to try a couple of new things: a seemingly long time ago I ordered some solid core wire out of curiosity so utilising this was one such thing.  In order to use solid core though you need to be succinct with your wiring, gentle bends, only a couple of movements etc...  Anyway.  I installed this built so it needed to have off board wiring done, to approx length to minimise wastage.

All done, and a quick check (being lazy I zoomed into this photo) to see if any bridges occur.

Nice.  

I learnt to solder on Vero/stripboard, I'm glad I did because almost everything else seems easy in comparison.

I also learnt my lesson with the Alembic/SRPP jacks - these don't need to  switch and I wanted a tidy layout so I bridged them.

In all the studio-DIY gear I've built mounting has been a big consideration.  I've learnt a couple of methods and I wanted to try this now.  I deliberately laid the top-cover the way it is to leave room inside to all the pcb to be mounted using this method:

This circuit uses one of these BADBOYS:

For anyone not in a geeky-poor-joke-clique this is about a bog standard a dual-opamp as there is.  As much as that is true, I quite like the 'sound' of the TL07x series.  Try one in a Timmy style circuit.  Go on.

So it all got installed, plugged in, and probably as a result of ALL MY PLANNING it worked first time.

It successfully allowed my bass and drum machine to co-exist quite happily (normally this would have caused massive grief because of impedance mismatches/sharing).

So.  Gut-shot and money-shot.  Pics or it didn't happen right?

Hopefully you can see the planning pay off with the neatness of wiring, I've left a battery sized gap if T.C. wants to add one.  Hopefully it will serve well and be reliable.  T.C. knows where I live.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, being transparent I believe is the current political buzz-word, I want to show this edited worst-case photo:

You can see the yellowing and 'lumping' of the gloss clear-coat.  It was the first time I used that so I need to make sure I understand how to avoid it next time.  In trying to describe it I think I used the phrase "looks like it's been dipped in a 20-a-day smokers lung...".  Yum.

I need to foam roll again, and I need to clear out the store cupboard and tidy my room.

Its not all Rock 'n Roll you know.