Post-Lockdown pedal building

roberty

Nice job @steer looks good!

english_bob

Alternative suggestion- you can get one of those Dymo labelling machines for about £15 for the full Pete Cornish boutique look. The embossing ones are even cheaper.

stickyfiddle

I’m a big fan of dymos. I still need to label up my recent builds

steer

Good idea. I might even know someone who has one of these... damn this lockdown

Keefy

I still have the little Dymo machine that I bought during my first term at Uni in 1979!

roberty

Just got the fuzz factory out again, I really underestimated this thing at the time! So many good sounds. Nice and cutting for leads with loads of character

roberty

Made a start on the Zander Foxxton Woods. Turns out I ordered a solder lug rotary instead of PCB mount. I snipped the lugs off but the pins don't line up so instead of a rotary switch I now instead have a modest contribution to global waste. I have a PCB mount coming weds from RS, it's Lorlin brand, hopefully the same dimensions as Alpha Taiwan.

Instead of germanium and silicon diode clipping I've gone germanium and asymmetrical germanium. Then there's the stock LEDs and transistor options. The diodes are accessible once the pots are on so should be easy enough to change later.

Guess I'll be building a Rangemaster this weekend lol

stickyfiddle

Bill of materials sorted on the KOT Emperor. A couple of minor confusions. The channels are apparently the wrong way round compared to a "real" one (left into right instead of right into left). Not a big deal and can certainly be swapped over, but it's a little odd. The kit is also missing the nuts for the pots. I'm sure Mr Fuzzdog will sort me out, so I'll cannibalise some from a couple of old builds for now.

The build doc also mentions suggested changes for high gain mode, but doesn't include the extra resistor, cap and diodes. Freestompboxes suggests the resistor is the most important thing and I definitely have that in the parts box, so I'll try and first, and switch back to the stock one if I don't like it. 

I'm not feeling great now, so the build will start tomorrow, with any luck

roberty

@stickyfiddle Lee will sort you out he is just super busy at the moment and a bit stressed like we all are

Got my Rangemaster working, not boxed but sounds cool. I changed the input cap to 10n and tried a 50k pot too as opposed to a 10k one which adds some robotic craziness. It's a really cool circuit, sounds like shit unless it's into a muddy crunchy amp at which point it's quite magical

stickyfiddle

Yeah, absolutely - it’s no bother and no hurry. I can still get it built in the meantime just with a couple of wobbly pots. 

I also ordered a sex drive and engineer’s thumb 5-knob comp to try, which should arrive in the next week or so. When my incoming P bass eventually arrives the comp should help a lot

stickyfiddle

“Out for delivery” - some of my favourite words

roberty

Just ordered a Fortin Zuul clone kit from Musikding:

https://www.musikding.de/Muzzle-kit

It sold out in a day or two last time so you have to be quick. I have a Decimator G String on my board which I can hopefully replace with this and then sell.  From what I've read the Zuul is a bit faster to clamp. The G String is pure magic so if the Zuul is any better I'll be pleased

Also bunged this in the cart to economise on shipping:

https://www.musikding.de/Eagle-Claw-Octave-Fuzz-kit

stickyfiddle

This guy? Because "the gatekeeper of Gozer" etc etc I assume. LOVE it.

roberty

stickyfiddle said:

This guy? Because "the gatekeeper of Gozer" etc etc I assume. LOVE it.

Anything to make noise gates seem exciting lol

Seriously though the Decimator is pure magic, my signal gets very hissy running a whammy into vintage style octave fuzz circuits and whatnot, but it's supernaturally quiet with the gate in. And so I find them quite exciting :-) 

stickyfiddle

I’m not a high gain guy so have never had a noise gate and barely ever need one, but I have to say the demo of that Fortin I found earlier was really impressive.

stickyfiddle

I’ve been on the Emperor today...

Board mostly done 

Board done and pots in

Everything installed. The rat’s nest in the middle is to get the red channels to feed into the yellow. In theory...

The moment of truth - and unfortunately in this case - aka “lights are on but noone’s home...”

The LEDs are working but no signal is passing with any combination of switches on/off. I’m assuming it’s probably a switching in/out issue as I’ve flipped the channel order and likely done that wrong, so will try and fix it in the morning after a decent cup of coffee. First step is to get bypass working and hopefully in the process I’ll get the dirty bits working as well. Wish me luck!

stickyfiddle

Here's a weird one. It works! When everything is out of the case. Bypass, both sides, etc etc, no issues at all. 

But when you put the input jack into the case it stops working because the signal is shorting to ground. The jack plug is contacting the contacts in the right places (and no wrong ones) and the tabs where the wiring attaches are free & clear of everything else inside the case. But it shorts the signal to ground via the case. 

EDIT: No - cracked it... It's the other jack socket wired backwards... Which also explains why it's a bit noisy. I'll fix that and report back... 

stickyfiddle

Yep, output jack was backwards. So that was sending the signal to ground via the case. All working now. Phew!

Keefy

stickyfiddle said:

...

I've not seen a jack socket like that before - nice space saver!

stickyfiddle

Yeah, it's a new one for Fuzzdog - quite a neat design and seems good enough quality.  I just need to actually look at the tabs more closely before I put the wires on and spend an hour debugging...