my adventures in pedal building (pics)

[thebutcher85]

Well, for the last 2 months I have dived into diy pedal building, I'm addicted! I read some great books by Brian Wampler and a few other people, and after a lot of trial & error & cussing, I'm getting a good handle on this; it's an extremely fun hobby! I started off modding my existing stock pedals (Boss DS1, Digitech Bad monkey OD, MXR Zakk Wylde ZW44 OD) and I have now built a couple of my own creations using inspiration from a couple diffferent circuits. No PCB's here, all handwired by me, with silver wire and high quality parts, I used Silver trace Vero Board from England, it's not true PTP, but they sound like a million bucks! True Bypass as well.

This is a Plexi-type Marshallesque Distortion that I made, it's a JRC386BD-based circuit and sounds $#%@ing amazing!! With the gain low and the "body" knob low it's very Plexi-like, with more gain and Body (a mid/presence boost/cut) it can cop 80's JCM800 metal tones with ease. It cleans up AMAZINGLY with the guitar's volume rolled back. I love this thing!

This is an Overdrive pedal that I made using inspiration from the Paul Cochrane's Timmy Drive and Menatone's older Red Snapper OD. It's SUPER touch responsive, and cleans up amazing, sparkly clean with the guitar's volume knob rolled back. It's very open and uncompressed, no mid-hump like a tubescreamer, it stacks extremely well with other drive pedals. It's got a decent amount of gain actually, it just sounds great!

This is a clean boost/buffer that I made, purely my own design, just a great clean boost that adds a *tad* bit of girth and presence, works great for solos or as a line boost if I'm using a lot of pedals.

custom "Copper" finish enclosure for a Bass OD pedal I'm working on.

 

[crash]

When I first got into pedal building almost 2 years ago, I was an addict as well.  Since then, I think I have built every kind of pedal.  Built a couple of plexi type pedals, but not a JRC386 based one.  What schematic did you use?

 

[thebutcher85]

When I first got into pedal building almost 2 years ago, I was an addict as well.  Since then, I think I have built every kind of pedal.  Built a couple of plexi type pedals, but not a JRC386 based one.  What schematic did you use?

I started with Lovepedals' Purple Plexi 800 schematic and tweaked the values to taste. I used some different diodes to change the flavor up a bit. For the IC, you can use any 386 (Op-amp) IC, I tried LM386, LM386N-1, LM386N-3, before settling on the JRC386BD. They're all different flavors, Personally I liked the JRC best. (some of the LM 386's had a fuzzy undertone that was pretty tasty, almost like a fuzz into a marshall amp)

 

[Jeremiah]

How are you doing the finishes on those?

 

[thebutcher85]

How are you doing the finishes on those?

sorry! just saw this now, I haven't been on for a while! These were done with Krylon Metallic rattle-cans, and Krylon Crystal Clearcoat, cured under a 500w UV light for a few mins (not too long or it'll burn haha)

 

[Xplorervoodoo]

I've recently joined the fold of pedal building too, only mine are a lot more ghetto-fied.  Fun hobby, even for those like me with low funds  :icon_thumright:

Started with the Beavis Audio breakout box, and went from there.  I really love Beavis Audio research's website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AK0XhVJILg

Also cheated a bit with the BYOC Confidence Booster kit, and added a couple touches to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmC6NRD0PE

Then the ever popular Bazz Fuss (I think I wired it up a little backwards, but it still works good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmrka4iI7xA

And my latest, the apparent clone of the Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation pedal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je0bXVfvor4

Still have a lot to learn, but enjoying every step  :toothy10:

 

[Maka491]

Those pedals look tasty. Do you have any sound files somewhere?

 

[tylereot]

Shoot.  I got a kit from Guitar Fetish and had a great time putting it together.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work for squat.  :-\
I've been all over it, and I just can't figger what I did wrong.

Maybe you'll build me one?  I suck at electronics.

 

[thebutcher85]

I've recently joined the fold of pedal building too, only mine are a lot more ghetto-fied.  Fun hobby, even for those like me with low funds  :icon_thumright:

Started with the Beavis Audio breakout box, and went from there.  I really love Beavis Audio research's website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AK0XhVJILg

Also cheated a bit with the BYOC Confidence Booster kit, and added a couple touches to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmC6NRD0PE

Then the ever popular Bazz Fuss (I think I wired it up a little backwards, but it still works good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmrka4iI7xA

And my latest, the apparent clone of the Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation pedal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je0bXVfvor4

Still have a lot to learn, but enjoying every step  :toothy10:

Awesome dude! welcome back to the W forum!

Those pedals look tasty. Do you have any sound files somewhere?

no sound files up yet, I'll be getting a website up hopefully in the next couple of months!

Shoot.  I got a kit from Guitar Fetish and had a great time putting it together.  Unfortunately, it doesn't work for squat.  :-\
I've been all over it, and I just can't figger what I did wrong.

Maybe you'll build me one?  I suck at electronics.

Hey man! send me a PM, I can definitely build you some pedals if you'd like!  :headbang:

 

[thebutcher85]

Sorry I haven't replied sooner, I've been sicker than a dog since New Years Eve, got the nasty bronchitis crap and then it turned into a sinus infection also, so I've been pretty much miserable lately! haha. Anyway, here's a bunch of pics of pedals I've done for guys, I'm having a blast!

Mini-Fuzz (glows in the dark!) and Denver Broncos splatter-finish "Holy Hand Grenade Overdrive" (my own design) These both went to my buddy Pabloman from right here on the forum!

Clean Boost Pedal (also my own design) in "Zombie-Pharoah" finish (also glows in the dark)

vintage-sounding Fuzz in swirl finish

"War-Torn" Holy Hand Grenade Overdrive, this one went to my buddy Dustinn Lowry from the band Project86

"Silver Bullet Drive" pedal (also my own design, more high gain type OD) in "Pink Floyd" finish

Clean Boost in "Orange Rawker" finish, has a glow-in-the-dark knob (This one is on my own personal board!)

simple one-knob fuzz

clean boost in "Radioactive Lizardskin" finish

Holy Hand Grenade in custom "LGM" finish for a customer

Holy Hand Grenade Overdrive in "Aztec Jungle Gold" finish

Fury of The Saints Overdrive; (also my own design, different than the hand grenade, fatter, more compressed)

Silver Bullet Drive with Marshall amp knobs; this one went to my buddy Andrew Welch (Lead guitarist for Thousand Foot Krutch)

"Van-Helsings's Beard Bass Overdrive" pedal; (also my own design) very fat, punchy, huge sounding Bass Overdrive (think tubey, Ampeg SVT roar)

 

[thebutcher85]

oops! almost forgot one!

Silver Bullet Drive in custom "Shark Attack" finish in honor of Shark Week last summer haha! This one went to my Buddy Dustinn Lowry, guitarist of Project86

 

[Xplorervoodoo]

Hey butcher, you mentioned a few of your own designs.  Do you do them point to point on perfboard or vero, or do you etch your own circuitboards and such?

 

[hannaugh]

These look awesome.  You should definitely post sound clips.  It's funny, just the other day I was thinking about naming pedals after the Holy Hand Grenade and The Killer Rabbit.  Our blood cannon that I use at school to teach the kids about movie gore special effects is called The Killer Rabbit. 

I just finished building a True Bypass Looper (Wooster & Jeeves) and Confidence Boost (Cyrano de Bergerac) from BYOC, and I'm working on a Distortion+ (Robin Hood, later to be joined by other 250+ kits with various mods as the Merry Men) and a Tremolo (Captain Nemo) next. 

If you have any interest, I have a source for custom laser-cut decals.  One of my student's dads has a heat press and laser cutter, and he says he can do whatever I need for pretty cheap.  I'm gonna get some made for my BYOC pedals.

 

[bbl4ck]

I just finished building a True Bypass Looper (Wooster & Jeeves) and Confidence Boost (Cyrano de Bergerac) from BYOC, and I'm working on a Distortion+ (Robin Hood, later to be joined by other 250+ kits with various mods as the Merry Men) and a Tremolo (Captain Nemo) next. 

Hey Hannaugh,

How do you like your kit for the True Bypass Looper?  Do you have all your pedals running through the looper, or just specific pedals?  I think I need one of those...
Does that work the same as an effects loop on an amp???  :dontknow:

 

[pabloman]

The pedals I got are AWESOME!! The Holy Hand Grenade has turned into my absolute favorite OD pedal. I will never be able to say enough good things about the butcher. The dude is great. :headbang1:

 

[hannaugh]

I just finished building a True Bypass Looper (Wooster & Jeeves) and Confidence Boost (Cyrano de Bergerac) from BYOC, and I'm working on a Distortion+ (Robin Hood, later to be joined by other 250+ kits with various mods as the Merry Men) and a Tremolo (Captain Nemo) next. 

Hey Hannaugh,

How do you like your kit for the True Bypass Looper?  Do you have all your pedals running through the looper, or just specific pedals?  I think I need one of those...
Does that work the same as an effects loop on an amp???  :dontknow:

Actually on that one I already had some of the parts, and I didn't want to buy their kit so I cloned their clone with my parts and stuff I picked up from Orvac Electronics.  You can run 2 effects chains from it (however many pedals you see fit to combine in one chain in what ever order you want), and switch between the two of them and true bypass.  It comes with some LEDs so you can easily tell what you're doing.  It's pretty straightforward, the kit is cheap, and it's quite useful. 

Another use for the pedal is that if you've got a pedal that isn't true bypass, you can run it by itself through one of the loops and then hit the true bypass switch when you want to turn it off.  So if you have a Cry Baby or something that kills your tone when it's switched off, this fixes that problem.

I have a couple of effects on my amp and a foot switch for operating them.  I could use my foot switch to control the amp effects and use the true bypass looper to control two different effects chains and then I would have 3 sets of effects (but I could only use 2 at a time because the A/B function on the bypass looper won't do A and B at the same time). 

Anywho, the product page is here:  http://buildyourownclone.com/tblooper.html

 

[thebutcher85]

Hey butcher, you mentioned a few of your own designs.  Do you do them point to point on perfboard or vero, or do you etch your own circuitboards and such?

Xplorer: I start off by prototyping on a breadboard, then when I'm happy with the design I build each pedal point-to-point on Vero. I've etched a few PCB's, but the PTP on the vero sounds better IMHO! (Despite being more tedious haha!)

These look awesome.  You should definitely post sound clips.  It's funny, just the other day I was thinking about naming pedals after the Holy Hand Grenade and The Killer Rabbit.  Our blood cannon that I use at school to teach the kids about movie gore special effects is called The Killer Rabbit. 

I just finished building a True Bypass Looper (Wooster & Jeeves) and Confidence Boost (Cyrano de Bergerac) from BYOC, and I'm working on a Distortion+ (Robin Hood, later to be joined by other 250+ kits with various mods as the Merry Men) and a Tremolo (Captain Nemo) next. 

If you have any interest, I have a source for custom laser-cut decals.  One of my student's dads has a heat press and laser cutter, and he says he can do whatever I need for pretty cheap.  I'm gonna get some made for my BYOC pedals.

That's cool Hannaugh! Those are good kits for sure. I just got some laser cut vinyl decals for my logo from a guy here in Denver, I'll post some pics soon.

The pedals I got are AWESOME!! The Holy Hand Grenade has turned into my absolute favorite OD pedal. I will never be able to say enough good things about the butcher. The dude is great. :headbang1:

The pedals I got are AWESOME!! The Holy Hand Grenade has turned into my absolute favorite OD pedal. I will never be able to say enough good things about the butcher. The dude is great. :headbang1:

The pedals I got are AWESOME!! The Holy Hand Grenade has turned into my absolute favorite OD pedal. I will never be able to say enough good things about the butcher. The dude is great. :headbang1:

Pabloman: thanks dude! You're too kind! you're pretty dang awesome yourself!  :headbang:

 

[bluestometal]

Those pedals look sweet! I've headed myself in the pedal building (in a very hobbistic way) in the last month or so. I've build an SHO clone, a Clark Gainister clone and a BB preamp clone; I've followed madbeanpedals.com for the schematics and moved from there. Mine are still at a very raw stage, still have to box it  :icon_biggrin: but I'm having a very lot of fun doing it (soldering all ptp on protoboard). I've started with boost and od's in the order you read above 'cause looked the simpler to me (also I ever wanted a BB) but I'm thinking I can try to build something more challenging next like a chorus or a delay. Do you have any pics of the guts of your builds? Best.

 

[thebutcher85]

Those pedals look sweet! I've headed myself in the pedal building (in a very hobbistic way) in the last month or so. I've build an SHO clone, a Clark Gainister clone and a BB preamp clone; I've followed madbeanpedals.com for the schematics and moved from there. Mine are still at a very raw stage, still have to box it  :icon_biggrin: but I'm having a very lot of fun doing it (soldering all ptp on protoboard). I've started with boost and od's in the order you read above 'cause looked the simpler to me (also I ever wanted a BB) but I'm thinking I can try to build something more challenging next like a chorus or a delay. Do you have any pics of the guts of your builds? Best.

Thanks for the compliments! I haven't heard of Madbeanpedals, but I'll check em out.

 

[thebutcher85]

Alright peeps: I gots more pehdals for youse guyz! BEHOLD!!

These are all my own designs, I'm so addicted to pedal building now haha!

Analog Delay with built-in Tap-Tempo:

Bass Overdrive:

ZAP! Analog Phaser:

the "Tremor" Tremolo:

Clean Boost built for local Denver Metal Band "One Shot One Kill"
Yes, the eyes will both light up with red LED's when it's on...  :evil4:

Holy Hand Grenade Overdrive with built in clean boost for even more options:

"Fury of the Saints" (referencing my fav movies ever: The Boondock Saints) Overdrive: (Basically a tubescreamer on steroids, best suited to single-coil guitars)

another deluxe Holy Hand Grenade overdrive enclosure: (when I was a kid I'd get in trouble all the time at school for drawing & doodling all over my homework haha! I wanted that same effect on this)

Clean Boost enclosure:

Mini-Overdrive: I designed this circuit to emulate an old 5E3 Fender Tweed's overdrive, it's greasy, warm, & PHAT