Chopped Boss OC-2

I've finished my Chopped Boss OC-2 build. When it comes to octavers nothing can beat the tracking on a digital one, but for a DIY project this is one of the best out there. If you want to build the full version go to Sabro's blog, if you also want an octave up you can build de madbean's lowrider which is a Pearl OC-7, but if you are going to use it with a bass probably you don't need more than the chopped OC-2.

As this only have two knobs I refused to use anything bigger than a 1590B and to do so I have to draw my own layout. Its based on the adapted schematic by Ben Milner which chops the second octave down. To keep the layout compact and 1590B friendly I had to reorder the opamps used in the LM324 and use a couple of shared holes.

I'm starting to like the sinthy sound it has.

And this is how my boxed OC-2 looks like.

DeadAstronaut's TremShifter

11-09-2014 Important! I need to update my vero with the final values (some caps in the filter section). I plan to do it in the next days

This is a fun effect to play, its an optical tremolo and optical auto filter with a lot of options designed by DeadAstronaut at diystompboes.com, go to the original thread to know more about it. Instead of traying to explain how it sounds, its better to hear it, I've recorded a crappy demo for you.

EHX Small Clone

I built my Small Clone using Mark's layout. This in theory could fit in a 1590b but I wouldn't try it again, I used closed jacks and mounted the board with component side down but I still had to force it a little when screwing the lid, and it did felt wrong to me. But it sounds great. I included a Mix pot to reduce the wet signal which helps when using it with a bass.

Catalinbread SFT

I built my SFT using sabro's layout, this is another amp like overdrive which is often compared to the ROG Ginger as it also tries to emulate the sought after ampeg-near-break sound. I like this better and is my favourite bass overdrive so far. It has a great dynamic response, I feel like I can control the clipping with my playing style, more so if I use a pick. I think it may be because of the mu-amp jfet gain stages. The SFT is also very versatile with a wide range of tones going from mild overdrive to a doomy distortion, and has a massive amount of lows in it.

DeadAstronaut's Chasm Reverb

This is really a great sounding reverb designed by DeadAstronaut at diystompboxes. Go to the original thread to learn more about it. This has a couple of features not usually found in a reverb as buffered bypass with tails and feedback oscillation switch. It also has a unique mix control where you have to adjust the volume control depending on the mix to match effect/bypass volume.

I drew my own veroboard layout and built it with a medium belton brick, but with the decay and oscillation controls you can achieve a lot of depth effect.

This is how it looks at my first atemp doing a silverburst painting.

This is my verified layout. In the revised version added the need to ground PIN 2 and PIN 4 of the brick and removed and unnecessary cut.

Okko Dominator

This is a high gain beast with lot of knobs and wires. I went creative with the painting this time. Built using the layout by Harald Sabro. It had very bad RF interfence, really loud and clear radio signal bleeding in so I tried a common solution of adding a 100pF at the input to ground and it worked, I soldered it on the track side of the vero.

Boss CE-2 Chorus

I built this great chorus using the layout by Harald Sabro.

Snow White Autowah with Sidechain input mod (video included)

The Snow White Autowah is the best autowah I have tried, the Nurse Quacky and the Seamoon Funk Machine both have too much ripple in the decay, and the DOD FX25 lacks a bit in the envelope detection. The SWAW has good control over the effect and sounds fantastic.

As usual I used the layout by Mark at tagboareffects to build it, but modded it to have a sidechain input for the envelope detection, like in the Chunk System's Agent 00Funk. This feature helps a lot when you want to put the SWAW after a distortion or fuzz but responding to the original signal. I use a signal splitter with one output going to the fuzz and the other output to the sidechain input of the SWAW.

I used a switched jack for the sidechain input so it works as stock when nothing is connected to the sidechain.

This is my modded layout with the sidechain input, I canibalized Mark's layout so all the credits goes to him.

This is the layout for the signal splitter I built.

And this is the splitter boxed

Play the video below to see how it works.

Demo video of some pedals

I recorded a video to demo some of my pedals, it contains crappy playing but I like the different sounds I can get with my toys. The audio is coming from that old radio on top of my pedalboard, it has a Punch 1W amp with a Simple CabSim and the original 4ohm speaker.

Hoof Fuzz

This is a great BMP version by Earthquaker Devices with germanium transistors for Q2 and Q3. I really like the mid shift control in the tone section, it adds flexibility and a lot of new sounds.

I used the schematic at bigmuffpage.com to draw my layout. I found info about the germaniums used in different versions in ilovefuzz.com forum:

v1 / rev4 board 2n1302

v1 / rev4 board CV7351 / 2N1308

v2 custom rev5 , 2N1308

v2 / rev5, 2n1308

The consensus being that 2N1308 its the best choice. I used 2N1308 537A I found on ebay. For the clipping leds I used 3mm red as the forward voltage should be the as the 5mm ones for the same color.

House Of Mirrors BASS D.I.

I finished my D.I. Box, its based on the MXR M80 without the distortion and noise gate sections. I won't link the schematic but you can find it on line (google is your friend). It has EQ and Colour, which is a pseudo cabinet simulator. The Colour section only works if the EQ is engaged. With the EQ disengaged its a straight buffered unbalanced output and active XLR balanced output. The main reason I built this its because it can work with phantom power. With the EQ engaged you have a lot of flexible options with boost and cut for Volume, Bass, Mid and Treble.

This is my first designed PCB layout and althought it works pretty well I made some obvius errors, the most noticeable one is that the pots works backguard, so I made it look like a design decision in my decal design. Other important error in the layout its that I didn't check the footprint of some components, mainly the bipolar electrolytics. I also forgot to add VCC pads for the leds so I had to piggy back the connections in some pads on the solder side of the board, I can't take them from the DC jack because they should work with phantom power too.

I'm not really happy with the colour section, it sounds too muddy. As you can see in the next plot it is heavy scooped and a lot of treble attenuation, I'm not sure if schematic its correct in this section, I don't think the original unit works like this.

Tweaking the EQ knobs its possible to get a more useful frequency response. The next plot show the response with bass at min and mid and treble at max:

Ginger Bass Overdrive

In my search for my bass tone I'm looking for a bass overdrive, I want to add a bit of grit and some coloration with no low end loss and I may have found it in the runoffgroove.com Ginger. It is designed to emulate the sound of an Ampeg SB-12 Portaflex. I really like the EQ before the gain section, it has great flexibility. For me this could be an always on pedal with medium gain setting.

Plexi Drive / Velvet Fuzz

The Velvet Fuzz is basically a Plexi Drive with two switchable boost sections in front of it, so I built mine to work as a standalone Plexi or with either of the boost sections engaged. I made my own layout for the boosts sections and used the IVIark layout for the Plexi.

To be able to fit two boards inside a 125B box I had to go creative and mounted one of them under the lid and other under the top side of the box.

This is my layout for the Velvet boosts board.