Making your own guitar pedals / stomp boxes

Life Technology
61

irishstu, I was just reading through this slightly elderly thread since I’m in need of a simple volume boost pedal and I remembered your cunning Volumizer world domination device… Is the link above still accurate?.. I’m just a little wary since there’s no mention of MXR micro amp on the link, just something about a rodent?.. Assuming the rodent in question is indeed the volumizer by another name, is it the kind if thing you could use to click on a little extra volume punch, say for a solo when you’re already on the overdrive channel, without messing too much with the gain/tone of the original signal?.. Because that’s exactly what I’m after…

Also, to those more wise in the ways of science, I notice the electronics shops sell prepackaged photosensitive blank circuit boards and acid for etching your own circuit boards as per the .pdf diagrams freely available from the guitargadgets website, is this a nightmarish hassle likely to end in chemical burns and missing appendages or a dip the board in a plastic tub and a quick rinse under the tap kind of doddle?..

Thanks…[/quote]

Oh! You’re right, the link has changed.

Go here and you’ll see a little more info about my build, and the correct link (I just double-checked):
diystrat.blogspot.com/2008/09/volumizer.html

It does exactly what you’re looking for - volume increase without changing anything else.

P.S. I just built mine on veroboard. I prolly have the hand-drawn veroboard layout around here somewhere if you want a scan of it.

62

[quote=“irishstu”]
Oh! You’re right, the link has changed.

Go here and you’ll see a little more info about my build, and the correct link (I just double-checked):
diystrat.blogspot.com/2008/09/volumizer.html

It does exactly what you’re looking for - volume increase without changing anything else.

P.S. I just built mine on veroboard. I prolly have the hand-drawn veroboard layout around here somewhere if you want a scan of it.[/quote]

Awesome, thanks irish… I’d be very grateful indeed for the veroboard layout if it isn’t a hassle for you to scan it… :thumbsup:

63

[quote=“plasmatron”][quote=“irishstu”]
Oh! You’re right, the link has changed.

Go here and you’ll see a little more info about my build, and the correct link (I just double-checked):
diystrat.blogspot.com/2008/09/volumizer.html

It does exactly what you’re looking for - volume increase without changing anything else.

P.S. I just built mine on veroboard. I prolly have the hand-drawn veroboard layout around here somewhere if you want a scan of it.[/quote]

Awesome, thanks irish… I’d be very grateful indeed for the veroboard layout if it isn’t a hassle for you to scan it… :thumbsup:[/quote]

No worries. I just have to, erm… locate it. Bump the thread in a couple of days if I don’t get back to you (and maybe PM me too). It’s a pretty easy circuit, btw. Also easy to source the parts (for once).

64

Hey Plasma,

Sorry man, this was a very quick sketch.

I hope you can see it OK. I’ve done what I can in Photoshop, but I think I may have to redraw this properly at some stage, and maybe stick it up on my site.
I don’t know when I might get round to that though.

If you think this is enough to work with, let me know. Don’t forget to earth everything (and if you use the DC connector, don’t forget most pedals have a negative centre pin). Oh yeah, and the "X"s mean you have to cut the veroboard track at those points.

Also, it’s not in the pic, and I don’t know how many pedals you’ve already made and how well you know the whole stereo-input-plug-as-a-switch concept, but let me know if you need help with that part.

65

Wow, just noticed this… Yep that’s plenty to work with I’m sure, time to hit the electronics shops… :discodance:

Thanks a bunch Irish, I owe you a pint… Next happy hour I get to I’ll make good on that…

66

Well, I hit the electronics shop and amazingly managed to find every component I need for the Micro Amp, except the 15uF capacitor… I must have checked 5 or 6 different shops and they all only had 10uF-50v or 22uF-50v capacitors, but no 15uF… weird… :idunno:

Also I don’t seem to have the yellow thingy in your picture here Irish, what is that?.. And finally, does anyone know the official Chinese for the strip type vero-board, based on my description the counter jockey denied such IC boards exist… :unamused: So I may have to build this thing on the garden variety stuff…

67

[quote=“plasmatron”]Well, I hit the electronics shop and amazingly managed to find every component I need for the Micro Amp, except the 15uF capacitor… I must have checked 5 or 6 different shops and they all only had 10uF-50v or 22uF-50v capacitors, but no 15uF… weird… :idunno:

Also I don’t seem to have the yellow thingy in your picture here Irish, what is that?.. And finally, does anyone know the official Chinese for vero-board, based on my description the counter jockey denied such IC boards exist… :unamused:

[/quote]

Oh damn! You don’t already have vero board? You need to read back a page then. They ARE practically unheard of in Taiwan. I got mine when I bough some other stuff online. I MIGHT have a bit sitting around somewhere. Let me check.

The yellow, was just the colour of the wire I used. Don’t pay any attention to that. As for the capacitors, if you can’t find 15uF, then get a 10 and a 4.7 and stick them in parallel (which will just add the two values together). That’ll give you 14.7uF. Close enough. Alternatively, stick two caps in series. The formula is (C1xC2)/(C1+C2). Obviously the parallel trick is much easier to work out.

68

I mean that yellow box shaped capacitor looking disting with numbers printed on the top??.. I don’t have one of those??.

Excellent idea… 2 x 30uF in series should get me there… Cheers!.. :notworthy:

69

I mean that yellow box shaped capacitor looking disting with numbers printed on the top??.. I don’t have one of those??. [/quote]

Ahh, well, that’s a capacitor (labelled C2 on the schematic I believe). There are many kinds of capacitors, but the most important thing to get right is if it’s polarised or not. All of the other capacitors in that circuit are polarised (if there’s a “+” in the schematic, then it’s polarized), but this one isn’t, which is why it looks different. The polarised caps are “Electrolytic” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor).

Back to the non-polarised capacitor… I suspect you just got a ceramic disk one, whereas I got a polyester film one. No worries, they will both work fine in this case.

More info (including some pics) here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_capacitor
and here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_capacitor

70

Oh and incidentally, I made this over the weekend. It’s a two-channel passive mixer.

Parts required:

  • 1x enclosure
  • 3x 1/4" sockets
  • 2x 10k log pots (I’ve since found out 500k log would work better)
  • 2x knobs
  • 2x 10k resistors
  • some wire

Schematic…

Here’s a photo of the guts (not that there ARE many).

This one won’t get a snazzy paint job, since it’s for a friend (in exchange for a bottle of Baileys), so it’s just going to get the Dymo© treatment.

Cost about 250nt$ or so to make and took about an hour.

It’s great for using with a practice amp that only has one input when, say, a mate shows up and you both want to play guitar.

That’s one of the enclosures I found at the Taipei City Mall, btw.

71

Hey that’s a cool enclosure (and gadget)… The ones I’ve found all have through holes front to back, I guess for mounting them to a wall or whatever in addition to the lid screws, so they kind of spoil the look of the thing… I’ll have to get some dowels or epoxy to plug 'em… I did a dry run in the assembly last night and hit another snag though… I bought the wrong foot switch :doh: … The schematic said 3PDT, which I thought was a 6 terminals switch, but evidently it’s not… The electric alley here in Taichung doesn’t seem to sell 9 terminal foot switches, but the guitar tech at EME says he orders them all the time from a local electronics manufacturer and he’ll order some up for me…

Thanks for the capacitor info BTW Irish… I’m a bit of a philistine, electronically speaking, but I’m learning…

72

[quote=“plasmatron”]Hey that’s a cool enclosure (and gadget)… The ones I’ve found all have through holes front to back, I guess for mounting them to a wall or whatever in addition to the lid screws, so they kind of spoil the look of the thing… I’ll have to get some dowels or epoxy to plug 'em… I did a dry run in the assembly last night and hit another snag though… I bought the wrong foot switch :doh: … The schematic said 3PDT, which I thought was a 6 terminals switch, but evidently it’s not… The electric alley here in Taichung doesn’t seem to sell 9 terminal foot switches, but the guitar tech at EME says he orders them all the time from a local electronics manufacturer and he’ll order some up for me…

Thanks for the capacitor info BTW Irish… I’m a bit of a philistine, electronically speaking, but I’m learning…[/quote]

Hey plasma, you can still make the pedal with a DPDT (6 legs) switch by just not having an LED wired up. Just so you know like. Personally though, I’d save that DPDT switch for another project, like an A/B box.

P.S. I found a little bit of vero for you. PM me your addy if you want it, and I’ll stick it in an envelope for you.

73

[quote=“irishstu”]Hey plasma, you can still make the pedal with a DPDT (4 legs) switch by just not having an LED wired up. Just so you know like. Personally though, I’d save that DPDT switch for another project, like an A/B box.

P.S. I found a little bit of vero for you. PM me your addy if you want it, and I’ll stick it in an envelope for you.[/quote]

I’m sure that I’m opening myself up to looking like even more of an eedjit in my electronic ignorance but I seem to have bought a 6 leg footswitch?!.. What’s up with that?..

I’d definitely like the LED to work and even more of a priority is proper bypass so as not to mess with signal when the micro amp is not in use, so I’m totally with you in terms of shelving my six legged oddball switch for a rainy day and getting a proper 9 leg one like all the cool kids have… You’re a king of a man for so generously offering a slice of your hard earned vero-board Irish, but I’d hate to think I’m depriving you of building something in the future… Are you sure you can spare it?..

74

[quote=“plasmatron”][quote=“irishstu”]Hey plasma, you can still make the pedal with a DPDT (4 legs) switch by just not having an LED wired up. Just so you know like. Personally though, I’d save that DPDT switch for another project, like an A/B box.

P.S. I found a little bit of vero for you. PM me your addy if you want it, and I’ll stick it in an envelope for you.[/quote]

I’m sure that I’m opening myself up to looking like even more of an eedjit in my electronic ignorance but I seem to have bought a 6 leg footswitch?!.. What’s up with that?..

I’d definitely like the LED to work and even more of a priority is proper bypass so as not to mess with signal when the micro amp is not in use, so I’m totally with you in terms of shelving my six legged oddball switch for a rainy day and getting a proper 9 leg one like all the cool kids have… You’re a king of a man for so generously offering a slice of your hard earned vero-board Irish, but I’d hate to think I’m depriving you of building something in the future… Are you sure you can spare it?..[/quote]

Oops! I meant 6 leg, not 4 leg. I’ve since edited the post.

I can spare the vero as long as you’re going to put it to good use. I’m going to try point to point on my next project (which will probably only get started about a year from now anyway). Actually, “point to point” is a slight misnomer. I’ll be using tag board or something, but not vero.

75

Well, it took a little while to get all the bits and pieces together, but I’ve just finished building the “Irishvolumicroamp”… It’s the same pedal Irishstu built and talked about previously in this thread and an exact copy of an MXR Micro-Amp, which is effectively a ‘go to 11’ switch… All told it cost about NT$500 to build compared to the NT$2,800 that the MXR Micro-Amp retails for…

:notworthy: Big thanks to Irishstu for the inspiration to start this little project and the knowhow and advice to finish it… :notworthy:

Here is the finished, but as yet unpainted, product… The odd layout is so it fits on my pedal board…

The innards… The 9v battery hookup is there, but emergency only since I didn’t feel like moving [read: couldn’t move] the circuit board to make battery space…

The mini-beast in it’s natural environment…

While building this thing I came across a pretty useful local website that sells the perfect guitar pedal building components that can be hard to find locally even in specialist electronics shops, it might be of use to other guitar playing forumosans…
pedaldiykit.com/index.php?language=tw

76

I can’t believe I didn’t notice your update Plasmatron.

The pedal looks GREAT! Well done. I can’t believe you got it to work first time too. That’s more than can be said for me.

Don’t forget to post some pics when you paint it. :wink:

77

I’d like to find a source for Switchcraft brand jacks and plugs. The ones for sale over on “E street” here in Kaohsiung are pretty sh**ty quality. After less than a year of use on some of my pedals, the jacks have already had the radish.

Another issue I’d like to resolve with my builds is to find a good way to secure the battery within the enclosure. Back in the US, most guys use an aluminum battery clip (I have some of these) and secure it to the inside of the enclosure with a metal adhesive called JB Weld that can be found at any autoparts store.

[color=#FF0000]EDIT (Sunday, 4/18)[/color]

I just finished up a Super Hard On clone, which is a BS170-based booster. It’s my favorite boost so far, having done a single-knob Cream Pie (oc140 germanium-based) and a R.O.G Fetzer Valve.

78

Nice one, H5N1 (I’m not sure if you posted a pic or not, but if so I can’t see it from work and will have to check at home later).

Incidentally, I just stumbled upon this link, with some really nice, really simple booster circuits, all nicely laid out for veroboard.
generalguitargadgets.com/ric … index.html

79

[quote=“irishstu”]Nice one, H5N1 (I’m not sure if you posted a pic or not, but if so I can’t see it from work and will have to check at home later).

Incidentally, I just stumbled upon this link, with some really nice, really simple booster circuits, all nicely laid out for veroboard.
generalguitargadgets.com/ric … index.html[/quote]

This weekend I finished up an EA Tremolo that had been sitting around waiting to be be de-bugged for more than a year already, but no, I have not put up any pictures yet. I should do that.

For some reason, I’ve never had any luck with veroboard. For what it’s worth, it’s not hard to use a vero layout to construct point to point circuits on garden-variety perfboard. I’ve always had better luck doing it this way, and so I’m thinking of trading away all of my remaining veroboard: Two full sheets and two partial sheets.

I’m sure that some enterprising member of our sub-forum might be able to make good use of your layouts and my boards.

80

Hi all,

I put this together for something else, but I thought I’d post it here in case it’s useful for anyone. I know people can sometimes get a bit confused wiring up stomp boxes, so I’ve tried to explain it as best as possible (if you notice any errors, please let me know).

How to wire up a Stomp Box / Effects Pedal

Apart from the effects circuit itself, there are three things that have to be thought about when wiring up a stomp box, which are the stomp switch, the stereo input jack and the DC-in connector.

I’ll be referring to this image throughout the explanation.

The Switch

In the OFF position, pin 4 is connected to pin 1, pin 5 is connected to pin 2, and pin 6 is connected to pin 3 (in my diagram at least – you may have a switch with different numbers written on it).

To try to make this easy to follow, consider the left-hand column of the switch to be the input column, the middle column to be the output column, and the right-hand column to be the LED column.

Looking at just the left and middle columns, the input comes in on the yellow wire to pin 4, is directed upwards to pin 1, which is shorted to pin 2 via the blue wire, then this is redirected down to pin 5 which is the output (brown) wire. In other words, a bypass is in operation. As the effects circuit itself is completely disconnected, it cannot influence the signal, so this is true bypass.

As for the right-hand column, there is not much going on there. The earth is connected to pin 6 via the black wire, but it is not redirected anywhere, so nothing happens, and the LED does not light up.

Now in the ON position, pin 4 is connected to pin 7, pin 5 is connected to pin 8 and pin 6 is connected to pin 9.

Again, looking at just the left and middle columns, the input comes in on the yellow wire to pin 4, is directed downwards to pin 7, which then goes to the input of the effects circuit via the green wire. The output of the effects circuit goes to pin 8 via the purple wire, and this is redirected up to pin 5 which is the output (brown) wire.

As for the right-hand column, the earth is connected to pin 6 via the black wire, which is redirected down to pin 9 and fed to the negative terminal of the LED, allowing it to light up.

OK, that’s the switch explained, but there’s more going on here.

The Stereo Input Jack

You may be wondering why a stereo input jack is required, when you are only using a mono signal. Well, that’s because the third connector (pin 3) on the input jack is used to control the power supply to the circuit.

Let’s assume for a moment that you are using a battery. Instead of the negative of the battery being connected straight to the negative of the effects circuit, which would mean the battery is in use ALWAYS (even when the circuit appears to be switched off), the negative of the battery is instead connected to the third connector (pin 3) of the stereo input jack. That way, when nothing is plugged into the stomp box, the third connector is not connected to anything and the battery is not being used. When you plug in a mono jack plug, it shorts the third connector to the shield connector (pin 1) of the socket, which in turn connects it to earth, powering the effects circuit.

You may wonder why you don’t just power up the battery at the same time as switching on the effects circuit. Without going into too many details, this is because the sudden surge of power leads to a loud popping noise, which no-one wants to hear.

The DC-in Connector

Lastly, we have the DC-in connector. This also has three connectors and can sometimes cause confusion, since instead of having a positive inner (centre pin), it actually has a negative inner. I’ve numbered the pins in the diagram for clarity, as follows: pin 1 is the (negative) inner and is connected to the negative of the battery, pin 2 is the outer and is connected to the positive (+9v) of the effects circuit, and finally in a similar way to the stereo input jack, pin three is the 3rd, extra, pin and is connected to the positive terminal of the battery.

(The difference between this and the input jack is that in this case, pins 2 and 3 are normally shorted UNTIL you plug in a power supply, at which time pin 3 becomes disconnected.)

When nothing is plugged in, the positive terminal of the battery, which is connected to pin 3, is shorted to pin 2, and continues on its way to the positive of the effects circuit. When the power supply is plugged in, however, pin 3 (and therefore the positive of the battery) is disconnected, and the positive voltage from the power supply goes directly to the effects circuit via pin 2.