[quote=“irishstu”][quote=“elektronisk”]I missed this thread the first time around.
Back in the day I built a lot of boxes using Craig Anderton’s book “Electronic Projects for Musicians”. It is probably out of print but you might be able to find a copy somewhere. Lots of good stuff in it. Even has prints of the layouts for etching.
Interesting. I recently bought a second-hand, obviously homemade stomp box at Tony’s and was wondering who in the hell could’ve made it. I doubt it was a local. I don’t suppose any of yours ever ended up in the second-hand market here? Or anyone else for that matter?
Here’s what it looks like. Sounds a bit like a Tube Screamer, if not slightly better, so well worth the 500nt I paid for it.
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It isn’t mine. What are the toggle switches on the sides for?
Well, from what I can figure out (I’ve not really looked into it too much yet), the one at the back is a sort of booster. Basically transforms if from an overdrive pedal to more of a metal pedal.
The one at the side is 3 position and has capacitors soldered to 2 of the positions. I’m guessing it’s a high-pass/low-pass filter sort of thing. Certainly affects the tone, and kinda muffles certain frequencies.
Using the main chip and transistor model numbers, I’ve done a bit of a search on the net to try and find what it is, but haven’t found anything the same. The Tube Screamer comes close, component-wise, but it’s not quite the same. I don’t really care though. It’s just curiosity more than anything else. I really love the effect it gives, and that’s what really matters. I certainly won’t be trying to mod it.
OK, well, if anyone’s interested, here’s my latest (re-visited) project. It’s the MXR Microamp clone (which I’ve called the “Volumizer”) that I spoke about earlier in this thread. It was anything but “micro” by the time I boxed it the first time round, so I’ve rehoused it in a much smaller enclosure.
Actually at the time of taking this photo, the guts are still hanging out of the back of it, as space is so tight I will need to shorten the cables to fit it all in there.
For size comparison, it’s shown beside the phasor.
I’m bored off my ass here in Taiwan, so stompbox building is a great way to kill time until I leave. There’s a few things that have to be outsourced, but they are mostly small and cheap. The stupid thing is that I can’t find any orange spray paint, hence Lemon in place of Orange. The box on the right has a preset internal volume trimmer and has been modified for bass.
[quote=“H5N1”]I’m bored off my ass here in Taiwan, so stompbox building is a great way to kill time until I leave. There’s a few things that have to be outsourced, but they are mostly small and cheap. The stupid thing is that I can’t find any orange spray paint, hence Lemon in place of Orange. The box on the right has a preset internal volume trimmer and has been modified for bass.
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Nice one!
And good to know I’m not alone.
I know where you can get orange paint, btw (not the one I used on my phasor; a more orangey one, just like the original MXR Phase 100 orange).
I got a spray gun… if you bring me some orange paint I can spray it on for you. I know it sucks using a spray gun because of the clean up but if that color isn’t available in a can…
or if you’d like I got some leftover chameleon flakes in lacquer that I am not using so if you’d like color changing stomp boxes, I can do one for you too! Just paint it black before you bring it to me.
I can do it for free (which is a steal cause I can tell you the chameleon flake I got is NOT cheap)… all I ask is just some time to hang out together.
Jimi Hendrix’ guitar pedals were built for him by a man whose day job was something to do with military sonar - cool things you can do with sounds, in other words. Jimi’s pedals were his hobby, constructed with the technology of the day…
They called him Roger the Valve. Maybe Irishstu could change his name?
I assume you’re referring specifically to the strip board style (1) as opposed to the one with every single hole independent of the next (2) [known as “Pad-per-hole perfboard” apparently], right?
Example 1:
Example 2:
If so, then yeah, I’m having the same problem. However, I just noticed that a lot of the little shops previously located at Sining electronics market (near Ximending) have transferred over to the new Guanghua market (floors 4 and 5 or something like that), so that’s definitely the place to look now. I’ll let you know if I have any luck next time I look.
I assume you’re referring specifically to the strip board style (1) as opposed to the one with every single hole independent of the next (2) [known as “Pad-per-hole perfboard” apparently], right?
Example 1:
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Cor-rect-o-mun-do… that’s the stuff. I broke down and ordered some from Aron Nelson’s outfit in Hawaii. I found a SHO layout that uses stripboard. I also found a Fetzer-Ruby amp layout that might fit your needs for a battery-powered amp.
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I ordered $300 worth of stuff from General Guitar Gadgets back in June, and the package has vanished into the ozone. The stuff from DIY hasn’t shown up yet either: I guess I’m just paranoid now after having lost the GGG package.
hi. i was just curious (because i want to male a guitar pedal too) where did you get a box like this(on the pic above) and what is that switch you are using is called?
[quote=“nikita”]to irishstu
iliked the orange box you made - where did you find it?[/quote]
Hey nikita,
Those boxes are surprisingly hard to find in Taipei, but I have found one shop that sells just the right ones. It’s an electronics shop located about halfway along Taipei City Mall. They only have the boxes in from time to time, so I usually buy 2 or 3 any time I see them. Let me know if you need more exact details.
P.S. You need to paint them yourself, although I’m thinking of polishing the aluminium for the next project.
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?..
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