Effects Bay

Below is a guest post by Lucas Hoelbling. He was kind enough to send me a post about his journey of pedal building and about some upcoming pedals he’s developing. As a guy who dabbles in circuits and such I felt this was pretty inspiring. If you are interested in guest posting or submitting a guest review, please contact me!

Hi! I’m Lucas Hoelbling, 17 years old and I live in Carinthia, Austria. I got the idea of making guitar and bass pedals in school. I go to school in the HTL Moessingerstrasse here in Carinthia. There I take telecommunications and electronics classes. I always was more a fan of the analog stuff like transistors, opamps and so on than the digital stuff like microcontrollers and stuff. So a friend of mine thought we would do something different with the knowledge that is given to us in school and design our own guitar and bass pedals! The previously mentioned friend, who also happens to be a bass player, has this crazy rig of effects that I always was fascinated with. So one day when I was bored I got on the PC and got basic knowledge how the different types of pedals work. After a little more research I really thought everything you can do in a pedal has already been done. I literally thought I would never be able to create something new and my pedals would always be referred to some other pedals. So days went by and I always found new schematics, plans and layouts of the pedals that everybody has heard of. Then I suddenly got the idea of a new, different kind of pedal. So I drew a basic sketch of how it should work. The next day I showed it to my electronics teacher and he did a few changes but approved it. I was stoked and could not wait to build it. The next day I got home from school and ordered the stuff I needed.

A few days later I had already designed a logo, thought of programming an own website for it and the parts I ordered finally arrived. I immediately started soldering and fifteen minutes later it was done. The next day I gave it to my friend to test it. It was not working. I really felt sad and tried to find the error. I simulated the circuit on the PC and everything was working properly. I double checked the circuit of the pedal multiple times. It just was not working. The reason was that in the simulation all the components are in perfect environment, not influencing each other and not heating up… so basically in real life it would never be able to work. Basically I’m discovering all the problems that other pedal builders already fixed. But I like it this way, so I can get to my own solutions. I am currently working on version 5 of the pedal that is called MOM-D – The GMOO. It is basically a distortion pedal with adjustable cut-off times and switchable FX-Loop that gives you more crazy noises.

A big problem or advantage for me is that I am a little perfectionist in such things. If that pedal does not have the sound I want it to have it’s not going to be sold. So for now I have multiple pedals in development- The GMOO, The TremoloOo, The MOM-D WaveFun, and a simple booster but I don’t have a name for it yet. Available to order are only two pedals by now. The MOM-D LÖÖPER, a completely customizable A/B Line selector. The second pedal, which is not really a pedal, is the MOM-D Kraftwerk (translated it means Powerplant). It’s also a completely customizable power supply for your pedals/pedalboard. I am currently giving away one of those two pedals to one lucky person that likes my MOM-D Facebook page.

The idea behind all my pedals is that they are completely customizable. That means if you want a LÖÖPER with three FX-Chains with a volume knob for every chain and no tuner output you can have it. If you just need a box that switches between your amps or mutes your signal or really anything- you can ask for it. If you need a Kraftwerk for your pedalboard that consists out of 20+ pedals you get it. If you just need a little no-noise power supply for your 3 pedals you can have it too. Just shoot me an e-mail telling me what you imagine and we can work something out for sure ( momdpedalsgmailcom )

I really think there has to be a change in the industry. They really should make pedals more custom. Also I want to say that all the parts I use to build my stuff are bought in my local electronics shop. It’s called Drauelectronic and I really love to support them because they are a really personal and small business. The owner of the shop has known me since I was six years old so we get along pretty good. I also try to sell my products as cheap as possible. That means I just calculate the costs of the parts I need plus a small fee for the power I use to run my soldering iron and the solder I need. So for every product there are around 5-10€ that are really for me. That money I use to develop more pedals and build prototypes.

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Brian Biggs of Dance Robot Dance sent me a email a few days ago letting me know about a mod he did on the Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man w/Hazarai. He was curious if I would be interested in what he did – heck ya! He wrote a great post on what he did, and this is coming from a synth background. You can view the full post here. In a nutshell, he mod’d the delay to synchronize the delay time with the beat of the synth. He also added some trigger jacks. All pretty interesting and worth a read.

Below is the video he posted (biggsbiggs):

Brian Biggs modified a standard Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man w/Hazarai, if you’re interested in trying this mod, you can pick this up for $217.50 at Amazon.com or you can try finding one used at PedalNerd.com

If you have a cool pedal mod, please let me know about it. Love to post more mods, etc!

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Last week I had a request to build a tap tempo switch for a friend. He has a Boss RC-3 Loop Station and needed some external control that could be managed via the tap tempo switch. Figured it would be a quick and fun project and I just happened to have a small enclosure laying around. The only thing I needed to order was the momentary footswitch.

The concept is pretty simple. You basically wire tip to ring on the mono jack.. and that’s it. You could go a little fancier with a LED etc. Also apparently you can go with a stereo jack and use a TRS cable for additional control. Here is a shot of the finished tap tempo box:

When my friend came over he brought his Boss RC-3 Loop Station to test the tap tempo switch, I was blown away by this pedal. I’ve played with loopers in the past. They’re definitely useful, but really fall short for me. I guess I should clarify why/how I use a loop pedal first. I don’t really think of using them in performance.. well.. not now at least, but the reason why I get excited about loopers is for writing. I think it’s an incredible tool for writing parts or leads to songs and is super easy to get going vs. playing with a recording, etc. For a while now I’ve been using my Line 6 DL 4 to loop parts, but the downside is when the pedal is powered off, you lose the loop, so I would have to record the loop idea to wav via my Tascam so I don’t forget it. This is where the RC-3 Loop Station takes it to the next level. You can record up to 3 hours on it! You can have up to 99 memory slots (vs. the single loop with the Line 6). There are some handy drum loops and tempo adjustments there too, so to hear the idea sped up is not a problem at all. The other cool thing, there is a USB jack on the back where you can pull your loops or upload files to the pedal.

After checking this guy out, I pulled the trigger and it’s on the way as I write this post. You can pick up the Boss RC-3 Loop Station for $198.00 at Amazon.com.

If you’re interested in a tap tempo switch shown above, shoot me a email.

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Last week I talked about Fasel Inductors in Wahs, and also featured a few that have the Fasel out of the box. For those of you that are looking to change up your Wah tone, and you have the Original Dunlop CryBaby (GCB-95) here is a quick easy tutorial video on how to replace the stock inductor and add a Fasel Inductor.

This is a really easy modification to do, I would say the hardest point is the de-soldering, but this video uses a good technique on getting the old inductor out.

For those that are interested there a couple of Fasel inductors to choose from the Red and Yellow. The Yellow is for a more “vintage” sound, Red is for a more “clean” sound.  I did this mod (plus a few others) to my wah, and it sounds WAY better than the stock GCB-95. I went with the red in mine, but you could also combine them… or switch between them as well.

If you’re looking to buy one, I would recommend PedalPartsPlus.com to pick one up. They’re great.
Dunlop Red Fasel Inductor
Dunlop Yellow Fasel Inductor

Here is the video by Cappi666:

Other simple mods to consider – True Bypass, ICAR Tapered Wah Pot, LED, Tonal/voice mods.

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Wow. First off, this is the 700th post on EffectsBay.com. Crazy! For the 700th post, I’m super stoked to post this guest post by Mojo’s Army out of San Francisco. A couple weeks ago, I saw his video on putting together a DIY pedalboard, and asked if he would be interested in writing a guest post. That goes for you readers out there. Have a interesting tip, story, review, etc. Let me know, and I would be happy to post it. Obviously, needs to be about guitars, pedals, etc.

Like many musicians on a budget, I look for bargains and take on DIY projects whenever possible. Faced with the need for a pedalboard, I thought it would be fun & frugal to put together my own using scrap wood and a hardshell suitcase. The whole project cost me less than $25 and only took about an hour and a half! Some basic tools and materials are assumed to be on hand. It’s a good idea to lay your essential pedals out in as small an area as you can fit them to make sure the size you’re looking at will work. You can also make this project without the case.

Now, I’ll admit I had a harder time locating a suitable suitcase than I expected. Definitely a case of something disappearing as soon as you start searching! After looking everywhere I could think of, I found one that was just the right size in my in-laws’ garage (they never throw anything away). Luckily they were willing to part with it with a little persuasion. I had expected to spend $10 at a thrift shop.

Once I stripped the lining out and cleaned the inside, I measured the case for the largest rectangle that would fit. Rounding down to account for the foam, I came up with a 15″ x 22″ board size. I cut & lightly sanded some 1/2″ scrap plywood and then cut a piece of 1×4 scrap for the heel. I didn’t want it to be too steeply angled, accounting for the depth of the case and also too much of an angle would mean that the large diameter rubber feet I bought for $3 wouldn’t grip as well at the top of the board.

The low-nap carpet was just a scrap from a remodel at work. I had intended to pick up a $5 doormat for this use. A yard of felt or the type of fabric that covers amps would work well too, just wrap around the back of the board and staple before screwing on the heel. The foam was from electronics shipping boxes from work (free). You could get clever and get a bed egg crate a size bigger than your bed and cut it down, then use the big piece on your bed and the cutaway part in the case, giving you a net zero cost for the purposes of your project.

The assembly of the board is straightforward: wood glue and 3 screws for the heel, polyurethane adhesive ($5) + staples for the carpet, then the drawer pull handles ($3 each) were centered on the sides to get the board out of the case easily. For the case, I thought I was going to use the poly caulk adhesive for the foam, but it was too thick so I went with 3M spray adhesive instead. Definitely dry fit the foam before gluing!

If you’ve used your pedals much you’ll want to clean the bottom with alcohol before attaching the stickyback Velcro ($9 for 15′). The rest is just putting your pedals together in the order you want them. Seriously, if you have a couple of hours you can put together your own board easily in less time than it took me longer to put together the video and write up the description! Hope you find this helpful. Rock on!

Materials List

case:
used Samsonite suitcase
foam
3M spray adhesive

board:
1/2″ plywood
additional wood for heel
carpet/felt/doormat to cover board
polyurethane adhesive caulk (or spray adhesive)
“wire” style drawer pulls (2)
roll of Velcro
rubber grip feet

Bio:
Mojo’s Army is a San Francisco Bay Area music project consisting mainly of music-obsessed Mojo, a drummer and graphic artist turned songwriter/guitarist/producer. Mojo first appeared on the independent online music scene in 2008 with the release of his wicked industrial cover of Malvina Reynolds’ classic “Little Boxes”. Mojo’s Army has continued to release music steadily ever since, with a full length album “It’s Hard” in 2009, an electric cover of Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” and an EP of originals in 2010 (“Summer’s End”), along with a few remixes and other tracks thrown in along the way.

The project’s heavy, groovy sound is a true Bay Area blend of genres – hard rock, punk, pop, and industrial with just enough blues to bring it all together. Major influences are early heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, and modern hard rock / industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie. Find them online at mojosarmy.com.

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It’s been a little while since I’ve had a post related to repair, modification or build, so I found a interesting one that some of you might like. It’s the procedure on how to replace the spring/string for Earnie Ball Volume Pedals. Sometimes the strings break on this unit after long use, and it’s a simple repair. When I say simple, the procedure is easy but the actual work can be frustrating, since you’re working in tight quarters.

This if for the Ernie Ball Passive Volume pedals. You will need to purchase the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Cord & Spring Kit ($3.99).

Below is a video by Battleofthebands featuring Ernie Balls’ engineer Drew Montell on how it’s done.

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Christian at Cubist Effects as a new mod available. This mod is the Memory Boy Expression Mod. The Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy has an expression pedal option which controls the delay time or rate of modulation.  Christian decided to provide the expression control as a knob vs. using a expression pedal. This will free up some space on the board. The knob is large, so you can still manipulate it with your foot.

Here is a video that Christian put together on this mod (cubisteffects on YouTube):

For more information on this mod, please check out Cubist Effect’s page – Electro Harmonix Memory Boy Expression Mod. Pricing for Cubist Effects modifications can be found here.

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Yesterday, I finished up my little buffer box for my guitar rig. I had a specific need for this unit. I normally have a few buffers inline (mainly my Boss TU-2) at the end. Since I created my true bypass strip and split out loops for pedals, I’ve been playing around with some configurations. I have a Heavy Electronics Grind Fuzz, and I was really liking the sound of the pedal when there was a buffer in front of it. Made it more.. aggressive.. and nasty. But since I had my bypass set up the way it was, I wanted to get a dedicated buffer in loop with that pedal.

For those that don’t know what a buffer is/does. When you have a series of large cables or many pedals in line, you begin to create cable capacitance. This basically eats at your high end, and dulls your tone. By adding a buffer you can drive a hotter signal down the line and retain that high end and sparkle. If you have a chance, please read this post – Visual Sound (buffered bypass) and Route 808 -  (and watch the video). You really can see the buffer in action.

I picked up a small enclosure, and designed the circuit board for the buffer circuit. I wired it up and it’s working like a champ. No footswitch, basically the buffer is always on.

Here is a shot of the finished enclosure. Super bright blue LED indicator. No battery and powered by 9v adapter

I’ll be making a few more for some of guitar-nerd friends. If you’re interested in one of these, shoot me a email.

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So, I just got an email letting me know that Amazon is having a sale… 25% off soldering equipment. So I figured there were a few guitar effects nerds like me out there, that may need to upgrade a soldering iron or score a new tip or two. Looks like they have a few soldering irons (Weller, Sinometer, Mastech, etc) and a few other items like Heat Guns, Desoldering Wicks, Tips, Stands, etc.

If you’re needing some gear, check this page out.

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This was a fun project for me. I’ve been messing around with Vero boards while working on circuits for pedals for myself and friends. Vero is easy transition from breadboard to a working board, but it’s sort of a pain. You have to add your break out points with a drill bit, so you need to really make sure you’ve measured properly, or you’re going to have to start over, etc. If you need to make more than one, a PCB or printed circuit board might be a good direction. I’ve never designed my own board, but figured I would give it a shot last weekend.

I use the program DIY Layout Creator which is fantastic for laying out components and getting your traces from schematic to board. Like I said, vero is super easy to convert from schematic to board, but PCBs have a bit more difficulty since the lines have to be continual (actually, I’m sure you can add some jumpers, etc.. but I wanted to avoid it). It was fun challenge.. like building a maze. After a couple of revisions, I had a design and it looked like it was going to work.

The technique I ended up using was the lazer paper (not transparency). The concept is to print circuit on a piece of lazer paper then transfer the toner to the copper clad. I had a old workhorse lazer printer, so I figured I’d fire it up again. I’ve seen people talking about paper, and that some paper does not transfer the toner very well. I’ll describe what I have so you can get close. The printer I used was a HP LazerJet 1100 and the paper I bought was Staples brand color laser paper (96 bright, 32lb item# 633215).

After creating your circuit layout in DIY Layout Create, you would print on the paper. I first had to open up the rendered PnP in photoshop (change the scaling) to get it to the right size on the paper. Don’t reverse the diagram, but if you have text, you’ll need to reverse the text so it will transfer correctly on the copper clad.

I used double sided copper clad from Radio Shack (if you can, find/use single sided copper clad). I used double sided.. because that is all I can get here. I’ll be ordering some thinner single sided copper clad in the future via eBay.

Cut the copper clad to size. My piece was 2.25″ by 2″. Some people score the clad and snap it. I chose to use a bandsaw with a metal cutting blade. Cut it like butter.

You will need to clean the copper with Isopropal alcohol to remove any grease, fingerprints, etc. Next lay the image face down on the copper.

Now we need to apply heat to melt the toner on to the clad. I used a iron on a high setting. I would press hard for about 30 seconds then press on different areas. Be careful not to dislodge the paper. That will smear and you will need to clean the copper and start over.

The paper will actually bond with the copper. Let it cool for a few minutes then submerge it in a container of cold water. I left it in there for about 15 minutes. The paper began to wrinkle.

Look for the paper to be wrinkly. The paper should be naturally be pulling away from the copper clad

Gently (I repeat gently) pull the paper away. If you do this too quick, you’ll pull the transfer off of the clad which causes a break. Once the paper is off, you’ll need to clean off the rest of the small pieces of paper ‘hair’ that is still bound to the clad. Gently wipe those off with your finger.

Here is a shot of my clad with the print freshly removed. I did have two breaks on the upper left corner. So I needed to fix these before going to the acid phase.

You can fix the broken traces by marking them with a fine point Sharpie. Make sure your copper is dry before fixing the traces.

Now, we’re ready to apply acid to remove the exposed copper. I used Ferric acid from Radio Shack. You can use Mucaric acid, but I believe that is bigger mess, including ventilation and corrosion issues. I wanted to start with Ferric since it seems a little easier to work with.. but is more expensive. I used rubber gloves and a plastic container.

You don’t need much acid. I used about 2 cups or so. I tip the container so the acid pools at one end.

Put your piece of copper clad in the acid and let it soak for about 15-20 minutes or so.

With this shot, you can see the copper being eaten away. It’ll look like black mist pulling away from the copper clad. You will start to see the yellow mustard (depending on the copper clad you bought) of the plastic PCB.

The edges are the first to go. Here you can see the yellow starting to appear. When it’s all done, I poured the Ferric acid into a jar to reuse on the next etch project. Not sure how many times it can be used. Wash off the PCB with water should be yellow with black traces. I wipe off the toner with more alcohol, and if it’s really stuck, I used a S.O.S pad (gently!)

When you’re all done, you’ll need to drill the holes. I used a #60 drill bit on a drill press. I might go a little smaller next time, but it worked. Also, I’ll probably be looking at some tinning solution next time. Soldering direct to the copper took more work than I thought.

Hopefully this little how to will help on your first etching project. I was surprised how easy it was.

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