Matt's DIY pedals

[DrNomis_44]

Very cool looking pedal you have there mjg, I really like the idea of recycling empty confectionary boxes as enclosures for pedals, gives them a unique look, cheers for posting the pics, you should do a demo recording of it so we can hear what it sounds like.

[Simon Barden]

Love the pedal and the lettering. mjg. Very well done.

[Andy40]

how sturdy is the tin for a stomp box? It looks cool.

I wanted to build a Bazz Fuzz too on vero, but again when i breadboarded it ....it sounded very farty. so its on my pile of things to do...

[mjg]

Sturdiness is ok... I wouldn't want to jump on it, but it's fine for pressing the switch with your foot. I put the stomp switch near the bottom, so it has the side walls close for support. If it was in the middle then yeah, the whole top would flex when pressing.

[Dedman]

Man these pedals are things of awesomeness

[Zandit75]

I wanted to build a Bazz Fuzz too on vero, but again when i breadboarded it ....it sounded very farty. so its on my pile of things to do...

Just for laughs, I'd love to hear a sound clip of this!!
Nothing funnier than fart noises!!

[mjg]

One that I finished off recently. It does theremin sounds that track your guitar, also fuzz, and I put in a custom echo as well.

Video demo here: http://graybloomfield.com/guitar/201...othership-480/

The theremin effect is this PCB: http://www.parasitstudio.se/store/p3..._Fuzz_PCB.html

[wokkaboy]

wow MJG that is such a cool pedal, how does the theremin effect work - is it like it gets louder the closer you are to an object like a real one or is it based on the settings ?
I'd be interested buying one of these pedals, how much do you think the parts, casing and PCB's would cost ?

[mjg]

What it does is try to work out the frequency of the note you are playing on the guitar, then produce a sound at that frequency but with a tone that sounds like a theremin. The tracking is a bit temperamental, so it makes a few 'woo woo' noises as well, but that adds to it I think. It can only do single notes at a time, and works best with a neck pickup and highest strings. Not so good with bass notes. Also not good with fast playing, slow songs are best to let the tracking work.

The PCB is 8 euros I think, plus a bit of shipping. Parts weren't too expensive, it has a few ICs, but they are common ones you can get from Jaycar or RS or similar. Check out the link for the PCB, it has a build document that will list the parts. I can't remember the details but I'm guessing less than $20 parts?

The echo is something I put together special, so it has a few buttons to warp the sound, etc, but you can probably get an echo PCB from most places that sell diy pedals. Or just leave off the echo, just do the theremin fuzz by itself.

The case is an old Apple Airport base station (wifi router). Not sure where you can find one of them - the one I found was down the back of my parents' filing cabinet. It's probably about 15 years old.

Really the 'expensive' bit of building something like this is your time.

If you wanted a pre built one, the guy who makes the PCB also sells them finished (but in a more traditional enclosure). I think he also has kits with all the parts included - check out his site?

[Sonic Mountain]

These are amazing. Great fun.