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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
I agree, it has the kind of bite you get with a Marshall amp, I'll have to record a demo of it going through the clean channel of my Marshall, might see if I can do that this weekend.
I'll see if I can get a board layout posted so that anyone interested can make one too, and I'll do a mini-tutorial on how I made the circuit board too.
Update:
Thought I would build yet another vintage Fuzz pedal for my Pedalboard, this time it is based on the Red Fuzz Face with White knobs that Jimi Hendrix was using during his Band Of Gypsys phase, apparently it is a modded Axis Fuzz which was modded for a lot more gain and low end, from what I've read online, the Band Of Gypsys Fuzz Face is basically the Octavia circuit without the octave generating circuit, I have managed to get most of the circuit built up on a small piece of Vero Board, and have only got three more caps to solder in place before it's all finished.
I'm going to be calling the new pedal "The Gypsy Fuzz", will post some pics of the circuit board later on.
Might even consider calling it the "Gypsy Eyes" Fuzz.
Here's a pic of the circuit board for the new "Gypsy Eyes " Fuzz I will be building hopefully this fortnight, I still need to solder in a few more parts before it is completed and ready for installation in the casing:
Attachment 14134
Update:
I've bought the parts I need to finish off the Gypsy Eyes Fuzz circuit board, so it shouldn't be too long till it's an actual working pedal, will do a demo clip so you can hear what it sounds like once it's all up and running, stay tuned.
And here's a pic of the finished Gypsy Eyes Fuzz circuit board:
Attachment 14166
It's all ready to be installed in it's diecast aluminium case and wired up to the controls and etc.
Now THAT is compact!
Update:
So, having finished the circuit board, I'm going to start building the Gypsy Eyes Fuzz pedal today, will post some build-process pics and a link to an audio demo of it later on once I know it's working properly, stay tuned.
Update 2:
The build-progress of the new Gypsy Eyes Fuzz has been going pretty steady, I'm at the stage where I can go ahead and do all the final wiring-up, I have been taking pics to document the build-process and will be posting them soon, along with a link to an audio demo, assuming that all goes to plan and the pedal works first go, stay tuned.
Update:
I just finished work on building the Gypsy Eyes Fuzz pedal....and....she works!!
First impressions, it is a very gainey and aggressive sounding Fuzz, more gainey than the Axis Fuzz I made, and very loud too, it seems to have a huge amount of output level and you can easily coax it to feedback in a musical way, I'm going to see what it sounds like going straight into my Audio Interface.
awesome, look forward to a demo
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan
I'll get an audio demo of it done tonight, I'll see if I can record it as an A/B comparison between the Gypsy Eyes Fuzz and the Axis Fuzz so you can hear what the differences are, if there are any differences between them.
Update:
Yesterday, a mate brought four of my other pedals back from uni for me and dropped them off at my place, the pedals were my Tonebender MkI, Tonebender MkII, my Jimi Hendrix Wah, and a pedal called a Ray-Gun Chaos Fuzz, I guarantee that once you hear what it sounds like you will think that other Fuzz pedals are passe, it's hard to describe what it sounds like in words, but the closest would be a Synthy Fuzz that has a random and chaotic quality about it, I'll see if I can do a demo later on for you, so stay tuned.
Here's a pic of my Ray-Gun Chaos Fuzz pedal:
Attachment 14276
Just for fun, I tried it with my Yamaha ERB 300 Bass Guitar and it seems to work great, in the demo clip I'll record some sounds with the Bass Guitar too.
thought you and others might find this interesting Doc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH2uj9bWfM4
Good one Dedman.
About 5 minutes in I was barely hearing much difference between the various chips used therefore more the sum of the parts not just any single one part being responsible for the overall sound. Made me think that with cheap to mid range priced bits you can get just about any sound and spending high end only yields negligible differences, if any at all.
Yea, I find that it takes a really well trained ear to notice a difference. For me unless they are back to back I can't tell the diference. I often have this discussion with a mate who has a studio, he spends hours and hours on a track polishing it to perfection and I can't hear much difference , then it gets compressed down to an MP3 and played on an Iphone with $20 ear buds (1/2 the time on one ear bud) LOL
Cheers for that video clip Dedman, I've done some experimenting with different chips in an old Ibanez TS-10 Tube Screamer before, and found that to my ears the TLO72CP Dual Op Amp IC seemed to sound the best, this was quite a few years ago though.
Quick question that's not too much of a derail I hope... I've ordered a couple of pedal wiring kits from http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au and just wanted to ask about soldering irons when working on tiny PCBs. What should I get? The one I have used on guitar wiring feels like it's too big. Should I get one of the really small gas ones? I don't mind spending a few bucks as I figure a good one is a decent investment... any advice on the best one to get?
If you want a good quality station, go Weller or Hakko. Just make sure you get one with adjustable temperature and replaceable tips. I got a generic one from WES Components a couple of years ago. Under $30, does the job well enough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck
Whatever you do, don't use one of those instant/quick-heating soldering-guns because you will find that doing so will cause some of the solder-pads to lift up from the PCB due to excessive heat, the very first soldering iron I owned was a small 12 Watt one that came with a Dick Smith Funway Into Electronics kit, it did the job but I had quite a few dry solder joints, your best bet would be to spend some money on a decent Temperature Controlled Soldering Station, a good example is my Duratech 60 Watt Temperature Controlled Soldering Station which I bought from my local Jaycar Electronics store, the Catalogue Number is this:
TS-1390
Here's a link to the Jaycar Electronics Webpage for you:
https://www.jaycar.com.au/60w-esd-sa...panel/p/TS1390
They are a bit pricey but definitely well worth paying the money for it, since it makes it so much easier to get consistently good solder-joints, make sure you buy a couple of extra spare fine conical tips, a spare tip-cleaning sponge, a couple of rolls of 3.0mm Goot Solder Wick, and a pair of small side-cutters, and you'll be in business.
Thanks Doc - what's the reason for being able to change temperature? How does one know what temperature to use? I was thinking of a gas one as they seem to be recommended on some sites, but other than heating up quickly there never seems to be any other reason! My current one is a very basic Duratech electric one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck
Basically, with a Temperature Controlled Soldering Station, you can set the optimum temperature to suit the type soldering-work you're doing so that you consistently get the best solder joints, and the temperature will remain constant, which will ensure that the solder properly takes to the metals which are being soldered together, those cheap 12 Watt and 15 Watt Soldering Irons tend to constantly vary in temperature, the standard 60/40 Tin-Lead Electronic Solder tends to melt at around 250 Degrees C, other types of solder melt at higher temperatures, I tend to have my Soldering Station set to 350 Degrees C because I found I consistently get the best solder joints at that temperature-setting, and also the metals being soldered suck up, or sink, some of the heat, the bigger the solder-joint being made, the more heat you need.
Doc, I took your recommendation and got a solder station the same as yours from Jaycar, what a ripper!
which one did you get Dedman ? I got one from Alltronics about 1.5 years ago and would never use a non temp controlled soldering iron again
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
Awesome mate, yep, I reckon they are good, they are described as a Soldering Station recommended for soldering with Lead-Free solder, but, I found that they work equally well with the Standard 60/40 Resin-Core Solder as well, the pricing is pretty reasonable at about Au$160.00 or so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
He bought a Duratech TS-1390 from Jaycar Electronics, same as the one I use.
Note that Jaycar Electronics may have increased the pricing of the Duratech TS-1390 a bit, when I bought mine brand new it cost me about Au$160.00 all up.
yup, I 've only used it once and that was with lead free and it was great to use, warms up real quick too
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
Which is what you want, you also want something that's going to stay heated at a constant temperature, which is what it does, and the generous 60 Watts heat output-capacity means that you can easily do the earthing of the tone and volume pots in guitars without getting cold solder-joints.
As a little bit info for anyone interested, I've mentioned two basic types of solder-joints in at least one of my previous posts, there's the "Good" Solder-joint, and then there's the "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-Joint, so, what's the difference between the two?
A "Good" Solder-joint is one where the Solder has properly flowed onto, or wetted the two pieces of metal being soldered together, by wetted, I mean that the solder has properly fused, or stuck, to the pieces of metal being joined together, a typical "Good" Solder-joint will have a Shiny, Silver-appearance, it will be Electrically-strong, that is, it will form an electrical connection which will present a very low resistance path to an electric current-flow (usually much less than an ohm, I have measured a known "Good" Solder-joint and found it to be about 0.1 of an Ohm), on the other hand, a "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint is one where the Solder hasn't properly flowed onto, or wetted the two pieces of metal being joined together, this can happen for a few reasons, it could be that there is some oxidization contaminating the surfaces of the pieces of metal being soldered together, normally the Resin-core Flux inside the Solder used to join the two pieces of metal, will clean off the oxide contaminants as it boils from the heat, and the solder will properly wet the pieces of metal, but sometimes it doesn't do that due to insufficient heat-transfer from the tip of the Soldering-Iron, a "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint will have a Dull, or, Crystalline-appearance, you might even see a fracture-line in the Solder-joint too, a "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint is not an Electrically-strong joint because it will present a high-resistance path to an electric current-flow, I have measured a "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint and found it to be anywhere from a few hundred ohms to as high as one Mega-Ohm (one million ohms, which is virtually an open-circuit), the tell-tale giveaway for a "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint is when a circuit exhibits intermittent operation (randomly works, and then doesn't work, like for example an intermittent volume-control on a guitar).
A "Dry", or "Cold" Solder-joint can also be caused by too much heat for too long, especially where the Solder-joint has been disturbed before the Solder has solidified, another rare cause (and it has only ever happened to me once) is where the Solder has had no Resin-core Flux put in it to begin with, right from the time it was manufactured.
This one time, I was about to run out of the usual 60/40 Resin-core Solder I used when I did my soldering, when I remembered that I had bought a spare roll of 60/40 Resin-core from from an Electronics shop...or so I had thought...it looked identical to the usual stuff I use except that, try as I might, I could not get it to wet the pieces of metal I was soldering together, the solder looked a bit strange, and tended to form small dull-grey balls, so I stopped using it, it turned out to be Solder that had not been properly fluxed when manufactured.
I must also add that I have tried soldering with Lead-Free Solder, and found that most "Good"Solder-joints made with it also have a dull appearance too.
Here's some more info on Solder for you, have you ever wondered why the Standard Electronic 60/40 Resin-core Solder has the numbers 60/40 in it's description?, those numbers refer to the relative percentages of Tin and Lead used to make the Solder, 60/40 Solder is actually an alloy of Tin and Lead, with Tin being the greatest percentage, there's a reason for that, and it all has to do with the way the Solder changes from it's liquid-phase to it's solid-phase as it cools down, there's also a so-called plastic-phase too, for Electronic Soldering-applications, you want the time that the Solder spends in it's plastic-phase as it cools down to be very brief to ensure a good solder-joint, this brief plastic-phase is controlled by the relative percentages of the Tin and Lead, it also controls the temperature at which the Solder melts, which helps reduce heat-damage of electronic components, 60/40 Solder tends to melt at around 280 Degrees C, on the other hand, Plumber's Solder (which is also used in making Car Engine Radiators) tends to have a period of time where the Solder stays in it's plastic-phase before it changes to it's solid-phase as it cools, it also tends to melt at a much higher temperature, because the relative percentages of Tin and Lead are different to the Electronic 60/40 Solder ( I think Plumber's Solder is something like 35 % Tin and 65 % Lead, but I could be wrong).
And the newer Lead-Free Solder, has been deliberately made without Lead in it (Lead is actually a poisonous heavy metal, hence the reason why we have Lead-Free Solder), I think it has a certain percentage of Copper in it along with the Tin, and some other trace metals to prolong the life of the soldering-tip.
By themselves, Tin and Lead melt at much higher temperatures than about 280 Degrees C, but alloy them together and you can bring the melting-temperature down, or up by varying the relative percentages of the two metals.
FINALLY got the stickers printed and painted the Doc Fuzz (big muff style)
Attachment 19810
Thats soooo cool!
I'll second that, in fact I'll go so far as to say that the Dr Fuzz pedal is looking uber-cool with that sticker on it, I like the paint job that you did on it Dedman, I'll have to give my Big Muff pedal a new paint job too, I'll see if my local Big Green Shed has a can of green paint, or I might go for a lime-green just to be different.
Cheers for posting the pic Dedman, a great example of what you can achieve by building a DIY pedal.
I should have made the Doc bald now that you changed your Avatar pic Dr :P
Lol, it wasn't me....honest, what you see in my avatar is not me but none other than my evil twin-brother of no relation, twice removed, I'm going to have to have a serious (seriously he was serious a few minutes ago) word with that chap, he's ruining my bad reputation, how can I run an evil organization with him hogging the camera all the time?.....lol.
What would my underlings do if they found out I had relinquished control to "Him"?