The D.I.Y. FX Pedal Building Thread

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I'm looking at doing another full pedal build this fortnight, and thought I would do a write-up for it just in case any one else is interested in building one, this time it's going to be an EH Big Muff pedal, these EH Big Muff pedals are a very high-gain distortion pedal, noteworthy for the very fat Fuzz/Distortion tone they generate, supposedly it's one of the pedals used by The Smashing Pumpkins on their 90's albums, also, supposedly Jimi Hendrix used one when he was known as Jimmy James, I'm going to be buying all the needed parts tomorrow from my local Jaycar Electronics store, stay tuned for further updates.

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Doc, interested to see if you get a similar sound to the big muff pedal

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I have just gotten back home after buying all the parts needed to make an EH Big Muff pedal, I will be documenting the build-process this fortnight so stay tuned.

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Doc, look forward to the build diary, now you got the parts you can sink your teeth into this project !

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I have just started working on a couple of circuit boards for building an EH Big Muff, I'm using a special type of circuit board called Vero Board, to make the circuit boards, Vero Board is a type of board used to build circuits on, it consists of an insulating Paper Phenolic material which has thin copper-foil strips glued to one side of it and each of the copper-foil strips is pierced at an interval of 2.5mm for the full length of the copper-foil strip, the idea with Vero Board is to poke the circuit-component leads through the holes and solder it to the copper-foil strips, this connects the components together, laying-out a circuit on Vero Board can be a bit tricky, but it can be done, this saves the expense of having to design and etch a proper circuit board, which is why some electronics hobbyists use Vero Board.


Here's what Vero Board looks like, sometimes it is darker in colour, and also sometimes it's called Strip Board:




When I go to build a circuit on a piece of Vero Board, I do some preparation work on it, this involves cutting the Vero Board to a suitable size, steel-wooling the copper-foil strips till they're shiny, and then tinning, or coating, each copper-foil strip with solder, tinning the strips makes it easier to get consistently-good solder joints, once the prep-work has been done, I then use some graph paper to draw up a suitable layout for the circuit I'm building on the Vero Board, making sure I mark the intended breaks in the strips with an "X", once I'm happy with the layout I use a felt-tip marker to put a dot on the hole in the Vero Board where a component-lead is going to be poked through prior to soldering, next I flip the Vero Board over so that the shiny copper-strips are facing upwards and then I mark out the positions strip-breaks with the felt tip pen, once I'm happy that all the strip-break positions have been marked out correctly, I then use a 3mm drill bit to make the strip-breaks by placing the tip of the drill bit on a marked hole and then twisting the drill bit in my fingers untill there's a break right through the copper-strip while being careful not to drill all the way through the Vero Board.


Update:


Okay now I've finished the prep-work I needed to do on the two Big Muff circuit boards, all that's left to be done is to work out a suitable layout for the parts and then start soldering the parts to the board once the parts positions are marked.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I have just finished soldering all the parts onto the first of two Big Muff Circuit Boards I am making, and thought I'd post a pic of it here, here's what it looks like:

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Today I'm going to be doing all the marking out, drilling, etc, prior to mounting all the pots, knobs, sockets, footswitch, and battery holder in the Aluminium box I'm using to house the EH Big Muff in, once that's done I can then do all the wiring-up needed to get the pedal working, there'll also be some pics of the wiring-up process and of the finished pedal along with an audio demo so you can hear what it sounds like, so stay tuned.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Doc, looks pretty intense the circuit board

[DrNomis_44]

sounds good Doc, looks pretty intense the circuit board

I agree, that's because the Big Muff circuit is a bit more complex compared to the Axis Fuzz, it uses four transistors to produce a very high gain aggressive sounding Distortion, or Fuzz tone, hopefully the demo I record will demonstrate that, you can get some pretty smooth lead tones out of it though.

The Big Muff features a tone control knob where you can vary the tone from really bassy, to ice-picky, it also produces quite a bit of level so you can use it to drive an amp harder.

[Dedman]

looking good Doc! Can't wait to hear it