Miscellaneous pedal projects

[JohnH]

Well, I remember now why the stompswitches I found in a box were in the box - I'd melted the epoxy stuff that holds the lugs at some point when I was first starting out. So, they won't do, and until new ones come next week I can't get the Valvecaster into an enclosure or finish the scrambled octave.

In the meantime I've been looking for some more misc pedal builds, and have settled on these:

Mountainking Electronics Megalith




McSpunckle Gnomeratron VTF



Earthquaker Devices Space Spiral

[JohnH]

I think I have all the parts for the Megalith, but will need to order things for the other two...

[jugglindan]

Those are some ambitious builds there. So far I have been put off by the more complex builds, preferring to do them on PCB. But that's not always an option. I like the description of the Megalith:

Create an unstoppable wall of fuzz and vibratory energy, capable of conquering all in its pathway. Its versatile filter circuitry allows for a wide range of tones and textures that allows the Megalith to work well with both guitar and bass.

The MORE HEAVY feature will allow you to cause localized disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field and may cause temporary blurred vision...

I plan to build a Deep Blue Delay some time this year, but that is nowhere near as complex as those. Kudos!

[JohnH]

Well, they might still prove to be too hard! I've been trying to tackle projects of increasing complexity, and so far they've all worked (usually with a lot of troubleshooting).

[JohnH]

That delay looks cool

[jugglindan]

Based on my results so far, I am pretty sure I could build something that complex, but I know I would find it stressful. I build pedals to relax so the stress of making sure such a large board is correct is not something I feel like doing right now.

And yes, I like the sound of the deep blue delay. I just can't decide between it and the Earthquaker Disaster Transport Jr. It's mostly the same circuit, but Earthquaker added a tone control that only affects the repeats. It's harder to find reviews on so I am still undecided.

[JohnH]

Yeah, fair call. I enjoy the challenge but there's definitely been times I just need to put everything down because it stopped being fun

[jugglindan]

I am about at that point at the moment. Once I finish the FS-808 I am going to take a breather from pedals for a bit. I want to turn my focus back to my Blueycaster build, and that other thing. No, not that other thing, the other other thing. Playing guitar. Yes, I am sure that's the other thing I want to focus on for a while.

[DrNomis_44]

The Space Spiral is one I've never heard of before, since it uses a PT2399 IC, I'm going to assume that it's a delay effect of some sort, looks really interesting so I wouldn't mind building one.

[DrNomis_44]

Well, they might still prove to be too hard! I've been trying to tackle projects of increasing complexity, and so far they've all worked (usually with a lot of troubleshooting).

A lot of the time, most of these complex pedal projects can be broken-down into much more simpler parts, a complex circuit such as the Space Spiral, is nothing more than a whole heap of much simpler circuits connected together, if you can understand how the simpler circuits work, then you can understand how they all work together as part of a more complex circuit.