MXR Cae Boost / Line Driver clone

[Bakersdozen]

So I wanted to start my first full DIY pedal with a fairly simple circuit, but something useful. I needed a boost and have already built a simple point to point buffer to see how I went with it. But I thought why not combine the two and save one pedal space.

Here's the layout



Cuts made and links installed.



Getting underway with ic socket and a few caps.



Board fully populated.




I was a little worried about avoiding solder going everywhere and creating shorts etc. But I was pleasantly surprised how the Vero board is so easy to work with. The solder really just flows along the channel and stays there. You still have to be careful not to use too much and for any debris that could create a inadvertent link. But as long as your careful and check each joint after soldering, it's relatively easy.

Internal layout.



I was a little too over cautious here with room and the Footswitch could have been a little higher, but a good lesson to learn. Still looks fine and will be functional.

External layout.

[Bakersdozen]

Case was primed last night and gave it a quick sand and added some left over red SCA tonight.

Also finished the wiring and gave it a test and it all works as it should. Big relief.

I subbed the IC for a readily available TL072 , but may end up trying some different ones if I want to get experimental. This current one sounds pretty clean, which was the desired outcome.

Used a red/green 3 leg LED as this circuit will be always on in buffer mode (green) and red for boost mode.

Thoroughly enjoyed this process and heaps quicker than I anticipated. Started Saturday. Now for decal design over the next few days.

[JohnH]

Great work! You'll get addicted to building them, I promise

[Bakersdozen]

Great work! You'll get addicted to building them, I promise

Thanks mate. Yes, I am already thinking about the next one.

[jugglindan]

Fantastic!!

They have some great layouts on that site. Once you get comfortable with the process it becomes an overwhelming smorgasbord of choice.

I like the trick of marking the cuts with a sharpie. It really helps to have some landmarks in the early stages of populating the board. As more components go on I find it gets easier to correctly locate the next one.

I find for the most part that I can substitute any JFET-input opamp for any other in these circuits. I have 4558s in a few pedals that called for TL072s because that's all I had at the time. All my opamps have arrived now but I haven't bothered to swap the chip because those pedals (Phase 45, buffer) are working fine.

And yes, it's surprisingly hard to make a solder bridge. I find it's a bit easier with the wires, they seem to take up more solder, but still quite rare.

Finally, I am happy to send you my 125B drilling templates/mock design templates. They are all in Inkscape format, and I have 1 through to 6 knob versions. All for top-mounted jacks though, but that's not hard to change. The files are too big to attach here.

[Bakersdozen]

Thanks DC I'm super wrapped in the while process Templates sound great, thank you . I used Inkscape for the Daily Driver overlay. Took a photo and then scaled it to size. Wasn't perfect, but it got the job done for a pre drilled enclosure.

[DarkMatterResist]

Oooohhh that looks like fun!! I will have to look into this once my build is finished
Nice work! Do you have any links on how I can get started please?

[jugglindan]

I documented the end to end process in the threads for the Barber CDD and Phase 45 builds. These are both building on Stripboard/Veroboard, with layouts from Guitar FX Layouts, which is also where Mark got the layout for this pedal.

Also, I just started a thread for getting started with pedals. All the builders here can add tips and stuff there perhaps.

[Bakersdozen]

I documented the end to end process in the threads for the Barber CDD and Phase 45 builds. These are both building on Stripboard/Veroboard, with layouts from Guitar FX Layouts, which is also where Mark got the layout for this pedal.

Also, I just started a thread for getting started with pedals. All the builders here can add tips and stuff there perhaps.

Nice one DC ! Beat me to it. Hope that answers your question @DarkMatterResist

[DarkMatterResist]

@jugglindan @Bakersdozen Thanks for the links, that looks like so much fun. Will need to start one of these at some point. I have started looking into it as we speak, but need to pull away as I still need to finish my bass build haha!! Will come back later. Thanks again!!