I'm gonna stand up next to a mountain...

...and chop it down with the edge of my hand!

well folks,it's finally done
took some time but my my was it worth it :)

here's a gut shot...

it's definitely a one trick pony,but what a trick! huge bassy wall of fuzz
sounds amazing in combination with my wah probe,beautiful sustain on neck humbuckers
down right nasty with a tele bridge pickup
yep this is definitely going straight onto the board

thanks again to Simon & Mark!

outside is finished

well she's pretty much done for today,the paint is still tacky
so I'll have to wait to wire it up

I went with the bigger Voodoo Labs style knobs,I think the scale suits the case better
pretty pleased with it so far!

FuzzFace part Deux!

well after receiving a truly beautiful PCB in the post from a certain Mr Mel X today
I thought it was high time I got the Fuzzface back in action!

so between bouts of being blown away by the wind (why is it so unusually windy today?)
I managed to spray the case...
sorry Kev but yes, it's Hammerite :P

Elementary,my dear Bloggers

...Is what I wish I was posting right now,unfortunately all is not well in the saga of "how I fixed my pesky Mr Echo!"

basically this is a great sounding pedal,which got a bad rep after a dodgy batch of switches slipped through the net,meaning some pedals won't properly bypass every time you engage the switch...
which I only found out after buying mine,which is dodgy as a Glastonbury hot dog stand!

now SIB said they'd do it but I couldn't justify $50 to repair it,so tonight I broke out the iron and went to work

the 3p3t switch is connected to the PCB eyelets by six little jumper wires (i used stripped back solid-core wire) after quite a fiddly job I got the new switch wired up

Alas a Problem! huge background noise when you engage the effect :(
now the bypass works,and the controls are working all fine,but I have this loud hum that's not right at all,never done that before?

So any ideas fellas,cold joint maybe?

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

well,I finally completed the respray of my BYOC two knob bender
Sonically I went for the mods that make it fairly nasty and velcro-esque!
I also changed out the knobs from the kit ones,and fitted an LED bezel to the case as stock it was just floating in the gap,and on a couple of ocasions got pushed inside (a right pain in the arse to fix!)
oh and I pimped it with an orange LED too

actually it may be just a wee bit too nasty/bright...might mod it to tame it a little in the future...

overall I'd definitely recomend any newbies to building to check out a BYOC kit,
they use good quality parts and the instructions are very clear and precise

right then...time to go and dust off Led Zep I!!

been a while!

well while I wait for both a bitsbox and banzai order to arrive I thought I could be working away on something!

here's my Fuzz Face that I bought for €30...then dumped the guts because it wasn't very good!
luckily Mr Mel X is building me a Germanium Fuzz Face using a PCB he scored on Ebay

so I decided that it may as well look as pretty on the outside,as I'm sure the inside will

here it is getting a primer coat ready for the hammerite finish

Progress!

well after getting some lovely parts in the post today from Si my RAT is moving along nicely!

I really could use a proper overhead light though,so I think that will be my next "big purchase"

also I've decided that in order to rap this one up pretty quickly I'm going to use the LuciBox enclosure I had planned to put the Double Bazz into

should look pretty cool in a TGP kinda way!  :/

Everything in it's right place...

Hmmm I'm not sure I'd get a factory Job with a work station like this!

so as you can see I finally got my Delivery from Banzai

I mostly went for switches/pots/LED'S + bezels/op-amps things that are fairly pedal specific 
I'd a credit note for maplins so I got a big pack of 600 resistors (unfortunately I'd say alot of the values won't be much use for pedals) and some Vero board from them
probably the most important thing I got from Banzai was the bit for drilling cases,so I'm definitely planning to drill and paint my own for those

my little collection is coming along quite nicely,I'm planning to stock up on more caps/diodes/trannies etc this week if I can flog a pedal to pay for it all!

I've a whole graveyard of Guitar parts in a big box that I'm planning to raid for wire,knobs, pots and jacks too
it's amazing how much builds up over the years so I'll be doing my best to recycle all that stuff

so far my biggest expense has definitely been tools such as the magnifier/clamp drill, multimeter,adjustable spanner,solder and wick all that stuff but sure I guess I should do it right if I'm going to do it at all!

....now do I finish my parts Tele I was putting that JazzMaster pick-up into first?
,or do I get cracking on this stuff???

Result!

well I gotta say I'm proud for my first effort so far!

Luckily for me,Mr or Mrs Fly (R.I.P)
is well hidden by the MXR type knob...nice one!

Finish isn't quite as crinkly as I'd like,but I'm debating if a second coat will look crap or not?
I think I'll do two coats on the bottom plate as a test and see if the effect gets more pronounced as a result...

...right then,Tea time!

F_CK YOU FLY!!!

Arrgh!!!

See that lil black spec under the Pot guide hole on the right?
a fly must have landed on the case while drying,got stuck and thats a bit of him that got left behind!
The little shite!
I'll wait and see how this dries overnight,maybe a light sand and a second coat is in order?
anyone tried two coats of hammerite before?

Lil' messy!

Ok so Today I sort of on impulse decided to stop into Halfords,
grab a can of primer and get cracking!

I've long had a BYOC tonebender that was unfinished and boring to look at
so it made a good Guinea Pig to work on
(on a completely unrelated note,does anyone know how to fix a lifted pcb trace?)

anyway I built myself a little box for spraying outside as I live in an apartment
so no chance of doing it in a Mancave/shed/attic!

Twas a bit windy,and a huge golden retriever came running up to me while working,but thankfully he didn't get too close!

so yeah first coat done,looks pretty good so far...
I'll do another tomorrow morning and then colour coat tomorrow evening...

question is...which colour to get??

EDIT:

second coat done...coming along nicely

...I'm starting to have serious doubts about a lot of "Boutique" makers!

"This is what you'll get,when you mess with Us"

So on this glorious (non Volcanically challenged in anyway) Sunny day,I thought to myself shame to waste it!
...as a result I decided to take a few snaps ;)

anyone fancy building themselves a boost?
I think "the A class" has a nice ring to it!

Boss OC-2 Synth mod

...so I seen this video on HC the other day,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5SKmEOZeI

and remembered that my flatmate/bandmate Jimmy had one
around somewhere that he absolutely hated!
so it didn't take long to convince him to let me fire up the Soldering iron...

as mods go it's quite easy.six lengths of wire & a double pole switch are all you need

(and by pure luck Melx had kindly sent me the very switch I needed last week)

as this is the older Japanese one,finding a spot for the switch is a little tricky

but it's not impossible

this location seemed the easiest to get to 

 

So the Result?

Sonically it's pretty good actually!!!

sort of like a cross between a NES & a Fuzz Factory

He likes it,and it looks like it will go back on his board!

So I'm happy,I got some experience and he gets use of a pedal that was destined to be banished to the attic and after all isn't that what this place is all about? 

Thanks to Sean/Noisedom for the mod!

"There's not enough hours in our life"

So while failing miserably to find a link to the Fuzzmania for anybody who's interested
I stumbled across this here beauty

http://www.dinosaural.com/specials_fuzztone.asp


I'd actually seen it before but I'd totally forgotten about it
an op-amp based fuzz with diode clipping,designed by Dan from Lovetone?
Yes Please!!

I'm definitely going to build this as I know the quality of his designs
and he seems to endorse us doing it if it's for DIY purposes
so get cracking & break out the vero board lads!

now to stick more bits in the cart at Banzai,i'll never manage to build
if I keep searching/shopping

as Gomez said "There's not enough hours in our Life"

A long time ago...In A Galaxy far far away...

Ok!

I thought I'd best start at the begining





The Dan Coggins (of Lovetone) Fuzzmania
a Germanium Fuzz kit produced for Guitar Magazine a few years back
a single AC 128 fuzz that's got a nice 60's tone that cleans up well
pretty nifty for the "down by the river" vibe!

anyway this was the first time I'd soldered anything,and it definitely helped me lose my fear of tinkering around inside these things

stay tuned as I eventually add a power jack,and possibly an LED to this
(might tweak it sonically too,although it probably doesn't need it)

Well Well Well

Hello Hello...Is there anybody in there???

Right so...

quick User Disclaimer...I've no fecking idea what I'm doing!

this is my first Blog,and My first really serious explorations into how Guitar FX are built

I'm not sure what the purpose of the blog is going to be
other than to demonstrate that ANYONE with a soldering Iron,the internet and the price of a pint can build a fully functioning,100% gigable pedal

So I guess I'll start by letting everyone know what to expect over the coming weeks...
first up is building the Melx blog charity Bazz Fuzz into the very pretty LuciBox swirly enclosure
that I bought on Ebay last year

then I've a 90's Dunlop Silicon Fuzz Face that sounds crap and needs an overhaul!

A funky 70's Maestro Fuzz Phaser that shall be resurrected to it's former glory

I also have a Rat PCB in the post too!

and a few other ideas are coming together too ,the hamster maybe be dead but the wheel is still creaking away!

Also I couldn't let this first post go without saying a Big thankee
to Mel x & Kevin Demuth

Right let's get the Kettle on!