by bassybeats | Dec 4, 2019 | FX Pedals
A long time ago I purchased a literal crap load of Russian and German Germanium transistors with the intention of build the ultimate fuzz pedal. The most elusive of all the pedals, they never sound like Andy from ProGuitarShop.
The stash of Germanium’s
The fuzz obsession started when I was asked to build a clone of the Fuzz Factory for my friends Muse inspired electric Ukulele project, yeah it is as crazy as it sounds. I over purchased some AC128’s and it was all over from there. Since then I had periodically collected bulk lots of germaniums, from Russian to German to anything I could find.
Trying some ideas
There was some testing involved in the process. Breadboarding out a basic fuzz board and switching multiple combinations of transistors, pots, resistors and caps. I eventually got to a where I could get a consistant sound I liked from one layout.
Building up the PCB’s
The final idea was to build an all germanium big fuzz with multiple circuits true by passed. One to be OC81 based, one to be AC128 based and one to be MP39B and IT308B based ( the Bonamassa fuzz ). And there started the compiled ordering of 50 per type of all sorts of Russian germanium transistors, we all know how wildly varied they can be so I over ordered so I had some to select from.
I always hated positive ground circuits, they always have issues and never played nice with anything else. So I ended up designing my own boards with voltage inverters based off various schematics online, only to etch them upside down. This resulted in soldering on the copper side, which wasn’t ideal but I didn’t want to redo everything. It actually looks rather retro if you are an electronics geek.
Routing the wires was pretty easy and it looks cool with solid core wire. All the effects are true bypass to each other, the booster at the front is an LPB-1 and will get swapped for a Range Master one day when I design a circuit that isn’t crap.
Finished Fuzzes
All in all they sound good and different with each transistor pair having its own unique characteristics. I also ended up building a separate fuzz unit with the same boards.
Materials:
- 1590DD case
- Various germanium PNP transistors
- Cool looking reverse PCB’s
by bassybeats | Dec 4, 2019 | Others
Just a small project this time. Picked up a $90 road bike off trademe. She needed a bit of TLC, all the bearings were shot, the bar tape was brittle and the tyres were perished. But $50 later and its back to its 1980’s glory.
Before
After
I did end up changing over the rear cassette to a broader range 7 speed, up from the 6 speed. But because it uses friction shifters I didn’t need new gears.
by bassybeats | Dec 4, 2019 | Wood Working
Seems all my projects are music related. After the dumping of some great records on my desk from a friends mother I very soon ran out of ways to store them, even with my new alphabetical dividers it was getting annoying to sort through them.
A bit of research turned up nothing that could handle the weight, looked good and could have speakers on top. A quick measure up and I figured I could build two big cabinets from a single sheet of plywood. Turns out Mitre10 Mega will cut boards to size for you for free!
Building the solid way
I opted for the glue and screw method and then replace the screws with dowel once it had all dried. It’s a quick method that if you are covering it anyway it is doesn’t matter what it looks like. The dowel allows me to run a ½ inch router edge over it all to give it that guitar amp / old TV cabinet look. I did botch one of the corners that I had to bog and sand after. Annnd my router doesn’t fit the ½ bit in it, so I had to make a quick spacer to lift it higher.
A quick test fit while I wait to get the tolex from Ryan from The Amp Shop. I ended up going two tone Green/Black which i’ve used with success in the past as I wasn’t going to get all in 3 yards ( sold in yards for some reason ).
Final Assembly
Using the same method that I use for covering guitar amps, cut into strips, do the sides first and then wrap the tops. You need to mask the sides when you glue the top / back or its a pain to clean up. I just used good old house paint test pots to black the inside. I ended up putting a little strip of tolex on the leading edge of the middle shelf as it was going to look funny.
All in all I turned out well. Max capacity of about 240-260 records.
Materials:
- 18mm plywood 1200mm x 2400mm
- ADOS Glue
- Tolex from The Amp Shop
by bassybeats | Dec 4, 2019 | FX Pedals
This project started when my flatmate said he could get whole sheets of PCB’s etched through his IT course from $8 a sheet. We couldn’t resist.
The idea was to have two units that housed 8 effects and theoretically saving us $$ on enclosures and parts ( that didn’t end up being the case in the end).
When went on to General Guitar Gadgets ( our go to source of DIY pedals builds at the time ). We ended up with; A Big Muff, 3 knob Tone Bender, Octavia, Orange Squeezer Compressor, Marshall Blues Breaker, Range Master Treble Booster, Silicon Fuzz Face and a Phase 45.
Version 1
The first version of these 4 in total units were pretty rough. The bare steel didn’t adhere paint like the cast alloy cases we were used to. Not to mention our dodgy wiring. We constantly had hum and power issues trying to mix up positive and negative ground circuits in the same unit.
Version 2
A few years later I decided to rip them apart, got them powder coated and made up some matching pedal stickers for the top labels. The labels are the same stuff they use to sign write cars. They turned out pretty damn cool.
The Tidy Up
And in a box they sat for two years. I came to the realisation that I wasn’t going to use them anymore, so I went on a mission to tidy up the the insides and run clean power rails. Where needed I actually swapped the circuits out for better ones. The Germanium pedals got swapped for an LPB-1 and a newer tone bender with a voltage inverter.
One day i’ll most likely end up fixing my flatmates ones who had the same design flaws.
Materials:
- Custom folded steel chassis
- White powder coating from a friend’s fridge factory ( cost me a box of beer )
- PCB’s layouts from general Guitar Gadgets and parts from Jaycar or Smallbear
- Custom stickers by myself and printed at the uni printshop.
by bassybeats | Dec 4, 2019 | Amplifiers
A nice quick fix and flick project. A very cheap find on Trademe was the JTM60 3 x 10. Very similar to the 1990’s JTM30, it was loud and the reverb was horrible.
I didn’t end up taking many photos of this build but essentially I brought the amp faulty with the idea that I could fix it. Unbeknown to me, these things had a design flaw which saw the output tubes ( EL34’s ) mounted directly under the filter caps. The heat that dissipated off them went straight up and killed the caps.
I ended up giving the amp to Clarry at 34Audio and he remounted the new caps out of the way. I also found out that the amps effects loop plugs were prone to corroding and making a lot of noise. So a bit of contact cleaner fixed that.
I ordered some new JTM45 grill cloth as the other stuff had overspray all over it. Grill cloth is always a two person job.
Materials:
- New caps from Clarry
- New grill cloth from Mojotone
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