Some of my effects creations

[Shaguar]

Years ago I was into making fx pedals, trying like all DIY'ers to get good tone at a good price. I built a few different circuits, namely MXR Dist+ (2 of them), EH Pulsar, Big Muff and the Small Clone.

The Big Muff is the one in the steel stud casing on the right, that one needs a definite reboxing. The enclosure originally held a John Hollis omnidrive, which seems to have an intermittent problem at the moment.



The Small Clone is heavily modified, my original goal was to get it to flange. There are a number of mod descriptions out there for this pedal, and it sure beats the old single switch/single knob version. I still have some experimenting to do in order to get it to flange, namely a feedback control, and possibly a sweep control circuit that would have to be inserted somewhere in there. That is the reason why it may seem like I didnt even out the layout for the controls on the face of the pedal, so that if I add a feedback circuit or some other gizmo, I have room left on the face.



I only built these for myself, and got rid of a lot of the equipment necessary to build any others. I only felt like posting these because I revived these circuits recently, they were sitting in the back of a closet, plus seeing alot of what Mike does here with his own effects inspired me to get these back into action. I would do a demo of what the Clone clone does, but I still have clumsy fingers at the moment, I need to get some practice rawking out before making one.

[Will]

Cool stuff you got there. You should build a Wah; everyone here loves Wahs.

[Mike]

That modified Small Clone looks fantastic! Very nice work. Any gut shots?

[Doog]

Good stuff, defo gotta get some sounds up!

[Shaguar]

That modified Small Clone looks fantastic! Very nice work. Any gut shots?

I can get you some, but I find it's pretty sloppy. All it is really is the PCB from Tonepad, and big blobs of solder.

[Mike]

I'm a nerd, I love that stuff.

[william]

looks great! i think id end up stomping those minitogs with my big oafish american feet though.

[Shaguar]

Gut shots





Told you it was sloppy.

As for stomping the toggles, its not that bad, I used the biggest Hammond box I could find (1590DD). I wear size 12 shoes, and I dont have any trouble.

I might as well tell you what it is I've done so far on this thing, and what the controls do.

The first 2 knobs are your standard Depth and Rate controls, the Depth replacing the switch on the stock SC.

The third knob, which I labeled "Colour" is a 100k Pot between the LFO and the clock that controls the delay. This allows me to control the effect from mild filter matrix and flange tones to chorus and finally to pitch bending.

The first switch, "Clock -Slow/Fast" is just a switch between 2 different capacitor values that control the clock chip. The "slow" value is 47pF, and the "fast" value is 100pF. I may switch the "fast" value to something higher, which should give me more of a lush chorus sound. The 100pF value came from Analogman, which he says gives the SC a better chorus sound, but I dont find that it gives it enough oooomph.

The Frequency selector is probably mislabeled, but what it does is change the value of the capacitor that controls the LFO. It gives the LFO a wider waveform and gives it a wider, slower flange-ish type sweep.

The Flavour switch just cuts out the dry signal from the mix and on higher settings makes it sound like an old tube tremolo. Actually I find it sounds like the Vibrato setting on the EH Clone Theory.

I plan on tapping the signal from the output stage (pad D on Tonepad's layout) and feeding it through a 100k pot and DC blocking cap and resistor to the input of the first opamp stage. This should give me a feedback control, and a more noticeable flanging sound out of it.

Most of the inspiration for this came from Moosapotamus' SC experiments. There are sound samples on his site too. Loink.

[Mike]

Did you etch the PCB yourself?

Thanks a bunch for the information, I had guessed a couple of them but that's still very enlightening. I love the Small Clone, my favourite Chorus by a mile.

[dots]

hly sht that's impressive!

[Shaguar]

Yeah I etched the PCB, I had a kit with all the developer and etchant stuff, from MG Chemicals I think. The board was the photosensitive stuff, just print your layout to clear acetate, lay it over the green board with a heavy piece of glass and hit it with a UV light. Soak in developer then in etchant and drill out the pads.

I think if I ever get back into making more stuff I'll just buy the ready made PCB's that Tonepad sell.