Building Pedals

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:38 am

Also, for R5 and R6 I ordered tantalum resistors but they don't have a line to indicate which way is forward. Does this mean I ordered the wrong resistors?

they're tantalum and the same value, so they should work right?

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:44 am

"tantalum resistors"? Never heard of them. Do you mean tantalum CAPACITORS?

Resistors come in metal film and carbon. Resistors aren't polarized and it doesn't matter which way they go in.

Tantalum capacitors are polarized and the longer leg is the positive and they should have a + marking on the body of the cap on the positive side.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:20 pm

I didn't see any markings on them but I'll look again . . .

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:31 pm

Can you give me the link to the part where you ordered/bought it?

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:03 pm

I think they're these guys

But that picture clearly shows a + on it and mine has a blue casing. I'm guessing I didn't look close enough!

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:06 pm

Those are tantalum CAPACITORS not resistors. It should be polarized. If it doesn't have a + mark on it. The longer leg is the + and shorter leg is the -. R5 and R6 need to be resistors. Not capacitors.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:10 pm

Right. I typed that without looking at the schematic

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:41 pm

Oh. Ok. Just wanted to make sure. The R, as in R5, pretty much will always mean Resistor and C, as in C5, will pretty much always mean Capacitor.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 5:21 pm

I've decided to wait until my next pay check to order a bigger enclosure for pedal. Doing point to point inside the tiny space is going to be more trouble than it is worth. Which means about a week until I order the bigger enclosure. The goods news is, I built a boost pedal based off the schematic that Mike post in the Resources forum and all of my solder joints look good. I need to solder the switch to the circuit and after that I'm done . . .

exceppppt, I don't have a way to drill through the enclosure, so while I can get the whole thing wired and finished I can't put it in a box until thanksgiving (I can go home and use my dad's kick ass drill press).

Post by **Mike** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:49 am

Get a set of HSS drill bits if you're going to do this regularly. Bear in mind 3PDT footswitches are 12.5 mm so you'll need a bit big or to use a 12mm bit and bore out the holes a bit.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:00 pm

How good/reliable/quick is the postage from Das Musikding and is it worth paying more for DHL?

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:04 pm

and here's my first finished build that works, I tried a BYOC Slow Gear about 3 years ago but fucked it up somehow.

Das Musikding True Bypass Looper I got from the Mighty Dave.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:10 pm

wwrrss wrote:How good/reliable/quick is the postage from Das Musikding and is it worth paying more for DHL?

They're plenty reliable and reasonably quick. I never pay more than minimum price. It'll be around a week though, I always order in advance.

The Slow Gear is a complicated beast so I wouldn't be too disheartened.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:24 pm

Mike wrote:
wwrrss wrote:How good/reliable/quick is the postage from Das Musikding and is it worth paying more for DHL?
They're plenty reliable and reasonably quick. I never pay more than minimum price. It'll be around a week though, I always order in advance.

The Slow Gear is a complicated beast so I wouldn't be too disheartened.

Boss, I'm well gonna try a Fuzz Factory clone out then.

I ended up using the box and switch from the Slow Gear for a Sonodrome Straight Edge Distortion kit I was given. Which given it's 3 components actually sounds pretty good.

Need to revisit that and put an LED in it.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:51 pm

i can vouch for what Mike said on Das Musikding as well. Not worth spending the extra pennies in my opinion really

Post by **Mike** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 1:50 pm

Straight Edge anything makes me roffle.

Have a beer and maybe you won't be so freeaaaking uptight.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:19 pm

I built a salt booster using the point to point diagram above and after hooking it up to a machine in the physics lab, I'm getting good signal when turned off but when the thing is turned on I get very, very, very little. Probably not any audible noise. I think we've located the problem with the switch, so my question is that is I use the diagram I'm about to attach and put the switch so the holes are horizontal, should it work? I just found the diagram I was told to use in the first place but I could not find it last night so I used this one.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:43 am

this image shows the way i've done it in the past.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:52 am

In both those diagrams the switch should be orientated with lugs horizontal, so wire can be entered vertically.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:56 am

aye, what Mike said.

I order my DIE FACTORY KIT! hope I don't fuck it up / pedal building doesn't consume my soul.