Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter
Thought I'd post this one too as I know the pedal has a lot of fans. This one is verified and sounds great, especially good for thickening up single coils I found.
Thanks Ian, these are old layouts I did a while ago, but I'm going to try to make more of an effort to do new layouts more frequently. All work and no play makes Mark a dull boy! :o)
Yes it's just a jumper, it needs 9V on both rails. I didn't like doing that because it was a bit messy, but I wanted to keep the number of columns down so it would fit in a 1590B, and it's difficult with some circuits when avoiding standing resistors as I do.
Bear in mind that 22 columns wide is still a tight fit in a 1590B. I used a bench grinder to shave as much off the outer columns as I could, and then it will fit snugly. I also put some electricians tape on both internal sides of the box just for a bit of insulation with the board being close to the side of the box.
Oh and 3mm LEDs will be a lot better that those huge ones I used! :o)
cool stuff. I might even use your layout as a start point see if I can shift some things around. ill probably build as is first up however. you need to zip all your layouts and email me them - stop sitting on your goldmine ;) !!
not blown away to be honest! prefer the hotcake I just made for a commission. The Nature knob seems a bit wasteful. I dunno. MAybe I need to give it more time or try with other guitars. Not worth the £400 for the 'real' one. And I have the red shark board, now tempted to sell / trade as Bean doesnt sell them anymore...
Hi there, I just made one of these and I'm really impressed with it. The nature control doesn't seem to do much after 12 o'clock, has anyone else experienced this? If so are there any mods to make the taper more even? Also, are you using Mylar caps? If so where do you get them from as I'm having difficulty finding any 5mm ones.
I agree with you. The nature control for me is either full on or full off, and I generally use this to give some girth to a strat. I haven't seen any suggested mods but it may be worth checking on FSB to see if anyone has posted anything about it. The poly caps I used in this build were all Panasonic, from here:
I made the board and put it in the pedal but when I got everything wired up there's a really high pitched oscillation.
I noticed on the updated version, there's a 5th diode. Is this something that I'm missing. I've checked and double checked my wiring and there's no mistakes that I can see but there's some crazy noises going on.
Also, the green LEDs on the board are supposed to light up when the pedal is ON, correct?
There is a 5th diode in the revised layout, but it's just used for reverse polarity protection and so shouldn't affect the sound, other than the one you built having microscopically more headroom.
The LEDs on the board are used to clip the signal and it's unlikely they would light up at all so that is behaving as expected. I've built this a number of times now so the layout is definitely verified so I would suggest reflowing the solder, especially at points of ground and run a sharp knife in between the vero tracks to make sure there are no unintended solder bridges there.
Also what type of DC adapter are you using with your build, it isn't a metal bodied type is it?
If those suggestions don't cure the problem post a front and back high res pic of the board and I'll see if anything stands out to me.
Okay so I'm getting the same high pitched oscillation when the pedal is plugged in with no input, and the LEDs are lighting up when the drive is increased... When I plug in to the input, it shorts out the pedal all together. Geez - what the hell did i do!?!
Thanks for the response! Here's a link to the front and back ~ It does look a little messy, but i have checked for solder bridges and scored each space between traces with a razor blade a few times in frustration (not to say that isn't the problem!)... the signal passes fine when bypassed as also passes fine when I short the input to the output of the board (it's on there somewhere...) I had to bend that 1uf cap over on the right side for it to fit in the enclosure as well...
The board and the output sleeve aren't grounded, they're connected together but with nothing connecting them to the other ground points. Add an extra wire between the input and output sleeves and that should complete the ground circuits.
Also very important! I did the version 2 layout! I meant to post in the other topic but failed.. I uploaded a drawing of the off board wiring just now to the picasa. I'm basically following the tone pad drawing with the exception of taking the boards grounds to the output jack's ground tab and the volume and nature tabs to ground to the 9v ground jack.
Adding the ground between the two points didn't seem to change anything - still no signal passing when engaged. I have also checked the various ground points to each other with a meter and it tested right. hmmm
I can't see how it could work as it is. All the grounds need to be connected together but as it is they are separated. Do you have a link from the input sleeve to the DC adapter?
All your cuts look fine and the components that I can see appear to be the same value. I think it is definitely a problem with ground.
The problem with that is that you're relying on two things that are only physically touching the chassis to make a solid ground link. And if either of the connections to ground isn't that great then it can cause noise. But if you say you tried it with a link between the two sleeves and all points are showing continuity then it mustn't be that. The only other thing I could suggest is reflowing solder so that you don't have any cold joints anywhere, and failing that it could be a component failure. The layout is definitely verified so we know with all other things being equal it should work.
Glad to see you back Mark. Thanks for this I am going to attempt it. Built 2 of these with another layout, both epic fails.
ReplyDeleteIs that a jumper from the 9v? Thanks.
Thanks Ian, these are old layouts I did a while ago, but I'm going to try to make more of an effort to do new layouts more frequently. All work and no play makes Mark a dull boy! :o)
ReplyDeleteYes it's just a jumper, it needs 9V on both rails. I didn't like doing that because it was a bit messy, but I wanted to keep the number of columns down so it would fit in a 1590B, and it's difficult with some circuits when avoiding standing resistors as I do.
Bear in mind that 22 columns wide is still a tight fit in a 1590B. I used a bench grinder to shave as much off the outer columns as I could, and then it will fit snugly. I also put some electricians tape on both internal sides of the box just for a bit of insulation with the board being close to the side of the box.
Oh and 3mm LEDs will be a lot better that those huge ones I used! :o)
cool stuff. I might even use your layout as a start point see if I can shift some things around. ill probably build as is first up however. you need to zip all your layouts and email me them - stop sitting on your goldmine ;) !!
ReplyDeleteI like to trickle feed them! :o)
ReplyDeleteyeah zip file dump I'm all for it!!
ReplyDeleteanybody got a link for the schematic on this one?
ReplyDeletethanks!
I'm pretty sure I used Madbean's schematic when I was doing the layout:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/YellowShark/docs/YellowShark.pdf
independantly verified again. cheers.
ReplyDeleteCheers mate. What do you think of it?
ReplyDeletenot blown away to be honest! prefer the hotcake I just made for a commission. The Nature knob seems a bit wasteful. I dunno. MAybe I need to give it more time or try with other guitars. Not worth the £400 for the 'real' one. And I have the red shark board, now tempted to sell / trade as Bean doesnt sell them anymore...
ReplyDeleteHi there, I just made one of these and I'm really impressed with it.
ReplyDeleteThe nature control doesn't seem to do much after 12 o'clock, has anyone else experienced this? If so are there any mods to make the taper more even?
Also, are you using Mylar caps? If so where do you get them from as I'm having difficulty finding any 5mm ones.
Cheers
I agree with you. The nature control for me is either full on or full off, and I generally use this to give some girth to a strat. I haven't seen any suggested mods but it may be worth checking on FSB to see if anyone has posted anything about it. The poly caps I used in this build were all Panasonic, from here:
ReplyDeletehttp://stores.ebay.com/chinaeproducts/small-capacitors-/_i.html?_fsub=394336219&_sid=949421189&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
I made the board and put it in the pedal but when I got everything wired up there's a really high pitched oscillation.
ReplyDeleteI noticed on the updated version, there's a 5th diode. Is this something that I'm missing. I've checked and double checked my wiring and there's no mistakes that I can see but there's some crazy noises going on.
Also, the green LEDs on the board are supposed to light up when the pedal is ON, correct?
There is a 5th diode in the revised layout, but it's just used for reverse polarity protection and so shouldn't affect the sound, other than the one you built having microscopically more headroom.
DeleteThe LEDs on the board are used to clip the signal and it's unlikely they would light up at all so that is behaving as expected. I've built this a number of times now so the layout is definitely verified so I would suggest reflowing the solder, especially at points of ground and run a sharp knife in between the vero tracks to make sure there are no unintended solder bridges there.
Also what type of DC adapter are you using with your build, it isn't a metal bodied type is it?
If those suggestions don't cure the problem post a front and back high res pic of the board and I'll see if anything stands out to me.
Okay so I'm getting the same high pitched oscillation when the pedal is plugged in with no input, and the LEDs are lighting up when the drive is increased... When I plug in to the input, it shorts out the pedal all together. Geez - what the hell did i do!?!
DeletePost a front and back pic of the board, and let me know exactly how you've got the offboard wiring hooked up.
DeleteThanks for the response! Here's a link to the front and back ~ It does look a little messy, but i have checked for solder bridges and scored each space between traces with a razor blade a few times in frustration (not to say that isn't the problem!)... the signal passes fine when bypassed as also passes fine when I short the input to the output of the board (it's on there somewhere...) I had to bend that 1uf cap over on the right side for it to fit in the enclosure as well...
Deletehttps://picasaweb.google.com/adrianolsen85/HoneyBeeOD?authuser=0&feat=directlink
The board and the output sleeve aren't grounded, they're connected together but with nothing connecting them to the other ground points. Add an extra wire between the input and output sleeves and that should complete the ground circuits.
DeleteAlso very important! I did the version 2 layout! I meant to post in the other topic but failed.. I uploaded a drawing of the off board wiring just now to the picasa. I'm basically following the tone pad drawing with the exception of taking the boards grounds to the output jack's ground tab and the volume and nature tabs to ground to the 9v ground jack.
DeleteAdding the ground between the two points didn't seem to change anything - still no signal passing when engaged. I have also checked the various ground points to each other with a meter and it tested right. hmmm
DeleteI can't see how it could work as it is. All the grounds need to be connected together but as it is they are separated. Do you have a link from the input sleeve to the DC adapter?
DeleteAll your cuts look fine and the components that I can see appear to be the same value. I think it is definitely a problem with ground.
"I can't see how it could work as it is." - good point it doesn't!!
Delete"Do you have a link from the input sleeve to the DC adapter?" - yes
So in my "logic", the grounding is as follows:
footswitch-> Input Sleeve:-> Chassis: <-Output Sleeve<-Board Grounds
vol/nature pots-> dc adaptor-> Input Sleeve:-> Chassis: "
The problem with that is that you're relying on two things that are only physically touching the chassis to make a solid ground link. And if either of the connections to ground isn't that great then it can cause noise. But if you say you tried it with a link between the two sleeves and all points are showing continuity then it mustn't be that. The only other thing I could suggest is reflowing solder so that you don't have any cold joints anywhere, and failing that it could be a component failure. The layout is definitely verified so we know with all other things being equal it should work.
Deletethanks so much for your help - ill keep you posted with my progress!
DeleteLove the layout - just to check before I build - the 100 value ceramic capacitor, is that 100nf or 100pf?
ReplyDelete100pF. I did an updated layout for the Honey Bee here:
ReplyDeletehttp://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/bjfe-honey-bee-layout-2.html
They're both verified but the other layout is one column narrower which is nice, but just choose the one you prefer. Good luck with the build.