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
Sounds actually very good. Reminds me a bit of Maxon 808, but this is just dirtier.
I think i'll want to try some larger caps here too, since it's just a little bit too thin to my taste. And clipping is definitely going on a switch. I have a vision that this might sound amazing with 1N60Ps.
In general, it's really nice OD/Dist with vitage-like sound. There is only two sounds actually; Slight distortion and fuller distortion :)
Ah. I'm really getting in to this stuff! Seems to me that almost every little plastic thingy out there has real potential, when build "properly". +m
Excellent, cheers mate. I agree with you again, it also increases the potential to improve things when they're through hole components on a veroboard, as opposed to surface mount that are used a lot in the low cost mass produced effects. Thinking about it, a Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control tacked on the end may be a useful mod too.
If anyone comes up with cap values that they prefer over the stock values or any other mods, please post them. I remember playing on one of these years ago and liking but not loving it, so making a better sounding version with a tone control would be great.
Heh. This one isn't actually going to be a lot cheaper to build. One particular german music store sells these (well.. other danelectros) for about 25€/20£, so i think it's about 1:1 on price once boxed. Modding is much easier though :) Plus one can make it alot prettier.. +m
Miro, if you get a chance will you swap the 2n for a 22n and see what you think of the difference. I saw someone mention they didn't know whether it was 2n or 22n and the bigger value seems to make more sense to me.
It was sounding a bit thin :) I'll try it out right now...
---
And yes. I strongly believe it's really a 22nF and not 2nF. It's not super fat with it, but better. There's a nice space on the left from the 2n, so i just soldered 22n in and tried with those two in parallel - as in ~24nF.
This one is so promising that once i find the time, i'll be trying a few things on this :) +m
Look for tone no more! After nearly six hours of R&D, We're proud to present: FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive!
So it's really just me and Danelectro Pastrami modded with Jack Orman's SWTC2. I started out with putting the clipping on a switch. Tried 1N60Ps on the other side and bright blue LEDs on the other. This really needs the LEDs. Even 1N4148s draw too much to ground, thus making it too quiet. Finally ended up with two 3mm bright blue leds on the other side and two 3mm diffused red leds on the other. Works, and their sound is really different - one with lots of body and some roundness, while others are just violently brutal and more piercing. That's just a simple two pole two position switch and i took the wires for lugs 2 and 5 from other led's holes.
Then.
I looked at the schematic and noticed something that's not that usual. The volume control controls the signal level to the other half of the opamp, rather than just "mixing" the output with ground. So. Hasty conclusion - i need to make the tone control between clipping stage and second opamp. Thus omitting the volume control as it was. Or, replace original volume control with tone. I removed that 220K resistor from the vero and used it's bottom hole for input for the tone control. This would take so many words to explain, so i drawed you a little picture: http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes_other/moldymeat_pastrami_addon.png
Pot for tone needs to be log. Basically it's SWTC2, but there's that 220K resistor also on board. I tried many different values for it, but if it's a lot lower, you'll get a lot of squeeling. 15nF sounded the best with 100K resistors to me..
After that, it's just output of the board to our new volume pot's lug 3 and lug 1 is the new output. That pot's lug one can stay where it was :)
I think it sounds like a cross between fuzzrite's piercing tone and crunchbox's clear, articulate, yet massive distortion. It wasn't too bad to begin with, but with relatively good tone control that affects it's overall sound a lot, it's really nice little buzzbox. Besides, these mods would have been very hard to do on an original...
That was fun! I'm not against it if you want to rearrange the layout with "FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive" :)
This was so great mod! Thank you big time Mark!! +m
Excellent stuff mate, I'll do a layout. Have you thought of trying Ge or Si diodes in series? If you use two series pairs in parallel of either type, the threshold would double making it much louder.
One more little thing. If someone feels that tone in zero position is too dark, then he/she can add something like 2K7 or 3K9 resistor in series with tone lug 1. Personally i wouldn't bother, since that super dark may come in handy :) +m
I remember in 1999 or so I was working in Midtown Manhattan a block away from the music store row in the 40's. Mannys was selling a 5 pack of the 'deli-themed' danelectro pedals for $100. I bought it, played with them a bit and they made it into storage.
Seeing this led me to go digging for them. Some of them really hold up well after all this time. Some of them really were great circuits in terrible enclosures.
I found my chicken salad vibrato. Even unmodded its one hell of a pedal. I plan on doing the common tin foil mod to it this week to try and push it a little further.
Its a shame that the incandescent light warble box in the chicken salad makes it a poor candidate for a diy layout. It's so close to being a univibe clone and you can still score them on ebay for $15.
Also more on topic I know I gave my pastrami away to someone years ago who needed an OD when I was a tubescreamer snob. Will be building my own sometime next week. Thanks again for this.
Quick question about the LED's on the switch. Is there enough current to light them? Thought about running them to the outside of the enclosure if they light while playing. Thanks for the best layout sight I know. Keep up the awesome work:)
Yes. They light up when they clip the signal. For example, i've used clipping LEDs as external indicators here: http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/cruncher.jpg
Once i box my modded version, i'll probably use the red/blue LEDs as indicators around the switch too :) +m
I have one more thing to say about this.. Original uses volume pot to control how much of the signal gets to the recovery stage, but my mockup disables that. With tone replacing the original volume control, the recovery stage, or second half of the opamp, gets always maximum signal. What this means is that one can now get more beefier, or bluesy, drive out of it with drive at 2-10 percent of the sweep - without having to crank the volume to the max.
Actually i'm extremely happy about how the mod came out. :) +m
Are you a member of freestompboxes? There's a Pastrami thread there, so you should post the layout to your mod. A lot more people will be following freestompboxes so it should drum up some interested in modding these cheaper pedals.
Yea, i'm registered (got the base schem from there for the mod), but i don't feel so much at home there, as i do here.. But hey! It's your layout :D If you want, you can post it with something like this:
" Look for tone no more! After nearly six hours of R&D, We're proud to present: FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive!
Actually, it's just me, mirosol, and in reality, it's just modded Pastrami. I replaced original volume control with Jack Orman's SWTC2 (with values that sounded good to me), and placed a new volume control after the recovery stage. Original uses volume pot to control how much of the signal gets to the recovery stage, but my mockup disables that. With tone replacing the original volume control, the recovery stage, or second half of the opamp, gets always maximum signal. What this means is that one can now get more beefier, or bluesy, drive out of it with drive at 2-10 percent of the sweep - without having to crank the volume to the max. OD and tone at max gives out something that reminds me of nasal and piercing qualities found in the fuzzrite.. If someone is feeling adventurous and is not afraid of squeeling, that someone could try to lower that 220K resistor... :)
Plus i replaced red diodes at clipping stage with a switch for led/blue LEDs. Other has more body, and other has more piercing feeling to it. After these mods, it's not just boring, plastic sounding distortion labeled as overdrive, but quite usable OD/distortion with hints of fuzz. "
built the mouldy meat modded version and was pleasantly surprised, a lot beefier than i expected. I`ll possibly tinker a little with the diodes tho`, possibly a rotary switch for added choice :-). 22nf cap makes a big difference, might want to change it on the layouts as they both show 2nf cap, not everybody reads the comments before they build. Nice work guys.
Great to hear someone built it - and even greater that you liked it!
I still don't quite understand what that 2n/22n does, but it's still better with bigger cap there. Later when i tried, the sound didn't got affected that much wether the 2n was in the circuit or if it was completely removed. But. 22n works.
If you come up with good combination for clipping diodes, please do share the info! :) Personally i find those red/blue LEDs quite satisfactory. +m
I don't know why but I really want to make the modded version. that's what I'm gonna do tonight! I'll let you know (Mirosol) how it goes and how I like it!
Alright, I finished one yesterday. It was kind of a quickie. It doesn't sound good at all BUT I think it's something I did wrong. It works and all, but the drive is really.. hmmm.. fuzzy (in a bad way) so I'm going to have a close look tonight when I get home. I'm 100% sure it's not sounding like it should. I'll report back when I've corrected whatever's wrong.
Still sound really weird. I've swapped the TL072's. The only values that aren't correct are the 15nf is a 22nf and the 100uf is a 220uf (because I don't have a 100uf).
There's no sustain at all. The LEDs are obviously clipping because they light up. I'm getting a lot of the original guitar tone through and the distorted signal is just fuzzy and lacks all sustain.
Check the cuts? Double check component placements? Check the gaps for bridges? Knife?
Those component swaps couldn't change it that much. 220µ is the power filter, so you can omit it altogether... 15n is part of the tone control, so 22 will work there as well as 15. It should change the frequency of the tone sweep a bit, but not that much.
I can't get any original tone through from mine. I'm almost 100% sure you have some mistake or bridge in there... +m
This rarely happens. I use a thin hacksaw and saw between the tracks once everything's been hooked up to make sure there aren't any bridges and 99% of the times it works perfectly. I had to go through the tracks again with a knife. I couldn't see anything but anyways, it fixed it!
It sounds really cool. I can't compare it to the Timmy, Gainster or Klon that I'm currently loving to death but it does bring a different flavour to my pedalboard so I like it!
Wohoo! Perfect! Thanks for building it and for those words!
It's definitely not the best dirt box ever, but it's still really nice sounding and (at least in my opinion) worth a build. I'm thinking about creating a decal and sharing it. That way everyone who wants can have nearly authentic FYAelectronics pedal! :D
(if anyone wonders what my "brand's" initials FYA stand for, it's F You All..:)) +m
ok, one last question. is the ground on the switch supposed to attach to the ground on the board? would the wire go from ground on board, to ground on switch, to star ground? or do i need to keep the two grounds separate?
Sound best without the diodes...pull off them and the sound will be distorted too but not harshy. Very very good dinamics. Really reacts with the pressure of the pick. Maybe an ocd would sound best, i dont know, but to me this soun superb by now.
Hi, I've just finished to build it, but unfortunately, it doesn't work, it is completely silent. I used a TL072CP, may it be a mistake? The pinout could be different? Thank You so much! Guido
Tag it.
ReplyDeleteSounds actually very good. Reminds me a bit of Maxon 808, but this is just dirtier.
I think i'll want to try some larger caps here too, since it's just a little bit too thin to my taste. And clipping is definitely going on a switch. I have a vision that this might sound amazing with 1N60Ps.
In general, it's really nice OD/Dist with vitage-like sound. There is only two sounds actually; Slight distortion and fuller distortion :)
Ah. I'm really getting in to this stuff! Seems to me that almost every little plastic thingy out there has real potential, when build "properly".
+m
Excellent, cheers mate. I agree with you again, it also increases the potential to improve things when they're through hole components on a veroboard, as opposed to surface mount that are used a lot in the low cost mass produced effects. Thinking about it, a Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control tacked on the end may be a useful mod too.
Deletehttp://www.muzique.com/lab/swtc.htm
Haha, I've just seen a gut shot and noticed that they are through-hole. Well that screws up that argument!
DeleteOh well, build it anyway, it's cheaper than buying an effect and modding it. :o)
miro, were in the same boat, im drowning in all this, don't even have time to sleep these days :(
ReplyDeleteIf anyone comes up with cap values that they prefer over the stock values or any other mods, please post them. I remember playing on one of these years ago and liking but not loving it, so making a better sounding version with a tone control would be great.
ReplyDeleteHeh. This one isn't actually going to be a lot cheaper to build. One particular german music store sells these (well.. other danelectros) for about 25€/20£, so i think it's about 1:1 on price once boxed. Modding is much easier though :) Plus one can make it alot prettier..
ReplyDelete+m
Miro, if you get a chance will you swap the 2n for a 22n and see what you think of the difference. I saw someone mention they didn't know whether it was 2n or 22n and the bigger value seems to make more sense to me.
ReplyDeleteIt was sounding a bit thin :) I'll try it out right now...
ReplyDelete---
And yes. I strongly believe it's really a 22nF and not 2nF. It's not super fat with it, but better. There's a nice space on the left from the 2n, so i just soldered 22n in and tried with those two in parallel - as in ~24nF.
This one is so promising that once i find the time, i'll be trying a few things on this :)
+m
Cool thanks, I'll do the update after you've had a play then I can include any mods you do.
DeleteHeh. I know what i'll be doing tomorrow after work :)
Delete+m
Look for tone no more!
ReplyDeleteAfter nearly six hours of R&D, We're proud to present:
FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive!
So it's really just me and Danelectro Pastrami modded with Jack Orman's SWTC2. I started out with putting the clipping on a switch. Tried 1N60Ps on the other side and bright blue LEDs on the other. This really needs the LEDs. Even 1N4148s draw too much to ground, thus making it too quiet. Finally ended up with two 3mm bright blue leds on the other side and two 3mm diffused red leds on the other. Works, and their sound is really different - one with lots of body and some roundness, while others are just violently brutal and more piercing. That's just a simple two pole two position switch and i took the wires for lugs 2 and 5 from other led's holes.
Then.
I looked at the schematic and noticed something that's not that usual. The volume control controls the signal level to the other half of the opamp, rather than just "mixing" the output with ground. So. Hasty conclusion - i need to make the tone control between clipping stage and second opamp. Thus omitting the volume control as it was. Or, replace original volume control with tone. I removed that 220K resistor from the vero and used it's bottom hole for input for the tone control. This would take so many words to explain, so i drawed you a little picture: http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes_other/moldymeat_pastrami_addon.png
Pot for tone needs to be log. Basically it's SWTC2, but there's that 220K resistor also on board. I tried many different values for it, but if it's a lot lower, you'll get a lot of squeeling. 15nF sounded the best with 100K resistors to me..
After that, it's just output of the board to our new volume pot's lug 3 and lug 1 is the new output. That pot's lug one can stay where it was :)
I think it sounds like a cross between fuzzrite's piercing tone and crunchbox's clear, articulate, yet massive distortion. It wasn't too bad to begin with, but with relatively good tone control that affects it's overall sound a lot, it's really nice little buzzbox. Besides, these mods would have been very hard to do on an original...
That was fun! I'm not against it if you want to rearrange the layout with "FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive" :)
This was so great mod! Thank you big time Mark!!
+m
Excellent stuff mate, I'll do a layout. Have you thought of trying Ge or Si diodes in series? If you use two series pairs in parallel of either type, the threshold would double making it much louder.
DeleteDid not know that... Thanks :)
Delete+m
One more little thing. If someone feels that tone in zero position is too dark, then he/she can add something like 2K7 or 3K9 resistor in series with tone lug 1. Personally i wouldn't bother, since that super dark may come in handy :)
Delete+m
Thank you! That's so cool to see it!
ReplyDelete+m
I remember in 1999 or so I was working in Midtown Manhattan a block away from the music store row in the 40's. Mannys was selling a 5 pack of the 'deli-themed' danelectro pedals for $100. I bought it, played with them a bit and they made it into storage.
ReplyDeleteSeeing this led me to go digging for them. Some of them really hold up well after all this time. Some of them really were great circuits in terrible enclosures.
I found my chicken salad vibrato. Even unmodded its one hell of a pedal. I plan on doing the common tin foil mod to it this week to try and push it a little further.
Its a shame that the incandescent light warble box in the chicken salad makes it a poor candidate for a diy layout. It's so close to being a univibe clone and you can still score them on ebay for $15.
Also more on topic I know I gave my pastrami away to someone years ago who needed an OD when I was a tubescreamer snob. Will be building my own sometime next week. Thanks again for this.
Quick question about the LED's on the switch. Is there enough current to light them? Thought about running them to the outside of the enclosure if they light while playing. Thanks for the best layout sight I know. Keep up the awesome work:)
ReplyDeleteYes. They light up when they clip the signal. For example, i've used clipping LEDs as external indicators here: http://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/cruncher.jpg
DeleteOnce i box my modded version, i'll probably use the red/blue LEDs as indicators around the switch too :)
+m
I have one more thing to say about this.. Original uses volume pot to control how much of the signal gets to the recovery stage, but my mockup disables that. With tone replacing the original volume control, the recovery stage, or second half of the opamp, gets always maximum signal. What this means is that one can now get more beefier, or bluesy, drive out of it with drive at 2-10 percent of the sweep - without having to crank the volume to the max.
ReplyDeleteActually i'm extremely happy about how the mod came out. :)
+m
Are you a member of freestompboxes? There's a Pastrami thread there, so you should post the layout to your mod. A lot more people will be following freestompboxes so it should drum up some interested in modding these cheaper pedals.
DeleteYea, i'm registered (got the base schem from there for the mod), but i don't feel so much at home there, as i do here.. But hey! It's your layout :D If you want, you can post it with something like this:
Delete"
Look for tone no more!
After nearly six hours of R&D, We're proud to present:
FYA Electronics Moldy Meat Drive!
Actually, it's just me, mirosol, and in reality, it's just modded Pastrami. I replaced original volume control with Jack Orman's SWTC2 (with values that sounded good to me), and placed a new volume control after the recovery stage. Original uses volume pot to control how much of the signal gets to the recovery stage, but my mockup disables that. With tone replacing the original volume control, the recovery stage, or second half of the opamp, gets always maximum signal. What this means is that one can now get more beefier, or bluesy, drive out of it with drive at 2-10 percent of the sweep - without having to crank the volume to the max. OD and tone at max gives out something that reminds me of nasal and piercing qualities found in the fuzzrite.. If someone is feeling adventurous and is not afraid of squeeling, that someone could try to lower that 220K resistor... :)
Plus i replaced red diodes at clipping stage with a switch for led/blue LEDs. Other has more body, and other has more piercing feeling to it. After these mods, it's not just boring, plastic sounding distortion labeled as overdrive, but quite usable OD/distortion with hints of fuzz.
"
I'll post it... :)
Delete+m
built the mouldy meat modded version and was pleasantly surprised, a lot beefier than i expected. I`ll possibly tinker a little with the diodes tho`, possibly a rotary switch for added choice :-). 22nf cap makes a big difference, might want to change it on the layouts as they both show 2nf cap, not everybody reads the comments before they build. Nice work guys.
DeleteGreat to hear someone built it - and even greater that you liked it!
DeleteI still don't quite understand what that 2n/22n does, but it's still better with bigger cap there. Later when i tried, the sound didn't got affected that much wether the 2n was in the circuit or if it was completely removed. But. 22n works.
If you come up with good combination for clipping diodes, please do share the info! :) Personally i find those red/blue LEDs quite satisfactory.
+m
I don't know why but I really want to make the modded version. that's what I'm gonna do tonight! I'll let you know (Mirosol) how it goes and how I like it!
ReplyDeleteCool!
Delete+m
Alright, I finished one yesterday. It was kind of a quickie. It doesn't sound good at all BUT I think it's something I did wrong. It works and all, but the drive is really.. hmmm.. fuzzy (in a bad way) so I'm going to have a close look tonight when I get home. I'm 100% sure it's not sounding like it should. I'll report back when I've corrected whatever's wrong.
DeleteStill sound really weird. I've swapped the TL072's. The only values that aren't correct are the 15nf is a 22nf and the 100uf is a 220uf (because I don't have a 100uf).
DeleteThere's no sustain at all. The LEDs are obviously clipping because they light up. I'm getting a lot of the original guitar tone through and the distorted signal is just fuzzy and lacks all sustain.
Any ideas?
Check the cuts? Double check component placements? Check the gaps for bridges? Knife?
DeleteThose component swaps couldn't change it that much. 220µ is the power filter, so you can omit it altogether... 15n is part of the tone control, so 22 will work there as well as 15. It should change the frequency of the tone sweep a bit, but not that much.
I can't get any original tone through from mine. I'm almost 100% sure you have some mistake or bridge in there...
+m
This rarely happens. I use a thin hacksaw and saw between the tracks once everything's been hooked up to make sure there aren't any bridges and 99% of the times it works perfectly. I had to go through the tracks again with a knife. I couldn't see anything but anyways, it fixed it!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds really cool. I can't compare it to the Timmy, Gainster or Klon that I'm currently loving to death but it does bring a different flavour to my pedalboard so I like it!
Thanks!
Wohoo! Perfect! Thanks for building it and for those words!
DeleteIt's definitely not the best dirt box ever, but it's still really nice sounding and (at least in my opinion) worth a build. I'm thinking about creating a decal and sharing it. That way everyone who wants can have nearly authentic FYAelectronics pedal! :D
(if anyone wonders what my "brand's" initials FYA stand for, it's F You All..:))
+m
:o)
Deletehttp://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/MMD.JPG
ReplyDelete+m
ok, one last question. is the ground on the switch supposed to attach to the ground on the board? would the wire go from ground on board, to ground on switch, to star ground? or do i need to keep the two grounds separate?
ReplyDeleteHey guys, I built two of the Mouldy Meat, and im getting the same problem on both builds.
ReplyDeleteIm getting sound when tapping the tip a guitar lead input but nothing when I actually plug the jack into any guitar?
Is this some sort of earth issue? Just strange it happened on both builds
Sound best without the diodes...pull off them and the sound will be distorted too but not harshy.
ReplyDeleteVery very good dinamics. Really reacts with the pressure of the pick.
Maybe an ocd would sound best, i dont know, but to me this soun superb by now.
Hi, I've just finished to build it, but unfortunately, it doesn't work, it is completely silent.
ReplyDeleteI used a TL072CP, may it be a mistake? The pinout could be different?
Thank You so much!
Guido
Como conectar el swich dpdt y que no haga ese clank molesto
ReplyDelete