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
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Friday, 19 August 2016
VFE Pedals Merman
Another great overdrive from VFE Pedals based on the Klon Centaur.
You can find schematic and info on their website here.
Seeing as how I am a klon(e) junkie ;) I'll have to build this one. Looks like a nice alternative with some unique features. And with six control pots, infinitely tweakable!
The small, 9mm pots have the following part number - RV09AF-40-20K-value. I started hand painting the notches with a silver paint pen around the end of 2014.
I have built this and it's the first time I have used a charge pump. I get a constant high-pitched whine which seems to very common, won't go away. I have good lead dressing, shielded input cable, tried battery, put a buffered pedal in front, tried ICL7660S and MAX1044. No change at any of these changes, The last thing I can think of is wait for the TC7662B ic in the post and see if that fixes it. Anyone have the same issues and how did you fix it?
Problem solved, this layout works as it should. I got some TC7662B's in the mail from Banzai and kicked out the 7660S; no more high-pitch whine, super quiet now. The problem I guess is either that the ICL7660S and MAX1044 aren't suitable or they are both faulty, more tests required with these chips. Thanks for the layout and thanks to Peter for the design.
I've built this and it's basically working, but feels like the drive has some glitch in it when compression is CCW. The sound starts to "crackle" if I hit the strings hard enough (not talking about "trying to break a string" strong). When drive is closer to 12 o'clock the crackle disappears. I changed the 2 opamps just for giggles, but that didn't affect anything (tried TL082's and TLE2072's). Checked the board again for solder bridges, wrong components and misplacements etc...all ok. The Warm pot is quite mild with low Compression setting. Bottom pot is barely present with low Compression setting and with more Compression it's there, but really mild. I've built few other VFE circuits and I feel they are somewhat prone to failures. I know there's nothing wrong with them and the circuits are legit and can work beautifully, but I've spent hours tweaking these to make them work even acceptably. I'm just having bad luck with these? Could be.
Seeing as how I am a klon(e) junkie ;) I'll have to build this one. Looks like a nice alternative with some unique features. And with six control pots, infinitely tweakable!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the layouts for these VFE pedals. They look like a classy company. What size are the small pots on these pedals? 9mm?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe small, 9mm pots have the following part number - RV09AF-40-20K-value. I started hand painting the notches with a silver paint pen around the end of 2014.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reply Peter. Great pedals!
ReplyDeleteVerified! Sounds quite different to my Klon but in a nice way. Very tweakable for sounds. Cheers Alex.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gavin!!!
DeleteI noticed on the schematic there is a 5k attack pot as well?
ReplyDeleteAh nevermind... I see it is a trimpot I suppose for the level to tame say humbuckers?
DeleteAh! attack is the other half of the drive dual gang pot in a KLON.
DeleteInteresting how VFE split that up.
I have built this and it's the first time I have used a charge pump. I get a constant high-pitched whine which seems to very common, won't go away. I have good lead dressing, shielded input cable, tried battery, put a buffered pedal in front, tried ICL7660S and MAX1044. No change at any of these changes, The last thing I can think of is wait for the TC7662B ic in the post and see if that fixes it. Anyone have the same issues and how did you fix it?
ReplyDeleteProblem solved, this layout works as it should. I got some TC7662B's in the mail from Banzai and kicked out the 7660S; no more high-pitch whine, super quiet now. The problem I guess is either that the ICL7660S and MAX1044 aren't suitable or they are both faulty, more tests required with these chips. Thanks for the layout and thanks to Peter for the design.
DeleteI've built this and it's basically working, but feels like the drive has some glitch in it when compression is CCW. The sound starts to "crackle" if I hit the strings hard enough (not talking about "trying to break a string" strong). When drive is closer to 12 o'clock the crackle disappears.
ReplyDeleteI changed the 2 opamps just for giggles, but that didn't affect anything (tried TL082's and TLE2072's). Checked the board again for solder bridges, wrong components and misplacements etc...all ok.
The Warm pot is quite mild with low Compression setting. Bottom pot is barely present with low Compression setting and with more Compression it's there, but really mild.
I've built few other VFE circuits and I feel they are somewhat prone to failures. I know there's nothing wrong with them and the circuits are legit and can work beautifully, but I've spent hours tweaking these to make them work even acceptably. I'm just having bad luck with these? Could be.