Nearly done with another DIY guitar pedal...

[SweetDan]

The last one was so much fun, I had to do another. This one is supposed to be in the overdrive family, though it doesn't distort much on its own (at least to my ears), but acts like a boost and will push the preamp harder. Overall, I'd say it's a slightly dirty boost with volume and a variable hi-pass filter for the tone knob.

The circuit of this one is a tweak of a clone of the Emerson "EM Drive". (I really need to buy something from that site - diyguitarpedals.com.au - since I keep using the guy's schematics and I've watched a bunch of his videos...though I'm concerned about the international shipping.) It's a slightly more complex circuit than the fuzz I built a few weeks ago...about double the number of components. Still very basic as far as effect circuits go, but it's been both fun *and* educational (EDIT: not as educational -- nor as useful -- as, say, building an amp ).

My plan for the exterior layout and graphics was this:

EmberDriverPedalGraphics_inline.jpg

which I followed pretty closely. Tone/Vol ended up swapped, and I got the tone capacitors swapped in the circuit, so the tone knob works backwards of what you'd expect.

Printing a waterslide decal in a light color for the labels/graphics was a fail, which in hindsight should have been obvious to me - bubble-jet printers don't (typically) have white ink! As of tonight the thing is all wired up into the enclosure, and I noodled around playing a bit tonight, but it has no graphics or labels. I'm going to see about getting them cut out of vinyl sticker material.

Pics (including guts) and tones later.

[Greg_L]

Cool man. A clean boost is a useful pedal.

[liv_rong]

Pics!

[SweetDan]

Pics!

I have some pics on my phone, but I want to post them together with some tone clips. I might have time this weekend...

[SweetDan]

Had time. Photos first (it's the pedal on the right; the white one, a fuzz, is what I built a few weeks ago). I still need to get the graphics for the new one printed out in cream-colored vinyl.

[SweetDan]

And sound clips.

EDIT: some set-up notes
- the guitar: tele clone, bridge p/u, tone/vol 100% unless otherwise noted
- the amp - http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/amp/ad30.html - Vox AD30VT
- mic: SM57, on-axis, ~2" from grille, pointed at speaker cone/dustcap seam

EDIT 2: notes on what you're hearing in the first 3 clips (approximate times):
- :00-:20, :45-:55, 1:05-1:15, 1:27-1:37 - pedal off
- :20-:45, :55-1:05, 1:37-end - pedal on
- 1:05-1:27 - pedal boost, but gtr. vol rolled off
- 1:27-end - experimenting w/tone knob on pedal

These first three follow the pattern of "clean => effected", with some variations in exactly how the effect is applied. (I'll come back to this post and add my detailed notes; they're in the DAW, which I don't have open right now.)

emberDrive_black2x12Model.mp3

emberDrive_cleanUk70sModel.mp3

emberDrive_dirtyUk70sModel.mp3

EDIT 3: detailed notes w/pedal and amp settings

black 2x12 model:
- gain=49%, vol=90, treble=65, mid=90, bass=60

uk 70's model:
- dirty: gain=55%, vol=60, treble=60, mid=40, bass=10
- clean: gain=35%, vol=99, treble=55, mid=51, bass=40

pedal:
- "unity": tone ~10:30/11 o'clock, vol ~11/11:30
- big boost / half gtr vol: tone ~10:30/11 o'clock, vol 3:00; then rolled gtr vol off about halfway
- tone knob extremes: tone at "unity", then full treble, then full bass; vol as at "unity"

Here are a couple where I was less methodical in the approach. I especially like the "moderate boost"; gtr. vol was rolled off a bit, the pedal vol was about 3 o'clock, and pedal tone was about 9 o'clock; this was into the "clean UK 70's" amp setting):

emberDrive_cleanUk70s_moderateBoost.mp3

emberDrive_dirtyUk70s_slammed.mp3

[Greg_L]

Nice build!

The tones sound pretty decent too. That pedal adds a nice little bit of grunt to the signal. Lotta noise in that last one though!

[JD01]

Cool, mate. I'd like to hear what that does to a crunch tone if you've got time. I like a clean boost.

Ah, you've posted clips. Will check them out shortly.

[rayc]

Well done - build & review.

[vomitHatSteve]

Nice!

Yeah, when you dime it, it is pretty noisy. Nothing that constantly playing won't solve tho!

[SweetDan]

Thanks everybody.

Yeah, when you dime it, it is pretty noisy. Nothing that constantly playing won't solve tho!

I don't know if the noise is the pedal, or my guitar; I suspect the guitar, since I've put no shielding in the control cavity. That would be a simple mod, but I have to not be lazy first.

[WhiskeyJack]

Very Cool SD. I really like that as a clean boost may i say. So awesome.

So are these kits? Or did you source the parts / schematics yourself?

[SweetDan]

You could get this one as a kit (http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/ ... ucts_id=73), though half the time stuff is Sold Out on that site, and the other half of the time I'm leery of international shipping so I don't bother to purchase anyway. The guy running the store publishes schematics and bills-of-materials, so I just used those references then sourced everything separately. (I don't think his kits come with enclosures, either, so I'd have to do some "shopping" anyway.)

Also, while I started with the published schematic, I experimented with a different transistor than the one listed (experimenting like this is actually encouraged in the documentation), and also added an extra resistor to complement the transistor selected. I didn't like how fuzzy it sounded using the exact values in the schematic/BOM.