I've posted the draft version of Let’s Build a Pedal using the beavis protobread v1! This is an early version. Your comments and feedback are muchly welcomed. Should have final pricing and shipping costs up tonight along with a way to buy 'em!
With the runaway success of the beavis board (we are still a month behind!) I've been thinking about how to turn beavis board creations into real pedals. This thought has been reinforced by many emails asking "How do I turn my cool beavis board design into a real, permanent pedal?" To solve this problem, I designed a new PCB and just received the first batch of beavis protobread PCBs. These are an exact match in layout to the breadboard itself. That makes it easy to solder components onto a PCB using the exact same layout from the beavis board!
I'll have a new article up soon about how to use them, and PCBs will be for sale soon!
A recently re-kindled love of hooking up, and hacking, hi-fi equipment and ipods has led to a new site: Beavis Hi-Fi. Check it out! Of course, the pedal madness will continue unabated.
I know this guy named dave, he is a rare find. He knows more about the Sound of Pedals than any guy I've ever met. And add to that the fact that he can rip out some bodacious riffs. And incredible adhoc melodies. Listen if you have a moment. Dave is an exceptional and rare dude.
In light of recent events, my site will no longer carry any content regarding danelectro products.
One of the great cheap guitar tricks is to make your guitar stutter. This is usually done by turning one of your volume knobs all the way off and then using the pickup selector back and forth to get a rapid on/off effect. I've received some emails from folks trying to build these, and some with a few interesting variations. There are loads of resources on the web for adding a stutter switch directly to your guitar, so I'll concentrate on building this simple device as a pedal.
With all the bits of schematic goo I've been obsessively drawing over the years, it seemed like a good idea to put some of the fragments and misc blocks up on a page . Here it is: Blocks and Fragments. I'll update this page over time as I draw up new things. Note that most are fragments and some are unverified, but there should be some useful bits in there for you.
Many moons ago I drew up various mods for the BuildYourOwnClone fuzz kit. The resulting mod diagram has been a very popular item. Somewhere along the line, Keith at BYOC updated the fuzz kit to the new ESV type and I never updated the mod sheet to reflect the new PCB. So finally I got around to it. Check out the new BYOC ESV Fuzz Mods PDF for voltage sagging, switching transistors, the Flaming Howl of Death, and more!
There. I said it. Batteries suck. Here's why we shouldn't play that game anymore.
Tired of getting hum in your pedals from a crappy cheap power supply? Build the huminator to solve the problem. A fun and easy project that takes about an hour.
Insanity I tell ya! It could only be insanity.
The old Colorsound Inductor-less wah circuit is a fun and easy project. You don't need an inductor and it lends itself to all sorts of fun variations. In this project, we'll build the original in pedal form for a 'cocked wah' pedal, then add an LFO and Vactrol to create the optochopto wah-based tremolo, and finish it all off with a very simple and good-sounding booster.
Got the tufnel done. Visit the media page for a vid clip. What I learned:
Do you ever wonder what those zany boutique pedal builders look like? Where do they work? Our new (and constantly growing) Meet the Makers page attempts to demystify these solder fume-addled individuals.
"It's such a fine line between stupid
and clever." How would you honor such a philosophical/musical genius? You would create the loudest rudest distortion pedal possible. Here it is, the tufnel distortion. Warning, do not turn the volume control over three, even though it goes to 11.
Update: The box is pretty much done:
What do you do when you're sitting on a fetid mound of old stale content? You guessed it--you put it all on one page and pass it of as ass-fresh new "media"! Damn I miss the dotcom days. Click your mouse device up on the vidz/clipz link above.
This is a re-housed Malekko E600 delay. Wat? Did someone say nintendo power glove?
I've futzed around with general copyright notices on my site and wrestled with the balance between making everything public domain and being restrictive and onerous. Finally, through the magic of Creative Commons, I think I've found a great solution. No bullshit legalese, just fair common-sense licensing. Check it out.
Wherein I have the honor to fix a dead rack delay from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.
Thanks to the super-ace support from
my hosting provider (godaddy!) I have all the techpages back online.
I think I've learned my lesson now--double redundant backups! Thanks
for your patience while that part o' the site has been down.
We've been working for a while on a cool add-on for the beavis board--the idea is to make it easy to add low-voltage tubes to designs. The prototype is done and lookin' good. Should have pricing and availability info in the next week or so. Some more info here
Voltage sagging is fun. What?, you say? Perhaps you have heard pedal folklore about how certain pedals sound better with a dying battery. SRV favored a dying battery in his beloved tubescreamer, and fuzz fans in the know love to reduce the voltage on fuzz pedals for great lo-fi splatty fun. A couple of years ago I build Dying Battery Simulator that used a simple potentiometer circuit to simulate the decreased voltage and the increased series resistance of a dying battery. And the results were quite fun. Check it out here. Of course you can also build your own!
Finally found some time to update the site. Now has an actual navbar on the top, a way to order things, and a (hopefully) cleaner look. I've also added a products and buy page to make it easier for folks to get things from the beavis empire. Also redid the CSS to hopefully make things more consistent. As I'm under the hood, you may notice things looking a little funky, but that should all be stabilized soon. If you do find a missing pic or a broken link, please feel free to holler.
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looking for great effects kits?
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My buddy Mark runs Officially Licensed Circuits which provides some of the best and most unique stompbox kits available. If you are looking to build effects and want to try your hand at a kit, visit Mark today!
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updated: dying battery simulator
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The first article I ever wrote on the beavis site was for a Dying Battery Simulator. As such it was woefully out of date. I've updated the article with a few new ideas. In honor of the voltage updates, here's the devolt:
(c) 2005-2009. Some Rights Reserved - This work is licensed under a
Creative
Commons License
