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Got time to get some major work done on the Armageddon Processor PCBs. Almost all are laid out and the first two are ready for testing. Woot!
I have been working on a Beavis fuzz for six months now--an over-the-top successor to the original old fuzzLab. During this time I've built a bench full of circuits and tried to weave them together in interesting ways. All within the crippling tyranny of the stompbox form-factor. And the farther I got, the more depressing the whole project became. There were just too many compromises to make when trying to fit it into a stompbox..... read more: Armageddon Processor
I get a lot of emails with questions. Thankfully, most of them are about building stompboxes n' shit, and not about my previous life as a Guatemalan transvestite. But a lot of people seem to keep asking about the birth of the beavis. So go ahead, meet the beav.
Here a couple of fun designs using tubes in starved-plate configurations for overdrive circuits. The first is from a schematic I found on matsumin's site, a 12AU7 dual-triode running at 9-12 volts: the ValveCaster The second is a bit more interesting. It uses as 6111 sub-mini dual triode originally designed for ballistic missiles and other Cold War aerospace tasks. Here's a pic of the 6111 next to a regular 12AX7 tube and a 9v battery for scale reference:
I created a simple voltage regulator to supply 6.3v to the heaters and ran the rest at 12 volts. Here it is, the Sub Caster. There's also a great thread going on over at diystompboxes.com about these designs--lots of ideas there.
Well after many many months, the design is done and tested, PCBs are being manufactured and soon there will be a kit version from olcircuits.com and ready to run boxes from the Beavis. I haven't finalized which enclosure I'll be using, but here's a snapshot of the finished proto:
And here is the schematic for those who want to hack one together.
One of the first pedals I ever built: the BYOC Fuzz Face clone. I was playing around with the fuzz face circuit last night and came up with a few additional mods that are rather fun. Updated Mod Diagram!
Buffer or true bypass? The question is as old as some of my socks. If you hang out on forums or google the topic, you will find endless debates about buffers vs. true-bypass. The good news is that it is not a binary decision. Here's what I've found over countless tone experiments moderated by liberal amounts of beer.....Some simple ideas in the great Buffers vs. True Bypass jihad, including schematics and a DIY buffer project.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I just can't stop building bastardizations of the Rat. Following hot on the heals of last week's Double Rat Rack, I just had to top it with a triple rat. I had a few BYOC Mighty Mouse boards left over so I whipped them up, wire-brushed and drilled a big wide enclosure and built the Triple Rat, complete with bitchin' 80's rising sun graphics.
Does the Digitech Grunge sound better before or after the Boss DeathMetalMasterShred 9000? Chorus before delay? Dinner before the movie? The traditional way to do this is to to flop the physical order by swapping the cables in and out. But that approach means that it is difficult to actually compare the different orders in real time. The solution? Build a simple order switcher pedal. This circuit uses a 4PDT switch, six mono jacks, and a few LEDs and a resistor to flip the order of two pedals just by hitting the stompswitch.Build a simple effects order switcher and dare to compare.
Here are some wiring diagrams that show how to create true bypass loops. Examples are shown for a simple loop, loop with LED indicator, and loop with a feedback mixer.
I finally got the rack mount double-rat done for my good friend James. Lube knobs, and LED/stock/germanium diode switching on each side. Starting with a commercial ProCo r2DU product, I built the ultimate dual rat. See more pics.
I finally finished my custom one of a kind Noisy Cricket Combo amp. It is listed on eBay and 100% of the proceeds go to UNICEF. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your parole officer. All to a good cause and a bitchin' little amp to boot! Update: This little number was purchased by the most awesome Scott of Axe and You Shall Receive. What a great guy. And he has an awesome business too. You think you suffer from GAS? Yeah right, visit Scott's site and you'll suffer some more.
I've been playing around with different electro-mechanical effects ideas: using motors, transducers, coils, etc. that can be directly applied to a guitar body, strings, bridge, pickups, etc. Here's the first set of results: using vibrating motors (as found in cell phones, old pagers, etc.) to get bowing and grinding effects. Check out the idea, along with a video.
As time becomes less and less available and the number of projects my crazy mind thinks of becomes unmangeable, one of my favorite devices, the Trotsky drive has been neglected for too long. The good news is that my good friend and stompbox guru Nate has taken up the task of building and customizing trotsky pedals in addition to his other awesome custom builds. If you are interested in the trotsky, or want to check out some other cool custom stompboxes, absolutely give nate a holler: puma (at) superpuma.net. Here's an example of one his righteous etched trotskys:
I added a page to yack about some of the digitial/microcontroller stuff I've been working on, including the arduino punk console.
(Updated rev 1.2) I've received lots of requests from people to make Noisy Cricket Mark II printed circuit boards available. Unfortunately, I'm not equipped to make lots of PCBs (and I hate making PCBs to begin with--the least fun part of this zany hobby). So as a compromise, I figured it would be a good idea to figure out how to build a NCMII on one of those Radio Shack general-purpose PCBs. They are available ($2.50 for 2!) at almost every Radio Shack and you don't have to etch, cut, etc.
So here's a handy build guide showing the info you need to build your own cricket without etching boards. PDF Version
Over the last 8 months I've been very successful at avoiding work on the Tube Cricket. Thankfully, Mark at OLCircuits has badgered and shamed me into getting the final schematic done. Mark then proceeded to work on the Tube Cricket Kit! Woot, etc. Check out the OLCircuits prototype:
You can get more information on the upcoming Tube Cricket Kit here: http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_tubecricket.html. Send Mark a thank-you note for kicking my lazy ass into gear on this one!
My grandfather once told me there were only two ways I'd be a news item: the arrest reports or the obituaries. Of course, he was a grumpy old bastard. Hey gramps! Neener Neener: Premier Guitar ran a short piece of Beavis Audio! Amazing that there would be mainstream interest in my fun little corner of the world, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Thanks Premier Guitar People! Here's a direct link to the page.
This weekend was a Noisy Cricket Mark II building bonanza. Wife and kids were out of town (sad :( ) so I got a lot of time to build (glad :) ). Got a stack of Mark II's done. I'm really pleased with the new enclosures and the way these have turned out. I'll be putting this batch on eBay, more details to follow.
In related news, I've been thinking about building one very special Noisy Cricket and selling it for a charitable cause, something that helps kids who need help. Then I found out that eBay makes it easy to set up an auction where the proceeds go directly to a specific charity. Armed with this knowledge, my mind sprung into action: what kind of Noisy Cricket had I not built before? Simple: a combo! I had the shell of an old dean markley practice amp, no speaker or electronics, just a dusty beat-up 12" high cabinet. I cleaned it up, repaired the Tolex rips and dings, and painted it yellow. I put the hardware back on and installed a nice new Jensen Mod Series 6" speaker in it. Next I fabricated a front panel out of a sheet of stainless steel and attached it to a small Hammond enclosure to hold the guts. It's not done yet, but close. When it is ready to go, I'll be sure to post a link to the eBay auction so you can get in on the philanthropic action.
Have you ever wondered what the inside of a Dingowad 900E Super Distortion pedal looks like? Well now you can find out. Peek under the kimono--here's my growing collection of pedal inside pix.
Mimm's classic 556 dual timer oscillator with a new output section to make it compatible with the pedalboard. Plug it in instead of a guitar. Also google the Atari Punk Console for a quick and easy version of this.
I've always wanted to build a real Theremin, not the silly opto 1 chip things. Ordered the Theramax kit from PAIA and its now about 75% done.
Still lots of work ahead on this, but its getting closer. Check out the lovely Hammond enclosure and knobs for this beast.
Malekko Heavy Industries is a new pedal house run by a very cool guy. His B*assmaster is derived from the uber-rare and ultra-cool Maestro Bass Brassmaster from way back. Got one in the basement yesterday, and it simply rocks: awesome fuzz an octave effects with a ton of tweakability. Highly recommended.
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