Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I reworked my old SuperEGO layout (the circuit is a Marshall Guv'Nor with a single/simple tone control) to use a SIP8 dual op amp package (and I changed a value or two to make it more standardized). SIP8 is just 8 pins in a straight line instead of a 4-and-4 side-by-side.

I named the circuit after the chip package, obviously, but also after a car that one of my best buds in high school had. It was this old, baby blue Cadillac that had an in-line 8. Thing was like a friggin yacht in terms of length, and like a Hummer in terms of gas mileage.

Anyway, the circuit has been posted previously as the SuperEGO, but here it is again (with minor changes) with the new layout. I will be ordering a few protoboards, and more if folks are interested. You can play all your old mid-80s to early 90s metal tunes with it, which is a-okay with me.

These ICs are readily available (and cheap!) from Smallbear or Mammoth (and of course Mouser, Newark, Digikey, and several other large vendors). I had to create a new part in Eagle to work with the SIP package, as the only one I could find was SIP9. Fun!


Here is the build document for the fabricated PCBs:

Cool. I totally want to try this. Let me know when Boards can be had.

Yep, me too ^

don't know if either of you guys have built CJ's super ego, but mine sounds BOSS. Cock rock in a box!

also - that's a sexy layout! I'm a big fan of 9v+ and GND pads next to each other for doing the twisty on those wires. Must be really nice to do 2-layer layouts and put the components (nearly) wherever you want 'em. I can see I'm gonna have to learn Eagle soon. How long have I been saying that??

Great work, as always. CJ, do you find the inline chip easier for component layout?

It's definitely a different way of thinking when working with two layers. At first I thought it was harder than one layer, but now I think it is so much easier. Now, I hate when somebody asks me to do a 1-layer layout for anything with more than 15-20 parts.

Eagle is a bitch to learn, especially on your own. And it is hard to learn by looking at screen shots. You really need to see it in action to get a good idea. The guy who runs the boutique label smallsound/bigsound was nice enough to make a demo video (at my request) on how to do a schematic/layout in Eagle. It's in two parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1__6mtHYH4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8sLazSRiM

That was the demo that made something "click" in my head about how Eagle works. After that, it was off the races!

And here's the demo that made me understand making a new part in Eagle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZcgduOr9gk



It's funny, because I sort of laid it out like you would a DIP. For a circuit like this, I'm not sure it's really any easier. But I also could, I suppose, try lining up the SIP all the way against one long edge and see what happens. It might yield a smaller layout. I mainly used SIP because I thought it would look cool, and because generally nobody else is doing it.

Thanks for those links CJ

I'd like one of these if you make more, CJ...

Sign me up for at least 2, I NEED one for my celtic frost riffmonster-onemanband

Awwwwwwwwww yeah!


I was out of 820K, but 680K works nicely. That resistor is just setting the fixed gain in the second op amp. Anything 470K to 1M will work and most likely sound about that same.

killin me cj!! i want one or 2 of em!!

great.. now i have to add megadeath's sweating bullets to my repertoire...

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!!

out of curiosity.. i have made adapters before to use regular 8 leg ic's for modding boss pedals

ie

-------- turns into using ====

would using another ic or 2 ics yield more gain?
add too much noise?
be a waste of time?

Using a different IC might make a tiny bit of difference in tone. I'm not sure how you would use 2 ICs in this layout, unless you "stacked" them physically. And I don't know what that would do in terms of sound.

If you want some SIP alternatives to the 4558, check out what Mouser has in stock:
http://www.mouser.com/Semiconductors/Am ... mp&FS=True

Will have to look into some of those alternative....

Solderstack 2 ics together and report back you phreek.
It makes difference in a lot of ODs, so jebus corpse compelles you to try it for science

heh i dont even have the parts to build one right now!!

gotta do a parts order before i build anything else..

I know this is an old thread and all, but I didn't want to muck up the forum with a new one until my enclosure is finished.

Let me just say that this circuit was a pleasant surprise. Initially, I was only intending to test it to make sure it worked, but upon hearing it, a fire ignited within me that hasn't been lit for years. I found myself playing old hair metal riffs and early 90's Soundarden, Alice In Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots riffs for over an hour before I realized I had been swept away. I haven't played most of that stuff in years.

CJ, thanks for the PCB. This was a simple and fun one to build and sounds great!