Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello all, haven't been here since the board software was changed - big improvement all round 8)

Thought I'd kick off with a pic of my pedalboard. It used to be such a simple affair but then I bought a Rangemaster kit and things just kept getting built! It didn't stop there either, I eventually used my BYOC experience to help me mod the Big Muff as well.



The blue one is my first build, an old point to point Rangemaster modded for negative ground. It's a real mess in there and I keep meaning to go back to it and clean up, but it's pretty quiet unless I use it in front of a fuzz so I haven't bothered. It's painted to a 'sandpaper' finish with hammerite hammered blue spraypaint.

The green one is a 'boo-teek' 808 kit with mid reduction, TI chip and assymetric clipping. I added a blue LED for boutique flavour. This is my favourite, both in sound and as a project. Turned out much neater than the RM. Painted by brush with hammerite hammered green - you can see the brush marks if you look closely but the hammered effect is pretty good. Better than I could get with spraypaint; the sandpaper effect on the RM was a happy accident.

Finally, the red one is a fuzzface. Green LED, Q1ge/Q2si trannies, different knobs, input cap switch (stock vs 0.47) and painted the same colour as my car using touchup paint. I like this one best cosmetically but I've never got it working quite right. Is the volume supposed to be more than halfway up before it matches the bypass signal?

Hey. Welcome back. I think I remember the negative ground rangemaster.

The unity gain of the fuzz face can be a little low sometimes. It's usually right around 12 o'clock, but can be more clockwise depending on your pups.

The kits now come with a mod for more output. It's very simple...just swap out the 470ohm with a 1k. You can use a 1.2k or 1.5k if you need even more volume....a virtual dirty boost.

Aside from the volume drop, is your fuzz face working fine?

Hello again Keith, thanks for the tip! I'm using low output pickups so that may well have something to do with the volume issue.

Apart from the volume drop, yes, everything is working as it should. I've been tinkering with different transistor combinations and settled on a mix of silicon and germanium, best of both worlds.

I notice the kit now comes with an alternative input cap as well - excellent idea, I think 0.47 is a superb value for that pedal and works well with both humbuckers and single coils. I was actually going to suggest you included it before I checked the site and saw you'd already done so.

What effect does the 2k fuzz pot have? EDIT: scratch that, I looked it up. I'm going to try a 2k fuzz pot and 1.2k resistor.

The cord you used to power the pedals, where would I get one? Would you say daisy chaining it the way you did is better that usig a DC Brick?

That's a Diago Powerstation from http://www.diago.co.uk

The Godlyke Powerall and 1-Spot systems are very similar, and more widely available in the US.

I used to have a power bank (brick) and yes, it's *much* better having the daisy chain. The diago power unit is much smaller than a brick while the godlyke/1-spot systems run on cables alone - the clever stuff is built into the wall wart. The daisy chain powers a lot more pedals than the brick, and you are far less restricted in terms of pedal placement; with the brick I had to keep everything close to it, with a chain you're only limited by how far one pedal is from the other. Best of all, these power solutions are very cheap for what they do. A voodoo labs power supply powering the same number of pedals would cost hundreds.

Whatever system you choose, I recommend you use 1-spot daisy chain leads as they are much longer than the others and come with angled connectors which save tons of space.

More images from my builds:

RANGEMASTER:







Like I said... a real mess. My mods always end up messier than the initial build - maybe Keith could include a section in his "cleaner build" tips on removal and reinstallation? :oops:

808:







Much neater!

FUZZ FACE:







Sporting a 2k fuzz pot, 1.5k reisitor replacing the 470 (thanks Keith, it's now working great!) and the input cap switch hidden under the board.