BYOC Love??

[delae30]

Anyone make BYOC pedals here? I know there are some very handy soldering jockey on this board.

I just made my first ESV Fuzz. Its a fuzz face clone, but its the dirtiest, nastiest fuzz face I've ever heard. Of course you can tone it down, but I love the noise that comes out of this box. I still don't have all the kinks worked out, but the learning process for working on PCB's has been a lot of fun.

I think these are great projects for anyone who wants to get into pedal making. My goal was to learn how to make some pedals so I could gain some skills in eventually building my first amp. Anyway, just curious to see if anyone else has had any good experiences with these pedals?





As you can see I still have a lot to learn about constructing a neat pedal, but I think thats the whole point of these projects is that you really learn as you go.

[cdw2000]

Did you initally put the LED and pots on the wrong side of the circuit card? It looks like it from the first picture, but looks like you fixed in the second picture.

Actually your wiring looks pretty good. You should see the spaghetti wiring mess and ugly looking solder joints in some of the original vintage pedals.

[Kap'n]

I've built a couple, but I'm not so good with solid state circuits.

[Don]

I just made my first ESV Fuzz. Its a fuzz face clone, but its the dirtiest, nastiest fuzz face I've ever heard.

Wait until you try the ESV Tone Bender clone! It has another transistor and is far dirtier and nastier!!!

I use a Fuzz Face clone (Fulltone '69 Pedal) every time I play I reserve my Tone Bender clone for special occasions where I need to get real ugly.

[elicross]

I built a BYOC Overdrive a couple of years ago (back then, they called it the Screamer, but I guess Ibanez must've sent 'em a C&D letter). I was lucky -- I hadn't done any soldering in years (except for pickup swaps), but I only made one mistake (put a resistor in the wrong spot) and caught it right away. So it fired up and worked on the first try, and I still use it nearly every time I sit down to play. I dig it.

I keep eyeing their Overdrive 2 (with the built-in, independent clean boost) and the compressor with all the knobs and whatnot...but those circuits look a lot more complex than the Screamer. I could see myself getting into trouble with them.

[Don]

I've got their old Screamer clone as well. I also built their original digital delay.

[delae30]

Yes, I did put the pots and the LED in the wrong way the first time around! That was a stupid mistake, but I was literally learning on the fly. I didn't even know how to solder until that evening... but I got to learn how to de-solder too!

I was really surprised by how good this pedal sounds, but something is wrong with mine. It works pretty well but then randomly makes a ridiculous chirping noise that turns into a kinda cool self-oscillation that you can control with your volume knob. The only problem is that you never know when it is going to go nuts, so its pretty impractical at this point.

Honestly, I've found that soldering the components to the circuit board is by far the easiest part. I would be more intimidated by multiple foot switches and pots because you need to be like a surgeon to wire everything up neatly.

[Don]

Your soldering looks really good, especially for a first attempt. There are guys who have been soldering for years who don't do as good a job!

Your leads could stand to be tidied up a bit.

Those random chirping noises and oscillation are not normal. Maybe a component is swapped or defective.

[delae30]

Thanks, I plan on learning how to use a DMM and the signal tester provided with the kit, and essentially testing every single component till I figure it out.

[cdw2000]

Your chirping/oscillation might be caused by parasitic capacitance due to the long lead length of the transistors. I would shorten their leads and especially ensure that their cases don't contact any other components or traces on the circuit board. Use this picture on the BYOC website as a guide:



For mechanical reliability I would also use a little silicone sealer to glue them down to the circuit board (loosely). The silicone can easily be peeled off if you want to replace them for any reason.

[delae30]

Thanks, someone from the board suggested I do exactly what you just recommend. I think I'll try that first because all the soldering looks good, and the wiring on the foot switch and jack seems to be right.

[elicross]

I like that they use sockets for the transistors. Did the kit come with different kinds of transistors to try? When I got the Screamer/Overdrive kit, it came with a bunch of parts for different mods, but the only socket was for the op amp, so you could easily switch between the three they provided (I ended up liking the one that came in the original Tube Screamer best).

[delae30]

Its really cool that they use sockets, and yes it did come with a set of silicone transistors, but they really sucked. In fact, I first put those in the sockets as the directions instructed to test out the circuit, and I was completely unimpressed (maybe I had not adjusted the trim pot enough). I was kinda upset because it was not that "fuzzy", but then I put in those germanium transistors that look like R2-D2 and it was a whole new animal.

[KYChucky]

I built 7 of them about a year ago with the exact intent as you, to build an amp. I had fantastic results only having issues with only the ping pong delay (my errors). My favorite is the DOD 250 gray spec. moded with 3 clipping diodes. I did move on to build a Mission 5E3 that fired right up. Fantastic amp. An amp is not any harder than a BYOC kit. Its the same process of understanding the instructions and then executing the craft. You should build a tweed something, you can do it. I never drool over any amp or pedal any more - building your own stuff will free you from the gear madness that the commercial side of playing guitar trys so hard to sell you on. My 5E3 sounds so good I cant imagine getting a feel for another guitar with out it. Thus, I think I will just bypass the whole 'get another stock guitar' and build one of those too.

Sell what ya got and build what ya want.

KYC

[jerryjg]

I got a BYOC original Big muff copy in the works. Should have it within 10 days or so. They don't really hold their value, but i took it in trade for a Analogman DS-1 modded to TS-808 specs. The guy got the better end of the deal, but as long as its put together correctly, its okay .The BYOC parts were pretty expensive, about a hundred bucks shipped, plus the effort to assemble, so I'm down with it.

[Gris]

Wait until you try the ESV Tone Bender clone! It has another transistor and is far dirtier and nastier!!!

I use a Fuzz Face clone (Fulltone '69 Pedal) every time I play I reserve my Tone Bender clone for special occasions where I need to get real ugly.

But ... I have a fuzz face and tonebender in ONE pedal via toggle, MUHWAHAAAAA!!!!

[wingnut1]

I've built a few of them and they all turned out to be great pedals.

[elicross]

Wingnut, are all of those BYOC pedals? Where did you get/how did you make those cool labels?

[wingnut1]

The tuner and the Wah pedal are not BYOC, the rest are. I painted the enclosures white and then put a water slide decal on top. Then I put a couple coats of clear over top of that.

[elicross]

Very nice!

[wingnut1]

Thanks, I got better at it as I went along.

[Don]

But ... I have a fuzz face and tonebender in ONE pedal via toggle, MUHWAHAAAAA!!!!

I could use one of those!

[thegeezer]

I have heard some of wingnuts effect and I can vouch that they are very nice sounding.

[hudpucker]

Here's a link to my BYOC "Large Beaver" with the 'Pickle' mods (the pic is large so I left this as a URL):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...s/Gedc2047.jpg

[Timbo]

I've only made the BYOC Confidence Booster:



Looks a bit messier inside , but it works fine

[Don]

I've only made the BYOC Confidence Booster:



Looks a bit messier inside , but it works fine

That looks great! What's it do? How's it sound? My wife ordered my most recent BYOC pedal (the ESV Bender) for me as a gift so she received the confidence booster with her order. I haven't built it though.

[Timbo]

That looks great! What's it do? How's it sound? My wife ordered my most recent BYOC pedal (the ESV Bender) for me as a gift so she received the confidence booster with her order. I haven't built it though.

I have my son to thank for the paint job

It's just a nice and simple clean boost, I added the footswitch, LED and pot to the basic kit. It lives permanently on my pedalboard, and is probably used more than any other pedal.

[jerryjg]

Here's a link to my BYOC "Large Beaver" with the 'Pickle' mods (the pic is large so I left this as a URL):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...s/Gedc2047.jpg

Thats the one I'm getting- the Large Beaver. On clips it sounds pretty much like an original Rams Head Muff. OMG, it suddenly just dawned on me why its called that..Big Muff/Large Beaver..lord!
Something else just suddenly occurred to me- 'rams head' muff?? I won't go there.

[elicross]

Here's a link to my BYOC "Large Beaver" with the 'Pickle' mods

Are the "Pickle" mods aimed at making it sound like a Way Huge Swollen Pickle?

[Rickenjangle]

They should call it the sex change mod. It goes from being a beaver to a pickle.

I wonder what it would sound like if you put a way huge swollen pickle into a large beaver?

"The sound of love, my friends..."

[hudpucker]

Are the "Pickle" mods aimed at making it sound like a Way Huge Swollen Pickle?

Yep; they don't offer the Pickle mod 'kit' anymore but I'm not sure why really.

[elicross]

Incidentally, "Way Huge Swollen Pickle" is the only stompbox name that sounds dirtier than "Big Muff Pi."