I don’t think I’ll be building this but I put together a part-sized schematic just for fun. I think it’s right but since I only protyped about 50% of it I can’t swear it. You could get this into a square inch if you knew what you were doing. Then again, I’m sure there are ICs that could hold all of it and more in less space.

When I ordered my kits from NightFire I did not know what SMT stood for. Now I do. It’s surface-mount technology. Some of the parts are barely bigger than a sesamé seed. I wondered why they advertised loupes all over their site. I arrogantly assumed it was because old folks were doing electronics and with my fantastic eyes I’d have no need of such cripple-ware (oh, Jody, it’s just colorful speech, man!). Instead I discovered I was lucky to have a good powered pocket magnifying glass in my dresser because even with it I can barely make out any of the writing on these things.

Ah, yes. Live and learn.

Wasted money, I thought. But they are great parts is the thing. Much better gain and signal to noise ratio than the bigger parts I got. Why I ordered them. So I must try to use them. I have no copper boards or etching chemicals though and I’m not that interested in trying right now anyway. So, the solder. Here’s the first stab.

Can you even see it? Here’s a close-up picture after all three wires were attached. I need to have it on wires so it can be used in prototyping on the breadboard. The trick is–

• Get the wire hot, not the SMT (an MMBT5089 transistor in this case). I used a 15 watt solder iron.
• Put a little solder to the wire; keep it hot with the solder iron against it.
• Move the SMT contact point into the solder and simultaneously remove the iron.
• Hold it very still and blow… hmmmm, I’ve heard this advice before. No! given it. Yeah, given it, that’s the ticket.

The wires above are for the breadboard. If doing this for a real circuit, high guage stranded copper wire—or just soldering directly to the board—would be the right choice.

For perspective here it is with the other wires and a guitar pick. There is a pink circle around it to help you see where it is.

The gain and voltage requirements were different from the 2N3904 and NPN friends I was playing with so I had to swap out caps and resistors for awhile till I got something nice, but it is nice. I now have two different custom modifications of the Electra Distortion circuit and I think both are improvements over the original.

I picked up some more parts and will definitely do this one in an enclosure. Still have to manage to do a DPDT switch and add in a LED before I can do a complete effect properly.

Might all be a week or two away. It’s exiting to consider how small the effects board can be with the SMT parts. Could put 5 different effects into a regular pedal enclosure. It would only be limited by the space needed for pots.

Here is a new schematic of my own for the effect. This is probably not the one I’ll build because it’s not the transistor I like better, but the drive/distortion on this is adjustable and much smoother—to me—than on the original. I didn’t prototype it with the volume pot so 100k might not be the best value; also the drive control should probably be a 2k fixed resistor in parallel with a 500k pot (those values are not quite right) wired backwards to get something close to 2k–50k adjustable resistance in there.

I looked around at dozens of schematics while I was reading up on parts and voltage forwarding and capacitance and all that jazz. Since the Octavia might be a mire of not being able to find out what’s wrong, if something goes wrong, a simpler effect was in order to prove I can read a schematic and solder a 1/4" jack properly. I kept thinking, there simply has to be a way to get a decent, basic distortion without 15 parts and 35 wires.

I finally found the “Electra Distortion” at Justin Philpott’s very nice schematic archive. This is his new site. His custom schematics are copyrighted so I can’t print anything but you can find it on his site(s). This is what it looks like built on my Radio Shack project kit. I used the same silicon diode instead of the recommended parts (I think one is supposed to be germanium) and it sounded good anyway. It was simple to put together. Got it right the first try so at least I can read a schematic now. (In the picture the negative ground wires are not connected and you can ignore the little momentary switch stuck in the board.)

While putting it together I found what I’d actually wanted—the most basic distortion possible—at the very excellent GM Arts. Which I’m going to try next b/c I have several versions of the IC operational amplifier (op amp) and I can easily play with it, adding things and changing out values.

What I learned so far that you probably need to know too:

• Only a super-genius or a complete moron would try to experiment with electronics without a breadboard (like the one on my Radio Shack kit).
• Alex Borstein has freckles and looks great without make-up even under the crappy lights of the Lake City Way Starbucks.

…Um, how did that slip in?

Conclusion

It’s a nice effect with good internal harmonics but too ’60s fuzz for me and quite weak on sustain; you won’t get any good false harmonics with it. I never liked the Big Muff or any of the similar pedals. It does, however, play nicely with others. It’s a bit muddy in the mid range but manages to stand out against drums and bass. Here is a sound sample of the effect. It’s played with a Gothic Les Paul and an American Jackson Soloist. Sorry, it’s not in a real arrangement.

I might play around with the parts before disassembling it but this isn’t one worth, to me, putting onto a board with a switch, battery clip, LED, enclosure, et cetera.

Update: Played around and read some more. Pulling either diode raises the volume and makes the distortion more harsh and noisy. The Radio Shack NPN seems to get a slightly smoother sound (and less clipping on the board when everything was set right below, so probably less gain) than the 2N3904 from NightFire (the “smother sound” is subjective). Lowering the capacitors (maybe just the one on the input) should improve the treble and make it less muddy overall. Plus, the 47k resistor can probably go a little lower to melow the distortion and make it more overdrivey. The 1N4001 diodes (paired) do indeed sound a little better than the 1N4148 diodes I tried at first; might try to dig up my germanium as the schematic shows to see if that makes a difference. Don’t even know if it’s a 1N34A or if that will matter.

I might actually build a box with this after all. I need to make sure I can do it before I wreck a bunch of complex soldering on a fancier effect.

So… six days ago I had scoured about 20 sites which sell electronics parts; diodes, resistors, transistors, chipboards, potentiometers, &c. I found a site that seemed uniquely suited to what I was looking for: NightFire Electronic Kits.

Comparing component lists for the Tychobrahe Octavia, the Voodoo Lab Overdrive, and the Popular Electronics Differential Distortion I found that a few of their kits contained most of the needed parts plus tons of extras and plenty of duplicates for a first-timer like me to ruin without having to order again.

I’ve been online since 1992 and I’ve been online almost continuously (2-18 hours a day, no lie) since 1998. When I visited NightFire Electronic Kits my first reaction was, “What? A redirect to a personal site… that’s not cool.” I assumed I couldn’t trust them. But their kits were just too perfect for me so I figured I might as well try.

I ordered $25 worth of stuff. The order confirmation said I could expect delivery—not just shipping but delivery—in 2-5 business days. I thought, “Oh, now I know they’re crooks. That just doesn’t happen.” I set in to waiting for the rip-off to play out and checked my credit card account every day.

Last night I dreamt I got the stuff and started building with it like a pro. This morning I check the mail and—4 business days after ordering—it was there and it all looks great!

I got about four times as much stuff for $25 as I did at Radio Shack last week. And with online ordering I didn’t have to endure a retail troll hovering over my shoulder constantly telling me that the jacks and battery clips that cost a dollar more are so much better.

I don’t know if these guys are normally this quick and reliable but it seems likely so I highly recommend them.

So. It’s been years since I did any electronics or system level programming. I hate not knowing how some of the little bits of electronics and even computers work. I know what logics gates are and what they do but I can’t build one. Not tonight anyway. I could when I was 14. Bothers me. So–

Project Effects

I’m starting this project with a few goals.

1. Relearn basic electronics—how to read a schematic, why things, work—and how to put it all together—building from single parts.
2. Build anything that works as a guitar effects processor.
3. Ultimately, build an emulation of a Tychobrahe Octavia guitar effects unit or something just as nice which I’ll actually use to make music.
4. Refine and redo the box in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
5. Relay the information and journey from start to finish here; maybe make it tutorial oriented if I have time to get that detailed.

I found a terrific Korean site for homebuilt custom electronics via Boing Boing. A little poking around found some of the complete items, including this gem.

A headphone amp complete with a vacuum tube built into an Altoids tin. Wow.

I have a nice Radio Shack Electronics kit. I plink with it a bit but haven’t sat down to really learn how impedances add and such. I never really have a reason.

I also discovered some really fantastic guitar effects schematics out there. Plenty of basic ones which I think I could wire without learning much at all. Then I found a wav file of the Tychobrahe Octavia in action and I was sold. If I can manage to build it, I’ll absolutely use it in recording. It sounds lovely: proto-grunge. Grunge before grunge got cynical and was still just sincere and angry.

Tune in next time for … uh, I’m not sure. Shopping for parts?