Tone Bender building for dummies?

[merlyn]

@Folderol I see. Germanium transistors are totally weird.

@Wonks Yes, good article.

@SecretSam You might have missed this earlier :

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/201 ... ional.html

No circuit diagrams, just a layout on a bit of veroboard. You could start with that to get something working, then experiment with tweaking the circuit, and if germanium transistors are so weird they will respond to tweaking

[Folderol]

@Folderol I see. Germanium transistors are totally weird.

Oh yes, but fun to play with. The only downside is that they are also very temperature sensitive (on just about all characteristics) Although I've seen even that made use of

[SecretSam]

Gents

Sincere thanks for all the very expert advice.

It seems there is quite a learning curve in front of me.

Fidding on a breadboard ... of course will let me separate circuit design issues from dodgy soldering, so thanks for stressing that.

@merlyn thanks for the veroboard link. Another dumb question: what is the meaning of the red squares with the red dots?

[Wonks]

Another dumb question: what is the meaning of the red squares with the red dots?

That’s where you cut a bit out of the veroboard track to break it into two (or more) sections. Sone people use a drill bit in the hole to break the track.

[Folderol]

Another dumb question: what is the meaning of the red squares with the red dots?

That’s where you cut a bit out of the veroboard track to break it into two (or more) sections. Sone people use a drill bit in the hole to break the track.

A 4mm drill bit is your friend. I only ever saw one 'proper' spot face tool, and it was 'kin expensive!

Be very careful to ensure you have cut the full width of the track, and not left any whiskers shorting to adjacent ones.

[Wonks]

If in doubt, use a scalpel or sharp craft knife to cut twice across the track in that position and peel off the copper from the board. But a quick continuity test with a multimeter should confirm that you’ve cut the track correctly.

It’s very easy to lose track when counting along to work out where to cut the track, so best to first mark your cut points, then recheck your counting.

Also be aware of which way up the diagram view has the veroboard. What is hole 16 out of 20 from the top view (component side view) is actually hole 5 out of 20 from the underneath view which is the track side view, so you need to get it right.

[ef37a]

Another dumb question: what is the meaning of the red squares with the red dots?

That’s where you cut a bit out of the veroboard track to break it into two (or more) sections. Sone people use a drill bit in the hole to break the track.

A 4mm drill bit is your friend. I only ever saw one 'proper' spot face tool, and it was 'kin expensive!

Be very careful to ensure you have cut the full width of the track, and not left any whiskers shorting to adjacent ones.

VERILY^! See my earlier post.

Dave.

[Albatross]

I use a magnifying glass to check my cuts, then use a meter to make sure there's no electrons creeping across.

For the joins I've found that the inner core of old tv aerial cable is perfect.

I also use that to secure wires attached to the edges of the board. I sling a little loop over the wire, through the hole, pull tight then solder it on the back. It does mean that whatever any diagram shows as the board size needs to be a bit bigger to facilitate the connecting wire to pots and switches, jacks and so on.

Don't forget that if you plan to use the old stereo jack switch trick then you need to have a spare track for the battery ground. So all grounds to their track, battery to this spare (edge) track and when you put the TS plug in it joins the ground track and battery track and you get power ... when you pull it out the battery ground floats and you save the battery and switch the device off.

Hope this isn't a granny egg sucking class or has been mentioned before, not read the whole thread and don't know how much of this you've done.

If you've not used Veroboard much then perhaps make something simple and useful for starters as a practice piece ... recommend the brilliant and simple buffer/pre. I get so much use out of mine for all kinds of stuff ... The Tillman (with or without gain switch or volume pot) http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/201 ... llman.html

(oops not sure if you have any JFets, but pretty much any will do)

My sincere apologies for posting the link to the Tagboardeffects site. I thought I'd managed to sneak it past you but Merlyn spotted it so you can blame him for all the hours you will likely now spend breathing in solder smoke hunched over a screen when you could have been outside, with a cold beer and Africa's finest between your fingers playing an acoustic guitar. Sorry.

[SecretSam]

I use a magnifying glass to check my cuts, then use a meter to make sure there's no electrons creeping across.

For the joins I've found that the inner core of old tv aerial cable is perfect.

I also use that to secure wires attached to the edges of the board. I sling a little loop over the wire, through the hole, pull tight then solder it on the back. It does mean that whatever any diagram shows as the board size needs to be a bit bigger to facilitate the connecting wire to pots and switches, jacks and so on.

Don't forget that if you plan to use the old stereo jack switch trick then you need to have a spare track for the battery ground. So all grounds to their track, battery to this spare (edge) track and when you put the TS plug in it joins the ground track and battery track and you get power ... when you pull it out the battery ground floats and you save the battery and switch the device off.

Hope this isn't a granny egg sucking class or has been mentioned before, not read the whole thread and don't know how much of this you've done.

If you've not used veroboard much then perhaps make something simple and useful for starters as a practice piece ... recommend and brilliant and simple buffer/pre. I get so much use out of mine for all kinds of stuff ... The Tillman (with or without gain switch) http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/201 ... llman.html

Thanks Albatross. My soldering to date only includes fixing an old pair of headphones, and my electronics dates back to A-levels, some 40 years ago. So all advice gratefully received.

If there is a thick black line on a veroboard layout, is the convention that just the ends are connected, or does it mean that all the strips under it are connected?

[Albatross]

Just the ends. Your components are going on the none copper side, as are the joins. Sometimes the designer needs to jumper two tracks together. Its just a jumper. If you make something, everything will click.

[SecretSam]

Thanks - looking forward to that click. Followed by rich, fuzzy goodness.

[Hugh Robjohns]

A 4mm drill bit is your friend. I only ever saw one 'proper' spot face tool, and it was 'kin expensive!

The 'proper' Veroboard cutter is surprisingly expensive at £17...

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/stripboard-cutters/0543535/

But on the other hand, I bought mine in the late 70s and it's still going strong. Ive never had to resharpen it either, and in fact it has outlasted at least two pairs of (far more expensive) side-cutters, and one pair of needle-nose pliers, so actually I reckon I was well worth the initial outlay, especially given its convenience and ease of use.

For the uninvested there's an el-cheapo Brimal version on Amazon for just £3.99 that might be worth a punt:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brimal-Stripboard-Cutter-Prototype-Circuit/dp/B0071KZVV0

[Folderol]

A 4mm drill bit is your friend. I only ever saw one 'proper' spot face tool, and it was 'kin expensive!

The 'proper' Veroboard cutter is surprisingly expensive at £17...

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/stripboard-cutters/0543535/

Even this doesn't really do it properly, and like all the others weakens the board. The one I saw was made for the owner by a small engineering firm, and was actually a counterbore tool with a centre locating pin. It had three cutting faces for stability that only cut the track. It was quick, no more than a couple of turns, and produced a perfect result every time. Not surprisingly, the owner wouldn't even let me pick it up

[Hugh Robjohns]

Even this doesn't really do it properly, and like all the others weakens the board.

You'd have to have a really heavy-handed approach to weaken the board to any significant degree! The drill bit has a very shallow cutting angle -- much like a counter-sink bit -- so while you will cut into the fibre board slightly near the inner edges, it's really not enough to weaken the board -- and I've never had a board crack, let alone break, where I've cut out the vero strip.

It was quick, no more than a couple of turns, and produced a perfect result every time.

My old vero cutter is the same. Two or three twists with only modest pressure and a perfect result every time. Been using it for 50 years with no complaints at all.

[merlyn]

there's also this at £2.25 :

https://thepihut.com/products/stripboard-track-cutter

[Martin Walker]

That's and extremely well written article - makes a nice change

Yes indeed - a wealth of useful information!

Martin

[Martin Walker]

It was quick, no more than a couple of turns, and produced a perfect result every time.

My old vero cutter is the same. Two or three twists with only modest pressure and a perfect result every time. Been using it for 50 years with no complaints at all.

Same here - must be about 50 years I've been using mine too, and it still works beautifully with minimal pressure.

Martin

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

Landed here after scoping out fuzz pedals all evening

And yes, Tone Benders..
The Mk 1.5 side on this pedal really spoke to me:

https://www.ramblefx.com/twin-bender

The Mk 1.5 setting with bass rolled off does a spikey low gain type fuzz that I dig. AND it’s those two knobs for Impedance and Bias is really making it all happen.

So now the question is if one can modify an existing clone kit of the Mk 1.5 version with those added impedance and bias knobs - and yes indeed - for dummies Reading through the tread it may seem is isn’t..

Hope I’m not sidetracking to much here.

[Wonks]

Adding a bias control has been covered already.

The impedance control could have been implemented in several different ways with increasing levels of complexity. Ideally it would imitate a guitar pickup being directly connected to the input, so it would have inductance, resistance and capacitive elements to it. But it may just be a simple variable resistor replacing or in addition to a fixed resistor in the original circuit. You'd really need to have a good look at what they'd done to get a similar result.

I guess you'd want to make the typical 1k output impedance of a pedal placed before it look more like the 6k-9k of a vintage single coil or humbucker.