Valve UberScreamer Pedal

Sorry, couldn't resist

Point To Point Tube Screamer

this is one of my over the top efforts to prove that a turret board Tube Screamer would sound bollocks all different to a normal one - at the time Ibanez had just released a turret board version of the tube screamer at an extremely inflated cost - so I took one apart and copied it and as I suspected, it sounded no different - still, audiowank aside (and I'll include some of the COMICAL sales shit at the bottom) - turret board construction is fun so here you go.

there are a few confusing abbreviations I have used (for some reason) so I will try and clear it up best I can.
(VR) is Voltage Reference - these are supposed to be connected to each other
where you see a number in brackets eg (1) this denotes that it should be connected to the same number at any other points on the board.
V1 V2 V3 - refers to the Volume Potentiometer
T1 T2 T3 - refers to the Tone Potentiometer
D2 D3 - refers to the Drive (gain) Potentiometer

The Ibanez TS808HDW Hand Wired has a Select 4558D IC Chip - yeah so does mine, I picked it up out of the little draw, the hard decision came when I was trying to choose between that one and another one with a slightly bent leg

This one is hilarious...

the incomparable overdrive pedal thats been described as "the Holy Grail of Tube screamers." Our 2004 TS808 reissue features the same famous standout square footswitch of the original and the even more famous warm tones of the JRC4558 chip used in most of the original TS808s. Ignore any over-the-counter lookalikes. If your tone is suffering from a lack of real warmth, the TS808 is the real, non-generic prescription.

and this..

The TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer features the slightly warmer JRC4558D IC found in most of the old TS808 

they keep talking about the IC being "warm" I had a JRC4558 IC that was warm, in fact it was hot, but that was mainly because I was putting 2000 volts through it. it also achieved the greatest transparency I've ever known from an op-amp, you could see through the hole that was blown through it.


the simple fact is that in this kind of device the op-amp you use is going to make sod all difference unless say the op-amp has a drastically different gain characteristic or output current. this is one of those traps for idiots who go to eBay to buy a NOS JRC4558 for £30 a go! shit, I bought 4558's when I couldn't afford more reliable ones!
the RC4580s are good ICs for real audio as it was designed for audio applications - with quite a high gain bandwidth of 12MHz and around 50mA of output current - if I were going to spend £30 I would just buy a box of 4580s or get them for free by taking apart literately anything that has audio involved with it - old DVD player etc.

Voltage Inverter With 555 IC Stripboard Veroboard

I can't remember why I did this or even when I did it but I did do it, it was quite possibly something out of The Art Of Electronics but I can't be sure - anyway I'm guessing I needed a -5v supply for something and I was too cheap to buy a 7660 or MAX1044 charge pump

Curious C-Beeper Stripboard Veroboard

this is a cool little piece of test gear that I made after seeing one of Alan Yates' videos - you should go and watch the video and I'm sure you'll want to build one too.

reposted without permission - because I couldn't find a contact to ask

Instrumentation Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard

this is not a complete project, I did this to kind of interface an Instrumentation Amplifier with various sensor ideas - the interface works and is a good little experiment platform

Arduino (for extra blog cred) Stripboard Veroboard

I did this sometime ago when I was flirting about with uControllers, needless to say I grew bored of them pretty quickly because it's not really electronics, it's programming and I hate programming however I did a few projects that I wanted to keep and make permanent so I did a stripped down veroboard of the Arduino board. essentially it powers and allows you to interface with the uController I/O's - has a "sketch" reset switch, a main power LED and a flasher LED (if you want to run the LED flasher "sketch")

Simple Adjustable Bench Power Supply Stripboard Veroboard

here is the schematic/layout I made up for it - it's a bog standard LM317 circuit which I made a few additions to, I used a 1k multiturn potentiometer and a 121r resistor to give me a maximum output voltage of about 11 volts
you can also use the extremely common 1117 adjustable regulator - it only gives out 800mA but the beauty of this IC is that it's in just about everything (usually surface mount) 

I also added the power supply needed for the display (layout can be found in the blog under "7107 voltmeter")

EMG Active Preamp for 81/85 pickups Stripboard Veroboard

I recently got a LTD les paul type guitar and it came with the EMG-HZ passive versions of the 81/85 pickups so I searched the internet for a schematic of the preamp circuit and found one, made a verolayout for it and then put it in my guitar and it's pretty cool - here is a song I used the guitar with the preamp in

Dual Op-Amp Tester /Signal Generator Stripboard Veroboard

I bought a ton of LM358s from China (grey market IC's) so I wanted to make sure they all worked - I figured the best way to do that was to make a rudimentary signal generator that outputs a triangle and a square wave.
I've included scope settings so you can easily see if the IC is working or not.

Mains Finder Stripboard Veroboard

a quick brutal mains finder stick thing - in close proximity to mains it will cause the LED to flash - I've used a weird type of layout in order to stick it in a tube