Let's see your finished DIY projects!

[LaoWiz]

Some awesome stuff on these last few pages! Here's some things I've built this year. Sorry for the big ass pics...

Still acid etching. Tried a new painting technique on the first two that have color by sponging/wiping on the paint instead of spraying directly on the enclosure. Since my face designs these days don't really have solid boxes / lines to fill with color and the graphics are pretty broken up, I think the technique works well with the aesthetic but really think I like it as I can control the amount of paint better just wiping on as much as I need and sanding off the top is a lot easier this way.

Shit Data. Data Corruptor workalike built on the Pedal PCB Super Heterodyne Receiver board. Added some simple mods based on my experiments with the Schumann PLL on breadboard. Sounds awesome.






Aurora F. Rub A Dub reverb.






HM2s in built on Aion Electronic's Gravitron board




Nai-Ha. Rat in a huge enclosure, named after a fantastic Zeni Geva song...

[BetterOffShred]

Sick AF dude

[LaoWiz]

Sick AF dude

Thanks, homie!

[eatyourguitar]

LaoWiz! you make the coolest pedals bro. your art style is unique and also very good. you are a true artist. a very rare top notch style. you never copy. you only innovate. I have watched the progression from day one. I am very happy for you. this goes beyond guitar pedals. these are works of art and passion.

[Dowi]

Saw that Shit Data on IG and it looks more than cool, really awesome work man. Would love to hear some extended demos of it to hear the mods you have done to the circuit.

[LaoWiz]

LaoWiz! you make the coolest pedals bro. your art style is unique and also very good. you are a true artist. a very rare top notch style. you never copy. you only innovate. I have watched the progression from day one. I am very happy for you. this goes beyond guitar pedals. these are works of art and passion.

Thank you so much, man! I really appreciate those kind words. I can't believe making pedals is still so much fun after all these years. Always satisfying. I thought I would have gotten bored of doing it by now but always have the next thing I want to make. I didn't make much at all for a couple of years but been trying to build more this past year and it's been a blast.

[hbombgraphics]

Those HM-2 are so good! And the RAT!!!!!! love your stuff

[crochambeau]

I'll add my voice to the chorus, those are ace!

[LaoWiz]

Saw that Shit Data on IG and it looks more than cool, really awesome work man. Would love to hear some extended demos of it to hear the mods you have done to the circuit.

Thanks, man. Going to try to record some clips soon. The mods came out good. The freq toggle switches between 2 caps that help set the freq range of the phase locked loop. It's pretty subtle as I chose some caps that aren't too far off in value as I just put in another value that sounded good. Actually sounds really cool when you toggle the switch when a note is ringing out. The phase locked loop does some readjusting and just sounds like a machine is failing. The tracking switch is really good, just a .1uf to ground after the last 4069 stage. Sometimes the signal / notes starts to wander around when sustaining a note which causes the glitchy nature of PLL circuits so this helps with that in taming the glitch which can be cool though, too. The siren mode is a switch and pot, switches between a fixed resistor which is I think 100R and a 10K pot. The 10K pot allows you to get that annoying siren like sound as you can make the oscillator kind of catch up to the signal. This control is lifted from the Schumann circuit and easy enough to implement. Another reason I added these mods is that I didn't care much for the board mounted layout controls and really wanted to make a bigger pedal to use a couple of bigger knobs. So everything is board mounted except for the mods which are 3 toggles and one pot and also wired the range control to be opposite of the siren control instead of being a board mounted control as it would have gone right in the center where it says shit data now.

[frodog]

That's some interesting stuff man, and I'll also add my praise for your etched finishes, they look so unique and just.. hard, like a gentle giant killer robot.

Yesterday I housed this Soul Kitchen Heavy Darling circuit from a while back, in this antenna junction box I think it was, that's also been just laying around. Whenever I've had the inkling aluminum foil has been added to the inside, so it's pretty well shielded whatever that's worth.

Features non-stompable 3PDT (perfect fit in pre-existing hole), color-matched knob, true top mount jacks, doggystyle power and frontlight LED. Unmodded build, but the one tropical fish NOS output cap that of course makes this sound 10x better. Naw, but I really like this for a one-knobber. It's more like a distortion, good for rhythm, but it has a bright, kinda slimy silicon fuzz character too. Funke.

Top lid holds everything except for the 9V jack and LED, they are fixed to the screw-on bottom, so those wires were soldered last.

[NoizeMe]

Some awesome stuff on these last few pages! Here's some things I've built this year. Sorry for the big ass pics...

Still acid etching. Tried a new painting technique on the first two that have color by sponging/wiping on the paint instead of spraying directly on the enclosure. Since my face designs these days don't really have solid boxes / lines to fill with color and the graphics are pretty broken up, I think the technique works well with the aesthetic but really think I like it as I can control the amount of paint better just wiping on as much as I need and sanding off the top is a lot easier this way.

Shit Data. Data Corruptor workalike built on the Pedal PCB Super Heterodyne Receiver board. Added some simple mods based on my experiments with the Schumann PLL on breadboard. Sounds awesome.





Aurora F. Rub A Dub reverb.






HM2s in built on Aion Electronic's Gravitron board




Nai-Ha. Rat in a huge enclosure, named after a fantastic Zeni Geva song...

I love your builds! these look fucking awesome!!

[fuzzonaut]

Amazing stuff on those last few pages!

It's been raining the last two days, so I've just finished another Deadend FX PCB built. It's their take on the Silver Rose. It was quite a tight fit. I usually solder just one or two pots to the PCB and wire the rest, because I'm drilling by hand and am usually not too precise while doing it. And I usually use bigger knobs, so spacing them out is cool.
This time though, all knobs but one (Master) and the 3 switches were pcb mount, so yeah, I'm just glad I got it in there.

It works alright, but while testing it, I observed something rather baffling: when the pedal is bypassed, the mids switch (upper right) turns the pilot light off and on - but that's not all, the Mix knob (Fuzz Mix) also acts as a dimmer, meaning the light gets brighter when I turn it clockwise (to the Superfuzz side) and it goes out when I'm halfway into the muff ......
That happens no matter if I've got something plugged in or not.
Anybody got an idea what's going on there? One of the pilot light wires touching something?

But anyway, it rips big time, so I guess I'll just leave the dimmer mod as is.

[JonnyAngle]

Looks great!

[LaoWiz]

Those HM-2 are so good! And the RAT!!!!!! love your stuff

Thank you, man! I need to bust out that Hm-2 and play it more. Did some shop reorganizing and packed it up. I really loved how that Rat came out but it doesn't' sound as good as one I had made a couple of years ago.

I'll add my voice to the chorus, those are ace!

Thanks so much!

That's some interesting stuff man, and I'll also add my praise for your etched finishes, they look so unique and just.. hard, like a gentle giant killer robot.

Yesterday I housed this Soul Kitchen Heavy Darling circuit from a while back, in this antenna junction box I think it was, that's also been just laying around. Whenever I've had the inkling aluminum foil has been added to the inside, so it's pretty well shielded whatever that's worth.

Thank you, that Heavy Darling is a super old school DIY stomp circuit, yes?

I love your builds! these look fucking awesome!!

Thank you, man. Makes me think it wouldn't be so bad to not have a day job and be single. Building is the most fun thing to do. I can't believe it's still so satisfying all of these years later. I think the first one I built was 2010. I guess if I were still single and lived the freelance lifestyle it would be different and may have burnt out so I guess I'll just keep enjoying when I can!

[digi2t]

Amazing stuff on those last few pages!

It's been raining the last two days, so I've just finished another Deadend FX PCB built. It's their take on the Silver Rose. It was quite a tight fit. I usually solder just one or two pots to the PCB and wire the rest, because I'm drilling by hand and am usually not too precise while doing it. And I usually use bigger knobs, so spacing them out is cool.
This time though, all knobs but one (Master) and the 3 switches were pcb mount, so yeah, I'm just glad I got it in there.

It works alright, but while testing it, I observed something rather baffling: when the pedal is bypassed, the mids switch (upper right) turns the pilot light off and on - but that's not all, the Mix knob (Fuzz Mix) also acts as a dimmer, meaning the light gets brighter when I turn it clockwise (to the Superfuzz side) and it goes out when I'm halfway into the muff ......
That happens no matter if I've got something plugged in or not.
Anybody got an idea what's going on there? One of the pilot light wires touching something?

But anyway, it rips big time, so I guess I'll just leave the dimmer mod as is.

Silver-S.jpg

SilverS.jpg

Def not normal insofar as the LED is concerned.

First and foremost, I see that you're using sockets for the BS170 and 2N3904. If you're not getting good contact between the pins and sockets, then the Mill2 may act wonky, as it is now. Leave as is for now, and read on...

First, check R11. It should be 100K.

Second, what MOSFET did you use for the Mill2 bypass? I've had a bum BS170 do that to me in the past. You can sub a 2N7000 in there as well, but you have to turn it around 180 degrees (opposite to the silkscreen outline on the PCB). Generally, either BS170 or 2N7000 will work equally well, though on rare occasions, I've had a 2N7000 work better. I generally always use 2N7000's, but that's me. Since you have sockets in there, you can test. Try another BS170, or swap in a 2N7000 instead (observe aforementioned warning in bold italic!).

Also, check to see if the diode D11 is good, use the diode function of your DMM. Ultimately, on the fringe, the transistor (2N3904) might be suspect. Again... sockets are there, so test. Just about any NPN transistor should work here.

If one of the above turns up to be the culprit, then do yourself a huge favor, remove the sockets, and solder the components directly. That applies to all your other socketed components too. Sockets are OK for testing and/or auditioning, but once you've made your ultimate choices, save yourself from a shitload of headaches, and solder them in direct.