ilovefuzz.com

Yeah, so I went a little overboard on this one.

Got a You Dirty Rat with a "broken" battery door (turns out just the screw was missing) for cheap on TGP. First step was to fix the battery door. I happened to have a sheet metal screw that was the right size for the threads (10-24, apparently), but it was way too long, so I cut it down to size with my Dremel. Then of course, the flange of the head was too wide to sit flush in the hole, so I drilled out the existing hole a little bigger and then counter-sunk the hole so the screw would sit (pretty close to) flat. Nice.

Then I was thinking I'd replace most of the PCB parts as I did recently with a Rat 2. Did pretty much the same thing: replaced most of the carbon film with metal film, and put some box caps in there. Also socketed the IC and put a LM301 in there. Cherry.





And then I thought it would be cool to add clipping diode choices, but I didn't want to drill up the case and "Keeley it" all up ugly style. So that means an internal daughter-board and some kind of switching system. I happened to have a 4x DIP switch bank laying around, and that seemed like a good thing to work from. I also wanted relatively easy access, so I figured attaching this board to the battery door made sense. I pulled the battery clip off, as it is only held on with double-sided thick tape. Hmmmmm.

I made up a small perfboard layout with the DIP switch bank and three sets of diodes: silicon, LED, and germanium. That basically means I can choose between classic, Turbo, and You Dirty options. Also, DIP switches are all SPST, which means when all of the switches are off, I get just the op amp clipping. So really there are four options. Okay, so there are four DIP switches, but only three diode options. I couldn't figure out how to anything else with just SPST, and another diode option seemed sort of silly since they sound somewhat similar anyway. So I just wired the LEDs to #2 and #3 switches. With two sets of DIPS, I could probably rig up individual diode selection and symmetric/asymmetric options, but I only had one DIP on hand, so that's what I got.

Yeah, that's a sparkly red perfboard. I painted it. Why not go all out?




Anyway, I didn't have any of the white plastic sticky-back standoffs, and they're kinda weak-ass anyway on such a diesel pedal, so I figured I'd go with metal standoffs. Obviously, the battery door didn't come ready for standoffs, so I had to drill some holes to match the daughter board.




Then I figured that while I was at it, I'd tap the holes so that they would be threaded. It's totally overkill when you're using nuts/washers to secure things, but again, I figured what the hell. So I tapped out the holes for 8-32 machine screws.




While I was at Lowes getting some cool black hex-head screws, I saw that they had 8-32 brass thumb screws nuts. Shazam. I'm all over that like a hippie on Doritos.





And here it is mounted on the battery door:





And now soldered up and ready to rock:



All done up. The choad monkey that owned this pedal before me didn't include the big rubber feet, so right now the hex heads keep it from sitting flat. I've got a new set of feet on order, so hopefully in a few days I'll have it 100% complete. I also need a couple neoprene washers on the daughter board to make the nuts bite in a little tighter (har-har). All that metal-on-metal makes it hard for things to stay tight over time.





Anyway, now I have a pedal that looks like a dead-stock You Dirty Rat, but that is actually so bad-ass that it needs its own zip code. Questions?

Some of you are probably wondering: "What happens if you have more than one set of clipping diodes turned on at one time?"

It's not as awesome as you're probably hoping. All the diodes are in parallel, so the diodes with the smallest (lowest) forward voltage drop will conduct first, and the other set(s) will not turn on. So, for example, if you had all of the sets turned on, only the germanium didoes will clip, as they have by far the lowest forward voltage drop.

You could set up the DIP switches any way you want. Like you could 2x silicon on one (symmetric), and then 2x1 silicon on another (asymmetric), etc. Or you could do one diode per switch to allow individual selection. That probably won't work out that great, but you could try it.

As I mentioned above, I'm going to see about setting up some more complex switching options. Let me stew on it a bit.

I want that!

BlindtoFaith wrote:I want that!

It's definitely for sale, as soon as get those replacement feet.

(as is almost everything I build or mod)

So, if you were to do this to someone's RAT for a cost...what would that cost be?

theavondon wrote:So, if you were to do this to someone's RAT for a cost...what would that cost be?

I see it as two mods: 1) PCB component replacement/upgrade and 2) clipping options mod.

The component upgrade cost is going to depend on which Rat you have. The new Rat 2 pedals are a bitch because the knobs don't want to let go of the pots, so the pots end up needing to be replaced. This one YDR I just did had no such problem. I'd say if the knobs come off easy, it would be like $15 - $20, depending on what op amp you wanted in there. If I have to replace the pots, add about $10 for parts and extra labor.

The clipping mod would be about $20 - $25, depending on how fancy you want to get with the mounting hardware (brass thumbscrews cost more than a plain steel nut).

I'm sure that sounds like a lot of cash to do it all, but it's rather labor intensive. I've also been known to take compensation in the form of gear (like pedals). I moded dmcmahon's Holy Stain for a pedal, for example. Or we could do a combo. Or if you had something I really wanted that was pricey, I'd do the mod work and then pay you the difference in cash. I'm a flexible dude, because these are dicey times, economically speaking. If you want to work something out, shoot me a PM and we'll figure out the details.

Good to know, good to know. :strokesbeard:

Also, :strokesbeard: needs to be a smiley.

will mod rats for nudes

tuffteef wrote:will mod rats for nudes

O RLY

theavondon wrote:

tuffteef wrote:will mod rats for nudes

O RLY

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VTj7LhCtE[/youtube]

The red perfboard looks like the interior of an old Volkswagen.

I love it.

I switched up the hex-head screws with some flat decorative "antique brass" screws. This makes the profile lower on the bottom, so that the pedal can be used with velcro and not rubber feet. I also added some lock washers to keep things snug (not pictured).

culturejam wrote:I switched up the hex-head screws with some flat decorative "antique brass" screws. This makes the profile lower on the bottom, so that the pedal can be used with velcro and not rubber feet. I also added some lock washers to keep things snug (not pictured).

I like that look much better. Stay classy culturejam!

Hazar! Good shit!

I found this thread via the googles cuz I'm messing with my turbo rat atm.
And glad I am I found it!