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bassdriver wrote: Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:57 am

TylerDeadPine wrote: Sun Dec 14, 2025 3:23 pm KiCad is great other than the CAD tools in the layout designer. I still love using it and do what I can in solid works and bring it in

Yeah, it’s a great tool. Once I got the hang of it it was easy to create new symbols and packages. Also my Eagle license was limited to small boards. Whenever I wanted to do something bigger I had to buy a license for a month or 2!

yeah same I liked how easy it was to make symbols/packages. I have access to Ultiboard yet for most things I'm just faster and more organized in KiCad?
I have trauma from making symbols in AutoCAD Electrical (for industrial), and KiCad has almost provided me recovery.

Opted out of all family/social holiday obligations this year and laid low with my pets while my S/O went to her dad's for a few days. Built a fuzz factory on stripboard, turned out cool! I've never owned one, always kinda regretted not buying a cool sparkly one BITD, DIY is the next best thing. Used a 2N3904 and two 2N2904As. I don't have anything to compare it to, but all the knobs do stuff and it makes cool fuzz sounds. The stripboard part was simple and took about 10min to put together, the wiring was a massive headache and took hours.

Let's see that FF.....

Over this little downtime I finally finished up a couple of things.

Bought a beater Fender Tele for a song because the action was high, the relic job was rough and there isn't even a finishing layer on the paint, however, that's not the end of the world, and it had a bigsby, a HB upgrade in the bridge already, and I have a spare Dunable Cthulhu to use in the neck position.

Got a new tortiose guard, wired it to split the coils on both pups when engaged. .25 shim in the neck, turned the truss rod a touch, moved the bridge down some, and have new saddles that will be delivered today, so almost done, but even just with those adjustments it plays really well now. Added Locking tuners because I really like locking tuners now.

I'll set it up and play it like this for a while, then see about whether I want to refinish it or not. Splitting the coils was a worthwhile task - the octave fuzz response to a single coil is way more fun and velcroesque. I don't really love SC's overall, but they shine when put through any of the 3 octave fuzzes I tried last night.




Next up is a fender Jag Bass body I got cheap on reverb a while ago - already reliced, but I like the way this one looks. Got a PJ pick up set and guard that fit, fender tuners, wired simply as V V T, then a cheap ebay neck until I can get a fender neck in its place. Needs some adjustments that I'll get to this week, but it's pretty light, and feels a lot like my old Tele bass that I sold years ago and have missed ever since.

I have 3 strat bodies on the way that I'll start fiddling with soon.

The ends of the frets on the ebay neck are razor blades though, I should mention. It's getting replaced as soon as I can....

Frankie99 wrote: Mon Dec 29, 2025 11:53 am Let's see that FF.....

no prob!

That looks plenty good! And, if you didnt know, the very first ZVEX Fuzz Factories and SHOs were made on vero. Ages ago I saw some gut pics of a SHO on what looked like a protoboard material that I could easily obtain and here we are 1200 pedals later.

Things have been settling down with work stuff so I've had a good bit of time to build a few pedals. I'm still getting back into the swing of things and working on my workflow, but I'm on a 6 for 6 streak of things firing up on the first try so I'm pretty pumped on that.

Harmonic Percolator w/ Boost
I've built a bunch of these and always liked them but wished they had a bit more volume so I tacked on an LPB-1. I think the booster makes it more flexible, but I'm not sure it sounds better. Still, HP's are always fun with loud amps. Marshall Bluesbreaker
I made this about as stock as I could. I think I prefer the Analogman version a bit more, but this sounds pretty rad. Big Muff 2
I thought the clips sounded pretty rad, but once I saw the big box JHS one was all pick-and-place SMD I figured I'd just build it myself. It's actually pretty solid. It has a bit more bass and seems more balanced than the "real" BM's. I haven't tried it with the band so no clue if it gets lost in the full-band situation, but it would be a decent bass fuzz.

Hell yeah !

Hola amigos, been a long time since I rapped at ya.....

Anyone want to take over my long abandoned Neotek 1e channel strip racking project? (2ch) I'm never going to finish it and would love it to stay in the family. Free pick up in Chicago or pay me for actual shipping costs to you.

Comes with power 1 psu - but if I were starting today I'd kind of start from the ground up - but the PSU is a solid start. Probably a labor of love, but if you have tech skills and interest- you could have something nice in your studio down the line.

WeStartToDrift wrote: Thu Jan 01, 2026 6:53 pm
Big Muff 2
I thought the clips sounded pretty rad, but once I saw the big box JHS one was all pick-and-place SMD I figured I'd just build it myself. It's actually pretty solid. It has a bit more bass and seems more balanced than the "real" BM's. I haven't tried it with the band so no clue if it gets lost in the full-band situation, but it would be a decent bass fuzz.

hell yeah seconded

fuck JHS and his bullshit. keep the money out of his hands.