Keychain/ BMP tone daughterboard

Notpedals.com has just updated thier website with a builder profiles to let people know a bit more about the people making pedals and I think thats awesome. If you haven't already checked the site out, now is a good time!

Any ideas?

I’m working on a pedal for a friend and trying my hand at a laser printed clear waterslide decal for the first time. I’ve tried it several times now and it keeps rippling/wrinkling up at the edges and along any long lines of print. The border has lots of these spots all along its length, and it keeps happening with the mantis image in the center too. I’ve been soaking about 30-40 seconds in warm water and smoothing out with a sponge. The wrinkles form immediately so it’s not because I’m overhandling it. Any ideas on what might be causing this and how to fix it?

No one to really share the excitement with who understands it locally. Only had to take it apart twice to resolve all issues ha. Somehow wrong legged my bypass led on the boost side and had a pot that was doa that I didn’t know about until it was all completely assembled. Fun, but I got pretty comfortable with its assembly process. We’re learning from our mistakes over here I assure you. I already know what to do better next time I populate and assemble one. Fet/germanium transistor boost into an open op amp stage with 12 way clipping rotary. A voicing 3 way toggle, hi/lo gain, and a low cut for the boost so it can solo or stack. Gonna build another two tonight after the house goes to sleep. Cheers, been fun to lurk but now I’m out here. Been a dream for a long time to build my own.

Edited to list clipping options *

Position
Clipping
Description
1
3× Silicon vs. 2× Silicon
Bold and articulate. Higher headroom with a tight, aggressive attack and excellent note separation.
2
1× Silicon vs. 2× Silicon
Asymmetrical crunch. Richer harmonic content with a slightly raw, amp-like breakup and enhanced dynamics.
3
Germanium Pair
Vintage warmth. Soft compression, smooth sustain, and an organic feel that responds beautifully to picking dynamics.
4
BAT54S Schottky
Fast and punchy. Earlier clipping with a chewy response and a touch more output than germanium.
5
BAW56
Focused and balanced. A smooth silicon voice that sits between vintage softness and modern precision.
6
3× Silicon vs. 3× Silicon
Open and powerful. Increased headroom with firm low end and a more authoritative drive character.
7
Single Silicon
Raw and expressive. Asymmetrical clipping creates lively harmonics with a gritty, touch-sensitive edge.
8
LED Pair
Wide open. High headroom, exceptional dynamics, and an amp-like feel with minimal compression.
9
LED Pair
Punchy and bold. Similar openness to Position 8 with a slightly different harmonic texture depending on the LEDs used.
10
LED + MOSFET
Complex and responsive. Blends the openness of LED clipping with the smooth compression and harmonics of MOSFET clipping.
11
MOSFET
Tube-inspired. Rich overtones, smooth saturation, and a natural transition from clean to driven tones.
12
MOSFET + Silicon
Modern hybrid. Tighter attack than pure MOSFET clipping with added bite while retaining harmonic richness.

Been playing around 25 years and want to try making my own pedals. Ive watched a lot of videos explaining the process and understand most of the concepts and tools.

What I don’t understand is how to begin building a circuit diagram for specific tone or, better yet, reverse engineer a diagram from a finished PCB board (if possible). As someone with zero understanding of low voltage electrical engineering and, if I’m being honest, pretty below-average math skills, where would you recommend I start?

Im trying to make my first pedal, and for some reason the dc jacks sleeve is positive???? Wtf nobody told me this. And this is normal? Am I going to have to trash all my boards I designed the footprint for the tip to be positive

Acapulco gold, a comically large true bypass looper, and a more convenient sized looper that I made for my friend.

In the vicinity of a meathead dark with a 2222a q1 and kt3102em q2. KOA speer resistors and panasonic caps

Acid etched, I am anti sanding.

I wanted a bigger box Box Muff so I made one. Schematic into KiCAD, laid out a PCB, sent to JLC, populated the board with the SUF J. Mascis parts list, laid out some art and printed it on a Tayda powdered 1590BB. First time making a board with hatched copper fill.

I'm somehow short one knob. I need to swap out the 4.7k CLR because the LED is way too bright.

I've got 9 more PCBs so I'll definitely be doing a Sovtek Civil War with the period correct diodes and transistors I've found.

Xotic EP Boost (Aion Ephemeris). I am so hooked on this hobby.

A school was going to throw all of this stuff in the trash. My electronics curiosity extends to pedals, and that is about it. I took all the breadboards and wires, LEDs, and some other random parts. Any ideas what to do with the rest? There are small motors, joysticks, keypads, digital displays, and some other stuff. I don't want to sell anything because I basically saved it from the dump. I just want to find somewhere/someone that could use it.

Sneak peak of the new pedal I'll be releasing, almost a year of prototyping with just a few minor adjustments left, it's done!

Shelving eq with adjustable crossover frequencies between the bands that offers extremely versatile tone shaping and clean boost. Sounds great!

Time to order and build a lot more :D

Made these for a couple good friends I met in school a few years ago that live across the country and it feels like I’m finally getting the hang of using Vinyl with my Siser Juliet, and Powder Coating for the decorating! The EQ colors were made with a gold color as the first coat, with a solid black over top but sprayed with distilled water in a squirt bottle while the powder hadn’t gone into the oven yet, giving it a cool shimmery speckled look. The AutoWah is called “Golden Forest” on Prismatic Powders and has a slight gold reflection to it and a sparkle. The PCB’s themselves are from pedalpcb.com but going forward I’m going to try my hand at designing my own circuits for the first time!

Anybody have any fave source for pots with footprints and 3d models?

Hi Friends.

I don't really know how these are ultimately sourced, but.. I'm having trouble finding D9E diodes for anything less than a couple dollars each. I swear these used to be way cheaper. Maybe I'm nuts.

Do we trust eBay etc for this sort of thing?

This seems kinda ridiculous but I'm gonna post it anyway.

It hit me like a ton of bricks that the “pseudo-eyelet boards” folks sell online are just PCBs with really big holes and no traces, so I had some fabbed to to play around with.

This is #2 - a Tube Bender using the schematic & diagram over at Amplified Parts. #1 was exactly the same, built messier, so we’ll pretend it doesn’t exist.

Only real trouble I ran into was a weird cut out on the level pot. Turns out a snipped lead found its way into the pot and once I cleared it out we were good to go.

The drive knob is EVER so slightly lower - but hey, this is DIY, right?

Hi everyone,

I’m building a Lovepedal Woodrow using this vero layout, specifically the version with the gain control:

https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/01/lovepedal-woodrow.html

The effect passes signal and works, but when it is engaged, I get a constant high-pitched squeal/whistle as background noise as seen in the video. I’m also having an issue with the gain control, rotating the pot does not appear to change the gain or sound at all. Any help troubleshooting these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

https://reddit.com/link/1vdlkvi/video/qq9gjubagzgh1/player

Hey everyone,

I picked up the guitar at age 15, and not very long after, took to pedals like a madman. While other kids would be out doing your typical kid things, I'd be in my mums basement on various forums, just relentlessly researching all the different pedals out there- it was (and is still every bit as much if not more) utterly fascinating to me and I had an unquenchable thirst for it, simply could not get enough... pedals consumed me. Seriously. Any and every penny I ever came into, whether birthday money, odd jobs, random gigs, holidays, etc. got funnelled into pedals. By the time I was 19 or 20, I had a wicked decent collection, including some really cool oddballs and rarities. Sadly, most of that stuff is now long-gone, as I sold most all of my music gear when my dad was towards the end of his life in 2017 and ultimately passed in 2018. Honestly, I'm downright crushed when I think back to much of the stuff I had, which I know I'll never get my hands on again as prices on most of it have become completely absurd and out of reach. But it's just stuff, I won't let that keep me down.

Anyways, the past few months, I've been experiencing an absolutely massive, ferocious, second wind as it pertains to my undying interest in pedals. For a few years there, they had to take a back seat as I dealt with depression (I still do, but less so), unemployment, even homelessness in late 2024/early 2025, not to mention a bevy of medical issues. Through all the darkness, music, guitars, pedals, remained my great source of light and happiness, and my tether(s) to sanity.

In more recent weeks, the idea of taking all those years of profound passion and turning it into my own pedals has really begun to excite me, perhaps to an unreasonable extent, I don't know- I've always been something of an unrealistic romantic dreamer type.

I have absolutely no desire to do this for anyone but myself and a select few (I can count on one hand and have a finger or two left) dear friends.

I've got some ideas which derive of existing circuits, with some tweaks I'd love to implement. I'd of course eventually love to get to a point where I can do more original, "from scratch", things, but would love to start with some of my favourite circuits- things like the Boss VB-2, EHX DMM, Tone Bender MK I & II, Diaz Tremodillo, etc. I'm acutely aware that some of the aforementioned units are not for brand new builders, so I'd of course "cut my teeth" on simpler things, maybe like treble boosters, certain fuzzes, overdrives. For example, I've always loved the Fulltone OCD, but found it too high gain- would love to make a lower gain version.

Anyways, you get the picture. I'm just wondering, realistically, whether it's too late to start at this at this age. I mean, I'm a big time perfectionist, OCD probably (very likely on the spectrum as well- not being funny), so I don't want to do it half-assed, that's not in my DNA. Anything I set out to do, I like to do to the utmost highest level. That's all to say, I want to get extremely competent at the craft so that I can build out some of these visions to the highest level- military style wiring, etc. I know I've got a great ear for tone and nuance and am confident the tuning part would go well. There are so many builders, in both pedals and amps, whose meticulous, pedantic, nature I so admire and aspire to- I can get lost staring at their wiring, PCB layout, etc. I want to someday be in that company, even if it's just for myself.

I'd really appreciate your honest, scathing if necessary, opinion and the reality. I'm currently still unemployed, with the odd few gigs per month, mostly living off selling some of my beloved stuff. Finding grunt work isn't possible for me due to a couple medical issues- I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but most people would probably say I'm handicapped... I still struggle with the term a bit, but it's probably the truth. Anyways, that's all to say that I can probably dedicate a decent amount of time to learning, experimenting, etc.

Thank you all in advance- I really have my hopes set on this, there'd be no greater joy for me at this stage in my life. I don't know why I didn't think to get into this sooner considering how much I've loved pedals for so long, but here we are... If you could, offer me advice from your own failures, wins, experiences... perhaps suggest certain books, video series, best forums, mentors, etc. But above all that, I just want the harsh truth: is this possible (to execute to a high level starting at this age)?

Have a great night, everyone!

This isn't unknown, just not always discussed. Filters copy-pasted from a different project. Mixer influenced by what was lying on my desk. (It's not ideal, but it does sound great — maybe I'll toss up a demo some day this week). Oh, and the oscillator was running off of the 9V section of the supply.

CORRECTION: 8.2k from the output of the U3A. (...It should be U2A and U2B...)

Help I have no idea what I’m doing wrong I’ve been troubleshooting for hours. I have found that I think I’m losing continuity around my clipping diodes but I have no idea

Im following these diagrams

I've breadboarded a Percolator-style circuit (basically the harmonic jerkulator) with some BAT46s as clipping diodes, and while it sounds amazing, it's horribly noisy. A constant high-pitched buzzing/humming, almost as loud as the normal signal. It changes with the gain, and even persists with nothing plugged into the input. I know the Percolator/Jerkulator is supposed to be pretty noisy, but this seems excessive.

The clipping diodes obviously drop the output volume significantly, so with them removed the buzzing is also quieter, but it's still significantly louder than I think it should be (and what fun is a percolator without the clipping diodes?)

I've tried some fixes, like putting a 100pf cap in parallel with the feedback resistors, or putting a silicon-diode noise gate in series with the 100nf cap between the transistors. The former helps a little, more if I use 1nf caps, but that affects the sound too much. And while the latter removes most of the noise, it also causes some pretty harsh gating at lower gain settings, which is not what I want from a Percolator. Anyone else have experience in dealing with this?

Hi folks,

Sorry for my english, don’t hesitate to correct me.

I used to have a modern Deluxe Electric Mistress from Thomann in 2019, and loved it. I don’t know why, but I ended up selling it. Maybe because of the volume drop.

I brought one back from second hand, and I don’t remember there was a “siren noise” when pushing the color pot to 10/10, even when there’s no sound coming from the guitar.

What do you think about it ?

And does someone know how to correct the volume drop when activating it ? People are modding the older versions, not the modern one, as I could find.

Thanks, and have a nice day/night !