Michael from Sleeping Dog FX can have a look at your needs, discuss it with you and make what you need. He uses Doctor Tweek components, so you know you are going to get a quality build both in terms of attention to detail and in the way of reliable hardware.

Custom Built Marshall Footswitch for the 9001 Pre-Amp

Recently Michael made up a now discontinued swithcher for a Marshall 9001 Pre-Amp. He tells me that this is available custom built in the states for £110. Crazy! He custom built the item for £85 which included special LED lighting as well as an extra long connection cable. So, anything is possible  – if you need a switcher or any type of routing unit please contact Doctor Tweek, or visit Sleeping Dog FX through the builders links page.

]]> http://doctortweek.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/get-switched-on/feed/ 0 doctortweek Marshall Footswitch http://doctortweek.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/silicon-fuzz-face-pcb/ http://doctortweek.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/silicon-fuzz-face-pcb/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:53:52 +0000 Doctor Tweek http://doctortweek.wordpress.com/?p=443 Continue reading →]]> Sleeping Dog FX have made up a really nice PCB for the Silicon Fuzz-Face (germanium coming soon!). To go with this Doctor Tweek is supplying a Silicon Fuzz-Face Parts Kit. It includes everything you need to build onto the PCB ad get it working in the box. Brilliant. The only thing you need to decide and add are which knobs you fancy – and there are plenty of choices at Doctor Tweek!

Full instructions are included in the kit:

• Schematic (to help you tweek and modify should you wish)
• Component Placement Diagram (explicit stuff!)
• Top Tips Help Sheet (for the newbie to building)
• Component List (so you can check stuff off)

Doctor Tweek's Silicon Fuzz Face PCB by Sleeping Dog FX

The board is available separately should you have your own components to use (dirty, filthy traitor!) – or you can even buy the component kit without the board so that you can vero or perf-board the build. Now that’s flexibility for you!  So have a look at www.doctortweek.co.uk   – obviously, any questions just ask at info@doctortweek.co.uk                                                                                                   Oh, Needless to say… it sounds bloody awesome, of course.                   

But it’s worth a copy here if it gets it out to more people

Note that some of the more radical tunings will alter the intonation of your instrument… enough to live with probably if you are only tuning for a while; but if this is going to be a permanent tuning it is probably best to check your intonation. I have one guitar tuned down a whole step and another in DADGAD… these guitars are now set up to be perfect at these tunings (the ‘drop one step’ is a Floyd Rose and took ages to get right!). Be aware also that if you are using a short scale such as a Les Paul or Jaguar then droping lower than a standard tuning may well make the whole thing too floppy…but hey, floppy strings can be fun

Alternate Guitar Tuning Chart

Michael was good enough to photograph the process – yes it’s simple, but like all good things there is the right way to do it. The attention is in the detail, and if you want roadworthy cables that will stand the test of time then you have to do it right.

Pictures by Michael from Sleeping Dog FX, words and instructions from Doctor Tweek…

Step One. Get QUALITY Components…

Step One: 6 meters of OFC anti-kink guitar cable and REAN Jacks

Step Two: A collection of tools on the bench - nothing more frustrating than not having the right tools for the job.

Step Three: Starting to prepare for the first plug - Michael scores around the outer sheath of the cable, about 25mm from the end. Careful not to cut too deeply - just roll the blade over the insulting sheath all the way around the cable.

Step Four: Once the cable has been cut as in the previous image you can pull off the outer insulation.

Step Five: Heres the braid revealed after pulling off the outer insulation. Now, you didn't cut too deep and cut through this did you?

Step Six: Here Michael is cutting the intermediate insulation. Note that he has moved the blade about 5mm further towards the end of the cable, also note that the blade is at an angle so that he has more control of the depth of cut. Again you don't want to cut all the way through...just this layer of insulation.

Step Seven: The intermediate insulation can now be removed, revealing the inner insulation. Also the braid is now twisted between your finger and thumb.

Step Eight: Repeat the previous step for the inner insulation. Again be careful not to cut too deep. A set of wire strippers is handy! Also twist the inner wire the same as you did for the outer braid.

Step Nine: Tin the wires - basically apply the iron to the wires and feed in solder until they are thoroughly imprgnated with solder. This is essential. Michael uses a set of helping hands here, which makes things a lot easier to handle.

Step Ten: You also must tin the plug. Apply heat and get some solder to pool up on the two contacts. Another essential step.

Step Eleven: Here we go positioning cable and plug together. They will be good freinds for a long time.

Step Twelve: After offering up the cable to the plug you will be abe to see what length you need to trim the wires to... use a pair of wire snips to trim them as in the picture above. Neat.

Step Thirteen: Here's the cable soldered to the wire. Because you have tinned both elements they should come together easily. Use some flux on your bit to make sure everything flows together. When the work has cooled examine the solder joint and give it a good tug. It should be fab!

Step Fourteen: Pop the sleeve and case onto the other end of the cable - the top Neutric jacks allow you to pop the case on from the plug end, but these REAN (Neutrik) jacks need the case sliding on before you solder the other end! Easy to forget - honest!

Step Fifteen: Note the wire is crimped in place using a pair of pliers on the 'sleeve' terminal. Then the plastic insulating sleeve slides over the whole assembly. Don't mis this item out - it insulates the connections from the case. Some cheap jacks don't have this. How bad is that?

Step Sixteen: Now it comes to repeat for the other end. First though, pop the other case and sleeve onto the cable. Don't forget - it is really embarrasing!

Step Seventeen: So, heres the finished result. Best tested with a multimeter for connectivity and insulation...but plugging them in should be as good a test as anything. Fabulous Cables - much better perfomance than cheap shop items and a lot cheaper than some fancy name brands. Plus they have the Mojo that you made them. Thanks Michael for the pictures!

• Quite a slow speed – about 800rpm (if you can do it) for the 12mm holes – bit faster for the small sizes.
• A decent feed so that the bit cuts in and doesn’t just make the ally form a ‘skin’ which acts as a bush bearing, stopping progress.
• Use Oil – or actually WD40 to lubricate the cutting edge. I’ve read about a combination of kerosene and bacon fat…. but let’s not go there! Oink.
• Watch out for the ally clinging to the bit….it’s not actually melted, but smears over the cutting edge. Ally is very ductile…  Not good, but can be removed.
• Use a center punch to get things started.
• Work up in sizes – dont expect to drill 12mm straight off. Start small and work up in size (as the actress said to the bishop).
• Remember that the bigger the hole, the slower the speed you need to use.
• Get a stepper drill bit
• Don’t panic.

Thinking about it I have a couple of old units that could use this treatment… I have a battered old Alesis Microverb kicking about somewhere in a cupboard…mmmm…. slot it into a fuzz face…

Meanwhile, I asked Holger if I could use his article: a bit of cut and paste   ….

My DIY pedal. Or: you can accept ugly if you fix it. by Holger

I play bass guitar. And I am a sound snob. I have used plenty of audio equipment, both digital and analog, over the years and I would think of myself being able to get the sound I want out of every box provided it can technically deliver what I need. So with my progress as a bass player over the last 2 years I progressed from a laptop based FX solution (Guitar Rig) to a digital stand alone multi FX (Zoom B9) and finally to a real analog pedal board with stomp boxes. I now have the sound I always wanted and while I appreciate the comfort of an all-in-one solution I’d rather find myself confined to the pedals I own knowing that they will always sound that much better.

I like to grab a bargain and if a cheap product can do the same as an expensive one I don’t mind going for a cheaper brand. But, and this is where we finally strike the chord of this blog, I hate ugly. For me its all about the user interface and the beauty of a well designed piece of technology. And while the discussion whether  you can achieve good product design for the same price as bad design may be reserved for another day, reality seems to teach us this very lesson.

I wanted a Phaser effect. So I went out and bought a Behringer Vintage Phaser VP1. It is a very accurate copy of the circuitry of an Electro Harmonix Small Stone. And it desperately wants to look like one, too. I would have forgiven this lack of inspiration if it would have had the built quality its design suggests unfortunately the great thing about this pedal is its sound when on. All else is really bad what you can expect for the price. After spending €19 Euro on it I decided to retain what’s great and spend a bit more to fix all of what’s not so great. Read below if you want to do the same to your VP1.

Issues to address:

• The case sucks. I wanted a flat box design pedal.
• The pot shaft is plastic, so is the knob. The really bad kind of plastic. lightweight and just cheap.
• The tone switch is finicky and to easy to move.
• The red LED is boring.
• The foot switch is too easy going and once I opened the pedal I knew why. While it looks really pro its just a fake switch pressing down a tiny microswitch on a board.
• The biggest issues: no true bypass and the thing is really prone to pick up all kinds of environment noise.

So I basically threw out all but the two main boards:

I was just about to replace the audio sockets but decided to use the original ones as they were good enough.

Soldering took a couple of hours and since this was my first project of this kind I killed the following items during the process:

• an LED
• the first case as it was too small
• A drill as I tried to widen holes with just the one metal drill I had. If you want to embark on this and you only  take one advise let it be this one: DO get a stepper drill.

Soldering wasn’t quite as easy as the original board is really crowded and the stuff is tiny. Re-connecting the pot, switch and LED turned out to be most challenging and you really want to use a desoldering tool, pliers and ideally a magnifier glass.

To implement the true bypass I used information found here. (mind the little corrections in the thread to connect audio socket).

I ordered all parts from DoctorTweek and I can not recommend this shop high enough. Steve is an absolute delight to deal with and you immediately get the feeling that you could talk to him for hours over a few pints.

Because it’s a Stone I decided to paint the case in grey primer and nothing else. It looks really stone-like and definitely sticks out of all the other pedals out there.

Now, looks like I need a Peter-Hook Chorus. Time to build a CloneClone.

Doctor Tweek is putting together a collective of talented and capable builders who can custom craft your boutique build in the U.K.

So far there are builders who specialise in custom circuit designs, pcb design, enclosure etching, distortion, fuzz…in fact all types of effect circuits, mods, repairs and even help for people who cant’t get their self build pedal up and running.

This is a non-profit service by Doctor Tweek; bringing pedal builders together with potential customers. The Great British Sound and the UK Cottage Industry are what I aim to promote here. I hope musicians support this too!

If you need a boutique effect pedal building to your specification, if you need help with sorting a build out or working a mod for your pedal or just want an lovely enclosure etched to your requirements then go here. Smashing Stuff.

“You Filthy Rat” is a twist on the classic RAT pedal. Sure, it can do all the stuff that a standard vintage RAT can do… and then it lifts off into a whole new dimension. It features Germanium, Silicon and LED (diode) distortion stages, each of which are switchable and to some extent mixable. So, you can go from hard crunch to vintage mush all in one pedal.

There are some really sweet touches to this piece of audio art: It responds very well to your guitar’s volume control, so, as you roll back the sound gently cleans up. It also behaves in subtly different ways depending on your pickup type. Strats maintain their cutting, single coil edge, whilst ‘buckers still maintain an unbelievable level of fatness.

Plugging this feeeelthy rat into a clean amp produces the best tone in my opinion – however it works fine too through driven tubes. Just playing with the pedal reveals a wealth of tone – in fact it is hard to get a bad sound out of it. You just need to define your tone from the multitude of possibilities.

Controls are volume, filter, drive and filth. Nice. Switches are Filth (filth boost on or off), LED, Silicon or Both,  Silicon, Germanium or Both. As you can imagine the possibilities are many!

Other nice touches are the glowing eyes of the feeeeeeeelthy Rat. The louder you play the more his evil eyes glow at you (providing of course you are using the LED stage).

The pedal is True Bypass, and only powered by an external supply (not provided) – no batteries. Internally the board is extremely well soldered and only the best components have been employed. A joy, and a pedal that is roadworthy and will give years of pleasure… probably a good investment too

Although commanding a premium price, you get what you pay for – top quality. The pedal has ‘back to base support’ from the builder. Not a company, but a person. Try that with a mass manufactured piece!

Bottom line: The Filthy Rat is available for £169 for build number 001, type 01. (dated 01/05/11)

More desirable than any so called boutique pedals, that are in reality, mass produced in China or Tiawan. Mad Prof? No, Doc Tweek!

Subsequent build numbers may be slightly cheaper as the product is moved to a commercial PCB, although it will still feature hand wired and hand placed components / soldering.

Should you be seriously interested in owning one of these fine pedals please email me: sales@doctortweek.co.uk or just purchase online (if in stock) at Doctor Tweek