what's happening this month with only 2 weeks left

another batch of drilled enclosures arrived at the beginning of the week and they're at the screenprinters. all of the artwork will be slightly revised to make it a bit more consistent for the next runs, as well as printing a small run of tuxedo tafms.

i'm working really hard at the breadboard this week to finish 2 designs - the mountain range and another special secret named the best friend, both of which will probably start as smaller runs, though will most likely be production models... i hope!

i'm going to finish up some custom artwork pedals, have a repair to get to, need to revise each PCB to fix some small mistakes/layout mishaps and then layout the other 2 newer circuits. busy busy!

contributions from some great ilovefuzz members... thanks guys!
*some comparison soundclips of the fuck overdrive against a durham electronics crazy horse and a paul cochrane timmy by lintybits.
*a really nice video demo/jam with the fuck overdrive by carlsagan.

"comparison of the Fuck, Crazy Horse and Timmy. Gain is 1/2 way on each 1st time then 3/4 (fuzz dialed out on the CH) rest of the knobs are noon (Timmy bass/treble CCW)"
1 - CH-FUCK-Timmy by Lintybits

"Fuck and Crazy Horse, gain 3/4 of the way up then gain on full (fuzz still out on CH)"
2- FUCK-CH by Lintybits

"Fuck at 3/4 gain Hit by a Timmy at 1/2 gain"
4-FUck-timmy by Lintybits

all in a day's work.

time to get started! the boards are double-sided, through-plated, silk-screened fabricated boards that i spend countless hours laying out - it's a long process, but i really do enjoy it - it's a unique and fun puzzle every time!

this is for a batch of team awesome! fuzzmachines. originally i was going to do 8, but my wrist was a little sore from the other boards i did that day and i pared it down to 3.




resistors in first.
parts go in according to their height - shortest to tallest - that way things stay nice and snug against the board when it gets flipped over to clip the leads off.









here are the 3 boards with the resistors plugged in, ready to be soldered.












lots of leads. good for jumpers, etc. so i keep a little pile around at all times.












step 1 done! next.













IC socket for the voltage inverter for the PNP germanium fuzz, reverse polarity diode, temperature stabilizing ge diodes and a few small value capacitors.










more capacitors.













the good stuff.

nice russian germanium transistors. pretty consistent, low leakage, reasonable gain and low numbers of rejects.

fun and spage-age looking, too!







got the russians soldered in as well as their silicon friends.












electrolytic capacitors and bias trimpot installed and IC socketed. all of the components are done; now it's time for the potentiometers, switches and wiring. never a dull moment!










pots ready. the fuzz pot is a different type of pot and is a little bit shorter than the others... there are worse things in life, so i'm ok with it.











mids switch, boost switch and wires for the clean blend pot are in place. not much left to do except drill additional holes in the enclosure, put all the external hardware in, wire it up and test it.

more later...

getting ready!

preparing for the damn enclosures to get here... it's seriously driving me nuts since i still need to get them silkscreened and the delays are just taking too long - can't launch the new site until i get those screens!

so i'm preparing... lots of boards.

just about ready to roll...

getting close!
5 year4545 + 5 fuck overdrives...

NEW YEAR! more gear...

so with the new year looming, i figured i'd let everyone know what's going on here in smallsound/bigsound land!
i just got back from a nice family vacation - relaxing and enjoyable - exactly what i needed before life insanity gets started again...

*new circuit boards for everything! i'm changing my enclosure layouts to have all ss/bs pedals compatible with one basic layout - though there will be slight differences in the number of knobs, switches, etc. this necessitated a change in PCB layouts. i'll be populating and building each new PCB up this weekend to ensure that they're working well and have no mistakes.
**the tafm board is exactly the same as before, aside from some very slight differences that won't be noticed by anyone. the main difference in this version (as with the last version) is that i'm using different tapered pots for a better volume range - still super loud, but with more low volume sweep (unity closer to noon, depending on the input volume).

*new pedal(s)!
**the fuck overdrive is done and will even (hopefully!) have an expression pedal in option. need to test that...
**year4545 is revised and bigger and badder.
**i just ordered boards for the PWM fuzz, so don't worry - that project isn't dead!

*lots of stuff in the works! (more-or-less in the order of completion)
**the mountain range overdrive - still tweaking a tiny bit, but shouldn't be very different than the one i made blurzy.
**another unnamed overdrive which will be very different than the fuck or mountain range.
**the utility looper/boost/blend thing.
**warped record vibrato.
**something secret!
**bitcrusher.

*new website!
**after 2 years of thinking about it and procrastinating, it's finally getting there... maybe another week if i really buckle down and get the time in. honestly, i feel really lucky to be where i am without having a website, so thanks to everyone who has supported smallsound/bigsound in any way.

*hopefully some new dealers!
**just crossing my fingers that the new pedals and website brings a flood (ha!) of retailers my way.

*more small batches/custom stuff!
**i'm going to try my hardest to get out a small batch of 3-10 pedals each month or two. they'll primarily be available directly through me, but it will be nice to offer those batches through fuzzhugger, etc. when the time is right. these things will probably either be really simple or really complex, dual pedals or even ideas people shoot my way. the first will be the PWM which should be ready soon.

*new graphics!
**i'm going to see about getting some 2 color silkscreens done locally here in philadelphia.

finally done with the layouts!

well, i had to change around my layouts a tiny bit which really sucks once all the routing is done, but no matter because they're all done! team awesome v5

now to get them all printed and fucking hope to jesus or whomever that they line up with the enclosures i'm getting drilled...

no new progress on the PWM, but i did come up with a simple, neat little overdrive that i may make a run of in the future. i have a few more things to add/refine and i'll be done with it.
i feel odd having working with 2 overdrives in such close proximity to each other, though it'll be very different than the fuck overdrive, that's for sure...

time for some new circuit boards!

every 25 pedals or so i need some new boards. it's nice as it allows me the luxury of updating the PCBs without having a ton of them on hand that may have had a small error or mis-label. i really enjoy this part of designing/building...

it's like figuring out a weird puzzle on a few different levels - you have the design of the pedal, the layout of the controls on the pedal, which in my case delineates at least partially the PCB layout, the component layout on the board and the routing associated. i often spend more time than i should on this stage since i try and get the most compact, efficient and aesthetically pleasing layout i can. some people are true artists when it comes to circuit layouts... that's what i'm striving for!

here are my layouts for the fuck overdrive and the newer year4545. i just started working on another tafm layout, which should be done by the weekend.