BYOC

[black_out]

I just ordered the 2 Knob Tone Bender kit from Build Your Own Clone. I'm stoked as fuck, been wanting to build one of these for a while and just have never gotten around to buying one. Anybody got any tips or advice for the build? I have a Weller soldering iron and I can solder well enough but this is gonna be my first pedal build.

[VOLVO)))]

Keep the heat down, just enough to melt 60/40 solder, like 360ish degrees. Take your time, and compulsively refer back to the diagram. Don't leave much loose wire inside, leave only enough to move the board in/out. Too much wire = unwanted noise. Do a rad paintjob on the case... have fun. Don't stress if it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, take detailed pictures of everything inside, post here, post the diagrams and Hemi/Pissy/eyeprod/Me/whoever else does this will help you get it running.

[black_out]

Word, thanks dude. I would have thought a higher heat would be better. You know, get it hot enough to melt in as short a period of time as possible. Then I was just gonna try the old alligator clip as a heat sink trick to keep from burning the caps and shit up. I'll definitely end up with a rad paint job. The drummer in my band is a super talented artist and he's stoked to get to paint it for me. I'll definitely throw some pictures up when it's finished.

[Chovie D]

That is a great pedal.
BYOC makes some really good stuff.  tips? what Sunn said .... also
-check parts list and make sure everything is there BEFORE you start. Ive gotten several kits with missing parts, they are quick to correct their errors tho, so be patient.
-use fine solder not regular guage and a pointed iron tip. I used my radio shack cheapy iron rather than my big ole weller. The pcb is small and crowded so you wanna keep it neat and not melt the whole thing down
-start painting your case the day it arrives. Thats the part that takes the longest.
go buy some spray primer and paint and clear coat now today and some inkjet water slide decals in clear and white background to label the case. In general a one color pedal takes labels better than something with pictures all over it or a psychedlic paint job. Think about graphics, look at some other pedals. Dont do the hippie drawing or messy sharpie marker thing that so many do, you can make it look nice and pro with a littel effort, check the BYOC gallery for tips.
-when putting in the led, make it so the bulb juts barely clears or touches the hole (thats what she said) not so its stickng way out of the case

remember this pedal uses postive ground so you cannot daisy chain it, I recommend making a small decal label saying  just that and sticking on the side with decal jack.

once built try backing off the attack some for fender tweedish tones, or crank it up for Zep I tones.
After you build this and are hooked, I recommend the Leeds fuzz next..fantastic doom pedal
have fun!

[VOLVO)))]

Hold, it has to have it's own power supply? I can't run BYOC pedals off my tuner?

[Chovie D]

Hold, it has to have it's own power supply? I can't run BYOC pedals off my tuner?

that is true for THIS pedal only. Not all BYOC pedals. Part of what I like about this pedal is its faithfulness to the original and the original was a positive ground also. Since it, like most fuzzes, demands to be the first pedal in your chain, the best way to run it is to simply use a battery and unplug your guitar from it when not in use.

[black_out]

Damn I'm fucking pumped for this thing! Thanks again for all the tips dudes!

[VOLVO)))]

I see, yay for true clones!

[black_out]

I'm working on this build right now. Soldering the resistors and caps and shit in was pretty easy, but making the connections for the switch is a pain in the fucking ass for me. I needed to take a break, smoke a bowl, and clear my head. Thought I'd check in with you dudes while I'm at it.

I'll throw some pictures up when it's finished.

[VOLVO)))]

Make sure everything is tight, and you'll love the satisfaction of it working, first try. In other news, Chovie, apparently fuzz faces are the same way... positive power. What makes post/neg difference when it comes to chaining?

[black_out]

It works. Fuzzier than a moldy peach, but it seems like it's on the quiet side. With the volume on the pedal dimed it's still not any louder than the bypass signal. There's a noticeable difference in volume when i turn it, so I know it's working. Any ideas as to what might be the culprit?

[black_out]

Never mind, after I clipped the leads on the transistors and put them back in sockets the volume problem went away. This pedal sounds fucking amazing! It'll be nice to plug into it tomorrow and actually be able to turn up a little bit.

[VOLVO)))]

Extra lead, hahaha. who'dathunk?

[Chovie D]

the leads on the trannies are very long and need to be clipped to shorten them. Its also possible one of the trannies just wasnt seated all the way in the socket.

Glad you got it wokring. I sure now you will want to build more
They sometimes offer a buy two get one free special and its worth waitng for that to come around. Its basically 33% off, so you can buy 4 pedals and get 33% off, so you can buy as many as you want and get the discount.

Ive built almost all of them.
I still use a few of them.
ones I liked:
mighty mouse-I ab'ed it with an lm308 chipped vintage rat and they were identical, great pedal
delay (still on my pedalboard)
Leeds fuzz-awesome superfuzz clone, my favorite of their line
Overdrive
fuzzface
bender
compressor
triboost(if you lke boosts)

ones Id avoid:
slow gear
orange squeezer, green ringer
shredmaster

i haven t built the big muff or the drop in wah

[black_out]

Yeah, I was just following the directions and testing the pedal out before I clipped the leads on the trannys. If I had to take a guess I'd say that I just didn't have one of the leads in all the way. And you're definitely right, I'm hooked. Probably end up going with either the Vibe or the Flange for my next build.

Now for some pictures. My camera is apparently a piece of shit and doesn't like to focus on close up shots so this is the best I could do at the moment.

I feel like it's a little sloppy, but it works, so I'm happy for now. I'm definitely gonna do as much of the wiring externally as I can next time. Why on earth the tell you to install the jacks/dc jack/switch before you wire it is beyond me. There has to  be a better way cause some of that shit is hard to get at in such a tight space.

[Chovie D]

Nice neat job wiring! but you didnt paint the enclosure  probably just wanted ot make sure it worked first?

I havent checked the byoc site in a long time, i didnt know they had a vibe, I will have to check that out. That analog flanger looks pretty cool, I just never use flange and have several vintage ones anyway.

That Leeds pedal is a must if your into doom or sludge.
Ha, I just realized I am wearng my BYOC t-shirt today.

rock on!

[black_out]

Thansk! I actually thought I could have done a better job with the wiring but I guess it's not too bad. I have no intentions of painting it myself, my drummer is going to handle that for me. I just figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal for him to tape some shit off and paint around it. Hopefully I was right about that. I won't see him until Sunday and I couldn't wait that long to put the thing together. I mean, I've been seriously wanting to build one of these for a seriously long time. I couldn't just sit on it for 2 weeks while I waited for him to paint it! It would have killed me!

[Chovie D]

ooooh, no I wouldnt try painting the enclosure with the electronics still in there. for one thing, you want to lightly sand the enclosure first before priming and the dust is a no no for those components. I would highly advise you to remove the inards first. tape woulod be a huge ass pain also, rember your gonna prime, paint, label  and clear coat...thats alot of spraying and taping. It will suck to remove the inards because of the dc jack if they are still usng the jacks that dont screw in, but i think its worth that effort to ensure the safety of your pedal.  maybe IM wrong and it could be done....but my experience has been its just far easier to paint the enclosure first thing. You may want oask if its safe to do that on the BYOC forums before you let your drummer spray away. I once ruined a buch of effects by spraying them with windex (I was young and dumb...still am dumb). I lost a 1984 opamp big muff and a mxr analog delay in that disaster and still am kicking myself over it almost 30 years later.

I just checked the BYOC site and didnt see a vibe pedal. When you say vibe I think UNIVIBE. Perhaps you mean the vibrato pedal? I built that one and its a very cool pedal, but not very useable. I like the ramp function, and you can get a nice kind of wacky chorus, but its just a little too wacky to get used often. Whats cool about that pedal is there just arent many true vibrato pedals made...only the Boss VB2 and that pedal is super rare. The vibrato on a univibe (dunlop) is useless and weak, so it doesnt really count compared to the boss VB2. Id classify teh BYOC vibrato as a neat noisemaker and oddity. In the three or more years Ive owned it , it has never been used live or on a recording. I step on it occasionally and go, "ooh thats wild", then go back to standard tones.

The most useable pedals are the fuzzes, the overdrive is great, the delay. These will be on your pedalboardand get stomped regularly and in my mind are the best buys.

anyway, have fun, painting the thing is alot of the fun for me, you mayv wanna try it yourself.

[Chovie D]

Heres my tonebender, notice how i left the led sticking way out like a fool. This was the frist pedal of theirs i built where the led didnt have the grommet around it .

[black_out]

Oh word. Thanks for the heads up on that. I don't think it'll be too big of a deal to pull the guts out. The DC jack does screw in. Only thing that worries me is fucking with some of those solder joints. I might have to hit a few of them again when I re-install in the inclosure but I guess that really shouldn't be that big of a deal. As far as painting it myself, I have no desire to do that. There are a great many things in life that I have patience to spare for, painting isn't one of them. My drummer is a super talented artist anyway and I like the idea of just letting him go nuts with this thing.

Not that I expect this on a pedal, but this is a pretty decent example of what he's capable of.

[black_out]

Yours looks sharp dude. Nice and clean. I wouldn't even have noticed the LED if you hadn't pointed it out.

[Chovie D]

holy crap. yeah let your drummer go nuts on it! haha.

yeah it shouldnt be too bad removing the guts. I totally understand about wanting to put the thing together immediately. so hard to resist.

you're making me wanna build more BYOCs. after I while tho I decided I wanted to have the original vintage pedals they were cloning.
I started to seek out things like vintage phase 90's. mxr dist+, dynacomps, lm308 rats. tubescreamers, old big muffs, etc.
Its taken a few years to find em at prices i could afford. The good news is that when I AB the original pedals with the clones. The clones are VERY close if not indistinguishable from the originals. The mighty mouse for example is dead on. BYOC still has its place tho, I havent been able to find a vintage tonebender yet at the price I want ($100 or less) and the only VB2 ive ever seen was $200.

[VOLVO)))]

They have a dynacomp kit? The modded Boss CS-3 I have still kind of blows.

[Chovie D]

actually I may have mispoke on the dynacomp. I think the BYOC compressor is supposed to be a Ross clone. They've made several different compressors over the years and I may be confusing theirs with another companies "dynaross" clone. I have built the ross clone and its very good, tho I have never found a vintage ross to compare it to. I have a vintage dynacomp and its good too. But the best compressor I own by far is the Boss 3 knob compressor (CS2? i think its called?)made in japan that I got for $20 at a guitar show. It is far superior to the 4 knob version that came afterwards. If you can find one of those, thats the one to get. Otherwise the ross clone from BYOC would be a good choice too. BYOC also makes an optical compressor which I know nothing about but which seems designed more for recording applications than the chicken pickin cluck I use stomp compressors for. BYOC also makes the orange squeezer "armstrong twin"clone and I have that one as well but dont care for it very much.

[Lumpy]

Besides painting, you could just put a decal or sticker on top, Electro-Harmonix or Devi Ever style. Painting is a pain in the ass, you gotta do multiple passes so the paint doesn't sag. Who cares if the bottom is painted (or the sides) you mostly see the top. I spent so much time painting a box and making the decal, clearcoating, and then the clearcoat started to crack (along with the decal) I never got around to building the pedal (the 250 overdrive, which I purchased for cheap, instead).

Also, I painted my box black, which means your best option is a white decal, if you go the decal route - nothing else will really show up. Paint with lighter colors, IMO.

If you do use a decal, make it cover the whole top right up to the edges - otherwise the decal edges are noticeable, like little islands. IMO. Unless you clearcoat the hell out of it, and sand/repeat, multiple times) and then your clearcoat can crack.

I think in the future I would buy pre-drilled and pre-painted boxes, and skip that whole step.