Multiple Distortion DIY

[Jeremy Skrenes]

Anyone ever thought of putting together a DIY kit for multiple distortions? Kind of like a mix between a Jekyll & Hyde and a Line 6 pedal? If there was one that could do overdrive, metal, fuzz, and clean boost in one unit about the size of the Line 6, I'd buy or build it.

J

[RoboPimp]

I don't know of a single kit but I plan on building a box soon with a LPB, a TS, a muff and maybe a fuzz all in one. When I get it finished I'll be sure to share.

I know dan-o did one recently called the fuzz lab I think with a mess of crazy shit going on in it.

I think you could just buy the individual kits and put them together in one case.

[dan-o-guitar]

You can pretty easily build multiple circuits and wire them together on one box. Some key things to think about:

1. Do you want to retain true-bypass on each circuit, or for just the entire box? Entire box is a lot less wiring but less flexible.

2. Do you want a hard-wired order of effects? That's pretty easy to do: just daisy-chain the out of one circuit into the in of the next through a stompswitch. If you want to select the order, there's a bunch of complex ways, but the easiest is to add in/out jacks for each circuit on the back of the box. That way you can use patch cables to play with the effects order. It also gives you the ability to use any effect on its own in a different chain.

3. What about power? Four or five effects are going to eat through a single 9v in no time all. If battery's not important, just add a DC jack for a wall wart. If you need battery power, a bank of 6 AA's may be better.

4. Planning, planning, planning. As robopimp mentioned, I did the crazy fuzzlab and it was an intense mess of work--mostly because I didn't plan well and had to go back several times and re-think it. Draw it out on paper and be sure about what you want to accomplish.

If you can build a pedal, you can build a box of pedals. It is pretty cool and you end up with something that is completely unique. There's a lot of pix and notes on my site at:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/FuzzLab/

Here's the inside of the FuzzLab:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/FuzzLab/images/gutshot.jpg

[Ray18]

thanks dan-o-guitar


that gut shot stopped my heartbeat :o

[code_blue]

Don't mess it up!