Phase #1
After building quite a few simple pedals, I decided to challenge myself and build something which would test my abilities and provide me with another opportunity to learn much more about this particular field of electronics.
There are many Phase pedals on the market, but there are even more available to build online from great sources such as freestompboxes and Guitar FX Layouts. With a multitude of variations available it can be difficult to adopt the functions you want and need into your own design, something I struggled with during the creation of my own phase pedal.
Almost limitless options can be overwhelming and I found myself constantly struggling to pick a definitive design to work on, and after frustratingly going back and forth numerous times, 6 months worth, I found myself questioning what it was I wanted and whether all this was worth the hassle. It was.
This pedal has a master depth control, the infamous R28 feedback switch, internal volume trimpot, and a set of rate and range controls, selectable via the second footswitch.
The rate acts as an ordinary pot in both range positions, but the frequency it dials through changes depending whether the range is set to slow or fast. It also has flashing rate indicator LED's and true bypass wiring.
This pedal is a combination of the MXR Phase 90, with adaptations from BYOC Phase Royal, and ideas of my own. However, the list of things I could have implemented into the design stretch further than I care to post. If you do wish for some inspiration though, just ask!
I found that I wasted too much time with indecision and apprehension about how to implement the features I wanted. Instead of just sticking to my gut instinct, during the process of going back and forth I could've learnt how to do all the stuff I wanted to.
After going through this long and stressful build, I'm happy to say I learnt a few things or two, definitely things I should've known already. Assuming you're not designing the circuit from scratch, below is a process to follow once you decide you want to build a pedal, which will hopefully help make your project more linear and manageable.
1. After deciding you want to build a certain type of pedal, be it fuzz, distortion or modulation, carefully think about the following things.
- What features do you want it to have?
For example, do you want extra tone switches, a depth control, switchable diode clipping?
- What features are feasible?
Now is the time to start researching how these things are going to be done. If things get too deep and seem too much of a challenge, its now that you should decide whether to omit them or accept that challenge.
- How do you want it to sound?
This part will be completed by experimenting with the circuit, things like trying different capacitor values for that tone switch and finding out which diodes sound best to you. Using a breadboard is a great way to achieve this.
2. Before creating the layout for your chosen circuit, think about how the components eg. 1/4" jacks, pots and switches will fit into the enclosure. Be creative and try out all your options. I suggest either drawing this out on paper, or for students out there, downloading a copy of AutoCAD. It's normally extremely expensive, however students have free access and the learning curve isn't too steep. This will enable you to visualise your pedal, and know what shape and size board you have to work with.
For laying out the circuit, I suggest downloading DIYLC (DIY Layout Creator). It's an extremely easy to use and functional program, that's free to download and used by almost everyone in the DIY stompbox community.
After this, all that's left is to solder the circuit, install everything into the enclosure and enjoy.
I'm pretty happy with the outcome of this pedal, but at the moment I'm working on a version 2. After hacking into the veroboard and re-breadboarding certain parts of the circuit, I've revised the schematic and created a new layout on PCB software ready for etching. Once I get the layout confirmed I'll post more info on the revisions and do a more detailed post on its features and sounds.
Links to AutoCAD & DIYLC
http://www.autodesk.com/education/student-software
http://code.google.com/p/diy-layout-creator/
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