# Spirit Box + infinite Dwell footswitch w/vid



## Danbieranowski (Sep 30, 2020)

I put together a Spirit Box which turned out really great. Fantastic sounding haunting reverb. It's not a terribly difficult build, but the Belton Brick is a little pricey. I also opted for the chameleon Gorva box, which costs a little more, but just looks insane. You can't tell in the video really, but depending on the angle you look at it, it fades from forest green to a dark purple with a nice sparkle all around. 

I wanted an infinite Dwell option, so per some notes from folks on this board (@Mcknib and this post) , along with a friend on instagram (Frankie Armenta - @deadd0nks) I was able to sort this function out. Here are the changes I made:

I replaced R5 with a 17k resistor. This is supposed to help with volume loss.
I replaced R8 with a 16k resistor. This is supposed to give the dwell knob a longer dwell during standard non-infinite footswitch use. It's important that you socket this resistor to experiment with different values. The lower you go, the more option for longer dwell even into self oscillation territory. You also want to socket this or install it with extra long legs on each side, as you are going to need to solder to each of R8's legs for the momentary footswitch.
I installed an SPST normally open momentary footswitch. One wire off the footswitch lugs goes to one leg of R8. The other wire off the footswitch lugs goes to leg 1 (or 3?) on a 20k trimmer, and the trimmer's wiper (leg 2) is soldered to the other leg of R8. 
At this point, you use the trimmer to dial in the resistance so that when you press the momentary footswitch, your Dwell oscillates the way you want. I set this very subtly so it takes some time to oscillate into noise. It gives it this long creepy tail that I think works really well.

Anyways, here's what it looks like on the outside:




Here's what it looks like on the inside (note the goofy wiring of the trimmer to R8. I tried to get a better picture of this, but there's no angle where you can really tell what's going on, just follow the steps I posted above and experiment):




And here's how it sounds:


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## Danbieranowski (Sep 30, 2020)

Oh and I wouldn't recommend doing any PedalPCB board that is 3 pots wide in a Gorva C65 enclosure like this. It really doesn't fit and I had to force it, which didn't feel good lol.


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## SYLV9ST9R (Sep 30, 2020)

Great job Dan! If it sounds good, nobody will ever know what goes on inside!
Wondered how those chameleon boxes looked, really nice, especially with that black bezel.


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## Route14 (Sep 30, 2020)

Looks awesome and sounds great. I’m going to try those mods! Where did you find the Belton Brick? Small Bear is out of stock right now. Thanks!


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## Elktronics (Sep 30, 2020)

Route14 said:


> Looks awesome and sounds great. I’m going to try those mods! Where did you find the Belton Brick? Small Bear is out of stock right now. Thanks!



You can get them here:








						Belton BTDR-2H - Reverb IC
					

Top Quality Parts for Guitar Effects Pedals and DIY Music Devices. Knobs, Pots, Switches, Kits, LEDs, Enclosures, Jacks, Wire, Resistors, Capacitors, Semiconductors




					stompboxparts.com


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## Route14 (Sep 30, 2020)

Elktronics said:


> You can get them here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Perfect. Thanks. Oddly I’ve never ordered from them and didn’t think to check. I’m just getting back into building after 15 years. Seems like there are way more resources these days for parts and boards. Exciting times.


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## Danbieranowski (Sep 30, 2020)

Route14 said:


> Perfect. Thanks. Oddly I’ve never ordered from them and didn’t think to check. I’m just getting back into building after 15 years. Seems like there are way more resources these days for parts and boards. Exciting times.



Yeah there are a lot of great options. Stomp Box Parts is where I got my Belton and I buy a lot of other stuff through them, Tayda, SmallBear, Love My Switches, and Digikey. Tayda also has predrilled enclosures that fit PedalPCB builds.


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## yazooligan (Sep 30, 2020)

My next build is putting a Spirit Box and Seabed Delay in a 1590XX with an order switch.

Do you find the volume loss mod is necessary on all Spirit Box builds or just in your case?

EDIT: Also, beautiful build! Sounds gorgeous, and that infinite dwell is such a rad idea. Gave me major Twin Peaks vibes!


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## Danbieranowski (Sep 30, 2020)

yazooligan said:


> My next build is putting a Spirit Box and Seabed Delay in a 1590XX with an order switch.
> 
> Do you find the volume loss mod is necessary on all Spirit Box builds or just in your case?
> 
> EDIT: Also, beautiful build! Sounds gorgeous, and that infinite dwell is such a rad idea. Gave me major Twin Peaks vibes!



Ive never built it without that volume mod so I couldn’t speak to it otherwise. I just followed the advice of that other thread since it seemed pretty common. You could definitely socket that resistor and try different values until you find what works for you.
And thanks for the kind words!


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## Dali (Oct 1, 2020)

I built a Spirit Box but kept it as per doc. Nice addition this  momentary footswitch!

Very clean and well job done overall.


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## untamedfrontier (Oct 1, 2020)

Danbieranowski said:


> Oh and I wouldn't recommend doing any PedalPCB board that is 3 pots wide in a Gorva C65 enclosure like this. It really doesn't fit and I had to force it, which didn't feel good lol.


Thanks for the tip on that, based on the drill template it seems like any build with the 1.3" spacing (Simulcast & others) will work fine with Gorva C65 and anything with 1.6" spacing (Spirit Box, Blue Shoe Gai Pan, & others) will be a tight squeeeeze

Really nice build, I had toyed with the idea of doing the momentary mod with this one but I got scared!


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## Danbieranowski (Oct 1, 2020)

untamedfrontier said:


> Thanks for the tip on that, based on the drill template it seems like any build with the 1.3" spacing (Simulcast & others) will work fine with Gorva C65 and anything with 1.6" spacing (Spirit Box, Blue Shoe Gai Pan, & others) will be a tight squeeeeze
> 
> Really nice build, I had toyed with the idea of doing the momentary mod with this one but I got scared!


This brings up a good point. Not only will 3 pots in a line be a problem for fitting. But actually any boards that are 2.25” wide, which quite a few are. The board barely fits in deep enough to reach the pot legs. So pots with longer legs or soldering leads to the ends of the legs (or just using wires with solder lug pots) can get around this. 

I suppose a true solution would be 9mm or mini pots and slightly sanding the sides of the PCB down being careful not to touch the traces or really get close.


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## mitch (Oct 1, 2020)

Did you use a B5K pot for Depth, as mentioned in this post?


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## Danbieranowski (Oct 1, 2020)

mitch said:


> Did you use a B5K pot for Depth, as mentioned in this post?



Yes I used the pot values from the build doc. The trimmer attached to the momentary switch is a 20k trimmer.


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