# Parentheses - A show of hands



## Chuck D. Bones (Oct 2, 2019)

How many of you have built the Parentheses?


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## DGWVI (Oct 2, 2019)

I have a board arriving today or tomorrow. I'll get that one done first


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 2, 2019)

I’ve built the OG and have a mini on the way. Pretty sure my problems were really just finding suitable FETs that made it come alive. It’s been awhile so I don’t really remember what else it needed but it works as it should now....not that I have a Life Pedal to compare it to haha


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## benny_profane (Oct 2, 2019)

I had a bit of what seemed like overloading of the octave circuit when that was completely opened up that resulted in a volume drop followed by a swell when hit with a large signal (heavy strum from humbuckers). I matched the resistors and diodes in the rectification block. I think asking that particular octave circuit to be not without its quirks is not exactly reasonable. So, no complaints with it. As always: source from reputable vendors (especially with OOP parts) to make sure that you're getting what you think you're getting. For anything you're unsure of, measure and confirm!


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## thedwest (Oct 2, 2019)

Has anyone had problems with the mini board? I have both and after seeing all of the difficulties that people seem to be having with the original, I think I'm going to try out the mini board first. Haven't seen any troubleshooting posts on that one yet.


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 2, 2019)

benny_profane said:


> I had a bit of what seemed like overloading of the octave circuit when that was completely opened up that resulted in a volume drop followed by a swell when hit with a large signal (heavy strum from humbuckers). I matched the resistors and diodes in the rectification block. I think asking that particular octave circuit to be not without its quirks is not exactly reasonable. So, no complaints with it. As always: source from reputable vendors (especially with OOP parts) to make sure that you're getting what you think you're getting. For anything you're unsure of, measure and confirm!



That’s also partly the Rats fault I think, I’ve had some of them do the low note fart out thing, changed the 4.7uf (connected to 560r)in the distortion section to 2.2 or 1uf and it cleared it up.


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## Fuzzonaut (Oct 2, 2019)

I'be built it with the early, big board. Worked right away and sounds great. 

Components came from Musikding/Banzai. I matched the GE diodes (Ringer) and used 3 tantalum caps (Rat). I measure components before soldering them in. 

Got the mini board on the way too.


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 2, 2019)

thedwest said:


> Has anyone had problems with the mini board? I have both and after seeing all of the difficulties that people seem to be having with the original, I think I'm going to try out the mini board first. Haven't seen any troubleshooting posts on that one yet.



Give it time haha, it wasn’t released that long ago. Mine should be here next week some time if customs doesn’t hold it for no reason.


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## JetFixxxer (Oct 2, 2019)

Hopefully everyone who has built one cast their vote.


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## K Pedals (Oct 2, 2019)

I’ve built a few big ones and a couple mini ones... the only problem I’ve had was on the putting a 4.7k instead of 47k...


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## Chuck D. Bones (Oct 2, 2019)

JetFixxxer said:


> Hopefully everyone who has built one cast their vote.



Clearly, everyone who has built one has not cast their vote.  A quick scan of the Troubleshooting forum will prove that.


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## porkrind (Oct 2, 2019)

Fuzzonaut said:


> I'be built it with the early, big board. Worked right away and sounds great.
> 
> Components came from Musikding/Banzai. I matched the GE diodes (Ringer) and used 3 tantalum caps (Rat). I measure components before soldering them in.
> 
> Got the mini board on the way too.



I haven’t voted yet; I’m still one components order and a bunch of paint/label work away from completion. Maybe this weekend if the shipping gods smile on me.

One question... which caps did you use tantalum parts for? What's the thinking behind that? I had this general perception that I should avoid tantalum.

I matched my GE caps pretty closely but would liked to have started with a bigger pool. Somewhere I’ve got a box of those, but I haven’t been able to find them since a move a couple of years ago.


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## K Pedals (Oct 2, 2019)

porkrind said:


> I haven’t voted yet; I’m still one components order and a bunch of paint/label work away from completion. Maybe this weekend if the shipping gods smile on me.
> 
> One question... which caps did you use tantalum parts for? What's the thinking behind that? I had this general perception that I should avoid tantalum.
> 
> I matched my GE caps pretty closely but would liked to have started with a bigger pool. Somewhere I’ve got a box of those, but I haven’t been able to find them since a move a couple of years ago.


C13 C14 C15 are the tantalum... not sure why though...


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## Jovi Bon Kenobi (Oct 2, 2019)

I have both boards. the first one of each. I haven't built them yet I'm scared. ?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Oct 3, 2019)

K Pedals said:


> C13 C14 C15 are the tantalum... not sure why though...



Tantalum caps are less leaky, less lossy, have tighter tolerance and are more stable than aluminum caps.  Those are all important characteristics for C13 & C14.  C15 could be either tantalum or aluminum, but since there is already a 4.7uF cap on the BOM, they might as well be the same type.  Tantalum caps have a couple of downsides.  Because they are less lossy, they can be resonant in the 100KHz range, but that's not really a concern for audio circuits.  They don't tolerate large surge currents well, but that's also not a big concern in guitar pedals.


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## K Pedals (Oct 3, 2019)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Tantalum caps are less leaky, less lossy, have tighter tolerance and are more stable than aluminum caps.  Those are all important characteristics for C13 & C14.  C15 could be either tantalum or aluminum, but since there is already a 4.7uF cap on the BOM, they might as well be the same type.  Tantalum caps have a couple of downsides.  Because they are less lossy, they can be resonant in the 100KHz range, but that's not really a concern for audio circuits.  They don't tolerate large surge currents well, but that's also not a big concern in guitar pedals.


Sweet
Thanks for the info...


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## Fuzzonaut (Oct 3, 2019)

porkrind said:


> I haven’t voted yet; I’m still one components order and a bunch of paint/label work away from completion. Maybe this weekend if the shipping gods smile on me.
> 
> One question... which caps did you use tantalum parts for? What's the thinking behind that? I had this general perception that I should avoid tantalum.
> 
> I matched my GE caps pretty closely but would liked to have started with a bigger pool. Somewhere I’ve got a box of those, but I haven’t been able to find them since a move a couple of years ago.



Yeah, it was C13, 14 and 15 as pointed out.

Why? Just because EQD did too. You can see them in the gut shot of their pedal and they even mentioned them in their description:
"It is faithfully modeled after the classic LM308 “White Face” distortion pedal, right down to the tantalum caps."

Chuck's answer is better though ...


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## silentrecords (Oct 3, 2019)

anyone have build docs for mini parentheses? or is the schem and part numbers the same as the larger version?


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## K Pedals (Oct 3, 2019)

I think it’s the same 
There is a 1uf MLCC in the mini...
I think everything else is the same...


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## silentrecords (Oct 3, 2019)

what number is the 1uF MLCC cap?


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## thedwest (Oct 3, 2019)

I want to say its C22. Hoping that's right because I'm about to start this one up.


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## SteveScott (Oct 3, 2019)

silentrecords said:


> anyone have build docs for mini parentheses? or is the schem and part numbers the same as the larger version?


I just made a post asking the same thing, then I found this thread.    I haven't started to build this yet and I'm glad I started reading this first.


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## K Pedals (Oct 3, 2019)

silentrecords said:


> what number is the 1uF MLCC cap?


C22


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## DGWVI (Oct 7, 2019)

Just boxed mine up. Rat sounds great, and the boost is a boost. The Octave circuit isn't nearly as prominent or aggressive as my stand-alone Ringer, so I'm probably going to swap out parts to make it identical to that at some point.

Edit: my diodes in the octave were backward. Flipped them, and it's actually quite a bit more in your face than my Ringer


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## cthalupa (Jan 3, 2020)

Built one today over about 10 hours. Second pedal ever, and my 2nd time picking up a soldering iron in the past 15 years. It wasn't a smart choice, but I had fun. Bit of a novel to follow, but maybe someone will find it interesting or helpful:

Pre-Attempt #1: I drilled in clipping switch hole in the wrong place. Whoops. This resulted in me having to do some long wire runs to swap the pot and switch. This definitely came back to bite me later...

(Lesson learned: Pay more attention when doing things you can't take back!)

Attempt #1: I was overconfident and went straight to boxing it up as I assembled, figuring it would help me keep my wire runs shorter. This turned out to be a mistake, because three things happened - one, one of the wires to the switch broke free, and my stupid self mixed up the positive and negative on my DC jack. The third is the bizarre angles I was working in left me with some not-great soldered joints.

(Lesson learned: Mount stuff inside out so I can still see the length to things but have way more free space. Also keep a reference to positive/negative for unlabeled parts that I can refer to.)

Attempt #2: It turned on, but I was getting so much noise as soon as I plugged in the output, even before plugging in the power, that I could barely tell if it was working at all. At this point, the fuzz and boost seemed to be working, but the octave didn't do anything.

What followed was multiple hours of hell due to not using enough flux, not using a high enough heat on my soldering station, and not being quicker to reach for the IPA. I figured it had to be the ground on the output jack giving me grief, but I failed at desoldering it and got solder and bits of cable strange stuck in one of the through holes. I have a weller solder sucker, but had a hell of a time getting it out.  During all of this I managed to break off some cables from pads, which I guess was a good thing - definitely cold solder joints.

(Lessons learned: Go into the 600s, not 500s, on the iron. Use the flux pens I bought instead of letting them sit there! Be more careful when fixing stuff)

Attempt #3: When I resoldered the TRS jacks in the dozen or so times I was dealing with it after #2, I got the output backwards. Easy fix, and worked after that! At least, I think it does - all of the footswitches and pots seem to make the sound change in a way that seems reasonable for their function .


All in all, it was fun. All of my mistakes would be really easily avoidable, and I don't think any were particularly specific to Parentheses itself. I think I'm going to go do a handful of simpler builds for my next few, though...


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## diocide (Jan 5, 2020)

Hey folks. New forumite here.

I've built a few of these for friends, and I"ve encountered a random problem.

When the octave is turned all the way up, I get oscillation. An instant screech.

It's only happened on two builds out of 4. All parts are high quality, but I'm not sure what causing the instant feedback.

Any thoughts? The pedal works as it should otherwise.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 6, 2020)

You'll get more attention in the Troubleshooting forum.  When you do get it fixed, please come back here and cast a vote.


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