# Multiple modulation modules, oh my!



## SchlegFace (Apr 12, 2022)

Hi all!  Long time lurker all around the pedal hot spots on the interwebs, very infrequent poster.  Thought I would share a few of the builds I have wrapped up in the last few weeks. These are all projects that had been in the works for quite a while that I finally buckled down and got finished.

First up was The Chorus.  This is a Madbean Glam circuit which is a 2399 based chorus.  I saw a demo of it way back when he released the board and had to have one.  Good thing I bought it back then, because they are not available anymore. For whatever reason I never got around to building it.  I really should have, because this is one sweet chorus.  It has so many usable sounds in it as well as a few weird ones if you need to just make strange noises.  Straight forward build with some Bobby Smith themed artwork that was done via laser printer and an iron.  I had a hard time finding knobs that fit the vibe I was looking for.  I found these smoky translucent purple knobs on Reverb that I thought might do the trick, but they just aren't quite purpley enough for me.  They cost enough that I am not changing them though (but did inspire me to look into how to dye knobs myself).  Also, these knobs have Allen key set screws, which I dislike very much compared to a standard slotted screw.







Next one I wrapped is a GuitarPCB Ancestral Apparition reverb delay featuring a Belton brick and a 2399.  Again, the demo of this circuit wowed me when it was released and I picked one up several years ago when I was ordering something else.  I play bass, so I've never really had any need for delay or reverb, but thought it may be handy at some point for someone.  I called this one Verb and printed up a Pong themed sticker for the artwork.  Other than that it was another fairly straightforward build.  I have enjoyed messing around with this thing, especially finger picking chord patterns or doing some tapping.







The last one I finished up had been in some form of progress for several years.  I followed the Zvex - Probe series thread on FSB from years back, intrigued by the progress of recreating the foot control circuit from those pedals.  I really wanted to make one myself and kept it in the back of my mind for when I had a good idea.  At some point GuitarPCB had a sale on their Phase 90 boards and matched FET sets, so I jumped on that and decided that is what I would use as my platform for the foot controlled effect.

Part of getting the foot control to work is to make sure the antenna is isolated from the ground of the pedal.  I fancy myself a novice woodworker, so I felt this was a good time to mash up two of my hobbies into one super hobby!!!  The plan was to make a wooden frame to fit around the enclosure and provide support for the piece of PCB used fr the antenna.  That got me thinking, phaser, wood, copper...let's do an ugly/cool 70's inspired theme!  I found some art, then did a toner transfer to the enclosure using Polycrylic and then rubbing away the backing printer paper after the poly had dried.  I designed the frame and started cutting the pieces out of mahogany that I had, but some oak I had on hand just looked more groovy, so I went with that instead.  The hardest part was making up a jig to cut the angle to match the sides of the enclosure.  I had already cut the angles on the front, so after cutting one side, I had to redo the jig to cut the opposite.  Instead of a whole weird jig, next time I think I would just try a shim and a cross cut sled, live and learn!  Anyway, got all the pieces cut, assembled, and finished with poly.  I decided to go with brass screws and finish washers to add some extra pizzazz.  The finish washers were also used to secure the PCB to the frame, so I could cut an extra large hole under one to route and solder the wire for the antenna.

Building the circuit was by the book.  I was originally going to incorporate the included switches for the Script mod as well as a 45/90 toggle, but decided not to, because the internals of the 125B were getting a bit cramped from mounting the jacks on the short sides of the box. I didn't really want the toggles to be on the top because I thought it may look odd or get in the way of the footswitch, and thought they might get damaged and prevent ease of storage if they were coming off of the back.  I got hung up on the tight fit of the components for a while, which is one reason I took so long to finish this one.  That led me to scrapping the mod switches, changing from an LED bezel to one of the LED rings from Tayda, and my final stroke of, "Duh, why didn't I think of this forever ago???", mounting the footswitch off center.  I really wanted the footswitch to be centered, but there was no way to pull that off and fit in the circuit for the foot controller and the phaser.  It just so happens that I was able to fit the switch in the center of one of the circles in the artwork, so it almost looks like I planned the whole thing that way.  The switch occupies a corner left empty by the jack placement, so it left the middle of the enclosure wide open for the circuits.  Last decision in boxing this up was to mount the phaser circuit to the cover plate of the enclosure.  The GuitarPCB Dr Phybes circuit can be mounted in a wah shell, so I used that screw hole to attach it to a nut that I epoxied to the cover.  Connecting everything together in the end was a bit tedious, I had to clamp everything at the right angle with the box halfway closed when I soldered the last few wires into place.  Luckily I had tested everything multiple times outside of the box before committing to the final assembly.  This thing is pretty cool, a great sounding Phase 90 clone, and fun to just make weird noises with.  The foot controller works well but can be a bit challenging to get to work reliably.  You need to get the right combo of LED and LDR as well as a large enough antenna, then get the adjustment trimmers dialed into fit your parts just right.  It was several years in the making, but it was a fun adventure for sure!


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 12, 2022)

Here is a demo of the foot controlled phaser and my amazing Crocs!


----------



## Harry Klippton (Apr 12, 2022)

Oh my. I started scrolling through this thinking "ok that chorus looks pretty cool, OH PONG I loved pong, wait WTF is this zvex probe looking thing!" 

Nice job on that, especially the phaser probe. Impressive amount of work went into that. Also +1 for Crocs 🤝


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 12, 2022)

Harry Klippton said:


> Oh my. I started scrolling through this thinking "ok that chorus looks pretty cool, OH PONG I loved pong, wait WTF is this zvex probe looking thing!"
> 
> Nice job on that, especially the phaser probe. Impressive amount of work went into that. Also +1 for Crocs 🤝


Thanks very much! I always thought Crocs were stupid looking, but got some for Christmas and will never look back. Those things are just comfy!


----------



## Harry Klippton (Apr 12, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Thanks very much! I always thought Crocs were stupid looking, but got some for Christmas and will never look back. Those things are just comfy!


I got my first pair of Crocs when I was into backcountry backpacking. They're super lightweight and make good camp shoes. They're also great for gardening, and then I just got hooked and wear them all the time. I'm mostly barefoot in the summer, unless shoes are required and then Crocs are perfect


----------



## jimilee (Apr 12, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Here is a demo of the foot controlled phaser and my amazing Crocs!


Oh dammit! That’s badass. What else can you do to a phaser? How about foot controlled in a box. Nice!!!


----------



## Mentaltossflycoon (Apr 12, 2022)

Uhhh.  Yes, hell yes, WHAAAT?


----------



## dawson (Apr 12, 2022)




----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 12, 2022)

Links are below if anyone else wants to go down the proximity controller rabbit hole!

Original Thread from FSB
Great blog post about building the proximity wah


----------



## Harry Klippton (Apr 12, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Links are below if anyone else wants to go down the proximity controller rabbit hole!
> 
> Original Thread from FSB
> Great blog post about building the proximity wah


Thanks for sharing these @SchlegFace


----------



## giovanni (Apr 13, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Here is a demo of the foot controlled phaser and my amazing Crocs!


I have those same exact crocs. Also my house sounds pretty much always like that (kids playing in the background). If I didn’t know I don’t own a bass I would say that was me! 😜


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 13, 2022)

giovanni said:


> I have those same exact crocs. Also my house sounds pretty much always like that (kids playing in the background). If I didn’t know I don’t own a bass I would say that was me! 😜


Hilarious! Are we like guitar-plegangers? I'm surprised my girls didn't come running in when I started playing, they always insist it is their turn to play!


----------



## giovanni (Apr 13, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Hilarious! Are we like guitar-plegangers? I'm surprised my girls didn't come running in when I started playing, they always insist it is their turn to play!


I have 2 girls…


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

giovanni said:


> I have 2 girls…


Stop it...🤣


----------



## giovanni (Apr 14, 2022)

Ok let’s see where the similarities end: mine are twins and they are about 5 and 1/2 years old. They seem to have little interest for playing music but lots of interest in listening to it which is great.


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

giovanni said:


> Ok let’s see where the similarities end: mine are twins and they are about 5 and 1/2 years old. They seem to have little interest for playing music but lots of interest in listening to it which is great.


One will be 5 next week, other is almost 3. They have a drum kit in the garage that mom hates, and so far only want to play when I am. They do enjoy music, right now it's mostly Disney, but the older one did say she enjoyed The Cure yesterday when we were running errands.

That was starting to get a bit spooky!


----------



## fig (Apr 14, 2022)

Mine are 41 and 36.....yahtzee!

I love the build. Genius!


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

fig said:


> Mine are 41 and 36.....yahtzee!
> 
> I love the build. Genius!


Thanks so much!


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

Are you guys familiar with this book? My Daddy has 100 Pedals It is a pretty good read for bedtime.


----------



## Harry Klippton (Apr 14, 2022)

SchlegFace said:


> Are you guys familiar with this book? My Daddy has 100 Pedals It is a pretty good read for bedtime.


I like The Coolest Noise much better than my daddy has 100 pedals


----------



## pcb rookie (Apr 14, 2022)

I love the design you did on the chorus. The foot controlled phase 90 is next level 😲😲😲! Amazingly cool 😎


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

Harry Klippton said:


> I like The Coolest Noise much better than my daddy has 100 pedals


I'll have to get a copy, looks like a fun read!


----------



## SchlegFace (Apr 14, 2022)

pcb rookie said:


> I love the design you did on the chorus. The foot controlled phase 90 is next level 😲😲😲! Amazingly cool 😎


Thanks a bunch! I do think the chorus pedal is one of the best designs I've done, hit it right on the money between simple, but still visually interesting.

I'm not sure how practical the phaser would be too play in a real setting, but it sure is one of those cool "Lookie here!!!" kinda things for pedal nerds like us!


----------

