effect boxes

[axo151]

anyone ever built an effects box into their guitar?

[lovekraft]

There was some talk about it a while back:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5223

Don't know if anybody ever actually did anything.

[Biohazard]

Yes I went ahead and installed the Z-Vexx Fuzz Factory into my guitar.

[lovekraft]

Bravo! How did it work out? (BTW, I haven't forgotten your switching project, I'm just having problems locating some "resources" I used before).

[Dr. Jabsco]

a dan electro bass (stock) my friend got, had a built in chorus. Is that the kind of thing you are after?

[Biohazard]

It turned out good lovekraft, the FF works fine in the guitar, two controls accessible through knobs on the front and the other three accessible by screwdrivers in the back. Ok just contact me when you have the info, but il need to start some work on this project in about a week.

[Dr. Jabsco]

If you want, I have a broken phat head overdrive (for bass) you may be able to use some of the parts.

[axo151]

i was just wondering how hard it is to actually do, and how useful it is. i would love to build a tubescreamer into my strat and mess with the gain knob. it would be great to be able to boost yourself and dial in a bit of overdrive without bending over and adjusting knobs or finding the pedal. how hard do you think this would actually be? do tubescreamers have boards in them? What other OD pedals get a nice tone with long battery life? If I install a bridge into my strat that has no trem, could I put the box in the trem cavity? Thanks

edit: how about the guyatone OD-2 overdrive?

[lovekraft]

Putting a Tubescreamer in your axe shouldn't be a really big deal. General Guitar Gadgets offers a board thats about 2" x 3" that should easily fit in the trem cavity along with a 9v battery, so the only issues you'd have to address are shielding the cavities (extremely important with high-gain circuits), and finding a place for 3 more pots for the TS controls. Wire a stereo jack to disconnect the battery ground when you unplug it, and you're ready to amaze your friends!

[axo151]

i'd probably just replace a tone knob with the gain knob,a nd leave the other ones inside the trem cavity. i dont want to put a ton of knobs on the guitar. i liked the OD2 from guyatone because it seemed simpler. it got good reviews. and whats this about a stereo jack to disconnect the ground when i unplug....what?

[lovekraft]

To use a stereo jack as a power switch simply connect the tip and sleeve normally (to hot and ground), connect your circuitboard ground to the sleeve terminal and connect the battery ground to the ring terminal. That way, when you plug in a standard plug, the ring terminal is shorted to the sleeve terminal, and your circuit has power - unplugged, the power circuit is disconnected, saving on battery life.

[axo151]

alright im still a little unfarmiliar, ive done next to no wiring in anything (aside from reapairing an input jack), but thank you. i think i'll look into trying this out, i'm just a bit worried by battery life.

[Biohazard]

Yep, simple enough, and the on/off switch for the circuit board itself isnt going to be too difficult. I take it you want some sort of switch on your guitar to switch between normal sound and the TS sound.

[axo151]

yeah i would like a switch. do you think i could use a push pull pot, or do i need a real switch?

[lovekraft]

Push pull pots work great for bypass switches - and IINM, the OD-2 is just a modded TS-808, so use/make whichever you prefer.

[axo151]

whatever has longest battery life, and the OD2 is cheaper. it looks like its a bit of a stripped down tubescreamer, so i assume it wont eat batteries.

[lovekraft]

So are you planning on just removing the board from a stompbox and slapping it into your trem cavity? That will work, but be aware that you may encounter problems with mounting and clear ance issues, as well as relocating controls, especially those mounted on the PC board. Just a heads up, it can probably be done without too much trouble, but it may not be as straight forward as it seems.

[axo151]

im not experienced at all with this stuff so it may be an adventure. if it works out it should kick ass though. this strat is going to be a super frankenstrat. heres a brief description of whats going on......

the strat was 375 dollars used. its a '57 RI American Strat, retails for 1300. the neck pickup was replaced with a really nice joe barden s-deluxe. the middle pickup is stock. bridge is one of those mini humbuckers. i'm planning on refinishing it in a 2 tone sunburst. i then want to replace the middle and bridge pickups with some really twangy lindy fralin strat replacement pickups. im going to do a bit of modification as listed on www.guitarnuts.com. theres a mod for shielding and reducing feedback of your strat which i'll try. if that works out well i'll do the 'Strat lover's' mod. it basically puts a push/pull on the volume knob that activates the bridge pickup and puts it in series with whatever else is on so you can do weird pickup combinations, and there is a push/pull pot on the first tone knob which puts the neck pickup out of phase. after all this i'm going to try and put an overdrive pedal in the guitar (tubescreamer or OD2, or something that doesnt kill batteries), then i'll get it set up and have my frankenstrat.

with all that said, where i insert the overdrive pedal into the circuitry? right before the output jack? thanks

[axo151]

actually i just took a look in the trem cavity. its pretty small, not big enough for a board i think. i might need to cut it a bit bigger. anyone got any idea how to do that?

[ansil]

check out runoffgrooves tubescreamer clone. its easier and dead on the money.. also you can build one using the same freq response with an lm386 (i know i know i am getting my custom liscense plate that reads lm386n-3) but it sounds killer.

[axo151]

could you give me a link to this runoffgrooves stuff? i cant find it........thanks

[lovekraft]

Runoff Groove

I think this is the one Ansil's referring to:

Tube Reamer

<edit>Almost forgot - for best battery life, use a TL061 opamp. Gringo's PCB layout is 1.1" x 1.3", so it might even fit in the control cavity, if you want to go that route. The perfboard layout is about 2 inches square, for reference.

[axo151]

what is a TL061 opamp?

[lovekraft]

It's a Texas Instruments model opamp chip - it will sub directly for the 741 shown in the ROG schematic, but it's quieter, and uses less current, so the battery lasts longer.

[axo151]

ok cool thanks. im really at a loss for understanding this, my knowledge of electornics is not good at all. i've got to do some cosmetic work on my strat first, when i get around to this i'll start another thread. thanks in advance though.