First Madbean Build

I've done a number of pedal builds now, most of them Vero.
Vero is awesome. Its cheap, its fun to work with, and it feels really old school and DIY to me. Sure its a lot of work sometimes, but its so accessible (you literally only need a tool to cut traces with and thats it).

PCBs are next level stuff. Some folk etch there own 1 sided copper PCBs. Some people buy them from vendors such as Barry at guitarpcb.com who I have used in the past and will do again the future. Others prefer the totally professional route of 2 sided fabricated PCBs with silk screening etc. There is one notable vendor that offers PCBs and projects of this type at a seeminly unfathomable cheapness and completeness (7 page PDF detailing how to build a simple booster pedal? Yes please! ) This guy is Madbean (Brian) and his site is pure awesomeness:  http://www.madbeanpedals.com/

As you can see if you take a look, he has projects based on all of the most popular current and older boutique or classic FX. I recently purchased from him some that were on sale, or too good to pass up. These were, the Zvex Machine, Fuzz Factory (x2) and 2in1, aswell as his Pork Barrell (Boss CE-2 with mods) and the Yellow Shark, which is the BJFe Honey Bee. All this was like...$40 delivered to the UK. Ridiculous. And the board quality is fantastic. And I will mention again the support materials, which are second to none.

Of course there are other vendors out there, many of whom do complete kits such as Musikding, GGG et al but they are all more expensive than Madbean. Plus, Brian gives so much to the DIY world I wanna support him and his products.

So onto my first Madbean built. Its gotta be said that this was the easiest thing I have ever thrown together, and was done with the minimum of fuss, and fired up first time.

Pictures speak louder than words:

The supplied drilling template was a godsend for this with the onboard pots and LEDs. Of course this is optional, but thats the whole point, right!?

The pots I used werent the classic green Alpha 9mm. Those seem to be at least £2 per peice and was too rich for me once you factor in E$8 shipping from Banzai or Musikding, where I could find them in stock, or waiting weeks from the USA plus import duty....I used a 12mm variety from Rapid (my favourite place for bulk parts, free next day over £30 fact fans). For those interested, these are the ones: Pots from Rapid
Note, the body is deeper, so I needed to bend the pins so the pots fitted without occluding the other components on the board. Everything worked out and fitted perfectly in the case.

For the decals I used the ideas and colours from Zvex but not a direct copy. Im happy with them.

Next up I will start to run through the rest of the Madbean boards, and I have made a massive leap into starting my Lovetone Ring Stinger clone....boards 95% complete !!

Cheers

Verification!

I managed to successfully put together my Big Cheese layout, and it fired up first time - honest - no messing about here.

I dont think there is any need for the large layout so I wont bother with that one, the 28x18 is pretty accomodatable in a BB size enclosure.

So here it is, my prototype, which I will probably sell, if someone wants it.

Not finished yet, as if I get a buyer I'll let them custom choose the grapics. I was going for a layout with the chicken heads to ape the original Cheese.

Here is the insides, for the most part I used Guitarpcb.com green hookup wire. This stuff is great! I need to order more.

Hope some other people can build this and make use of the layout.
Here is the latest official version (updated 09/09/11):

If anyone builds it please show and tell!

My First Vero Layout

I thought I would give something back to the community that has afforded me so much education, excitement and enjoyment over the last 6 months. Sure, I've just rejigged the OLC PCB layout for the Big Cheese, but damnit I'm proud of myself and noone else was going to do it (!)

Its very wide, but I reckon it'd fit in a BB sized case. If not someone can rework it - possibly me while I take a breather and learn some more.

For now, feel free to give this one a shot. Ill try to verify this next week. Not gonna have time this week and away all weekend.

Image removed as obsolete

And a Smaller version which is probably better...

Edit - Here is the latest proper version. Very happy with this (09/09/2011)