A Custom Triangle Big Mutt Phi!

The Triangle version of the Big Muff Pi is one of the more popular versions of the venerable circuit. I've built one in the past using a Tayda board, and it came out really pretty well. A friend was in the market for a Big Muff clone, and so I brought in pretty much my complete stable of variants to my favorite local guitar store (Five Star Guitars) so he could try them all on relevant amplifiers. In the end, he decided he wanted a triangle variant. He also wanted something in a form factor slightly larger than my standard 125B Big Mutt Phi build, so I decided to just go back to the Tayda board and come up with a suitably cool 1590BB2 enclosure for it!

Another BMP Variant? Cloning Frantone's The Sweet

It's been a while since I've done a Big Muff Clone (in my world two months is an eternity!), and I figured it was time I finished up a project that's been collecting dust - Frantone's The Sweet. Frantone is an independent pedal builder who does a lot of very cool fuzz effects (though there are others thrown in there). I was intrigued by her big muff variant as it includes a couple of germanium transistors and I honestly wanted to see what it would do. Unfortunately there isn't a commercial PCB available, but since when has that stopped me?

Dimetrodon Distortion - Production Prototype!

I'm very excited to release this new version of the Dimetrodon Distortion to the world. It represents several firsts for me, and it is something that I'm pretty much ready to put into (small) volume production either in a couple of standard configurations or bespoke builds. The original versions of the Dimetrodon Distortion consisted of two boards, a hand etched Distortion+ or Drivestortion board with a hand etched BMP Tone Stack (the DD1A) or an Effects Layout commercial Drivestortion board with a hand etched BMP Tone Stack (the DD1B). While I'll continue to make several of those (as I already have the boards, and have an interesting idea - which I hope to detail in a future blog assuming I get it to work!), I thought it would be cool if I could combine the boards into a single etch and not have to use hookup wire to connect the two together. So, I decided to try and merge my graphics skills with what I've learned about electronics and circuit design over the past year or so!

Production Updates, Prices, Timeline, and Teasers!

Steggo Studios will have some pedals available for sale soon! I've been working in the background on the boards as mentioned in my previous blog entry - along with a few surprises because who doesn't love surprises! I've been waiting on enclosures from Tayda to arrive, and they hit the post earlier this week! So without further ado, here's "the plan" and planned inventory levels!

The Original Big Muff - The Venerable V1 Perf

I know, I know, it's been only around three weeks since I posted a Big Muff Pi build, but I do enjoy the circuit and seem to have very good luck with them, regardless of the source of PCB. For this particular build I wanted to try and go as old school as possible, with the earliest V1 model - a "triangle" BMP built on perf board. Once again I'm using the AionFX Halo PCB for this build, and I'd already had an enclosure worked up in my most recent batch from Tayda. 

Adventures in Photoetching - or - Making Old School PCBs for Fun

At the first of the year I published an article on two new versions of the EHX Big Muff Pi effects pedal I'd completed. One was built on a home-etched board a friend had sent me using a pattern from the Effects Layouts blog. At the time I mentioned that I had done photo-etching in the past starting when I was in graduate school (getting a Ph.D. in chemistry - so applying chemistry to something guitar pedals, electronics, and music is "really cool" in my book!). Since I had some experience in the area (most recently around four years ago when I etched not one, but two sets of double-sided detail parts for 1/100th scale T-72 tanks), I decided it was time to dust off the old equipment and get cracking. This time I decided I'd try and take advantage of a few options unique to PCB etching (since I'm only doing single-sided boards!). 

Board etching in Ferric Chloride