Revisiting an Old BMP Variant - With a New Board!

A little over a year ago I finished up a build of a really high gain and doomy Big Muff variant, Frantone's The Sweet. I had used a hand etched board from Effects Layouts and it came out pretty good overall. It sounded pretty much like all of the demos I found online. I'd tried to etch a couple more boards, but ran into some issues with my resist. Fast forward a few months and I'm learning to lay out my own boards. I figured something like this would be good practice as it is a bit more detailed than most of the early ones I'd been working on. So I got cracking and came up with my own PCB - no etching required!

A New Violet Ram's Head 2 Big Mutt

So since it's been several months since I built a Big Muff clone (granted, the combo pedal I just finished includes a Big Muff, but it is more than just a Muff clone), I figured it was time to go ahead and test out some alternate configurations of the Loud Cancer board - and try out some different potentiometer orientations as well. One of my favorite variants of the BMP is the Violet Ram's Head 2, so I decided to give it a whirl!

The Dark Side of the Steggo??? A New Gilmour Inspired Combo Pedal!

 Combination pedals are a great way to get multiple amazing circuits in one box. I've built a few pedals that are either physical combinations of two separate PCB's, or clones of pedals that involved multiple PCBs in the past. However, all of these combinations were essentially clones of existing pedals that were combination pedals in their own right, including the Steggo versions of the Cheese Source, Hoof Reaper, and Heavy Water. However, I wanted to do something that was a combo of two different pedals to help create a specific sound, so I went back to the pedal board of one of my favorite guitarists, David Gilmour, for inspiration.

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!

Cloning the Cornish P-2 - For Real This Time!

Pete Cornish's effects and pedalboards have been used by a wide array of guitar luminaires including David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Paul McCartney, and Mark Knopfler. While some of his designs are completely original, like the CC-1 Overdrive and OC-1 Compressor, other designs are based on existing circuits, like the SS-3 (loosely based on the MXR Distortion+) and the G-2 and P-2 (both based on the Big Muff Pi circuit using germanium and silicon diodes respectively). AionFX offers many Cornish boards, and as a fan of Cornish pedals, I've built many of them including the OC-1 compressor, the SS-3, and the G-2 (both in non-dino and dino versions!). Unfortunately AionFX did not offer a board for the P-2 and after hunting around, there were no commercial boards available. The only board I could find was the Effects Layouts version, which had the "probably" disclaimer and appears to have been based some speculative circuit diagrams on the net. I'd built a few pedals using hand-etched boards, both with and without the effects layouts Cornish buffer, and had really loved the sound. I still wanted to have a faithful clone of the original, though, and with a little gentle dino-sized nudging, PedalPCB has recently released the Polonium-2 board based on a trace of the actual P-2 pedal itself.

For a Pachycephalosaurus this counts as a "gentle nudge"

Finally a Dino Themed G-2 Clone... No Really!

I've been threaten... errr... promising to get around to finishing up my dinosaur themed G-2 clones for a while now, but they kept getting put on the back burner for other projects. This past weekend I decided it was high time to get them finished up! For more details on the pedal itself and some of the challenges one encountered making a reasonable clone of it, please refer to my original build from last May.

It's BMP Time Again!!! A '73 Gilmour Ram's Head Build for Steggo's Personal Board

I've definitely built more Big Muff Pi pedals than any other type, and in more variants. The circuit goes together well, and with all of the modifications over the years, there are a ton of options that can make subtle (and in some cases not so subtle) differences in the sound of the effect. Last November I finally came up with a suitably "Steggo" name for the venerable BMP, the Big Muttaburrasaurus Phi, or the "Big Mutt Phi" if you prefer. The enclosures I'd used were a modified version of an earlier take of roughly the same art that I'd intended on using with the AionFX Halo PCB that I've used on many successful builds. Since I had one of the enclosures for the Halo PCB available, I decided to go ahead and use it for a personal build - with only a few ulterior motives.

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?

Finally a True "Steggo" BMP Clone!

Any long time readers of this blog will know that I really like the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi in all of its forms. It is one of the main pedals of choice for some of my favorite guitarists, including David Gilmour, and is a key ingredient in their overall sound. I've built several BMP clones over the years, but all of them have had enclosures that mirrored the original in one way or another. Recently I've tried to do a "make over" of any of my "Steggo" pedals with a focus primarily on creating fun dinosaur names for them, and I've finally come up with a dinosaur themed BMP clone!

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!

We've Sprung a Leak! Cloning the Very Precise Cornish G-2

It's been, what, three weeks since I posted a clone of a Big Muff Pi variant? Must be time for another one! This time around, I'm building the AionFX Cygnus, a clone of the Cornish G-2. This particular build has honestly been one of my more challenging builds for a variety of reasons. First off, it's a Cornish pedal, and Pete Cornish's designs are always absolute works of art with an amazing transistor-based buffer design. The component count is usually very high as well, and the circuits are typically extremely well balanced, and as long as you have high-quality components you can usually guarantee a good build from the outset. However, because the G-2 uses Germanium diodes for the clipping stages, that adds an additional level of complexity to the build, which I'll go into later. As you can't touch a real G-2 for under $500, this one screams for a good clone.

Ukrainian Army BMP Auction is LIVE!

My Ukrainian Army BMP serial number 2 went up for auction on the Pedals for Ukraine Instagram site this morning. Bidding starts at $50 and goes through Thursday May 7 at 11:59PM. The bidding takes place via replying to the comment with the most current high bid. I'm hoping that the pedal will bring in some decent money for relief efforts in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Army BMP SN 002 Going to Auction

Over on Instagram there's been an auction of sorts going on to benefit Ukrainian relief efforts called "Pedals for Ukraine." A few weeks ago, I finished up my first early 90's Sovtek Big Muff Pi clone and at the time was trying to figure out a way to give back since I'd sourced a lot of the key components from Ukraine. Well, now that serial number 002 is completed, I've decided rather than trying to sell the pedal and give half to relief, I'm going to just donate it to the Pedals for Ukraine effort so all the funds get to those who need it - and someone gets a really great sounding pedal to boot!

Renaming a Classic Big Muff Variant - Because... Reasons...

When I did my first build of a Tayda Big Muff Pi board back in January, I mentioned that the board included a set of instructions to allow you to build a total of seven (of the myriad) variations of this venerable circuit. I built my first one up as a Triangle, and it quickly became one of my favorite BMP pedals (okay, to be honest, there's none I don't like, but a few rise to the top). After finishing up that one, I'd devised a "cunning plan" to create not only a few more fun BMP pedals for my use, but a few to sell to "support the habit" as it were. Since I'm fairly good at Soviet green paint jobs (as you can see in my first Civil War / Red Army build as well as the enclosure I painted for a friend), I figured it would be fun to try and build a Sovtek BMP clone with as close to the original components as possible.

Old School Big Muff Pi - Or Hold My Beer, I'm Gonna Try Something

I know, I know, yes - it's another Big Muff Pi clone. I like them, a lot. There will be more in the future. For this one, however, I decided to do something a little different. I'm still using the AionFX Halo board for this build - largely because I wanted a rock solid PCB for this experiment. If it ended up not working, I wanted it to be because of an issue with components rather than an issue with the board itself. The difference comes in my component choice. If you look at a lot of the early BMPs (like the one in the photo below), you'll see a lot of carbon resistors and ceramic capacitors. My first BMP build used older Allen-Bradley resistors, but all modern film capacitors. Later, I built a Ram's Head variant on a home-etched PCB - again with old school resistors but the capacitors were Panasonic film capacitors (not new by any stretch of the imagination, but not ceramic either). So this time around, I decided I'd try and go with ceramic capacitors across the board to see how the sound changed.

Early V1 BMP - Photo from Kitrae's page

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

Even More Pi? A Violet Ram's Head 2 Build!

So, for those few of you who actually follow the blog, have you gotten the idea that I love the Big Muff Pi circuit, yet? If you're a fan as well, I definitely recommend Kit Rae's page covering all of the different variants of this iconic effects pedal. It has been an absolutely indispensable reference as I've tried to go through and build many of the different versions of this stomp box! As I mentioned in my announcement a few days ago, I'll likely have a few pedals for sale in the not so distant future, and the initial ones are likely to be BMP clones - so continue to watch this space.

That being said, this particular pedal was all for me! For this build I've gone back to AionFX's Halo board. It is a great board, and there is a spreadsheet that lets you build literally any version of the pedal you'd like - it even cross references the component codes on the board to the component codes on the circuit diagrams on the Kit Rae page. I'd already built a couple of versions of the '73 Gilmour Ram's Head (one of my two original Halo builds and the home etched PCB), a Russian Civil War / Red Army variant (also on a Halo board), and a Triangle (on a Tayda board). I'd heard great things about the Violet Ram's Head versions, especially the 2nd version, so I decided to go that route for this build. 

More Pi - Two New (for Me) Takes on the Classic Effect

The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi remains one of the most popular and ubiquitous pedals out there. In a previous blog entry, I'd built up two of the Aion FX Halo boards in different configurations. I had a lot of fun with the project, but given there are over 20 variations on the BMP circuit I figured there was room to add a few more flavors to the stable. While I was at it, I decided to look at other board sources as well (though there will likely be more Halo variants coming out in the future!). One of the boards I built up was a Tayda Big Muff DIY board. It's relatively inexpensive and tiny, but the instructions do come with component lists for seven different variations of the board. The second build was a bit (read a lot) more ambitious. A friend and fellow pedal-builder from Kansas City sent me a bare bones board he'd etched for the Ram's Head Big Muff based on the pattern from the Effects Layout blog. I've done some of my own photoetching for hobbies - I first learned from the gurus at the Ohio State University Chemistry department's electronic shop - but I've never etched my own PCB. Therefore, this was the first time I'd attempt to use a truly "old school" board. That being said, now I've now found a completely new rabbit hole to go down - so look for some "home brew" stuff in future blog entries!

Updated Pi - Repainting a Friend's Pedal!

Back in September I posted a couple of versions of the Big Muff Pi I'd build using Aion FX's Halo board. One was done in silver with a Pink Floyd inspired font and recreated the circuit of the '73 Gilmour Ram's Head version of the pedal. The other one was done in Russian 4BO green and recreated the Red Army / Civil War circuit. A friend asked me to make up a second Russian style enclosure, so I did and sent it to him. Unfortunately there appears to have been an issue with my primer, as the paint started to flake on arrival which sort of ruined the effect. So he sent it back to me for a redo, and as long as we were doing it again, he wanted a bit of a variation on the theme...