The Hamilton Pedalboard! A year in the making, DONE!

[guitylerham]

Hey guys! So I've been hanging around this and other forums for the past year or so reading and teaching myself from all your experiences and knowledge. I've started many threads asking endless questions and you kind folks have always been forthcoming with very helpful wisdom and answers. Can't thank you all enough. Ok, to the specifics of my pedalboard:

Mission: to design and build a unique and useful unit that contains all the analog circuits that I'd want on any pedalboard. I didn't want cables, batteries, loose pedals, and all the other realities of a pedalboard that I'd accepted up until this point in my life! Ok, it wasn't that bad but I love to streamline with design.

So I drafted up several designs and settled on an aluminum enclosure bent to the correct dimensions on a metal brake. I drilled holes for all the knobs, switches, and LED's and covered the whole thing in a faux tooled leather vinyl cloth. The endcaps are rosewood. I etched all the circuit boards (or perfboard in some cases), designed the power supply, TROUBLESHOOTED the hell out of it, and put it all together! I can say after a lot of bugs and almost giving up on it, the unit is up and running and currently all I use for gigs. The effects in the unit are, from input to output:
Orange Squeezer compressor>TS5>Tube Sound Fuzz>Dist+>volume boost section of an EA Tremelo as a boost* (funny story)>CX-3 Leslie Simulator>Tremulus Lune>Deluxe Memory Man**>DigiLog Reverb circuit. Also, the input goes through a buffered splitter, one signal goes through the effect chain while the other signal goes to a digital strobe Turbo Tuner.

*I intended to use the EA Trem as my tremelo effect but I built the circuit wrong somehow and only the boost function worked. I wanted a boost in the chain so I figured it'd work just fine!
**I etched and built a clone of the DMM, had it working but reversed the power supply polarity, fried it. Then I replaced all sensitive components, never got it working as well (may have reversed power supply again!!) so I broke down and bought a used DMM off ebay and scabbed in the the circuit board. Needless to say it works now. I also did the 2X delay mod since I already had two MN3005's from the original build and 2 from the new one. Pretty useful, however the DMM repeats are pretty distorted, can't remember if that's how those things are supposed to sound or not.

Other things:
-Power supply is the multiple secondary transformer from Weber. Each secondary goes to it's own rectifier/filter circuit. I wanted to design the grounding and shielding scheme to optimize the signal to noise by having each pedal on its own source, however I didn't have a firm grasp on what was required for shielding and grounding apparently since I couldn't get some circuits to work correctly. I ended up letting some of the pedals share a supply. This turned out best because I was going to need TWO transformers to cover all the pedals I intended to use and this way one would do the trick. I think a toroidal transformer would be best for the next one I make. There is a slight hum but it's not very noticeable so I'm happy.
-I included a single 9vdc power jack on the back so that I can power accessory pedals like my wah in the front of the board.
-I have a master mute switch that silences the board and allows for silent tuning (tuner is always on). Bicolor LED: Red=mute, Green=rock on!

My wiring and lead dress is improving with every circuit I make, however with this project, I got a bit careless with my wires and dress as the completion date neared. It is nowhere near what I'd want it to look like if I where to make them for other people. I'm always thinking of ways I'd do things differently now.

Anyway, I really wanted to have something to show everyone since spending so much time on here. I look forward to talking with anyone on the details. Enjoy!
-Tyler Hamilton

[digi2t]

Are you planning to afix all those boards securely, or are they left to float around in there? Looks like a heap o trouble waiting to happen in there.

I like the "Mother of Barstool" finish.

[Ben N]

That's quite an effort! Now you can finally do your laundry. 

[Electron Tornado]

Wow, that's really cool! Please post a complete schematic and layout!     

The covering and knobs look cool. You know, it's high time that naugahyde stuff made a comeback. I can't wait to hear the protests in the media about how many naugas are being killed for their skin. I thought naugas shed their skin. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naugahyde

[Paul Marossy]

Very cool. Love the covering on it too. 

[arma61]

                                       


btw what's the weight if the beast (in kilos please...     )

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Very impressive work!!

If I were to offer one critique... it would be to 86 those black knobs.

Go with a cream or dark brown round knurled knob with an index. Or even one of those rounded knobs with a pointer on it.

To me, the black knobs kinda scream to be replaced!! 

[moosapotamus]

Wow, totallyawesome!

[aron]

Crazy work.mgood choice on the dmm!

[AudioEcstasy]

That looks killer! I was also wondering if the boards are left to float internally? Also, what about labeling the switches? In the heat of battle one might forget the order, but if it's your baby it's probably ingrained into your psyche by now.

Very cool project, thanks for sharing!

[rousejeremy]

Nice job!

[Slade]

Fantastic work! Lots of time and effort there... Congrats!

[haveyouseenhim]

Shoulda named this thread pedal porn. I want that board so bad

[EATyourGuitar]

is the mains earth connected to anything. if so, what and why.

[guitylerham]

Thanks guys.

Yeah the pcbs are floating there, however there are at least two pots with short, three-conductor shielded cable running to the pcb. The bigger leslie and DMM are bolted to standoffs that are epoxied to the enclosure.

The thing is pretty heavy but it feels good and stays put on the ground.

New knobs huh? Originally I was going with black Rolex, polished aluminum and these knobs for the Fender look. The 'leather' was a new idea. I couldn't decide on knobs tho! Any specific knob ideas? I'll check out the brown knurled ones tonight.

[guitylerham]

is the mains earth connected to anything. if so, what and why.

I have the ground from the wall bolted with a star washer to the enclosure. I think that's standard right?

[EATyourGuitar]

so what your saying is that you have mains earth connected to signal ground. you are using metal jacks remember? this is fine for most people but there is always the possibility of ground loops. this is an area of interest for me lately but I still don't understand if it only happens when the guitar amp is mains earth referenced. maybe someone can explain it better for the both of us. I would really like to know what the best solution is. some people prefer to have a ground lift switch like on high end studio equipment.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Didn't MXR connect their earth grounds like this? Earth ground connected directly to the enclosure a la M117 flanger and M118 

[guitylerham]

I isolated the input jack, left the output contacting the enclosure. I still don't fully understand grounding and shielding well enough. And I've spent HOURS trying to!

[jdub]

Dude, excellent work!    I especially love the tuner in the middle.  Me likey long time Gotta say the floating boards would make me nervous, but I applaud your ingenuity!

Greg has a point about the knobs, and good suggestions:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=1235
http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/Detail?no=741

The vintage browns are like the ones on my Mesa Maverick.  They'd look right smart with the "leather".