Sonic Distortion Build+Photos

[MartyMart]

Well after a week away working, i've just completed my third build and chose the "Sonic Distortion" which is a very nice version of the Ibanez SD9.
The perf layout was a little complicated and i missed a connection from one of the 47uf caps through to the op amp, which gave me a slight worry as it didn't work at all until i spotted it ! DUH !
Here's the links to the photos:

http://www.pbase.com/image/33266511
http://www.pbase.com/image/33266575
http://www.pbase.com/image/33266605

Any comments/tips are very welcome, it does'nt seem to "cleanup" too well at lower drive settings, could i reduce the 2.2M resistors (1M's in series) a little?
Cheers, and thanks to everyone for posting great info, which has helped me sooo much !
Cheers,
Marty.

[Lonestarjohnny]

cool lookin color,
John

[RDV]

How did you isolate that jack? It does look very good.
I'm afraid if you plug that to an adapter you'll fry it.

RDV

[MartyMart]

RDV wrote:

How did you isolate that jack? It does look very good.
I'm afraid if you plug that to an adapter you'll fry it.

Hi Ricky, thanks,
I'm not sure i follow you, do you mean the power supply socket which isn't wired up yet ? will it fry the battery ?  i hope not !!
I'm waiting on some 6mm nylon washers to place around it for isolation.
You did some nice mods to this didn't you ?  any ideas on cleaning up the drive pot a little ( reduce it to 100k ?)
Cheers,
Marty.

[Sic]

thats  a nice looking build!

gonna put a LED in it? a blue LED would look killer in that puppy

[jimbob]

Great Job- I like perf-ing the best these days cause its a challenge to me. Also --it makes it easier to add and make changes if needed..

Awsome job!!

[Samuel]

Re: Power jack isolation
If you're doing tip postive, sleeve negative it won't be an issue, but keep in mind that plastic washers may not completely isolate your power jack from the case, since the jack could just shift and touch the case along the inside of the hole. Like I said if your doing sleeve negative it won't make a difference, but if you're switching out the battery supply when a power plug is inserted you're probably not....in which case the + supply could be grounded via the case through the input and output jacks, meaning that you'll be short circuiting your power. I'm not sure if this would just plain not work or if it would damage the supply...

[MartyMart]

Thanks for the positive (+) comments guys !
I just got a bunch of 3DPDT switches from Aron, so i'll go back over the builds and add LED's to a couple of them, i've only used small "arrow" DPDT's so far.
As for the power jack, i need to look into that as i would like to have the jack switch out the battery when connected, so i do need total isolation.
Any posts on URL's for those "all plastic threaded" types ??
Cheers,
Marty.

[aron]

I like the Sonic Distortion! Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to try mine on the gig soon. I remember good sustain, nice thick sound - I don't really care about clean up for high gain stuff.

[RDV]

Hi Ricky, thanks,
I'm not sure i follow you, do you mean the power supply socket which isn't wired up yet ? will it fry the battery ?  i hope not !!
I'm waiting on some 6mm nylon washers to place around it for isolation.
You did some nice mods to this didn't you ?  any ideas on cleaning up the drive pot a little ( reduce it to 100k ?)

I would use a plastic jack when you do wire it up or you will likely fry whatever adapter you use by shorting it to ground. Plastic washers will only help if the jack is not touching the sides of the case at all.

Here's a link to the volume recovery mod(you can change the tone control caps if you want, but the volume recovery is a great mod):http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/rdv_sd9_sc.gif

To give more cleanup, I'd reduce or remove R7(33k) to reduce gain when gain pot is at 0. Reducing the size of the pot will only decrease the overall drive, and it still won't clean up any better.

RDV

[MartyMart]

Thanks Ricky, as ever, very clear and helpful !
I'll have a look at your vol recovery mod and try the R7 change.
Warm Regards,
Marty.

[remmelt]

great looking finish. very clean! MAN i need to paint that ugly bastard i created.

[MartyMart]

Thanks remmelt !
Those boxes come looking like that ! so its a bit of a "con" !
They are called "BIMBOX" and we get them at Maplins in the UK, the only problem is that the "hammerite" finnish prevents me from adding any decals/screen print to them !
Still they look quite nice plain !
I've got some plain "hammond" enclosures now, so the next one will be painted......... ooops  look out !!
Cheers,
Marty.

[Claus H]

You could add DYMO labels to hammerite finish Pete Cornish does that..

I think it would look cool you can get transparent DYMO strip.. Well maybe a bit like PC pedals if you use white on black..but as long your not production them on a large scale it's allright..

But It's looking cool as it is good job..

Claus H

[Claus H]

FYI: BIMBOX are the exact boxes Pete Cornish use!!

If anyone cares..

Claus H

[RDV]

I do the Dymo label on Hammerite, but you've got to use some superglue or the Dymo labels won't stay on. I'll take some pics and post em' soon.

RDV

[ryanscissorhands]

Hey I think I have that kind of paint myself. It's a kind of rust paint, is it not? I have a few colors myself at home here and was planning on using the blue-green color for my first pedal. How tough is the paint?

[RDV]

Pretty tough, but it will chip. I guess a clear coat would help out. I kinda like my chipped up pedals though, they get a lot of use. You'd be chipped too if you had me steppin' on ya!

RDV

[remmelt]

what! bimbox! i have those as well!
they don't look anywhere near as good as that, though!

on the one i have there's a loose lid because the screws are too long ( i think). thge screws are tight, but the lid is still rambling away... is that a problem with all of them or not?

[MartyMart]

The three "BIMBOX" enclosures that i've used, have all been finished to a very high standard and all the screws fit perfectly.
The only issue is that you must check the box properly before buying it, as they can be scratched from being "thrown around" or being stacked badly.
They are NOT cheap, at around 6 - 7 UK £'s ( 12 dollars ) but any decent mass produced stomp box will cost 30-70 £'s ?? right ?
Oh, for RDV i did the resistor, R7 change to an 8k2 and it sounds great, thanks
i'll perform the volume recovery mod tomorrow.

Cheers,
Marty.