Anybody build their Gristleizer yet, comments on it?

[pinkjimiphoton]

+1 on joe's report.

you can do analog harmonizing with this thing even!!!

the bias needs to be WAY down... almost off sometimes to get sounds out of it.

but i'm betting its the damn 1044. the ones tayday sells are literally GARBAGE. they whine like nobody's business, and you can't fix it like ya can with some of the cp's out there.

you'll sort it out.

make sure your cabling to the pots is shielded. that will help. i'd use short pieces of mic cable so ya have two conductors and shield. MAKE SURE THE POT CASES ARE ALL GROUNDED, AS THERE IS ENOUGH GAIN TO MAKE IT UNSTABLE IF THEY ARE NOT!

i'd make the wires to the pots and switches wayyyyyyyy @#$%ing shorter, too. those are long enough to be problematic.

check your grounds and all your solder joints too, as a bad joint could cause whining too.

don't give up... you'll get it.

i'd ground the metal casing of the switches, too.

i remember when i first built gus smalley's ousb, it whined like crazy, oscillations i couldn't control or eliminate. grounding the pot cases actually eradicated it.

good luck bro!

[BetterOffShred]

I crammed mine in a 1590BB and it was unpleasant.. just ordered another one from Taylor.. looking forward to doing a big nasty XX box with big knobs. 

What jfet did you use ? I never got a J113 to work, but the 2N3819 did work.

[Ben_buttons]

Hey thanks pinkjimiphoton, all very good advice!

The 1044 has got to be the problem, glad to know that some are better than others.

I had planned to reduce the wires down and get everything shielded. The mic cable is a great shout!

It's kicking out some pretty awesome sound at the moment - along with the whine - can't wait to getting started with it!

[lulu_joe13]

If memory serves I had a bad solder joint and it caused hell. Have you tried reflowing your solder joints? JoeF.

[Taylor]

you can do analog harmonizing with this thing even!!!

That's interesting! Can you tell us more about that? I haven't had one built up in a long time, but I'm having a hard time imagining how that would work. Running the LFO at audio rates or something?

[pinkjimiphoton]

theres a certain setting with the modulation speed turned up pretty high where it ringmods and you get this weird "harmonizer" effect with the modulation where it sounds like its playing suspended 4th chords that will follow what you're playing. i was freaking peeps out at the last guitar show i did with mine, i'll try and revisit it one of these days and get some video of how to do it. its a trippy sound, but yeah, it absolutely works. you can dial up the speed til ya get pretty much any interval you want interacting with it.

[BluffChill]

I've also had problems with the MAX1044/7660s chips.

I had a few batches of these from various suppliers. I've noticed with the 7660s in particular, there are two variations:

- 7660S CPAZ V15084P
- 7660S CPAZ V15284P

the V15284P version of this SQUEALS LIKE A PIG even in True Bypass. I played a live show with one once and there was a constant high pitched oscillator noise in the background which we traced to the Gristleizer. I popped it out and put a 15084P in it instead and the noise is gone now. Unfortunately, I have previously fried a couple of these for no apparent reason in the Gristleizer. No idea why. You can't win.

[brittney]

I'm building up a musicpcb gristilizer at the moment.

I want mount the pots on the board and I have a question about orientation.

Do I put the pots on the same side as the components??
That seem logical but I dont want do it twice

Tnx

[pinkjimiphoton]

hi brit,
welcome to the forum.

do you have a multimeter?  if so, put your meter on diode test, so it will "beep".
see which one of the pots goes to ground, that will be pin 1, looking from the back of the pot
with the pins facing upwards and the shaft facing away from you. 

i'm not sure of the orientations on that particular project, but you should be able to figure out which orientation looking at the schematic.,.. look to see what other components connect to which pin, etc.

if possible, please post a schematic and one of the super brite helpful folks <not me, i'm a monkey with a breadboard> should be able to help.

one piece of advice is keep the knobs at low settings when ya test it, if they're too high sometimes its way above the frequencies we can hear. down lower will let you find the sweet spots.

when i first built mine, i didn't think it worked, but i had the pots set way too hot.

anyways, again, welcome!

[BetterOffShred]

Pots typically mount on the side without the components so they sit like 1mm off the board, also usually the square pad will be lug 1.   

[pinkjimiphoton]

see? like that

[Ben N]

you can do analog harmonizing with this thing even!!!

That's interesting! Can you tell us more about that? I haven't had one built up in a long time, but I'm having a hard time imagining how that would work. Running the LFO at audio rates or something?

That would be more of an HFO, methinks.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey bro,
yeah, its using the lfo to ring modulate the sound. if ya get it dialed in right, it sounds like a harmonizer, its the weirdest tone. it doesn't sound like a distinct two note harmony... its just kinda... harmonized. some modulation pedals do stuff similarly.

if i ever get a chance, i'll try and shoot ya some video. i was doing it at the last guitar show and it freaked peeps out.

off the top of my head, i think the modulation rate has to be around 2:00 and the filter set just right on the envelope setting. but its been almost a year since the last time i messed with it.

[BetterOffShred]

Yeah and by messing with the bias you can bring the modulation in and out of the mix, so you adjust until you get it.  Great pedal

[brittney]

Thanks for the tips, hopefully get it finished off this weekend

[Ben N]

Heterodyning (or whatever): It's not a bug, it's a feature!

[brittney]

Thanks for the tips, hopefully get it finished off this weekend

Not quiet finished yet, wrong transistor in the place of the JFET. Need to get correct one in

Before I realised I powered up and measure voltage across the TL7660
Was not getting the equivalent negative voltage, +9v and -~2.5v.

Could this be due to having a wrong transistor in the JFETs place?

Checking for bad solder, shorts tomorrow

[brittney]

Not quiet finished yet, wrong transistor in the place of the JFET. Need to get correct one in

Before I realised I powered up and measure voltage across the TL7660
Was not getting the equivalent negative voltage, +9v and -~2.5v.

Could this be due to having a wrong transistor in the JFETs place?

Checking for bad solder, shorts tomorrow

So this is getting confusing.

The TL6770 appears to give +9v and -9v when on a breadboard

When in the circuit its -1.5v at the negative side, it heats up too so I think the +9v rail and -9v rail are crossed somewhere. I checked solder joints and everything looks good.

Is there any component that might be causing this? Bad transistor or cap?

The only thing I can think of that might be off are the 100uf caps around the charge pump, that are 10v rated only, should they be higher?

[bluebunny]

The TL6770 appears to give +9v and -9v when on a breadboard

When in the circuit its -1.5v at the negative side, it heats up too

Do you have a DC jack wired up?  What's it made of?

[brittney]

The TL6770 appears to give +9v and -9v when on a breadboard

When in the circuit its -1.5v at the negative side, it heats up too

Do you have a DC jack wired up?  What's it made of?

Running from a 9v battery, powered from a bench supply a few days ago and was the same