Going back to one of the first builds. Tubescreamer.

This has been the project that has given me more work so far. I think i became a bit obsessed with reproducing as faithfully as possible the original TS-808... I even got to take some of the components from another pedal (a crappy sounding one) to be able to use exactly the same kind of caps, including the Non-polar ones that i think modders usually replace and the 2SC1815 transistors. Of course i left out the fet switching, i wanted a true bypass configuration.

The only ones i hadn't got right were the 51pF ceramic cap in the clipping section, at the time i could only find 47pF or 56pF and the diodes, i was using 4148's instead of the 914's, but i had ordered some parts from other builds and i have the habit or over-ordering cheap components that might come in handy later. I also had ordered a new 500K Alpha pot to replace the Gain pot, the one i had was taken from a guitar and was noisy. The volume pot is the only one that's not Alpha, but it's working fine and has the same feel while turning.
Another component that wasn't right (it was the right value, just not identical to the real thing) was the capacitor connected to a switch for the bass response mod, not only that but it took up a lot of space inside.

Ever since i started making these builds i've learned a lot on how to make proper use of the space inside these enclosures, i still have lots to learn, as i've seen some builds that put mine to shame. But still, i always thought it was embarrassing that having been able to reduce the PCB of this build to a considerable size, i was still unable to fit a battery inside. And these switches were to blame, that and the massive wiring.


What i've done for a few builds is to replace all the wires that do not move with solid wire. The solid wire is not good to connect to the board, because with it moving around, i'd break the connections in no time, but these are very useful for the ground wires and the small wires that go from the switch to the jacks. Some of them are super-glued to the enclosure to tuck them away in a corner.

For the rebuild i got a pair of 2PDT mini-switches, a lot smaller than the previous ones, and i connected the proper caps (just like the original TS-808 ones, taken from another pedal) and the two resistors for the gain mod.


The resistors were all salvaged from old pcb's from old car stereos and stuff like that.
This photo was taken to see how it now fits a battery inside with no problems. I still had to replace the 47pF cap and the diodes.


For the rebuild i also printed a new face for the pedal, it's a little darker than before.

I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the way i got really tired of seeing blue leds in everything, so i've been trying to use leds that make sense with the design of the pedal, so i replaced the blue led with a green one. And added prettier white knobs.


And after everything was put together then came the problems. There was very little boost. It sounded like it usually sounds, but lower. After scratching my head for a while and not being able to see anything wrong, i got back to the schematic and pcb layout. What could be making it sound lower but still overdriving? So i looked at the output buffer, measured the resistance of the resistors around the transistor and there was definitely something wrong, it was the output wire that had one strand touching the ground track :S . Fixed it and it was fine again. I really love this pedal, it's by far my favorite of all i've done, even though it's way simpler than most of them.