Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Alright....first let me say I just finished my confidence booster and it worked like a charm. Kinda cool. I would like to add
1) a volume knob
2) a foot switch
3) an LED
4) An ac power jack

Pretty much what everyone is showing in their drawings.
Now, if I may, some total Noob questions

- What part is the block with numbers 1-9 in the diagram?
- Is the A100k a trim pot (volume knob) that extends through an enclosure?
- Do you just solder the 4.7k resistor into the wire that goes to the LED or does it have to be mounted somewhere on the pcb board?

- where is the best place to order parts from?

And thanks to any who respond. I have completely killed a Saturday with this and the tremelo. I'm waiting for the case to cure before I finish the trem but 75% of the soldering is done. I will post pictures later. Additionally, If I get a confidence booster up and running in a stomp box I will post photos of that as well for others.

1. The "block" is a 3PDT switch:
http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=9002&Category_Code=SWI
2. The A100k is just a 100k Audio Pot:
http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=7501&Category_Code=Pot16
3. You can just solder the wires together for the resistor and LED. Maybe just cover the exposed wire with some heat shrink or electrical tape. I had enough room in the enclosure to just place them out of the way.

For a simple project like this with common parts I recommend pedalpartsplus.com for parts (see the links above). You could also go with smallbearelec.com or mouser.com.

You might also need:

Enclosure:http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=1094&Category_Code=DRI

LED and Bezel:http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PPP&Category_Code=LO5

DC JACK:http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=6004&Category_Code=JAC

RESISTOR:http://pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PPP&Product_Code=8009&Category_Code=RES4

Hope this helps!!!!

Wow....exceleent reply. I will order them today and post a photo tutorial.
Thank-you very much

9002 RoHS compliant 3PDT True Bypass Switch (Blue Electro-Harmonix) 1 $4.50 $4.50
5000 5mm LED Bezel 1 $0.65 $0.65
5007 Yellow LED's (5mm) 1 $0.40 $0.40
6004 D/C Power Jacks 1 $1.20 $1.20
8009 Xicon 1/4W 1% Metal Film Resistor 4.7K 1 $0.08 $0.08
1094 125B Drilled for 1 Knob 1 $9.05 $9.05
Total: $15.88

Another stupid question....

I ordered the parts as listed, will this be "true-by-pass." If so, what makes it that way and if not what should I add





"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people"

Its the 3PDT switch that makes it true bypass. Here it is from BYOC Keith directly:

Q: Are your kits true bypass and if so which ones?
A: Yes. All of the kits offered here at BYOC are true bypass. And I don't mean "technically they are considered true bypass". Every kit comes with a 3PDT footswitch which provides True Mechanical Bypass. No quasi-photoMOS-relay-half-truth true bypass. This means when your BYOC pedal is in bypass, your guitar signal has direct continuity from the input jack to the output jack with absolutely no interruptions in between.

Here's a link to the pics of my "Booster":

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8688

I have wired mine up like this: battery power works but 9v DC in doesn't.

True bypass works, and When 9V DC in is and when pedal is activated I get nothing.

Battery works fine though. Any ideas off the top of your heads?

[Edit]Is the positive wire from the battery snap going to the wrong positive connector of the DC Jack? And the same with the other two wires (on positive wire from LED, and one positive wire from the jack to the PCB) should they be swapped with the connector that the battery snap is on?[/Edit]

Here's a snippet of a layout showing the actual DC Jack ... note the polarity of the LED (the flat is the negative side - reversing it seems to be one of the commonest faults). It doesn't matter which side of the LED you put the resistor.

Pic removed by Naz Nomad

Thanks for that Naz, yup looks like I have the positive/red wire from the battery snap on the wrong DC connector tab, and the led wire and the pcb positive wire need to be swapped with it.

I'll have a try when I get back from work tonight. Cheers!
~ J

Yup, that fixed it. The JoeClone diagram has a slight mistake as described above. See Naz' pic for the DC jack wiring.

This sounds good when you want a little extra boost when you're playing clean or a bit more drive from a tubescreamer. Rather useful.

Glad that sorted it out ... I can't take credit for the picture thought, it was drawn by J.D. Sleep and snatched from <whisper> GGG <whisper>

I used it yesterday to wire my 250+ ... when you can't see what's physically happening inside a component, it's sometimes nice to have 'actual' pics of that part, rather than a schematic representation.

(... and I haven't done enough builds yet to store it to memory)

I hooked my LED up with the positive side hitting the power jack and the negative going to the switch and it still works.

That's how it should be ... the flat part / shortest wire is the negative side of the LED, and goes to the footswitch.

Pic removed by Naz Nomad

OK, now I'm confused. Is the switch on the more recent diagram upside down?

My real question is...I want to do these mods but I dont want to install an LED and I probably don't want to use a battery. Can I simply leave these bits out, ie leave lug 1 on the switch without anything attached to it, and one of the postive lugs on the DC jack? Sorry if this is a stupid question. This has been by first build and I've thoroughly enjoyed it and it sounds great with my 70's Vibrolux Reverb.

Thanks for your help.

hey kirky sounds like you've got the right idea!

Hey guys,

I'm building one of these monsters for a friend, and I'm brand new to electronics. i have a schematic for a tone control (the Super Tone Control in the book Electronic Projects For Musicians) can anyone tell me how to hook this circuit up in conjunction with the confidence boost to act as one pedal together? I am going to do all the mods described in this thread, including mounting in an enclosure with a volume pot, dc jack, and footswitch. how would i hook the tone control to also be controlled by the footswitch? how could i have both circuits run from the same DC jack? Please forgive my utter ignorance.

-B

It doesn't make any difference which side of the LED you put the resistor ...

There are no stupid questions on this board, right guys?

I used this drawing (It was quite helpful) however there are two errors on it.

1. The pot is wired wrong. My CB didnt work then I realized the error was here. I moved the middle wire over to one of the holes on the left (either one will work I assume) and then it worked fine.

2. THe black wire hole on the PCB was left open. I wired that spot over to the input sleve and it worked.

Here, I tried to modify the drawing:


Disclaimer: I am a total noob. This was my first build. However my pedal didn't work and when I made these changes it suddenly did work. But I really don't know jack.

The wiring is correct on this pic, but you already know that now ...

so if i were to wire this up without using the DC jack, i would just take the negative from the battery snap to the ring of the in jack, but what do i do with the positive? connect it straight to the resistor for the LED, and also split it to the Red eyelet on the board?

Building my first pedal, I'm wondering - what would happen if a 500K pot were used? Or something other than the 100K that is used in the drawings?

Thanks to all who contributed to build specs - I'm looking forward to building this pedal, followed by the 250+, which I've also purchased.

Hey there, I've been attempting the aforementioned mod to turn the confidence boost into a useable pedal.

It works with a battery, although the LED doesn't come on,
but when I use it on my daisy chain with my other pedals I get a spark on connecting it to the chain and all my other pedals turn off, plus no sound.

I've been doing the mod from the diagrams above, the dc adaptor wiring confused me though, -Ve goes to out sleeve on PCB or to Black?
+Ve went to red, also the adapter I'm using is different to the usual BYOC ones, it's a stock one from Maplins UK.

Hope you can help

JoeClone's photo for hookup worked for me perfectly.
I have it in a box and now using it on pedal board. I have it first in line;
does wonderful things to all my pedals.
In short, I love it.

If you are having problems, as you described, recheck your connections. The diagram IS correct.

Checked them again today, all the solder connections seem to be sturdy.

The Black wire coming off the DC connection; Does that go to 'Black' on the PCB or to one of the 'Sleeve's on the PCB?

Regarding the sparking, does this mean I have reversed the polarity of the 'pin' or 'sleeve' on the input?

I really can't work it out.

As I said my DC jack is different to the one above, it has three pins like this one, one leading to the metal circle in the middle and two on either side.