Since ancient times, guitarists have been interested in one question: “how to diversify your sound and make it unique?”
For this, a variety of effect pedals come to the rescue. Today we’ll talk about how to make the famous deep blue delay delay pedal.
It all started with the fact that I felt a strong need for some kind of pedal, except for the already existing overload. As a result of much thought, I came to the conclusion that the basis of the pedalboard of every modern guitarist is two pedals: distortion and delay. I decided to choose the most running delay pedal at that time, but since it costs a lot in stores (and especially model manual assembly), I decided that I needed to take this matter into my own hands.
Let's start with what this pedal is all about.
Delay (from English Delay - delay) - the effect of sound delay, is realized by adding to the original signal its copy or several copies, delayed by time. The delayed signal can be played either once or several times. The delay time is usually not less than 50-60 ms.
Now I will show how to make it
First you need to get hold of all the elements necessary for assembly:
- Fiberglass
- More wires
- 3PDT Button
- Jacks for jack 6.3 (mono) - 2 pcs.
- Power supply socket - 1 pc.
- Potentiometers B50k - 3 pcs.
- Case Gainta g0124
- Knobs for potentiometers - 3 pcs.
- LED blue
- 1n4007 diode - 1 pc
Resistors (0.125 W):
- 1M - 1 pc.
- 360K - 1pc
- 180K - 1pc
- 100K - 1pc
- 22K - 1pc
- 20K - 2pcs
- 12K - 1pc
- 10K - 7pcs
- 5.1K - 1pc
- 2.7K - 1pc
- 2K - 1pc
- 1K - 2pcs
- 33 - 1 pc.
Capacitors (voltage not lower than 16V):
- 100uF 16V (electrolyte) - 1 pc.
- 47mkF 16V (electrolyte) - 3pcs
- 1mkF 16V (electrolyte) - 4pcs
- 100nF - 4pcs
- 47nF - 1pc
- 22nF - 2pcs
- 15nF - 1pc
- 10nF - 1pc
- 4.7nF - 1pc
- 2.2nF - 2pcs
- 100pF - 1pc
- 47pF - 1pc
Chips:
- TL072
- PT2399
- 78l05
The main chip in this pedal is the PT2399 chip. It is often placed in karaoke systems, but this does not interfere with its use for guitar. Also in the circuit is an operational amplifier TL072, or you can put any other analog (RC4558, NE5532, OPA2134).
circuit:
It is worth mentioning such a phenomenon as an earthen loop:
“An earthen loop is the unevenness of the earths, in other words, different potentials at the grounding points of the power cables of two or more devices (units inside the device), sometimes grounded screens. Well, where there is a potential difference - there is respectively voltage and current (spurious), the appearance of which is expressed in noise and constant interference. ”
To avoid the appearance of earthen loops, and with them various unnecessary pickups, it is necessary to make sure that all the disadvantages of the circuit are reduced exactly to one point and contact with the body only at this point. The role of this common point will be the case of one of the potentiometers.
The scheme also provides for true bypass. Actually, this is such a method of switching to the pedals, in which, in the off state, the signal goes directly from input to output, bypassing the lotion circuit itself.
The next stage of assembly is the manufacture of a printed circuit board. In this embodiment, you need to make two different boards.
Manufacturing steps:
- First, you need to cut out the pieces of textolite necessary in shape
- Next, you need to clean them with sandpaper to clean them from patina and better tinning
- Print tracks on thermal transfer paper
- Put a printout on the textolite and iron it with an iron at maximum power for several minutes, until the pattern is transferred from paper to the textolite
- Wait until it cools completely and then separate the paper from the PCB. If there are unprinted areas, then they need to be painted on their own with nail polish or any other
- Prepare an etching solution (a tablespoon of citric acid, a teaspoon of salt on a bubble of hydrogen peroxide), etch the board, rinse off the toner
- Drill holes for elements and wires and tin tracks
When drilling the housing, it is better to first drill all the holes by applying markings to the housing.
This is all that is needed to make a good board, but out of inexperience, of course, there will be inevitable jambs.
The following modifications can be made in the pedal:
If the tails (repetitions) begin to become very distorted, then the PT2399 chip receives a too loud signal. This can be fixed by increasing the resistance of the resistor (from 10k to 15k).
If the bypass signal is louder than the included effect or the pedal itself is too loud, then you need to change the 12k resistor. Increasing the resistance will increase the volume level.
In order to remove the effect of self-oscillation (an infinite number of repetitions), which occurs when the delay knob is twisted to the extreme position, you need to change the 5.1k resistor. The greater the resistance, the less self-oscillation.
The input capacitor - film - 22 nF can be increased by a couple of times, add low frequencies.
In order to avoid short circuit, it is necessary to insulate the case in the place where the second board is attached to the slots.
So the pedal is ready.
It has knobs for adjusting the volume, frequency and number of repetitions.
A feature of this pedal is that in the general mix, the tails do not fit on the main signal and do not create dissonance, and in the pedalboard this pedal should be placed after overloading, or even at the end of the chain.
Let the pedal seem simple, but still there are some difficulties in its assembly, so you just need to try and not be too lazy to fix your jambs.
All necessary materials for assembly can be downloaded here: