Breadboarding: Building a DOD 250 Clone

Here’s a worthwhile learning activity for those of you who want to learn how a DOD 250 circuit is built. I successfully recreated the circuit on my breadboard, and the circuit works fine. I later changed the clipping diodes to a germanium-silicon pair in series mated with an LED. I also used a JRC4558D chip (the first half) instead of an LM741 because I didn’t have one, but I made sure I correctly identified the pin outs. The JRC4558D was taken from my Fulltone clone, which now has an NE5532.

I can’t believe I’m blogging like this, since just a few months back, I was reading a  thread at the Philmusic board and could barely make sense of the discussion.

 

Anyway, this is my first-ever breadboarding attempt, and the first time I connected the circuit between my guitar and my amp, there wasn’t any sound at all. Upon further inspection, I realized that the JRC4558D chip’s #4 pin wasn’t connected to ground. I made the necessary correction and presto! I liked what I heard. 

Now I’ve found use for whatever I’ve learned in my high school electronics classes. What makes this activity more fun is the fact that tweaking the circuits is easy with a breadboard. The next thing I’m going to try is to increase gain and connect a small DPDT switch for a true bypass connection similar to what the Proco Rat has.

I still have one problem though. I don’t know how to transfer the circuit to a smaller board that allows soldering. I don’t intend to make my own PCBs because the process simply turns me off; I don’t feel like going that far. The board that I have has holes in a grid-like formation, but it has copper strips underneath that are arranged in three groups of several columns and are separated by a pair of horizontal strips, which isn’t quite like the pattern of a breadboard. I have a long way to go in fully understanding this schematic and actually laying it out the way I wish.

Anyway, here are the links (in order):

http://diystompboxes.com/projects/intro.html

http://diystompboxes.com/projects/power.html

http://diystompboxes.com/projects/ic.html

http://diystompboxes.com/projects/offboard.html

Inspiration and Avoiding Pitfalls

I recently bumped into a childhood pal who told me that most people get frustrated because they focus so much on other people’s skills and achievements that they lose sight of what they want to accomplish. So I thought to myself that they end up getting frustrated, intimidated, or trying too hard to be like others instead of developing a playing style that will set them apart from the rest. Well, he also told me to focus on my strengths and cover up my weaknesses.  I was inspired by that short talk we had.  

Here are 10 ways to avoid guitar-playing pitfalls. I hope this helps.

http://igblog.wordpress.com/2007/05/05/ten-guitar-playing-pitfalls-and-how-to-beat-them/