DIY Eternity Burst and Crimson Drive Pedals!

DIY Eternity Burst and Crimson Drive Pedals!

I wanted to learn to build my own guitar pedals to save money, so I jumped in with both feet. I know how to solder, and electronics is something I am familiar with to a degree, but I’m talking minor repair stuff, not constructing circuits like these. I now understand what motivates most of the guys in the DIY world: It’s not so much about saving money, it’s more about the feeling of major accomplishment when you finish a build and plug it in and the damn thing actually works! It’s an incredible thing to put a bunch of components together and have a working fx pedal come out the other end. I just finished two more pedals that came out awesome. The first is based on a LovePedal Eternity Burst overdrive and the other is my new favorite and it’s based on an Earthquaker Devices Crimson Drive. It’s my first germanium based pedal and it’s freakin cool. I dig it. You may notice they both share the same paint design. I painted the Eternity first and I liked it so much I used the same scheme and colors on the Crimson Drive. (I borrowed the idea from the 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive). I’m looking at some other directions to take that part of the whole process, like powder coating, acid etching, and dipping. I have another idea for a carbon fiber enclosure that I’m looking into now. Hopefully that one will pan out.

In my previous posts I laid out a method for beginners to get some experience building these things by eliminating what is to me the most frustrating part of the whole process, which is soldering all the little parts to the board without shorting anything out. They’re really close together and it just takes practice and patience to master. In fact the board from the Eternity is the one in the previous post and it’s my last build using the expanded vero board method. The Crimson Drive isn’t my first build using the standard compact layout, but it’s my first successful one. Even though it didn’t work on the first test run it still felt pretty damn good that I only had to debug it once. (had the input and output wires reversed on the switch). I’ve also learned to order parts in quantity so that I don’t have to order more for every build. There’s a ton of shit that I still have to learn about these circuits, and I REALLY need to work on wiring everything together in the enclosure, so I’ll keep plugging away at it. But as of now I’ve learned enough to have fun with it. And I get some awesome pedals in the process!

The Eternity has an issue but I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon. It works and sounds really good until you turn the gain past 2 o-clock. That’s where a high pitched squeal starts. Very weird. But that’s part of the fun with these things. Debugging is just part of the process. You can find a ton of layouts over at Guitar FX Layouts, here’s a link https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com  Next post I’ll cover soldering equipment.

Rock On!

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