Rehousing cheap pedals

SwamperGene · Post by **SwamperGene** » 15 Apr 2009, 02:24

Very cool indeed Dan

Back to the CC Vibe, I finally went ahead and did my mods, jumping board power to kill the delay and adding a trimpot to adjust the output volume. I haven't built or modded anything since before the 'net was around, having just recently picked up a guitar again after many years without one. (OK I lie I did a few of the usual mods to my TS9 a few weeks ago.)

For the volume mod, I wanted something easily adjustable, and seeing the battery box makes these pedals pretty tight inside I decided to go with a 10K trimmer mounted on the board between the output and power jacks. The board made it simple, I just got out the trusty dremel and hacked out a pad from the big ground surface on the back of the board (after figuring out where my holes would be) :

This gave me my pin 3 to ground point, pin 1/input on the new pad, and I added another hole for the output cable's shield to ground. Pin 2/output is at the top of the pot so I just soldered directly to the lug. Pic is a little fuzzy, but here's a closeup:

For the delay, I just soldered a jumper between the in/out board power lugs on the switch. I like seeing a distinct on/off LED, so I passed on wiring the LED to the speed pot but may add a separate "speed LED" on later. Thanks to the tips here, it all works great!

The only place I messed up was drilling my access hole in the case, I almost did it on the wrong side...just caught myself, but still made a mark in the case...oh well.

ShortScaleMike · Post by **ShortScaleMike** » 17 Apr 2009, 08:04

Very cool indeed! Nice work.

devastator · Post by **devastator** » 17 Apr 2009, 11:29

your pedal is very cool , danielzink .

It's really more usefull than the regular danelectro pedal ? I mean, the rocker pedal adds something more (expect the fact you can control one parameter with the foot) ?

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 17 Apr 2009, 16:24

devastator wrote:your pedal is very cool , danielzink .

It's really more usefull than the regular danelectro pedal ? I mean, the rocker pedal adds something more (expect the fact you can control one parameter with the foot) ?

The foot pedal (rocker) is attached to the speed pot.

The fellow I built it for wanted to be able to vary the Vibe' speed at different times during a song.

Dan

kev324 · Post by **kev324** » 19 Apr 2009, 04:32

Will the foil mod work on this one like it did on the CS? I'm have assuming it won't make a difference since the lightbox top should already be reflective. Though I'd ask. I haven't taken mine far enough apart yet. I'd like to keep the Cool Cat on my board, but it doesn't quite have the same "swoosh" as my CS.

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 19 Apr 2009, 13:35

kev324 wrote:Will the foil mod work on this one like it did on the CS? I'm have assuming it won't make a difference since the lightbox top should already be reflective. Though I'd ask. I haven't taken mine far enough apart yet. I'd like to keep the Cool Cat on my board, but it doesn't quite have the same "swoosh" as my CS.

No need to as the lightbulb/ldr's are inside of a silver metal reflective box already.

Dan

jonesin4tone · Post by **jonesin4tone** » 23 Apr 2009, 02:43

hey, Ive been trying to find info in the chicken salad mod.
All I see everywhere are the dreaded "red Xs"
does anyone have a good drawing and how to for the Chicken Salad R.G. mod and rehouse!
Im new at all this and so confused about pot values and I just cant make sense of schematics that Ive found so far.
HELP!!!!PLEASE!!!!!

Pete

Fuzzer · Post by **Fuzzer** » 23 Apr 2009, 14:09

If you're new at this, I suggest you start with basic projects, that way you'll get the grip and learn all the necessary to make more advanced projects.

Also, please post questions or comments in the appropriate thread, use the search function, that's all in the rules.

doctorums · Post by **doctorums** » 08 May 2009, 16:31

i tried searching but couldn't find what i was looking for. could someone help me rehouse my french toast step by step. apologies for total and utter n00bness, i've only got one build under my belt and it was from a kit. schematics are like greek to me, maybe someone has a pictorial or layout or something. thanks in advance.

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 18 May 2009, 04:58

Danelectro Tuna Melt rehouse:

Dan

salocin · Post by **salocin** » 18 May 2009, 07:22

Nice. How did you do the graphics?

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 18 May 2009, 11:13

salocin wrote:Nice. How did you do the graphics?

I do all my graphics in Visio then full face waterslide.

Dan

frankus · Post by **frankus** » 21 May 2009, 10:07

This looks awesome, I'm doing the same project at the moment - do you have a decode for the rainbow cable or have you wired the board up not using that?

The decals look great

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 21 May 2009, 11:14

frankus wrote:This looks awesome, I'm doing the same project at the moment - do you have a decode for the rainbow cable or have you wired the board up not using that?

The decals look great

Thanks,

Unfortunately I'm also using the "second" board - as I do not have the pinouts of the rainbow cable. I followed the rehouse article on TGP and it works great.

Dan

shooto · Post by **shooto** » 09 Jun 2009, 05:29

the thing is so damn big!...would re-housing one be a big deal?

Greg · Post by **Greg** » 09 Jun 2009, 06:34

Could you post a few pics of the inside ?

Cow4prez · Post by **Cow4prez** » 13 Jun 2009, 03:00

couple of pointers for rehousing the tuna melt. The legs on the speed pot are ground points, which are disconnected when you remove the pot. So you need to jumper them together. The tuna melt is a relatively hard rehouse if you try to bypass the buffer. You can force it to be on, and throw a looper around that and that's easier.

Here are the assignents
purple = 4.5v
blue = output
green = 4053 #3 input
yellow = 4053 #5 clip out
orange = ground
red = 9v
brown = LED clip out

Cow4prez · Post by **Cow4prez** » 13 Jun 2009, 03:12

remove switching circuit
remove the brown wire (LED)
remove orange wire
add 4.7M to input (blue)
add 100uF electrolytic to 9V (green) and add diode protection

exchange pots (all 50k).
Jumper the legs on the volume pot ...grounding points

that's pretty much it. If you need the schematic, give me a shout.

frankus · Post by **frankus** » 15 Jun 2009, 11:28

cool - that is cool, thanks Cow4prez, I've just finished a Tremulus Lune and wanting to finished the tuna melt too

awesome.

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 15 Jun 2009, 20:12

Cow4prez wrote:couple of pointers for rehousing the tuna melt. The legs on the speed pot are ground points, which are disconnected when you remove the pot. So you need to jumper them together.

Can't quite see it..but it's there (the jumper that is)

Dan