Friday 25 July 2014

Maxon DS-830 Distortion Master



26 comments:

  1. i'm building this one right now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Cheers! The marketing text for the original says its suitable for bass as is. Did you do any mods?
      +m

      Delete
    2. it's a little boxy on the low end. i'm going to try and change the freq of the bass eq (lower) than to change the HPF of the drive (390R/1u cap= 408 Hz). I replaced the 1u cap with a 4u7 and it did give it a lot more low end, but the dirt is a bit too heavy that way. it's late now, so i'm going to experiment with it a bit more tomorrow.

      I also found that an audio gain pot (as opposed to a linear) gives a much better sweep over the gain range.

      Delete
    3. I put the 1u back in for the HPF in the gain circuit to make the dirt sound better (which is stock) and then replaced the 220n with a 1u to lower the frequency of the bass contro,l and it sounds awesome with a bass now. since I socketed the bass eq freq cap, I also tried a 470n and a 680n but the 1 u sounds best for my purposes.

      Delete
    4. DONE!

      http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/Maxon/DM-DS-830-01.jpg

      http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/Maxon/DM-DS-830-02.jpg

      Delete
    5. Very nice. Anything designed by Maxon is worth building, buying or stealing.

      Delete
    6. John.
      Did you just buff that shine on or is it a chrome box? Very nice.
      jeff

      Delete
    7. it's just a polished enclosure.

      Delete
    8. Great work, John, as usual. I'll build this pedal as soon as i'm back from holidays.

      Delete
  3. Now that's a sweet build, John. Two thumbs up!

    Is that a waterslide?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nope. it's a brother p-touch.

      Delete
    2. Do you mean a simple Brother p-touch label maker?

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I forgot : Thank you Miro ;) But i have a question, how do you draw your cuts "over" the jumpers ? I can't get them on the upper layer.

      Delete
    2. If you're using the latest version(s) of V3, just select the cuts and press Alt+ArrowUp. The option can be found on the Edit menu as well - "Send Backward", "Bring Forward"
      +m

      Delete
    3. Ok, got it working, using "copper trace" instead of "jumpers". Anyway, thank's a lot for the help and for all this great layouts (This goes to Mark too ;) )

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Can this pedal run on 12 or 18 volt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 12V is ok. 18 is not - or it is on the fringe.
      http://pdf.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheets/270/489253_DS.pdf
      JRC4558D should be able to take 18V, but it anything over it (not too well balanced power supply for example) can burn it. You could try it with a voltage doubler and place a 1N4001 in series with its input. That should give you something like 16 volts. Which should be safe, but still increase the headroom.
      +m

      Delete
    2. I think It will be fine for 18V too. With it showing a bipolar +/-18V supply in the datasheet, it shows it will be ok with a 36V swing so you should even be fine using it with a unipolar 36V supply

      Delete
  7. Is there a schematic floating around of this box

    ReplyDelete
  8. Built this and it is a nice distortion pedal. Definitely worth building.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can I use 2SK30A instead 2SK246Y ?

    ReplyDelete