BYOC Tri-Booster Pedal Kit

I've been looking at THIS BYOC kit pedal for sometime, and finally ordered one yesterday. Unlike many of the BYOC kits, it's not really a direct "clone" of any one vintage pedal, though the basic circuit is derived from the revered Dallas Rangemaster treble booster of the late '60s. The really cool thing is that it has three switchable transistor boost modes: a germanium boost (the Rangemaster portion) that introduces some signal distortion, a "linear" silicon boost that's fairly clean, and an ultra-clean full range MOSFET boost. Additionally, the germanium boost mode has an associated 3-way toggle switch that selectively boosts the highs, the mids, or the entire audible range. The power LED even changes color between the three boost modes. Nifty! It's not a cheap kit at $95, but that seems very reasonable, given it's sonic flexibility.

Until I finally bought a boost pedal (the inexpensive & simple, but very effective Behringer PB100), I didn't have a real appreciation for how tonally useful these devices are. They are capable of MUCH more than just making your volume louder, though they certainly do that well! You can use them to push a clean amp tone into overdrive, to make an OD or distortion pedal sound even "dirtier", to emphasize a certain range of the tone spectrum, and more. Definitely a very useful device to have in the old tonal arsenal!

I'll post back here again when I've received the kit and built the pedal....

Oooo another pedal making thread 'bout time I was getting bored as you can tell from my cloned meat post. heh

Keep us involved in this project Voo. I'm thinking of getting something from General Guitar Gadgets to build too. I feel like smelling solder.

Hmmmm. Vedey intervestink.:cool:

After using the PB100 I've become a firm believer in a boost pedal. I'm looking forward to your completed project and the post honeymoon report.

Voodoo, it sounds like you once again are on a mission...or mad scientist experiment.... be looking forward to your report when you're finished. :bravo:

I've ordered the "Large Beaver" (Big Muff's clone) from BYOC and I anxious to get it...

I am so anxious that I have already worked on some ideas of the pedal's look.

This is one example:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../Step_out2.jpg

Check the other ideas here:
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...view=slideshow

The new version of that kit incorporates a switchable tone-changing feature that previously had to be done as a mod. And you can build it as either one of two vintage Big Muff versions, the "Triangle" or the "Ram's Head". Nice kit. Keep us posted on what you think of it.

BTW, how are you planning to apply the graphics? I can't access any photo hosting sites due to the web filter software here at work, so I can't see what you have in mind.

Very cool design there, Elavd. Nicely done.

The Tribooster seems like a very interesting pedal. There was a video test of it, in the BYOC site, maybe it's now on youtube, or something?

Voodoo, you are SO correct about the several applications of a lowly booster pedal. I personally use the TAD Range King, which is quite transparent and very quiet, and it's doing for me all those things you describe. :AOK:

Whoa, I shoulda built one of these a LONG time ago!! Holy crap, is this puppy cool! The build is pretty straightforward (Keith Vonderhulls' super-high quality PCB's are a big part of why), and everything worked on the first "light up". The three boost modes all sound excellent, though I'm partial (so far) to the germanium mode. The 3-color LED is quite cool, too, since you can always tell which boost mode you're in at a glance (red = germanium, blue = linear, and green = clean).

One point to make right away is that, despite the nomenclature, I wouldn't use the term "clean" for the sound of any of the three modes. The point of this pedal is to add gain, but to do it three different ways. Yeah, if you have things dialed down with a single-coil guitar on a clean sounding amp, you can probably keep the tone from the "linear" and "clean" boost modes pretty clean, as long as you don't run the pedal gain over about 50%. But that's clearly not what this pedal is about. You want clean? Use your amp and guitar volume knobs. You want drive? This baby's for you!

The "linear" mode is actually the cleanest, most transparent sound of the three. It's called "linear" because the boost is applied equally across the signal frequency range. You'll still pick up distortion, but it's of a pushing-the-preamp type, and doesn't have the character of the sound you get from an OD or distortion pedal, where the signal is being artificially clipped. It's a more natural and transparent sound. The distortion starts almost immediately with a humbucker guitar; it's already noticeable with the Level knob at 9 o'clock, before you're even at unity gain with the pedal. With single coils, you can get up around 12 o'clock before the signal distortion becomes really noticeable. It's already significantly louder than the unboosted signal, by that point.

The "clean" mode is actually the middle of the three, as far as degree of distortion goes. This mode uses a MOSFET for the gain boost, and it gives a nice lush sounding boost that seems to emphasize the mids and highs a bit more that the "linear" does. It also distorts the bass and lower mids to a greater degree, and sounds rather muddy on the low strings with humbuckers. But if you're looking to bust out of the mix with a solo up on the higher strings, this is a great way to do it.

The germanium boost makes no pretense at cleanliness--this one is all about hot, nasty top-end sizzle. The gain here is provided courtesy of an OC75 germanium transistor, and the circuit is based directly upon the Dallas Rangemaster treble booster of the 1960's. It's pretty noisy, so running this pedal mode with a noise gate of some sort is recommended, unless background "fizz" just isn't a concern. Keith added a nice additional feature for the germanium mode, which is a 3-way toggle that lets you vary the boost frequency range. The choices are treble, mid and full boost. The treble boost is just too trebly for my taste, but I can see where it would have its uses. The mid boost is pretty useful, generating a TS-style mid-hump but with a different distortion character. But the full boost gives you that germanium "hair" across the board, and is clearly my favorite of the three. Interestingly, the germanium mode also has the best bass clarity of all three boost modes, which I really didn't expect.

I'll try to get a clip or two posted in the next few days. My MIL is staying with us for a couple of days, having just had an angioplasty on Thursday, so peace & quiet are the order of the day around here for the moment.

I haven't finished the enclosure yet, and probably won't for a little while. Gotta have some fun with this puppy before I tear it back apart for painting & decaling. Besides, with only two knobs, it's not like the unlabeled controls are confusing! And that 3-color LED eliminates any ambiguity! Check out the pix below:

http://duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/TB_rgb.jpg

Cool, DVM, thanks for the update! Those lights are UBERCOOL, did you know that?

Can't wait to see the graphic work on the final product. Are you gonna make them available for purchase?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert

Cool, DVM, thanks for the update! Those lights are UBERCOOL, did you know that?

Can't wait to see the graphic work on the final product. Are you gonna make them available for purchase?

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Yeah, I love that little 3-way LED. Haven't seen one of those on a pedal before, though I assume they must be used in some commercial effects. But the best part of this pedal, by far, is the array of cool tones it spews forth. The more I play with it, the broader the grin on my face. :rockon:

Re: selling 'em, I very much doubt it. Since BYOC is no longer selling just the PCB's, I'd have to drop over $100 apiece on the full kit + shipping cost. That means that for a completed one, including labeling/finishing, I'd have to charge somewhere upward of $160 to make it worth my time. That's a pretty stiff price, when you can buy a pre-assembled BYOC TriBooster HERE for $139, and finish it yourself.

Going to try to crank out a couple of clips this afternoon....

OK, here a link to a clip recorded using my Epi Elitist LP Std on the bridge p'up through my Fender Blues Junior, set up for a clean tone. Besides the Triboost, no effects used except a little plate reverb on my DigiTech DigiVerb pedal. Same pair of riffs repeated four times:

1. Clean (no boost)
2. Linear mode boost
3. Clean mode boost
4. Germanium mode boost (full freq. range setting)

The level setting on the boost pedal was 12 noon (i.e. 50%) for all three boost samples. I recorded the no-boost sample at a higher mic input setting to keep the volume comparable to the three boosted samples. I think you can hear the distortion build in pretty clearly, and it's very obvious by the germanium sample, which is my personal favorite. But they all sound good to me. Tell me what you think.

Here's the link: http://www.box.net/shared/my7h52icco

Quote:

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Originally Posted by duhvoodooman

Tell me what you think.

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Well, I'd like to say at least one of them was bad or meh, but I'm incapable. All three sound quite nice. So does the clean, but that's not the point :)

duhvoodooman you say that the first lick is clean (no boost), but I think that on 0:08" I hear some breaking up probably from the amp.

Am I correct?

Wow, those clips sound really nice!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elavd

duhvoodooman you say that the first lick is clean (no boost), but I think that on 0:08" I hear some breaking up probably from the amp.

Am I correct?

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It's tough to get a completely clean sound from my LP when playing chords, with the hot Custom 5 pickup I have at the bridge. So, yeah--there's a touch of breakup there. Then again, when I'm using the bridge p'up on that guitar, I'm not generally going for clean! Mwah-ha-ha-ha! :rockon:

Yup germaniums sounded pretty good there Voo. Any pics of the pedal?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tone2TheBone

Any pics of the pedal?

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Post #9 in this thread. That's how it's going to look for awhile, because I'm too busy playing through it to paint & decal it!

do you think I'd be able to get one of those kits and use it instead of putting active electronics on my jazz? or possibly modding it slightly? or would I be better off just getting schematics to some electronics and modding that slightly to put it into a box? I just don't want to mod my jazz at all, but I do love the active tone that john entwistle got.

I came across THIS informative article today, explaining how booster pedals work and comparing them vs. overdrives and amp gain stages. This shed some light for me on how my new TriBoost pedal is working, and why it acts like it does. Interesting....to a geek like me, anyway! :messedup: :D

I love this kind of stuff.

OK, I finally got around to painting & decaling this pedal. Came out pretty well, I think. I call it "Tone Triage", a little play-on-words with the Tri-booster name. When your tone needs some first aid, stomp on this! The ambulance graphic on the decal is positioned so that the pedal's LED looks like the light on top:

http://duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/m..._red_flash.jpg

Beautiful. The master does it again.:master: :bravo:

Pedal looks great DVM. Is there a special paint for the metal casing you use? Just curious about the adhesion factor.

Hello duhvoodooman,

I am curious how you go about doing your decals? I am sorry if you have already covered this. I have been thinking of giving the decal paper a try that you put in your printer. Is this what you use?

Thank you for your time and help. The clips sound great!

M29

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Algonquin

Is there a special paint for the metal casing you use? Just curious about the adhesion factor.

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I generally use spray lacquer, and find that it adheres very well to these aluminum casings. For this one, however, I had to use enamel because the local hardware store near where I work didn't have the color I wanted (a light beige) in lacquer. I found the enamel harder to work with; it's touchy on adhesion and tends to "orange peel", if you're not very careful. I think that if I'd presanded the surface more thoroughly, it probably would have gone more smoothly. I just gave it a quick scuff, and it wasn't quite enough.

Bottom-line: I'd recommend sticking with lacquer, because it seems to be a lot more forgiving. Even better, buy the enclosure pre-painted! Pedal Parts Plus has a nice selection of sizes and colors. Since this was a full kit, that wasn't an option; it came with a bare metal enclosure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M29

I am curious how you go about doing your decals? I am sorry if you have already covered this. I have been thinking of giving the decal paper a try that you put in your printer. Is this what you use?

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I've used inkjet decal paper from Papilio thusfar, with fairly good results. When I started, I used to cut out the individual graphics much like we used to do with model car and plane decals, as a kid. However, this is tedious, and you end up with an uneven surface in the top clearcoat, due to the thickness of the decal itself. There are ways to mitigate that, but it adds even more work.

I finally got smart and started doing full-face decals. In other words, that pedal has a single decal that covers the entire top. The perimeter is about a sixteenth of an inch outside of that red border. The application of the decal itself thus becomes very easy; you just have to be careful to squeeze out any air bubbles trapped underneath. They sell a "mounting fluid" that you spread on the surface to be decaled, and it makes it easy to slide the decal into exactly the right position. Then you squeegee out the excess water, pat it dry, and let it dry overnight. Add a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, and you're done. Since the edge of the decal is at the perimeter of the pedal surface, it blends right in and isn't really noticeable.

The full-face method takes a lot more effort to set up, though, because the graphics have to be positioned in exactly the right locations on the decal to correspond to the controls. I end up printing it to regular paper to see how it aligns, then do any necessary fine-tuning before doing the final print to the decal paper.

I need to re-order decal paper (Warning! Not cheap!), but this time I'm going to try the laserjet variety. We have a nice color laserjet at work, and it gets around the tendency of the ink to bleed a bit, even when "sealed" with a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, which is necessary before soaking them in water for application.

Thats one classy looking pedal you have there DVM!

Yeah I'm interested in how the stuff would hold up being printed with "laser" jet. Very good build Voo as usual!

Sweet job DVM and thank you for the info on decaling I can't wait to try it out. Your work is always excellent and inspirational.

Something they have out for the scale modeling community is a decal setting solution. This helps soften the decal and draws it over rough surfaces. Not that it would be of any good on a pedal but you never know what project it might help on. The mildest product is Micro-Sol setting solution and the strongest for tough jobs when the Micro-Sol just won't bring that decal into the uneven areas is Solvaset setting solution. These can usually be found in Hobby shops or Model railroad shops.

I have found Zink Chromate to be an excellent primer for aluminum. This is what is used in aircraft and most anything commercial like buses and what not. It can be found in auto body supply stores. It is pretty toxic though so keep the spray down wind if you can but this stuff really sticks good. It is usually green to yellow-green in color.

I hope this helps some.

M29

Zinc chromate, huh? Being a chemist by training, I know that's some pretty nasty stuff. Do you know if it can be brushed on, rather than sprayed?

Resurrecting this old thread....
Stalking DVM's page I read his comments on this pedal and it sounds pretty awesome.

You mention in the thread DVM, that you don't expect to sell these....is that still the case?

Did anyone (Robert) ever get their hands on one and make a video?

DVM, how do you ever get any actual work done? Between you BJr mods, Epi Jr mods and pedals...don't know how anyone, especially a Yankees fan, could pull that off! Impressive.
:poke

I sell 'em--$150 fully finished, $120 assembled/unpainted.

AFAIK, nobody's done a video of one of mine, but you can probably find a couple on YouTube for the pedal.

Work? Wassat? ;)