New BYOC Reverb Build

Here are a couple of preliminary photos from my first build of the new BYOC Reverb kit. Not painted & decaled yet, obviously, so the topside shot is about as boring as it could possibly be, but will give you an idea of the pedal layout. The controls, from left to right, are tone, dwell (decay time) and reverb intensity.

The "heart" of this pedal is a Belton Digi-Log reverb module, a relatively new digital component that produces an amazingly genuine sounding spring reverb emulation. I don't find it to be the least bit phony or sterile sounding--nice warm, springy tone. Belton is well known as a maker of spring reverb tanks, and they appear to have done an impressive job of translating that characteristic analog sound into a digital component. :applause

The stock BYOC pedal is set up to be able to give just TONS of reverb at the highest intensity setting, but I found that this (1) is much more reverb than I'd ever use, and (2) causes the intensity control to be quite touchy at lower intensity settings. So I replaced a 33 Kohm resistor on the PCB that determines the max. intensity with a 50K trimpot and dialed it down until I liked the range & sensitivity of the external intensity pot. For me, right about 10 Kohm was perfect.

I really like how this pedal sounds, and the $90 kit price is (IMO) very reasonable. I've already replaced the DigiTech Digiverb pedal in my effect chain with this one, and I don't see it leaving any time soon! AAMOF, it's likely to stay that ugly unpainted state for awhile, because I'm enjoying using it too much to take it out for the finishing work!

Don't have a clip to post or link to at this point, but here are links to a technical brochure on the Belton Digi-Log reverb module, and to a Harmony Central review page for a commercial reverb pedal, the Malekko Spring Chicken, that uses the Belton module. The first two pedal photos are of my own build. The third photo showing the Belton module mounted to the back of the pedal PCB is courtesy of pedal-builder extraordinaire & forum moderator Stephen over at the BYOC forums. :master

That is one of the cleanest looking build designs I've seen. All of the wiring that goes off of the pcb is placed right next to the appropriate component so that wiring isn't running everywhere. That is a major plus in my book. As always, your build job makes it look really good too.

vroomery said:

That is one of the cleanest looking build designs I've seen. All of the wiring that goes off of the pcb is placed right next to the appropriate component so that wiring isn't running everywhere. That is a major plus in my book....

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Yup, that's one of the real strong points of the BYOC designs--well laid out, with minimal wire run length. AFAIC, the less wire in a pedal, the better--just an opportunity for a variety of bad things to happen.

The layout that Keith is using in his newer kits is even better than the older ones in this regard. The only wire runs that need to be longer than an inch or so are the connections to the I/O jacks. Though this particular kit doesn't come with it, most of the newer kits now use a wire-free footswitch connection system, as seen in this photo of a British Blues Overdrive I was just working on this weekend for a customer. Just seven pieces of wire in the whole build, all under 2" long. Now, THAT'S what I call "clean":

The Belton Digi-Log makes that a solid reverb.



Very clean with the new footswitch design. That's one of the things I didn't enjoy building on the first two.

My only real gripe is with the AC adapter jack itself. After completing a build and testing, it is then time to paint, si? You can easily remove the switch, pot knobs and nuts from the enclosure (not K0de!), but you have to de-solder the AC jack to remove it due to the nut being inside the enclosure.

Very cool DVM. Can't wait to hear some clips.

The deal breaker for this pedal for me is that it isn't stereo. I have a Boss RV-5 that I picked up cheap at GC. It is the last pedal in my chain and I run it to two identical amps for stereo. I'm not sure what chip(s) is(are) in it, but it does sound very good for a small stomp box.

It would be cool if BYOC would make a stereo version, but that would increase the complexity and cost no doubt. One thing that might be cool is if BYOC would sell just the PCB, parts and reverb module so that DIYers could add reverb to an existing amp.

tunghaichuan said:

Very cool DVM. Can't wait to hear some clips.

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I'll try to accommodate that request in the near future....

tunghaichuan said:

The deal breaker for this pedal for me is that it isn't stereo. I have a Boss RV-5 that I picked up cheap at GC. It is the last pedal in my chain and I run it to two identical amps for stereo.

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Yeah, I do the same thing you do--place my reverb pedal dead last, and that DigiTech pedal was stereo, like your Boss. I ran one output to my Egnater head and the other to my Blues Jr. Very handy. Now, I have a Y-adapter on the output so that I can run into both amps, but that's not really stereo, per se.

tunghaichuan said:

One thing that might be cool is if BYOC would sell just the PCB, parts and reverb module so that DIYers could add reverb to an existing amp.

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Well, you can get the Belton module at Small Bear, and I would venture to guess that there are schematics available on the web for installing it in an amp....

Finishing concept for the pedal. What do you guys think?

Perfect! :applause lol

:AOK

How well does it mimic a real spring reverb? The spring reverb setting on the Boss RV-5 is atrocious. Way to "pingy" for the lack of a better term.

Tig said:

My only real gripe is with the AC adapter jack itself. After completing a build and testing, it is then time to paint, si? You can easily remove the switch, pot knobs and nuts from the enclosure, but you have to de-solder the AC jack to remove it due to the nut being inside the enclosure.

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Yeah, that's a definite drawback of that design. You can get those AC adapter jacks with external nuts:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=666

The only real problem with them is that the excess part of the threaded bushing is then on the outside of the pedal, which doesn't looks so great. I guess you could probably use some spacing washers on the inside to minimize that, though....

tunghaichuan said:

How well does it mimic a real spring reverb? The spring reverb setting on the Boss RV-5 is atrocious. Way to "pingy" for the lack of a better term.

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It's been a while since I owned an amp with a reverb tank, but it sounds pretty good to my ear. Not quite the real thing, of course, but a very respectable emulation. I haven't heard the RV-5, but I wasn't all that impressed with the spring setting on my DigiTech DigiVerb. The BYOC pedal sounds a lot better than that.

duhvoodooman said:

Yeah, that's a definite drawback of that design. You can get those AC adapter jacks with external nuts

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I was just thinking (dangerous, I know), if that's all I could come up with to nit-pick, then I'd say the BYOC stuff is pretty good! :AOK

Can't wait to hear some reverb samples...
Right after we all read about your impressions of that new Reverend Jetstream 390! oke

I've never been happy with most of the digital "spring reverb" sounds from most pedals I'd be interested to hear what this one can do.

Here are some demo clip links from another BYOC forum moderator:


Different combos of guitars, amps & effects. The intensity is turned up much higher than you'd probably use in several spots in the first clip to accentuate the spring reverb effect. The 2nd & 3rd are more typical of useable reverb levels.

Those samples sound great. The BYOC does a better impersonation of a spring reverb than my Boss RV-5.

To hear the "pingy" sound I'm talking about, check out this video, about :59 seconds in. The RV-5 sounds kind of fake. The BYOC sounds much better in the spring department:

duhvoodooman said:

Here are some demo clip links from another BYOC forum moderator:

http://www.pantanosoftware.com/music/BYOCReverbDemo1.mp3

http://www.pantanosoftware.com/music/BYOCReverbDemo2.mp3

http://www.pantanosoftware.com/music/BYOCReverbDemo3.mp3​

Different combos of guitars, amps & effects. The intensity is turned up much higher than you'd probably use in several spots in the first clip to accentuate the spring reverb effect. The 2nd & 3rd are more typical of useable reverb levels.

Click to expand...

Finito!

Mmmm that looks like nice!

Voodoo

Do you have some sound clips of that yet?

Spudman said:

Do you have some sound clips of that yet?

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None of my own, just the three MP3 links I posted above. Mine has been out of commission for the last several days for the painting & decaling work. Just reassembled it last night and took the photo posted above....

Vood, do you know the differences between your BYOC build and Alf Hermida's pedal which is also based on the Belton module.

It goes for $99 and comes with a power supply.

I see yours has tone, dwell, & intensity knobs. Alf's only has one knob, which I assume is equivalent to your intensity knob.