CultureJam Triton Delay

Here's nice delay from CultureJam. It's based on the Rebote 2.5 delay and has a lot in common with many other PT2399 delays. However...

The Triton, diverges from the base concept by adding a second Delay Time potentiometer and a unique (in the DIY world) modulation effect. The Delay pots are selectable via footswitch (latching), and when switching from one time setting to the other, the delay time change happens slowly, just as if you were manually turning the delay time pot on a standard delay pedal. This causes a gradual pitch bend that slowly resolves to unison if a note or chord is struck and held when toggling between Delay pots. To control the speed of the pitch bend/resolve, there is a pot labelled “Slow”. Making the transition speed slower also makes overall delay time longer.

This is version 3.1 of the Triton, and includes all controls externally (the original PCB by Pickdropper had the Tone pot as a trimmer). Here's the schematic for reference, and the demo below is of an older version, but you get the idea.

In case it's not clear in the layout, the Time Switch is the 2nd footswitch.

King Dubby Delay

Here's a cool delay designed by Nocentelli posted over on FSB. Here's what he had to say about it over there:

Here's a variation on the deep blue delay; two PT2399 chips and a current mirror delay pot give around 2200ms delay, although beyond 700ms gets pretty lo-fi. There are two points where a momentary SPST can be used: Either to briefly connect the input to the delay input on select phrases (dub mode), or to bypass the repeats feedback resistor for self-oscillation on demand.

Note: I've recently found out the capacitor going from Repeat 3 to Osc Sw2 is 22n.

Tails Bypass Looper

Someone from the Offset forum asked me about building a looper pedal that when used with a delay pedal would have "tails." For those who don't know, "tails" is when a delay is switched off, but the remaining repeats come through the bypass signal. This is a popular mod to the Deep Blue Delay and other delays that feature input and output buffers. What if you don't want to mod an existing delay? Then build one of these. I laid this out 2 ways, one with relay switching and one using a simpler latching DPDT footswitch. With the latter, wire the Send pad to lug 2 of the footswitch, with lug 1 going to the Send jack. The other side of the footswitch can be used for LED on/off indication. The Return jack should be wired directly to the Output jack. The non-relay board could probably be squeezed into a 1590a if using low profile jacks.

Switchback Delay

Continuing with the board-mounted (almost) everything theme, here's what I call the Switchback Delay. It's my take on the Deep Blue Delay with a few modifications. More info in the build doc linked below.

Switchback Delay Build Doc

Valve Wizard Jenny Greenteeth

Here's a weird chorus from Valve Wizard based around a PT2399. In Merlin's own words...

Chorus is created by passing the signal through a very short delay line, somewhere between about 8ms and 25ms. The delay time is modulated and the delayed signal is mixed back with the original un-delayed signal. Some feedback ('repeats') is often applied too, to thicken the effect. The PT2399 has a minimum delay time of about 25ms, which is just short enough to do a thick chorus effect. The more subtle chorus effects that a 'proper' chorus pedal would do are not available as they require shorter delay times ( but I'm one of those people who only ever wants his chorus thick!). However, as well as getting chorus I soon found that various other unexpected effects could also be had for free, including pitch bend and a kind of ring modulation. That's why I've called it 'weird chorus'.

It will fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks easily, but it's narrow enough that it will fit in a 1590B, but probably without the pots board mounted. Here's the original build doc with the schematic and Merlin's original layout.

Crap-Fi Delay

Here's a fairly simple PT2399 delay from Allesz over on FSB. Here's what he had to say about it:

It is a simple circuit and it works good but: the mix and repeats pot are a little interactive in quite a strange way (anyway they work different from a standard echo: to turn off the delay you don'use the mix pot, but you turn to zero the feedback pot) and the on off is a little bit noisy (the clip is recorded at low volume and you will hear kids (always noisy) and clicks so, mostly, the clicks are from the mechanical sound of the switch, but a little noise makes it to the amp too) in order to minimize the clicks the input is grounded on bypass.

The major differences between my schem and the others pt2399 projects I know are that I didn't use the opamp between pins 14 and 13 and I didn't put a cap between pin 2 and three (repeats sounded cleaner to me this way).

I put a small switch to select between long and short delay; the long delays are quite dirty.

Grind Customs FX De Profundis Delay

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone gets ample time to get some soldering done over the holidays.

Grind Customs had a lot of really great projects, but their site hasn't been up in ages and it seems they're gone for good. Their De Profundis delay was very well regarded and they offered an add-on modulation board, the PLFO. Originals had the tone control as a trimmer, but lets go for broke and have it externally. The delay board will fit in a 1590B, but with the modulation add-on I'd recommend using a 125B. Here's the original De Profundis and PLFO build docs for reference.

Taptation

Want to add tap tempo to a PT2399 delay? Using this chip from DIYSB and the layout below, you can add tap to any single PT2399 delay (Deep Blue Delay, Rebote, Faux Analog Echo, etc). The Pin 6 pad connects to the 6th pin of the PT2399, and the LED flashes at the rate of the tap.

Ersatz Verben

The Ersatz Verben is a pseudo-reverb circuit using a PT2399 for short slapback delay. It was designed by FSB member CultureJam and refined by EarthTones, and based on the Crap-Fi Delay by Allesz. Delay time ranges from 40-140ms. I've laid it out for onboard pots and added polarity protection and an onboard LED resistor. Here's a demo:

Wampler Faux Analog Echo

Today's layout is Brian's take on the PT2399-based delay. It's similar to many other PT delays, but is it's own beast. It can do anything from simple slapback delay to up to around 500 milliseconds of delay. I've laid it out for board mounted pots and it would be a snug fit, but i'll fit in a 1590B (especially if you use low profile jacks).

Rebote Delay - 1590A

For those of you who didn't want 1590A week to end last month, here's another mini layout for you. It's an early iteration of the Rebote Delay that features a simple JFET stage at the input, followed by the PT2399 delay stage. Simple, yet effective. Note: mind the 3 electrolytic caps on their sides in the middle of the board. Here's the schematic for reference.

EchoPathetic

The EchoPathetic was designed by FSB member Allesz (designer of the Crap-Fi Delay and Dirty Punk Repeater). His previous designs use the PT2399 delay chip, but this one is full analog. There's an input buffer based around one side of TL072, then the signal goes onto the 3102 and 3205 chips. It's designed to be a buffered effect with the footswitch just turning on and off the delay section, but I figure more people will want to build it with true bypass. For more info, check out this thread over on FSB.

Jon Patton's Hamlet Delay

Here's another design from Jon Patton. It's a delay based on the popular PT2399, with an always-on preamp. The preamp is designed to have a flat EQ and won't alter your tone. So the In and Out pads go to the input/output jacks, instead of the switch. You could still wiring this for true-bypass (just jumper the footswitch pads), but it's designed to use a DPDT. Use one side to turn the delay on/off and the other for the LED indicator. Check out his build doc for a thorough and much better explanation of the circuit, a diagram for the footswitch wiring, as well as the schematic. In his layouts he has the Level and Tone controls as trimmers on the board. I chose to move these off-board, as it seems like useful controls to have externally.

Casper Electronics EchoBender

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. Thanks to everyone for your comments, verifying layouts, and just generally being really cool people. To celebrate, I give you a really cool and crazy delay, the Casper Electronics EchoBender. The EchoBender is a development of/modified Deep Blue Delay. I couldn't quite get it to fit with on-board pots in anything smaller than a 1590BB, but the original is in a giant wedge enclosure, so I guess it's still an improvement. If you feel like wiring 6 pots off-board, you should be able to fit it in a 125B or even a 1590B. From Casper:

The Echo Bender is an echo, distortion and experimental, stand alone noise generator.
It’s capable of creating smooth, clean echos as well as delving deep into screeching, noisy realms seldom heard from a traditional echo pedal.

Here's the link to the 1590BB drilling template.

Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay

The Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay is regarded as one of the best PT2399 based delays out there (with the price tag to match that reputation). It's a warm and natural sounding circuit with an analog direct signal path (aka, no buffers), and plays nice with distortion boxes as well. I've labeled IC1 as a TL072 as it's what you most likely have in your parts drawer, but the originals have either OP275 or AD712 for what it's worth. Pots can be board-mounted from the solder side of the board using right angle PCB mount pots.

BigFoot Fx MagnaVibe

The MagnaVibe is a vibrato effect inspired by the built in effect on old Magnatone amplifiers. From the BigFoot Fx description:

The Magnavibe was inspired by the early 1960's vibrato guitar effect (not the typical tremolo which is just pulse modulation). The Magnatone amp was known for having that amazing wobbly sound. Setting out to put that type of sound in a box and use it with any amp took much experimenting. The results are excellent. This is not a plain one dimensional vibrato such as a chorus pedal with the dry mix removed. Delay chips weren't even used back then. Nor is it just another uni-vibe clone, but a unique sound with that classic unique tone. Adding spring reverb or delay after the vibrato sounds especially good.

I've drawn it so there's space to use a VTL5 or similar photocell, or you can make your own. Either way, theres space for it. A lot of layouts I've seen don't allow for a comfortable enough space to get the LDR and LED lined up nicely. You might even be able to get this to fit in a 1590a.

Valve Wizard Small Time

Here's Valve Wizard's take on the PT2399 delay. It's very similar to most PT2399 delays out there, with a dual op-amp providing input and output buffering. This was designed with the tails function and it uses Valve Wizard's usual J112 switching. Here's his original schematic and explanation of the circuit. You can also use a DPDT footswitch for bypassing, using one side to turn the delay on/off and the other for LED indication. I've included 2 extra pads on the PCB layout for this function. If going this route, don't populate the J112 along with the 1N4148 diode, 1k and 4.7k resistors, and 10µ capacitor round the J112.

Keeley Mag Echo

Here's Keeley's PT2399-based delay that aims to emulate old tape delays. I think it's the first delay on the blog with built in modulation. It's laid out with board mounted pots for a 125B enclosure with top mounted jacks. FYI, the trimmer controls the gain of the input stage.

Grab & GoGo Delay/Overdrive

Here's a cool little dual effect designed by Allesz over on FSB. I actually laid this out a long time ago, but couldn't wrap my head around the switching with the buffer. I've learned a lot since then and feel confident in my understanding to publish this one here. It essentially is a basic PT2399 delay with 2 of the pins from the PT2399 being used as a separate soft clipping overdrive. A simple buffer, built around the MPSA13, is always on, making this a non-true bypass effect. But a little buffering never hurt anyone ;) The original schematic and discussion can be found here.

Since there's a lot of off board wiring going on with this one, here's a full off board wiring diagram to help clarify.

Mid-Fi Electronics Clari(not)

Here's the Clari(not) from Mid-Fi. It's a delay/vibrato/fuzz... thing that's pretty cool, and the sibling of the Pitch Pirate Deluxe. It uses an LM386 amplifier that pushes a fairly standard PT2399 delay and an optical vibrato. I've laid it out for on-board pots mounted from the solder-side and you should be able to squeeze it in a 1590B. Schematic can be found here.