Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I'm pretty well jazzed about my old Beavis Board build, and I've been using it a lot more lately for all kinds of projects.. (pretty much everything over at that BeavisAudio website is just outstanding..)

So like many of you have been doing for years, I've been tinkering with Fuzz circuits quite a bit lately. And that led me to thinking about the easiest way to insert various trimpots into random parts of a circuit.

So here's my solution: THE TRIMPOT SWITCHBOARD!



The values on-tap are 1K, 5K, 10K, 50K, 100K & 1M
Another nice thing is that you can quickly probe the trimpot contacts with a DMM to find out the exact value.


Here's the overall board (it's mounted on a synthetic cutting board for those that haven't seen it)





This is one time where you REALLY want to NOT snap off those Potentiometer tabs off, btw.. you'll be swapping out pots a lot, and you don't want to spend all your time doing heavy tightening of nuts!

And lastly, this is my quick-connect system for the pot lugs.. little alligator clips with a tape sleeve. So nothing ever has to get soldered.

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EricBarao.com | Facebook Artist Page

OTRFX Website | OTRFX on Facebook
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Coincidentally, I am just finishing building a test box, after my two most recent builds didn't work properly.
One idea I am definitely going to steal from you are the small holes to the side of the holes for the pots that keep the pot tabs to stick through, preventing pot rotation without (as you said) the need for heavy tightening.
Not sure why so many people use synthetic cutting boards, but it seems like the prevailing method, so I guess i will follow suit for my board.
Thanks for posting this.

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"What you say is not enough, its what you try to do. "

Great ideas!

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Very cool and handy fo sho.

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That's a couple of very good ideas there. I usually insert the soldr tags of pots into my breadboard, which make the holes a bit loose for normal size component leads. Or, I have loose leads running from the looped tags of pots to the board which make iffy connections too. Both cases you get dodgy connections which you can do without when trying to BB a circuit.

Both of these ideas are better, a rack of trim pots to replace regular pots and the usual flying BB connectors. Thanks PPG!

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To err is human, blaming someone else shows management potential

Yep! That is a good idea

Mounted a series of trim pots on some stripboard with sockets at the end. Very handy for playing around in the circuit. Got a Magnavibe on there, and I was able to use the trims for the rate and depth and try a load of adjustments throughout the circuit with the minimum of fuss, no searching for pots or dodgy wire connections. Nice one PPG

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To err is human, blaming someone else shows management potential

Sweet! Always psyched when I can put out a little idea (usually very little ) that can make things a little easier for other tinkerers..

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EricBarao.com | Facebook Artist Page

OTRFX Website | OTRFX on Facebook
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I love the trimmers on stripboard idea!!!


Now to make heads or tails out of a schematic

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Dano's website is down:(

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"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."R. Reagan