Box of Rock

[Anonymous]

I’ve read a lot about the Box of Rock (3 stage N channel mosfet [bs170] – simple tone stack) and how popular it is, so I decided to build veroboard version to hear how it performs.  I have a Black Dog which also utilizes the bs170, but has a much more versatile tone stack.

After finishing and testing the Box of Rock veroboard, I decided to put it into an enclosure (1590b).  While I prefer the Black Dog, the Box of Rock is a nice sounding mild to medium boost and this version also has the SHO style boost following the Box of Rock.

I really enjoy messing around with these veroboards, but they do complicate a build quite a bit.  For example, all the wires are coming out of the component side of the board (unlike the way I like to do PCB builds) make for a messy looking build.  I figured if I have enough room in the enclosure I can use an extra row and run the wire down through the extra row.  I’d be interested to hear from others on how you deal with this.  Also, the pedal is a bit more prone to pickup interference.  I’m assuming that is typical of a veroboard build (compared to a well designed PCB – like we find here at GPCB).

I really like the graphics on the original pedal so I pretty much mocked up that look.   I painted the enclosure GPCB orange to start with and printed the graphics on a white waterslide decal using an inkjet printer.  I used a white waterslide to be able to get white over the orange background and to make the colors a little brighter.

Enjoy,
-Scott

[Barry]

Nicely done. I occasionally use Vero for a circuit trial, modifications or testing mods.

Using a breadboard is a common tool for testing circuits and also has noise involved for obvious reasons but realizing that is to be expected eliminates most concern.

Noise beyond that like you describe can be due to how the board is laid out with components in proximity to other components that should not be. Our circuit boards are always carefully designed to avoid this and in some cases we will create a separate ground plane to completely isolate the components from each other above an beyond what you will see boutique or even commercial companies do.

[Author]

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