Rack Mount Kleinulator Build

[hywelg]

A couple of wires to solder to the power supply board but I'm just waiting on the diode and resistor from Nik. I could have got the diode from RS but minimum order was 100, plus its in their extended range so attracts a £10 order surcharge! So I'll wait.

Also decided to add another LED socket rather than use the two colour LED. Left one indicates FX loop is ON, right one indicates Bypass engaged. Both on indicates bypass is selected on the rear switch whilst footswitch is plugged in ie ERROR.

I do hope this damn thing works.........!!!

[hywelg]

Parts arrived  today with my new DC-30 kit. I hope to find time over the holidays to get it all finished and tested, but the temptation to start building the DC-30 first will be difficult to resist.

[hywelg]

Fitted the diode and resistor and coupled remaining wires up, then found , by a process of elimination that the relay switching was not as expected so had to swap 4 wires over there.

Set the bias on the FET to 22v as per Niks instructions.

Also had a rethink of the footswitch/bypass wiring and made that simpler. Had to replace one LED that had blown. That got all the switching working as expected.....

[hywelg]

Fitted it all together, the contacts on the tranny were mighty close to the lid so had to insert some foam pads. Mounted it in the shell I made for it.

The the time came to do a full test, and lo and behold it worked !! I have had to use some balanced patch cables that are a bit too long and could be picking up some noise. Will set it up properly with some colour coded George l's so its all neat around the back. The noise is like a low hiss and is not really noticeable.

So far its very encouraging, not had much time to do a great deal of testing, but being able to bypass is worth its weight in gold for the purpose of A/B'ing the sounds, just flick the bypass switch and both the Klein and any FX are out of the loop. I'm finding the Klein is a little too bright with both switches on and just maybe theres a little less bottom end, but I'd say I'm pretty happy with the sound so far.

I think I'm going to find the G# annoying though. Its too difficult to know what patch has what effects/levels applied. I'll have to make up a laminated card that lives in the bottom of the rack unit. I intedn using the G-Switch to swap patches, but that switch won't live on my board, it'll just sit either on top of the unit or on the floor next to it. So far though the reverbs and delays sound nice and the chorus isn't bad either, good enough to allow me to get rid of my Boss unit.

[hywelg]

I will post some better pics when the light is better and I get to finish off the rear connections. Alos as soon as I get time I'll redo the layout so its correct (it isn't at the moment). If anyone wants a parts list I might be able to knock that together also.

I also made another identical shell which I haven't covered yet (it always pays to make two incase you balls one up). So if anyone in the UK is interested, its for sale, cheap as is, or I can finish it off.

[Pickmaster]

Looks great Hywel, hope it sounds good too at the band high volume situations.
Cheers

[hywelg]

Thanks Doc, this time I'm quite hopeful. I was disappointed with the G# on its own in the loop a real tone sucker, but now I've just left the G# volume at 12 0'clock and balanced the volumes with the Klein.

I still haven't worked out which volume/level knob to raise/lower, I've just been jacking them all up a bit at the same time. I dare say I will find theres a minor tone difference by keeping one lower and raising the others. Could do with some experienced K users input really.

[hywelg]

Final photo showing mods to bypass/relay circuit.

[hywelg]

And here's the layout drawing.

If anyone has any queries or questions please ask, but I'm not very clued up on electronics!

EDIT New layout drawing 03-01-2008 Correcting a mistake I made.

[hywelg]

OK chaps, theres one error on the layout, I've connected tthe incoming signal to the wrong pole of the main bypass switch. Its just on the drawingnot on the real thing. Will edit and post new one asap.

More seriously ther is a volume drop even in bypass compared with when the unit is disconnected and looking at the wiring the Recovery pot is still connected and is draining some signal  I guess. The recovery pot behaves strangely when in FX mode also, it gets louder to about 2 o'clock then loses a small amount of volume therafter.

Might have to rethink the wiring

[hywelg]

This is probably getting a bit obsessive, but to get true bypass switching I think I'm going to need to install another relay since I need to be able to switch both the  send and return signals to prevent the volume loss problem.

Needs a little bit of re-thinking. Volume loss is not severe, just annoying since I went to all this trouble to avoid a volume loss!!   

[hywelg]

I have reworked the drawing and I'm going to use two relays so I can sort the problem properly. One relay will switch both the send and return signals so i get a proper bypass and the other realy will do the footswitching and LED's.

Will order the relay board from Nik and put the wheel in motion. I will also need to replace the hardwire bypass switch on the rear panel with a 3PDT version in order to separate the return signal completely.

Wll keep you posted.

[hywelg]

Finally completed the rebuild with two relays and now it ROCKS. No loss of volume or tone, this is how I should have done it in the first place.

Any loss of 240v or 9v in the Kleinulator results in a true bypass, with an almost inaudible switch over. Footswitching works as it should. Really pleased with the way it behaves now. I've completed the rack box with a G# and a BBE 362 and the FX sound is BIG. Will post a layout dwg as soon as I have completed it and pics of the unit as soon as I can take some in good light.

[JohnE]

Hywel,
Are you running both the Sonic Maximizer and Kleinulator together? What do you set the level on the G Sharp at? Thanks for sharing this with us.

John

[hywelg]

Hi John, yes I am running both G# and Sonic Max together, unfortunately it was going to prove way too difficult to isolate and footswitch them independantly.

I've got the input gain on the G# set at 3 o'clock, the I set the Klein Send and return both at 2 o'clock and recovery at 3 o'clock. Bright 2 on. Both bright switches on is too much.

Sonic maximiser Lo Contour 3 o'clock and Process 10 o'clock.

Footswitching bypasses all 3, the K, G# and the Sonic Max. It might have been a nice option to footswitch the effects leaving the Klein in the circuit at all times, but I thought that was a little risky being as I built it!! If something fails the hardbypass switch on the back takes everything out of circuit leaving me with the raw amp with about 2-3 foot of cable in the FX loop.