Concrete Distortion Building Instructions v1.0
4
General guideline for components
Capacitors: All values under 1nF should be ceramic disks. From 1nF up to 1uF should be MKT
(foil/metalfilm capacitors) and over 1uF use electrolyte caps (or tantalum) 16V+ rated and
watch out for polarity!
Resistors: use 1% metalfilm for the best results.
Socket all IC’s and transistors. This way you can easily mod them or replace them if they
break.
Orientation of the transistors: the white stripe on the PCB indicates where the flat side of the
transistor should be.
General building tips
Soldering this board can be complicated for some people since the solder pads can be very close
together. Use a magnifying glass to make the job easier.
Start by soldering the resistors. It is best to solder diode D1 in an upright position (remember the
polarity) so do not solder it yet. Next, solder the sockets for the IC’s and transistors. For the
transistors you can buy a 20 pin SIL socket and cut of the pins you need. IC1 requires a 14 pin DIL
socket and IC2 requires an 8 pin DIL socket. Now solder the ceramic capacitors, then you can solder
the MKT capacitors and finish by soldering the electrolyte capacitors and Diode D1. Now you can
place the IC’s and transistors. The white triangle on the IC’s point to where pin 1 of the IC should be
inserted.
Besides the components mentioned in the table on the first page, you will need:
2 input jacks
. 2 mono jacks if you are not going to use a battery but only the 9V adapter. 1
mono (for output) and 1 stereo jack (for input) if you will be using both a 9V battery and the
9V adapter.
3PDT footswitch
(9 pins). I also carry an easy off board circuit for this.
2,1mm DC jack
(isolated).
9v battery clip
(optional).
22 gage stranded hook-up wire
.
Hammond 1590B
case (or similar) in your favourite colour. A 1590BB will give you more
room to experiment with.
