Points for individual outs (audio signals-add ground from ground point)
Ground
Points for bit-crushing effects: just solder to leads and strike them against the other at pleasure.. i dont like bending stuff, but this is the way it came when i bought it second hand..
I bought a ROM expansion that adda DMX, LINN DRUM and LN1 sound samples.
Desolder IC11
Solder the ic socket
Solder the switch to the pcb
All done!
You can buy the expansion here:
Ages ago i bought my first Mode Machines x0xb0x from Touched by Sound in Germany. They were the first fully assembled x0xb0xes on sale here in Europe and hence they have been reviewed a few months later on Sound on Sound. They came with those horrible looking MC303 knobs, but the idea of having a fully operational, Bassline clone with onboard sequencer was embarassingly exciting. In 2017 all this has changed, since the advent of the RE303!
From the description given to me by TBS and the sticker on mine, they indicated that they were Made in Germany.
One year later Mode Machines came up with the x0xb0x mk2, this time “guaranteed” to have been made in Germany.
Would this second statement imply, mine was actually made somewhere else other than Germany, EU?!
Today i decided to pop my Mode Machines x0xb0x open and have a look inside.
The machine itself, sounds good but it loses more of the lower frequencies than it should as you turn the cutoff and resonance up, but it sits nicely in a mix because of this and it is quite squelchy.
Now on with the gutshots:
Dirt on the pcb, almost like corrosive traces of handling, etc
Components scattered on the board and soldered, clearly assembled as quickly as possible.
Grey looking solder joints. I dont know if rohs approved solder is supposed to look like this but it’s not shiny, they look almost like cold solder joints.
Rubycon electrolytic caps.. part of the standard kit i suppose..
More traces of handling.. dirt..
All in all, the only other example i can think of of a pcb that bears the same, corroding handling marks, grey solder joints and cowboy assembling like this, is my chinese made, battered components sporting, bog standard, cheap as hell, barely working, terrible looking digital oscilloscope. They even smell bad, the same way.
My personal feeling: my Mode Machines x0xb0x was really either made in China or made in Germany by hurried chinese workers in a very dark and unpleasant cabin.
BUT: it sports original 536 transistors, that give it a very impressive TB303 character!
Sometime later, i got my hands on a NY made, x0xb0x from x0xs0urce: a whole different story.
Rounder sound, red leds instead of purple ones, and check these gutshots..careful assembling and soldering, etc. a work of love-mind you it costed twice the price of the mode machines..
Welcoming greenie caps as per the original tb303..
But ouch! This has 945 transistors (Roland mass production’s transistor of choice in those days)- it doesnt sound as wild as the Mode Machines!!
I have been building Selmer Buzz Tones for a few people recently.
Featuring rare 2N2613 transistors on choc brown paxoline board, on eyelets just like the original.
One small mod is the cap tuck away under the board, to give it some juice.
Cheapo build for a friend:
Another build.. featuring the Palenque astronaut..
Expensive nos carbon comp build for a friend
They all sound 👍🏿.
When i was a Londoner, id often catch the 24 bus on sunday mornings from Hampsted Heath to its final destination, Pimlico. There was a pub there, next to the bus station where we would go have brunch and shoot pool. In the afternoon we would visit the Tate, usually.
And we would enjoy the haunting, post modern view of the abandoned Battersea Power Station from Pimlico.
Gilmour used a rams head Big Muff on Animals apparently.
Built for a friend on a pcb by OP ELECTRONICS, IT. Transistors BC239C from ebay seller, Whazzgroover. Sprague caps, etc
First time i mess with a hot glue gun, and i guess you can tell! 🐣
This must be a very early one, word has it that Jimi Hendrix tried one of these boxes for its big muff-like forced sustain. It is one of the earliest electro harmonix effects.
It is powered by TWO 9v batteries and so much for it “being distortion free”, it is very hissy and noisy, and colours the tone. The compression is VERY apparent and squashed.
Transistors: FS36999, the same as early 70’s Big Muffs.
The tube version Black Finger is a much different, more reliable item.
Masuto's 