MelWaldorf
Joined: Mar 03, 2006
Posts: 646
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Posted on Jun 03 2019 02:30 PM
Surfy Bears are not only great outboard, but onboard an amp, too! I installed a Surfy Bear and a Surfy Trem inside an amp a friend made based on a Hammond AO-44. The AO-44 is a 10 Watt tube amp using ECL86 tubes which are essentially an EL84 + half a 12AX7 in one bottle.
Adding the effects involved moving to a bigger chassis as seen in the photo - the AO-44 fills the center and right part of the chassis, and the two Surfy kits (along with a 12V power supply) are on the right. The controls are (L-R) two inputs, one going through the Surfy effects and the other dry, dwell, mix, and tone for the reverb, volume, treble, bass, and trem speed and intensity on the end. On the bottom of the chassis, it's the reverb send/return cables, the Surfy Trem black/brown switch, a Switchcraft 6-din jack for a footswitch, a negative feedback (NFB) control (since removed, more Voxy-y this way), speaker jack, courtesy power plug, and fuse (not yet installed in the photo)
Here's the control panel:
Also, since I took the photo, I've swapped the WGS speakers for Celestion Golds, which really brings out the Vox-y character of the amp.
And here's the gratuitous glamour shot:
How's it sound? I made a demo video, so you get the idea a bit.
Last edited: Jun 03, 2019 14:31:09
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wfoguy
Joined: Dec 11, 2011
Posts: 2090
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Posted on Jun 03 2019 08:42 PM
Pretty cool, Mel. 
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BorderRadio
Joined: Jun 03, 2019
Posts: 10
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Posted on Jun 03 2019 09:06 PM
Hey hey, first time poster here. I wanted to thank folks (and Bjorn) for the tips and info to get my SB build completed. It took over a year, and a couple of PCBs (busted the first one). Most of the time it was just an idea and parts lying around. It’s a pedal board combination—the Surfy Bird  Mystery Brain + Surfy Bear at the core, built on a Black Bird mini board.
-Clickless true bypass
-Adjustable, switchable boost
-Color switch mod
-Strymon Ojai power supply (voltage step down/LC Filter)
Last edited: Jun 03, 2019 21:25:51
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DerJuicen
Joined: Aug 05, 2017
Posts: 17
Long Beach, Ca
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Posted on Jun 03 2019 10:50 PM
BorderRadio wrote:
Hey hey, first time poster here. I wanted to thank folks (and Bjorn) for the tips and info to get my SB build completed. It took over a year, and a couple of PCBs (busted the first one). Most of the time it was just an idea and parts lying around. It’s a pedal board combination—the Surfy Bird Mystery Brain + Surfy Bear at the core, built on a Black Bird mini board.
-Clickless true bypass
-Adjustable, switchable boost
-Color switch mod
-Strymon Ojai power supply (voltage step down/LC Filter)
This has got to be the sweetest build on here! Well done sir!
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MelWaldorf
Joined: Mar 03, 2006
Posts: 646
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Posted on Jun 04 2019 12:00 AM
Dang, BorderRadio, that's SHARP!
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edwardsand
Joined: Jun 29, 2018
Posts: 660
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Posted on Jun 04 2019 07:51 AM
I love Mel's amp there, and the demo sounds great. I'm very intrigued by the offkiltertron pickups.
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BorderRadio
Joined: Jun 03, 2019
Posts: 10
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Posted on Jun 04 2019 10:01 AM
DerJuicen wrote:
BorderRadio wrote:
Hey hey, first time poster here. I wanted to thank folks (and Bjorn) for the tips and info to get my SB build completed. It took over a year, and a couple of PCBs (busted the first one). Most of the time it was just an idea and parts lying around. It’s a pedal board combination—the Surfy Bird Mystery Brain + Surfy Bear at the core, built on a Black Bird mini board.
-Clickless true bypass
-Adjustable, switchable boost
-Color switch mod
-Strymon Ojai power supply (voltage step down/LC Filter)
This has got to be the sweetest build on here! Well done sir!
Thank you but there are nicer builds here for sure, this is just OCD at the extreme
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Ariel
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 1555
Israel
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Posted on Jun 04 2019 11:44 AM
BorderRadio wrote:
Thank you but there are nicer builds here for sure, this is just OCD at the extreme
Surely one of the nicest then! Perfect size board, minimalistic and beautiful. Great clean wiring work, inside and out.
But, I'm sorry, in order to take it to the ultimate extreme, (while Diamond makes great pedals) you owe yourself a Surfy-Trem! No tap, but you'll get authentic Brownface. build it in a narrow box with top jacks and save some space for a tuner or something.
Mel, incredible!
Last edited: Jun 04, 2019 12:04:57
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AndieDini
Joined: Jun 05, 2019
Posts: 1
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Posted on Jun 05 2019 12:23 PM
Hi..you have a Fender reverb and a Fender tremolo, are there any plans to eventually offer an amp kit? Hopefully following the same philosophy as for the Surfy Bear, namely a copy of a circuit topology, replacing tubes by FET's, rather than the Tech21 character pedals which emulate the sound/tone instead of the original circuit.
prototype pcb
Last edited: Jul 16, 2019 15:19:29
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Ariel
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 1555
Israel
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Posted on Jun 05 2019 11:58 PM
AndieDini wrote:
Hi..you have a Fender reverb and a Fender tremolo, are there any plans to eventually offer an amp kit? Hopefully following the same philosophy as for the Surfy Bear, namely a copy of a circuit topology, replacing tubes by FET's, rather than the Tech21 character pedals which emulate the sound/tone instead of the original circuit.
Hi, actually, Björn, the creator of the projects you're referring to has already made something along the lines of your suggestion, check it out on his site HERE. There has been some discussion on it on this very thread, but you'll have to find it...
Obviously, this is a much more complicated endeavor, and since fine transistor based amps (that get pretty close to the Fender sound) already exist in the market, it will be hard to make it cost effective, but I sure wish (and I bet many will) to see a thing like this going forward, too.
Last edited: Jun 06, 2019 00:05:08
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bjoish
Joined: Jul 06, 2010
Posts: 592
Stockholm
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Posted on Jun 06 2019 03:56 AM
BorderRadio wrote:
Hey hey, first time poster here. I wanted to thank folks (and Bjorn) for the tips and info to get my SB build completed. It took over a year, and a couple of PCBs (busted the first one). Most of the time it was just an idea and parts lying around. It’s a pedal board combination—the Surfy Bird Mystery Brain + Surfy Bear at the core, built on a Black Bird mini board.
Wow, BoarderRadio that’s a very ambitious build!
So cool in all the details B-)
I especially like the design and the built-in color switch!
Last edited: Jun 06, 2019 04:00:02
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bjoish
Joined: Jul 06, 2010
Posts: 592
Stockholm
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Posted on Jun 06 2019 04:18 AM
AndieDini wrote:
Hi..you have a Fender reverb and a Fender tremolo, are there any plans to eventually offer an amp kit? Hopefully following the same philosophy as for the Surfy Bear, namely a copy of a circuit topology, replacing tubes by FET's, rather than the Tech21 character pedals which emulate the sound/tone instead of the original circuit.
Hi AndieDini
This of course a exciting idea and I have been thinking about this a lot.
For clean sounds this is absolutely feasible but it’s difficult to make it sound as good as an overloaded tube amp. Especially the output transformer have an impact to the sound that makes it special.
You can get an idea about how this type of amp would sound like by using a SurfyBear board. Just connect the RevOUT signal to an 8 ohm speaker.
With a 12” speaker it sounds quite good
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BorderRadio
Joined: Jun 03, 2019
Posts: 10
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Posted on Jun 07 2019 11:11 AM
bjoish wrote:
BorderRadio wrote:
Hey hey, first time poster here. I wanted to thank folks (and Bjorn) for the tips and info to get my SB build completed. It took over a year, and a couple of PCBs (busted the first one). Most of the time it was just an idea and parts lying around. It’s a pedal board combination—the Surfy Bird Mystery Brain + Surfy Bear at the core, built on a Black Bird mini board.
Wow, BoarderRadio that’s a very ambitious build!
So cool in all the details B-)
I especially like the design and the built-in color switch!
Thank you!
I'm still running these pedals through their paces, and while the boost is great, it's creating a little distortion, more like light clipping when engaged. Comparing the tone between boost with the mixer rolled off, it's apparent. The boost gain is not turned up very high, just enough to match levels when bypassed. Would adjusting the SB gain trim pot help with this?
Last edited: Jun 07, 2019 11:12:46
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bjoish
Joined: Jul 06, 2010
Posts: 592
Stockholm
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Posted on Jun 07 2019 11:28 AM
BorderRadio wrote:
Thank you!
I'm still running these pedals through their paces, and while the boost is great, it's creating a little distortion, more like light clipping when engaged. Comparing the tone between boost with the mixer rolled off, it's apparent. The boost gain is not turned up very high, just enough to match levels when bypassed. Would adjusting the SB gain trim pot help with this?
Yes, maybe adjusting the SB gain will solve the problem.
I assume you placed your boost circuit before SB. Wouldnt it make sense to place it after SB instead?
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derekirving
Joined: Nov 03, 2011
Posts: 658
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Posted on Jun 07 2019 02:26 PM
bjoish wrote:
BorderRadio wrote:
Thank you!
I'm still running these pedals through their paces, and while the boost is great, it's creating a little distortion, more like light clipping when engaged. Comparing the tone between boost with the mixer rolled off, it's apparent. The boost gain is not turned up very high, just enough to match levels when bypassed. Would adjusting the SB gain trim pot help with this?
Yes, maybe adjusting the SB gain will solve the problem.
I assume you placed your boost circuit before SB. Wouldnt it make sense to place it after SB instead?
I have a surfybear (metal) and I find that if i set the volume past 6 i get mild clipping/distorted signal. Somewhere around 5-6 seems to work for me. I can't exactly find unity but less then 5 on surfybear volume drops signal too low and more then 6 introduces clipping. Try between 5 and 6 if your Surfybear has volume knob (not mix)
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BorderRadio
Joined: Jun 03, 2019
Posts: 10
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Posted on Jun 09 2019 11:26 AM
bjoish wrote:
BorderRadio wrote:
Thank you!
I'm still running these pedals through their paces, and while the boost is great, it's creating a little distortion, more like light clipping when engaged. Comparing the tone between boost with the mixer rolled off, it's apparent. The boost gain is not turned up very high, just enough to match levels when bypassed. Would adjusting the SB gain trim pot help with this?
Yes, maybe adjusting the SB gain will solve the problem.
I assume you placed your boost circuit before SB. Wouldnt it make sense to place it after SB instead?
Ok good, I’ll try to adjust it under all these wires 
I placed the boost after the SB. Funny thing about the circuit is it also acts like a bright switch, which I don’t mind, but the clipping needs to be tamed.
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outlaw
Joined: Sep 23, 2018
Posts: 5
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Posted on Jun 18 2019 07:10 AM
Hi everyone.
This is my first post but I have been following this interesting and informative thread for a good few months.
Anyway I purchased a surfybear reverb kit and a surfy trem kit, put them both in the same box along with a TAD short 3 spring tank, wired it all together and I'm having a couple of teething problems that hopefully someone here can show me what I've done wrong.
Here is a couple of probs.
No dry signal
Cannot have trem without reverb on.
Basically could someone post an easy to understand wiring diagram of how to connect these 2 fantastic effects together properly.
Thanks
Last edited: Jun 18, 2019 07:11:53
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Gilette
Joined: May 04, 2014
Posts: 734
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Posted on Jun 18 2019 08:18 AM
-
Last edited: Mar 03, 2022 06:56:07
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outlaw
Joined: Sep 23, 2018
Posts: 5
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Posted on Jun 18 2019 08:37 AM
Hi Frank and thanks for the reply.
I will check the the mixer wires etc.
The foot switches are the classic type, that is if classics have just 2 soldering lugs.
The trem is after the reverb.
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edwardsand
Joined: Jun 29, 2018
Posts: 660
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Posted on Jun 18 2019 08:38 AM
What do you mean by no dry signal? It could mean that when the mixer is turned all the way down that there is still reverb added to the sound, or it could mean you turn off the reverb that you do not get a dry signal passed through. It looks like you have a switch wired to the reverb, in which case I'd guess you are talking about the latter.
The thing about the SurfyBear is that it is designed to always be on (like the original Fender outboard units). If the SurfyBear is turned off, then no signal will pass on to the trem board and thus there is no output. The Surfy Trem will pass signal through whether it is on or off.
So if you are trying to wire it with a switch on the reverb, you'll need to wire in a signal bypass to get the dry signal to the input of the trem board (in addition to the output from the reverb being wired to the trem input).
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