Status of Tagboard Effects

[Orson]

|V|ark,

I am apparently less than observant. After registering, logging in and posting, it was some time before I noticed that this site has slowed down dramatically. I'm not going to ask your reasons, I'll only say I hope all is well with you. If not, I hope it is again soon.

I didn't notice that the posting of new layouts has slowed the last few years. Beginning in 2019 it took a dip, but seemed to resume in 2023. Finally, in 2024, it is down to four projects so far, but we're only three months into the year.

I hope this isn't impertinent or what have you, but should those of us who want to build these projects begin downloading the layout images and saving them? Will this site remain active and present on the internet, or is this just temporary? I'd help support this site in anyway I can, rather than lose such an *amazing* resource, such as you and other have created here.

Please let me know, and thank you for your time here in the last few days.

Orson

[IvIark]

Hi Orson,

The blog isn’t busy now like it was for a few reasons. Firstly we ran out of circuits to do by the high volume we churned out in the first few years. I always had a backlog of 10 or 20 effects I wanted to do layouts for, but because the majority of historic effects which are suitable for vero layouts have dried up, we just don’t have as many to go at. This is why you won’t see anything for a while and then a new pedal will appear, basically because one of us noticed a trace had been done one FSB or similar.

When the majority of the early layouts were done I had a lot more free time during the day but a new job and different commitments changed that which is why I started slowing down from maybe 2015 onwards. The other admin contributors were posting more regularly than me then, but we’d been doing it over a decade and people just move on sometimes and want to do other things.

Now I’m much more likely to want to build a guitar than an effect pedal because my hobby focus shifted slightly. But I will always be into guitars amps and effects and so will contribute here when I have something I think people will want me to share.

But the site won’t be going anywhere ever. Even if the forum loses traffic completely, I will always keep the blog and layouts up. If Blogspot / Google ever take it down, I’ll post everything in a new blog somewhere else.  So don’t worry about that. The archive will always be available and added to occasionally when either I or one of the other contributors see something we think people will want to build, or when requests come up in the forum.

Cheers

[Orson]

|V|ark,

Sorry for the delayed response, it's been a WEEK. Thanks for the reply. Well, it's a mild bummer that it has slowed down, as support is probably hard to come by, and wouldn't expect you to do it by yourself. I'm getting back into it after a long hiatus, but only as an adjunct to having seriously studying electronics. I'm actually more interested in amp building and amp repair and modification, but pedals are a great way to work on certain things. Such as trying to figure out how to increase the high end on the Sweet Honey. I really shouldn't have asked about that at all to begin with. I have a rough idea what needs to happen, but was experiencing some uncertainty.

Thanks for everything you and all the others have done. I'm seriously relieved you won't let the site fall fallow, and your commitment to keeping it alive no mater what. It's a breathtaking resource. You, Mirisol and the others should be very proud of what you've done. Congrats on what sounds like an upturn in fortunes and opportunities. I hope things continue to go so swimmingly!

Best regards,

Orson

[Neil mcNasty]

One could actually say that:
This site has been such a driving force and way ahead of the curve for such a long time, that it ran out of (original) schematics, and has now has transitioned to the amazing library we see today. The coverage of effects is simply amazing!
New sites take care of the continuous and endless list of Tube Screamers and Big Muffs, while this site forms their foundation with all the original circuits, verified and tested!
It is now the Library! And a damn good one as well...

[Orson]

That's certainly a valid and useful role to fill, however...

Those who come along after won't enjoy the luxury of the support many of us enjoyed during the heyday of TBE. I'm so grateful for help and support I had when I was first learning how to do this stuff. Sure, one can answer all their own questions through diligent searching through available resources, as well as forums such as FSB. But it was such a dogsend (dog supercedes god, news at 11:00) to be able to ask what sort of boneheaded mistake I'd made, and get help getting a project working. I'm so detail oriented and methodical, I only had two, maybe three projects that didn't fire up on the first try. There were many whose experience was vastly different.

Nothing lasts forever, all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, as one wise guy has said, so fare the well TBE Mk I. The International TBE Library and Archive is now well and truly open.

[rocket88]

Been awhile since I popped on. I figured I would add that I have a few layouts that I made awhile ago and forgot to post. In the last few years since my last layout on the main page I’ve changed careers (went back to school to be a Dr), had 2 kinds (5 and 2 now), did a home renovation, and been dealing with some personal stuff. I’ve barely had the time to build let alone sit down at my computer to do layouts. Literally built 3 pedals and 1 tube amp in the last 3 years, cause I really want to be present with my family.

I will say that I am working on getting things more in order to make time to post some layouts. Btw, a few of them are based on traces that I started doing on pedals I’ve bought.

Be patient, I promise that from my end you will start to see more layouts and active from me in the coming year.

Cheers,
Zach

[IvIark]

Great to see you back on mate.  I’ve kept up to date with you on Facebook but it sounds like you’ve gone through similar things to me where life takes over and you don’t have the time for 5 layouts a day anymore  

But it’s good that we’ve all stayed around here and will basically do things when we have the time and inspiration. I’m much more into building guitars now than effects but I still have all my components and man cave, and I actually want to make a 3 effect build for my pedalboard which I’ll be doing soon.

Got to keep my hand in!

[Silver Blues]

Great to hear from you Zach, been a while. Same thing happened to me with life getting away from me, nice to know we're all still in this together  I've since learned how to use KiCAD and am doing a lot more (gasp) PCB layouts, but I haven't built a pedal (or anything else really) in many months...