VTL5C3 effects?

[MAO]

I have 8 new old stock single VTL5C3s, which have been sitting in my parts box for years.

Don't remember what I had in mind when I bought them, possibly a substitute for some Craig Anderton CLM6000 designs, but I have had them for 15+ years now and would like to put them to use.

I do have the Madbean Aquaboy Deluxe on my radar.

Is there any other effect worthy of these?

[cylens]

I'd suggest a Meatball (vero on sabrotone, or PCB -recommended- @ musicpcb.com, or a Tremshifter: excellent layout by fredrik in the "contributions" section here)

Though, i would say that i have a bunch of unused VTL5C3s because I always end up rolling my own Vactrols...

[Muadzin]

Is musicpcb even still in business? My internet security tools always go crazy when I visit their site and I've not heard of anyone who has recently bought anything from them.

Love the Meatball though. Got a board from alanp on the Madbean forum and even though it gave me headaches troubleshooting it (mostly my fault) its an awesome pedal. Way, way, WAY too many features, but then again that's Lovetone pedals in a nutshell.

I wish I had a stash of that many VTL5C3's though. They're hideously expensive and yet so many pedals seem to want them.

[cylens]

I don't know about musicpcb...

but I think exactly the same thing about the meatball! I'm working on an envelope filter, which should be an "expanded mutron 3" and a "stripped down meatball" :D The FX loop and blend options are awesome... and i'm not so sure about the attack/decay controls...

[Frank_NH]

Let me suggest the 1776 Effects Multiplex Jr. Tape Style Delay:

http://1776effects.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Multiplex-Jr-BOM.pdf

I built one recently and works quite well.  It uses a PT2399 for the delay part of the circuit.  I got my VTL5C3 from Smallbear.

[Luke51411]

Try Musicpcb again, they recently went to a new server to correct the security protocol issues I believe. It's worked for me since.

[Heath]

cylens wrote

Tremshifter: excellent layout by fredrik in the "contributions" section here)

I highly recommend the Tremshifter.  Here's another reason.. I built it using VTL5C3s and it worked beautifully.  I then rolled my own (I usually reserve the expensive vactrols to verify the build so that after I replace them, if something doesn't work, I know it's probably my hand-rolled vacs).

At first mine sounded fine (built as close to the VTL5C3 as I could find, and I shopped around a LOT for specific dark/light specs to match), but then I realized the depth control on the Tremolo portion wasn't working right.  It went from no depth straight to normal middle-ground-ish trem to weird choppy to nothing as I turned the knob up.  If I wanted a very limited tremolo depth it actually would have worked fine, but I didn't go through the trouble of building it to have it work half-assed.  Without trimmers to adjust for the slightly different led/ldr combo (apart from unsoldering and resoldering resistors, etc) I elected to go back to the VTL5C3s and then everything was perfect.  The pedal is absolutely good enough to justify the expense of the vactrols.

A LOT of circuits are either not so sensitive to the exact light/dark range, etc. or have trimmers to adjust it, so it's not a big deal.  Some, like the Tremshifter, seem to be more specific.

[negativefx]

Doesn't the Diamond Comp use these?

I had the same problem... bought them and forgot what they were for.

Edit: Yes, the Diamante Compressor uses them.

[Travis]

MusicPCB is still open as far as I know. If you have issues with the website you can contact Taylor on fsb. He's a nice guy to deal with

The Meatball is fantastic btw. The effects loop is really what makes it great. The attack and decay are a little confusing but still useful for tuning the circuit to different pickups/instruments

Anyways, I came into this thread to suggest the Demeter Tremulator. I love that pedal! I also think the Diamond Comp would be a great build but I haven't tried that one yet