Varitone/ Test Stomp Device/ or paper weight :)

[myonus666]

I made this as I had a handful of these 10 position mini rotary switches laying around needing a home.  My initial idea was to make a Varitone switch to replace the tone control on my old Gibson.  The next was to make an off board wiring daughterboard for testing different values of capacitors.  

So I got out some caps, resistors, and a piece of blank PCB.  The Dremell came in handy with a very small CNC bit, to remove the channels on the copper for the PCB layout (since the lugs on the switch are proprietary and do not match any specific spacing grid.  Had to use a jewelers glasses to work the board. and a microscope to QA the board after I was done.

10 position switch parts as follows:

1.   .22uF  
2.  .1uF
3.  .047uF
4.  .039uF
5.  .01uF
6.  .0047uF
7.  .0022uF
8.  .001uF
9.  330pf
10.  bypass

each cap has a 1/4 watt resistor to control popping spiking from selection to selection (for example while playing as onboard tone control replacement. )  It was recommended to start at 3M ohm.  However I haven't started testing it yet.  So those values may change or bypassed at later date depending on how it sounds.

The center pole on the 10 way rotary switch will connect to lug 3 of volume control.  The path to ground is based on this:

lug 3 volume >> center lug 10 way rotary switch >> output 1-10 lug  >> resistor (3M) >> capacitor  >>  ground

The cool thing I did with this configuration and layout is I can pull each part and replace it without having to disturb any of the other components.  

Since I was able to make this so small it easily fits into the cavity of my guitar,  and will be making a more modular design for the Test box like a breadboard or something that I can swap resistors and caps at will to aid in the proper sound wanted by a stomp box request.

Anyways, here are some pics,  of this hot mess.  Hopefully its not another fancy paperweight.