Effort in the Right Places

My final vision is slowly but surely coming together — instead of building each effects pedal from scratch as originally anticipated, I’m going to gut used effects pedals for their already-functioning circuit boards that I can then implement into my own interactive circuits.

Making guitar pedals in of itself is its own beast. By essentially skipping the step of getting a pedal to actually function, from an empty PCB to a fully dressed and operating circuit, I will save the energy of troubleshooting issues that aren’t necessarily fundamental to my thesis. Thus, giving myself more time and effort to focus on what’s important — which sensors will compliment each pedal best, the programming of each Arduino to its respective pedal, the overall aesthetics of the finished product and how this conglomeration of electronics and effects will be demonstrated come Senior Showcase.

I’ve already purchased a few used pedals to begin toying with and I’m excited to see where that leads but I still need to figure out what microchip I can use to control two potentiometers with just one Arduino. The MCP41100 is great for controlling one, as exhibited with my ‘hacked’ phaser last semester, but there aren’t enough pins to allow a second potentiometer. I believe the MCP42010 may be the solution though — more research to come.