mkstewartesq
Well-known member
This was a quick and easy build, although it used some ICs that I’d not run across before (LF347 and LF353), so at least now I will have some extra in my stash if I ever run across another build that uses them.
The sound: because I’ve only ever really played through Fender amps (and some Vox AC30 software sims for my Brian May fix), I’m not really that well acquainted with the sound of “authentic British tones” to vouch for the claim that this pedal emulates them at all settings. However, I can say that, if you crank up the gain and the damping, you definitely get something close to an EVH sound, even with single coil pickups through a Fender Blues Jr. When the weekend comes, I’ll pull out my EVH Wolfgang USA and see how it sounds with a guitar actually built for those tones – but I expect it to sound even better.
One oddity – I’m getting a faint gainy/buzzy/clipping sound only at certain very specific frequencies (think the first three or four frets on the D string and the G string) even with the gain turned all the way down and the tone otherwise “clean”. It doesn’t affect any other notes, just those in that frequency range. Before dinging the pedal for that, I need to rule out that it isn’t caused by the amp or the guitar, although I never noticed it before.
One thing I can say is that this thing gets loud – you can go well above unity with the level control. Put something like the Clandestine preamp after it and that causes an even bigger jump in the volume, even when you have the Clandestine set to unity or lower. I wasn’t expecting that effect.
All in all, a worthy addition to my collection of drives on my board.
Enclosure is a Tayda yellow with a design I created on a film-free decal. Yes, the Van Halen theme is a bit on the nose for this particular pedal but I figured that, if I built the pedal specifically to get the EVH sound, I might as well lean into it hard.
Thanks,
Mike
The sound: because I’ve only ever really played through Fender amps (and some Vox AC30 software sims for my Brian May fix), I’m not really that well acquainted with the sound of “authentic British tones” to vouch for the claim that this pedal emulates them at all settings. However, I can say that, if you crank up the gain and the damping, you definitely get something close to an EVH sound, even with single coil pickups through a Fender Blues Jr. When the weekend comes, I’ll pull out my EVH Wolfgang USA and see how it sounds with a guitar actually built for those tones – but I expect it to sound even better.
One oddity – I’m getting a faint gainy/buzzy/clipping sound only at certain very specific frequencies (think the first three or four frets on the D string and the G string) even with the gain turned all the way down and the tone otherwise “clean”. It doesn’t affect any other notes, just those in that frequency range. Before dinging the pedal for that, I need to rule out that it isn’t caused by the amp or the guitar, although I never noticed it before.
One thing I can say is that this thing gets loud – you can go well above unity with the level control. Put something like the Clandestine preamp after it and that causes an even bigger jump in the volume, even when you have the Clandestine set to unity or lower. I wasn’t expecting that effect.
All in all, a worthy addition to my collection of drives on my board.
Enclosure is a Tayda yellow with a design I created on a film-free decal. Yes, the Van Halen theme is a bit on the nose for this particular pedal but I figured that, if I built the pedal specifically to get the EVH sound, I might as well lean into it hard.
Thanks,
Mike
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