jeffwhitfield
Well-known member
So, this little project started due to an open spot on the bass guitar side of my pedalboard. I have room for a mini pedal so I figure I could stick something there that could prove useful over the long run. Initially, I thought I would put an octave pedal there but couldn't find anything that I was happy with. Tried an MXR Classic Bass Octave...but wasn't happy with the way the Oct 2 tracked. Kinda was useless. So off I went in search of a good mini pedal for bass!
After a bit of searching, I arrived at the Madbeans Flunkee, which is a clone of the DOD FX-25. I have a Source Audio C4, which does have some killer envelope filter capabilities...but it isn't always on my board. So I figure a simple envelope filter would do nicely in that open spot. Like Madbeans says in the documentation, "If it's good for Flea..."
The build went really smooth given that one of my previous builds was a Madbeans mini fuzz pedal. I knew going in that things would be super cramped so I did my best to make sure all components laid as flat as possible. I also knew that the PCB would likely be making contact with the enclosure and other stuff so I wrapped it in non-conductive tape after finishing it.
This past weekend, I went to a guitar show here in Dallas and picked up an actual FX-25 on the cheap so I could A/B my build against it. Kinda fun actually trying out the original pedal. My build sounds pretty much identical to the FX-25. Only thing different is the Sense knob works a little differently. Seems it's flipped on the FX-25 (turning it up increases sensitivity as opposed to decreasing with mine). I'm actually ok with that since I would prefer that turning down Sense results in me required to play harder to trigger the envelope. I also noticed that the Sense on my pedal has a wider range. With the sensitivity all the way up, the FX-25 doesn't want to trigger, whereas it triggers on mine with a heavy handed note. So, yeah, mine sounds the same...but strangely works a bit better. Go figure!
Overall it sounds really good and is a nice addition to the pedalboard.
After a bit of searching, I arrived at the Madbeans Flunkee, which is a clone of the DOD FX-25. I have a Source Audio C4, which does have some killer envelope filter capabilities...but it isn't always on my board. So I figure a simple envelope filter would do nicely in that open spot. Like Madbeans says in the documentation, "If it's good for Flea..."
The build went really smooth given that one of my previous builds was a Madbeans mini fuzz pedal. I knew going in that things would be super cramped so I did my best to make sure all components laid as flat as possible. I also knew that the PCB would likely be making contact with the enclosure and other stuff so I wrapped it in non-conductive tape after finishing it.
This past weekend, I went to a guitar show here in Dallas and picked up an actual FX-25 on the cheap so I could A/B my build against it. Kinda fun actually trying out the original pedal. My build sounds pretty much identical to the FX-25. Only thing different is the Sense knob works a little differently. Seems it's flipped on the FX-25 (turning it up increases sensitivity as opposed to decreasing with mine). I'm actually ok with that since I would prefer that turning down Sense results in me required to play harder to trigger the envelope. I also noticed that the Sense on my pedal has a wider range. With the sensitivity all the way up, the FX-25 doesn't want to trigger, whereas it triggers on mine with a heavy handed note. So, yeah, mine sounds the same...but strangely works a bit better. Go figure!
Overall it sounds really good and is a nice addition to the pedalboard.
