MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
I wasn't originally planning to build this one as I've been shying away from 1590BB overdrives. Somehow they just never make it into the rotation very often because of the footprint. Which is strange since I have no pedalboard heh, must be some kind of psychological thing of seeing that big ol box sitting there taking up the space of two of "something else".
But, being as easily influenced by my many enabler friends on this forum, @harmaes got me thinking about it, which turned into an order in "short order"
I had already built the "Heavy Water" (Arche Boost) as 2-in-1 dual combo with one side "dirty" and one side clean, so I knew what that was all about. It's a great sounding boost pedal with a very well voiced "lows" control that does a fantastic job fattening up single coils without adding midrange. Again, because it was in a 1590BB it doesn't make it into the rotation of my boost pedals very often because I just never think to use it. I have a shelf of all my 1590BB builds where the pedals go to live and get forgotten about...
The Arche Boost originated in the Dane pedal and I remember all the hoopla around this pedal when it was first released.
The drive side is great sounding drive, kind of a cross between a Timmy and a Zen to my ears. There's quite a bit of gain on tap if you use the boost side to push it.
To me it sounds the best in a low gain application. Especially on single coils. Seems like this pedal was designed for Pete Honore (Danish Pete) with his Tele in mind. It sounds great on a Strat or Tele with the gain around 9 o'clock.
Having said that, it's no slouch on a Les Paul either, although it can get pretty wooly at higher gain settings. But in lower gain setting, there's a really nice crunch it can give a Les Paul. The tone control has a pretty broad sweep to help mitigate the wooliness on hum buckers and there's a pretty nice range of eq on tap to set it for different guitars. But to my ears, this drive side shines on single coils, P90's, Firebird pickups.
The Boost side on the clean setting is really where this pedal stands apart and steals the show in my opinion. There's a lot of volume on tap as a clean boost.
In fact I can't get unity even with the level at full CCW. This was true of my Arche build as well. I have compensate at the amp if I want a clean tone. The "Low" control is really cool. I don't think I've ever heard another pedal with a low end control like it has. It's really superbly voiced in that it can add "bloom" without "boom" to single coils. You can really fatten up a strat and make it stand out yet still sound like a strat. It doesn't add a lot of mid or low mids when you turn up the "Low" knob so it doesn't make your single coils sound like a humbucker and somehow you can crank the "lows" knob on full and not get "boomy".
Conversely, the Ge "dirty" boost setting is underwhelming for me. On my Dual Arche build it sounded best when I was boosting the Ge side with the Clean side but on its own it really didn't do much for me. On the Fordable, it's on a toggle switch and the difference is pretty subtle. I've been chatting with @harmaes on his build and trying to find a set of Ge diodes that would work the best. I literally spent a couple hours down the diode rabbit hole and tried probably 6 or 7 different sets with different Vf and leakage numbers. Also, the Ge's are set up in a pretty strange asymmetrical arrangement that I've never seen before. (I've attached the schematic below). I finally wound up using a pair of ITT Red Band Cathode Ge's from SmallBear (My current favorite 1N34A sub) but I flipped one of them so that they are symmetrical. I still don't love it but it's what sounded best to me. The pair of diodes I used measured: .353 .51ua/.366 .66ua on my CCT tester. I will probably never use the "dirty boost" setting. Well, never say never heh, there may be an application at some point. I don't believe the "dirty boost" or "Grit" setting was on the original "Dane" pedal but was introduced in the "Heavy Water" was released, so props to @Robert for including that part of the circuit in the Fordable. Just because it doesn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for someone else!
Probably my last build report for at least week or so as I'm off to the "other side of the pond" for a business trip tomorrow. One of these days I'm going to have to get little "travel kit" so I can build in my hotel room hahahah. (Actually, I'll be in Malaga, Spain, from what I understand it's a beautiful place and I plan to do some exploring with my free time.)
I used my last Tayda Hammered Copper enclosure. I fell in love with this color early on and built a bunch of pedals with it. To the point that I kinda got tired of seeing it heh. It's probably going to be a long time before I do another Hammered Copper build. Having said that, I still think it looks pretty sharp especially with cream knobs. (You may have noticed from my build reports that I favor cream knobs on just about any color enclosure) I used the oxblood-ish knobs for the boost circuit for some contrast.
Even though it's in a BB form factor, it's a relatively low component count build and went quite quickly. After messing around so much with the Ge diodes, I soldered the final set into the sockets to avoid going any deeper into the rabbit hole. I don't think there's a magic set of diodes that will change the basic nature of the "Grit" boost setting.
Schematic for the Fordable:
But, being as easily influenced by my many enabler friends on this forum, @harmaes got me thinking about it, which turned into an order in "short order"
I had already built the "Heavy Water" (Arche Boost) as 2-in-1 dual combo with one side "dirty" and one side clean, so I knew what that was all about. It's a great sounding boost pedal with a very well voiced "lows" control that does a fantastic job fattening up single coils without adding midrange. Again, because it was in a 1590BB it doesn't make it into the rotation of my boost pedals very often because I just never think to use it. I have a shelf of all my 1590BB builds where the pedals go to live and get forgotten about...
The Arche Boost originated in the Dane pedal and I remember all the hoopla around this pedal when it was first released.
The drive side is great sounding drive, kind of a cross between a Timmy and a Zen to my ears. There's quite a bit of gain on tap if you use the boost side to push it.
To me it sounds the best in a low gain application. Especially on single coils. Seems like this pedal was designed for Pete Honore (Danish Pete) with his Tele in mind. It sounds great on a Strat or Tele with the gain around 9 o'clock.
Having said that, it's no slouch on a Les Paul either, although it can get pretty wooly at higher gain settings. But in lower gain setting, there's a really nice crunch it can give a Les Paul. The tone control has a pretty broad sweep to help mitigate the wooliness on hum buckers and there's a pretty nice range of eq on tap to set it for different guitars. But to my ears, this drive side shines on single coils, P90's, Firebird pickups.
The Boost side on the clean setting is really where this pedal stands apart and steals the show in my opinion. There's a lot of volume on tap as a clean boost.
In fact I can't get unity even with the level at full CCW. This was true of my Arche build as well. I have compensate at the amp if I want a clean tone. The "Low" control is really cool. I don't think I've ever heard another pedal with a low end control like it has. It's really superbly voiced in that it can add "bloom" without "boom" to single coils. You can really fatten up a strat and make it stand out yet still sound like a strat. It doesn't add a lot of mid or low mids when you turn up the "Low" knob so it doesn't make your single coils sound like a humbucker and somehow you can crank the "lows" knob on full and not get "boomy".
Conversely, the Ge "dirty" boost setting is underwhelming for me. On my Dual Arche build it sounded best when I was boosting the Ge side with the Clean side but on its own it really didn't do much for me. On the Fordable, it's on a toggle switch and the difference is pretty subtle. I've been chatting with @harmaes on his build and trying to find a set of Ge diodes that would work the best. I literally spent a couple hours down the diode rabbit hole and tried probably 6 or 7 different sets with different Vf and leakage numbers. Also, the Ge's are set up in a pretty strange asymmetrical arrangement that I've never seen before. (I've attached the schematic below). I finally wound up using a pair of ITT Red Band Cathode Ge's from SmallBear (My current favorite 1N34A sub) but I flipped one of them so that they are symmetrical. I still don't love it but it's what sounded best to me. The pair of diodes I used measured: .353 .51ua/.366 .66ua on my CCT tester. I will probably never use the "dirty boost" setting. Well, never say never heh, there may be an application at some point. I don't believe the "dirty boost" or "Grit" setting was on the original "Dane" pedal but was introduced in the "Heavy Water" was released, so props to @Robert for including that part of the circuit in the Fordable. Just because it doesn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for someone else!
Probably my last build report for at least week or so as I'm off to the "other side of the pond" for a business trip tomorrow. One of these days I'm going to have to get little "travel kit" so I can build in my hotel room hahahah. (Actually, I'll be in Malaga, Spain, from what I understand it's a beautiful place and I plan to do some exploring with my free time.)
I used my last Tayda Hammered Copper enclosure. I fell in love with this color early on and built a bunch of pedals with it. To the point that I kinda got tired of seeing it heh. It's probably going to be a long time before I do another Hammered Copper build. Having said that, I still think it looks pretty sharp especially with cream knobs. (You may have noticed from my build reports that I favor cream knobs on just about any color enclosure
) I used the oxblood-ish knobs for the boost circuit for some contrast.
Even though it's in a BB form factor, it's a relatively low component count build and went quite quickly. After messing around so much with the Ge diodes, I soldered the final set into the sockets to avoid going any deeper into the rabbit hole. I don't think there's a magic set of diodes that will change the basic nature of the "Grit" boost setting.
Schematic for the Fordable:
