"Klon Sung Blue" Dual Drive

greypilgrim76

greypilgrim76

Active member
So some of you knew I was chipping away at this one because I had to keep asking wiring questions, but here's my latest effort. I call it "Klon Sung Blue" because I'm a dork and also a Neil Diamond fan. Anyway, it's the Notakliche on the left side and a Blues Driver on the right side, with the order switch in the middle. I gotta say, having planned this out blind without having ever actually put these two separate pedals together (I know, that was silly), the tonal variety here is pretty amazing, and I'm getting WAY different sounds with the NK into the BD than vice versa. NK into BD works best as a sort of boost (though doubling up the OD kicks the BD into, well, overdrive), but BD into NK with the gain levels up makes something much more akin to a fuzz or even something almost Metal Zone-ish (not quite, but in that vein). Chalk one up to the experimental approach working out!

My only "regret" is that I didn't take the more complicated wire dressing into account, so while everything is cut to the correct length, I could've run some wires longer to get them out of the way and keep from crossing over other wires, but the gut shot can be our little secret. :)

One small question: The NK sounds perfect--exactly like the one I built separately. The BD also sounds great, and a lot like my Boss pedal. If I let a note or chord sustain/ring out, though, it gets a bit wooly/staticky as it hangs on. Is this typical for a Cobalt Drive build, or is there something I could check or tighten up? I sort of prodded at the wiring, but didn't get any noises that suggested a culprit. It may be a feature and not a bug, but I figured I'd see if anyone had any thoughts. It sounds great regardless!

Anyway, here are the visuals:

IMG_8817.jpeg IMG_8818.jpeg
 
Sorry for my overly-terse previous reply - I forgot to compliment your great-looking build! Those are two classic circuits, I'm surprised there isn't already a commercial version with them paired like this.

As for that "splatty" decay on the BD-2... it's been a while since I've played through that circuit. I previously had an actual BD-2W, and built a Madbean Blue Steel. Going from memory, I'm almost certain the splatty decay was pretty obvious in the BD-2W's "standard" mode. It might have been less prominent in "custom" mode - but I honestly don't remember. I can't remember if the Blue Steel had that or not. But I remember the BD-2W standard mode so well, because I noticed it right away when I first got it.

The Colorsound Power Boost/Overdriver is another circuit that does this (and even more noticeable in my experience).
 
MattG said:
Sorry for my overly-terse previous reply - I forgot to compliment your great-looking build! Those are two classic circuits, I'm surprised there isn't already a commercial version with them paired like this.

As for that "splatty" decay on the BD-2... it's been a while since I've played through that circuit. I previously had an actual BD-2W, and built a Madbean Blue Steel. Going from memory, I'm almost certain the splatty decay was pretty obvious in the BD-2W's "standard" mode. It might have been less prominent in "custom" mode - but I honestly don't remember. I can't remember if the Blue Steel had that or not. But I remember the BD-2W standard mode so well, because I noticed it right away when I first got it.

The Colorsound Power Boost/Overdriver is another circuit that does this (and even more noticeable in my experience).
Click to expand...
No worries--I did ask! :) And yeah, I basically built this for two reasons. First, because I just love both of these pedals and have been playing around a lot with stacking overdrives. Second, because I looked around and couldn't find anyone actually doing it already. I figured if I was going to take a first stab at homebrewing something, it might as well be something I couldn't buy!
 
greypilgrim76 said:
is there something I could check or tighten up? I sort of prodded at the wiring, but didn't get any noises that suggested a culprit. It may be a feature and not a bug, but I figured I'd see if anyone had any thoughts. It sounds great regardless!
Click to expand...

If you're interested in thoughts on that one, Chuck did a whole series on the BD-2 and selecting/ biasing the jfets.

Search "Cobalt" or "BD-2", and put Chuck Bones in the By Member field.

I remember having to swap a resistor or two to get the voltages right with the J201s I had on hand at the time.
 
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