Recent content by MattG

Anything worth building is worth over-building, IMO!

I use LEDs like this. I've seen them called "ultra-bright" or "high efficiency". Every now and then I do a PPCB build and forget to replace the stock 4k7 with something much bigger and get nearly blinded on the first power-on.

Is there a specific reason for the sawtooth edges of the PCB? Great looking build, as always! I love the loon’s song, it’s like haunting and other-worldly, yet beautiful. Though I’m a life-long midwesterner, I don’t think I ever heard a loon here in Illinois. I became acquainted with them in...

I’d say that’s a reasonable rule of thumb. When going mlcc, you’ll note there are different chemistries. NP0/C0G should be your first choice with mlcc, but you’ll find those are only available in very small capacitance values. X7R is usually the next choice, mostly because that’s what’s readily...

Build #2 turned out a little cleaner overall I think. I initially got away from top-mount 1590B builds, because the I/O jacks are too close together for the patch cables I was using with the pancake-style connectors. I never found any "mini" cables that worked reliably or inspired confidence...

I did this with two relays for a dual drive pedal (Paragon build I did for a friend). I haven’t yet made a dual electrical bypass. I think I drew up the schematic though. It’s conceptually easy/straightforward, but the PCB routing isn’t pretty.

Looks great! Thanks for posting the build report!

I'd say you did justice to a great circuit!

In this build, it's a relay bypass scheme. A Panasonic TQ-2L-5V relay does the actual effect/bypass switching (meaning, mechanical i.e. true bypass). A cd40106 (cmos hex inverter) responds to the footswitch and maintains state. Only two of the six inverters are used. This IC is a current...

Here's my latest spin of the Catalinbread Varioboost circuit. My gateway to this circuit was the PedalPCB Mercurial Boost. I then made my own custom PCB of the circuit, with integrated relay bypass, and all three knobs on the same horizontal line. Now I took it a step further and shrunk it...

Looks like I built around 20 pedals in 2025, maybe a few more depending on how you count. My five favorite circuits, in no particular order: Mercurial Boost, based on Catalinbread Varioboost. I use this for a lead boost via boosting the mids: allows me to stand out a bit without killing the...

I didn't have anything specific in mind, I was just kind of thinking out loud. Maybe an input buffer, maybe another gain stage, maybe a post-distortion active mid control, etc etc. Another question: if one wanted to add another clipping stage, specifically a hard clipping stage, would that...

@Chuck D. Bones - is it right to say U2A basically does gain recovery and filtering out-of-human-hearing-range frequencies? Looks like a high pass around 20Hz and I’m assuming the 330pF filters stuff too high for anyone to hear. And I think the gain would be about 7.2 (1 + 47/7.5)? Could that...

Here is my build of the Scenario Preamp, based on the Cornerstone Gladio SC. This was a client build. This is my first build for a new client, with whom I have now officially doubled my client base! (*) This was a very straightforward build, both because it uses common parts, and also because...

Have you guys ever seen or heard of the CD2399? I bought a Rowin LEF-303 “Ana Echo”. It’s marketed as an analog delay. I used to have a Mooer Ana Echo, which was indeed a BBD delay, supposedly a clone of the Boss DM-2. Sounded close enough for my purposes anyway. Foolishly I sold it, and they...