EL Chaos Bolt

[Fuzzonaut]

And another Effects Layout board boxed up. This is the Chaos Bolt that is supposed to be based on the Eau Claire Thunder (from Dwarfcraft).
There were different versions of this idea from Dwarcraft, the big box, the Baby Thunder and I think even some mojo or gold edition?
Anyway, it's a Muff at heart, with a few tricks up its sleeve.

There is a tone bypass switch (called CLAP), which always comes in handy on a Muff, as the Bluebeard proves, for example.
Then, there's a switch (called CLIP on my build) that adds a green LED to the 2nd gain stage.
And, la pièce de résistance, a tuneable feedback loop, triggered by a momentary footswitch.
I'm a bit of a muff guy, having bought and built quite a few of its variants, but this one still brings fresh sounds to the table, so it's a cool addition.

The PCB was designed to fit in a 125B, but I'm way too clumsy to be able to deal with 2 footswiches on a 125B, so I put it into a BB enclosure.

 

[OrganMeat]

Wow, very cool! I was just about to request an Eau Claire Thunder but found your thread. Good to know that there's already a PCB for this one out there. Now I know what my next build is! I just need to decide whether I'm gonna try and fit it into a 125b or not. I can see why you put it in a larger enclosure, with the two foot switches.

 

[NickKUK]

Ohh I like that enclosure art - very goth/doom!

 

[leadfoot]

Like the art, is that an Alphonse Mucha piece?

 

[Fuzzonaut]

Thanks guys! It has been a while, the artwork is taken from a concert poster, that‘s my main area for „borrowing“ graphics by zooming in.
I couldn‘t say who made it though.

 

[Paradox916]

Very cool man! I have been continually modifying a green Russian that I put a feedback loop in. If I would have known this was out there….Im really curious on that feedback loop and how it sounds on yours. Sound clip?

Edit: had to look up the schematic my feedback loop is different. So now Im REALLY curious about how the chaos bolt sounds.

 

[Fuzzonaut]

Very cool man! I have been continually modifying a green Russian that I put a feedback loop in. If I would have known this was out there….Im really curious on that feedback loop and how it sounds on yours. Sound clip?

Edit: had to look up the schematic my feedback loop is different. So now Im REALLY curious about how the chaos bolt sounds.

The other bass player in our music room adopted it and I‘m out of town, but I‘ll try to record a short clip.

 

[leadfoot]

Here's a short clip of an EL Chaos Bolt, an Eau Claire Thunder, and two other clones.

 

[Paradox916]

At closer examination of the schematic it looks really close to one of the coda fx mods the loop going from collector of Q1 and Q3. And the other demos of the thunder sounding almost exactly the same.

 

[Feral Feline]

I've seen the Q1 and Q3 Feedback mod before, Rogier Kerkhof (see the Kit Rae pages, IIRC), probably where Coda came up with it — but I wonder who did it before Kerkhof, though? Anyone?

There's several Feedback mods, to the best of memory, such as 1M POT as VR on a Momentary (or use SW & LDR) between emitters of Q3 & Q2.






ANyHooHaH... back to the build report...

Another inspiring build Fuzzonaut.

Makes me want to dig my half-finished build out and see what stalled mine.
The 1590BB-portrait is starting to make more and more sense than two footswitches on an N1, that's for sure — the kicker is it allows that much more art on the pedal. Leadfoot's on point for the Alphonse Mucha, me thinks.