giovanni
Well-known member
- Build Rating
First build report after a long hiatus! I was definitely getting rusty and had some trouble with this one (https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/burned-charge-pump.17734/). This is not actually my first build since hiatus (Son of Ben report coming up after I laser engrave the faceplate), but the first one I consider fully finished since I’m going with no graphics on a single knobber.
The build was mostly uneventful except my silly mistakes described in the troubleshooting thread that I attribute mostly to impatience. I went with a 1590B which was still a pretty tight fit even with the small board and single pot. I had to bend the pot leads to make enough room for my oversized 220uF cap. But I was able to use regular jacks because I removed the dust seal from the pot to make a bit more room. Once again copious thanks to @flemming for sending me a sweet drill template to make everything fit nicely. I could not have done it without.
For the enclosure I went with Tayda’s silver. I used an old large aluminum knob I found in my office which gives it a hi-fi vibe. I’m pretty happy with the looks!
I spent some time playing it tonight and it sounds really nice. It’s a simple clean boost with tons of gain (24dB!) and headroom. It’s quiet as a mouse and it feels very high fidelity. It must be the extra moolah I spent on that OPA2134… I couldn’t quite tell if it adds some color to the tone or not, I may need a bit more time with it to figure that out. It may be that the buffer in the pedal alone preserves more high frequencies (I had a few more pedals after it).
Anyways, boosting a tube amp on the edge of breakup with a clean boost is definitely a really nice sound. Highly recommended if you’re looking for that.
The build was mostly uneventful except my silly mistakes described in the troubleshooting thread that I attribute mostly to impatience. I went with a 1590B which was still a pretty tight fit even with the small board and single pot. I had to bend the pot leads to make enough room for my oversized 220uF cap. But I was able to use regular jacks because I removed the dust seal from the pot to make a bit more room. Once again copious thanks to @flemming for sending me a sweet drill template to make everything fit nicely. I could not have done it without.
For the enclosure I went with Tayda’s silver. I used an old large aluminum knob I found in my office which gives it a hi-fi vibe. I’m pretty happy with the looks!
I spent some time playing it tonight and it sounds really nice. It’s a simple clean boost with tons of gain (24dB!) and headroom. It’s quiet as a mouse and it feels very high fidelity. It must be the extra moolah I spent on that OPA2134… I couldn’t quite tell if it adds some color to the tone or not, I may need a bit more time with it to figure that out. It may be that the buffer in the pedal alone preserves more high frequencies (I had a few more pedals after it).
Anyways, boosting a tube amp on the edge of breakup with a clean boost is definitely a really nice sound. Highly recommended if you’re looking for that.
