sticky1138
Well-known member
I’ve always wanted to build a Durham Crazy Horse, so after some googling I stumbled across Jed’s Peds, a U.K.-based seller that has the PCB, plus a few other rarities I’ve been looking for. My experience with them was not so great.
From good to bad:
Nu Glazer (Shoegazer)
It works fine. No complaints, except that it sounds bad (as it’s supposed to, being a Devi Ever circuit; I don’t know why I keep buying these). The Soda Meiser and Torn’s Peaker sides are tolerable on their own, but together they are ridiculously noisy, and not in a good way. I can't fault the PCB here, that's just how it sounds. Kevin Shields uses it, so maybe it's neat in more capable hands.
Loony Steed (Crazy Horse)
Works, but the controls don’t seem as responsive as in demos of the real thing. The voltage pot doesn’t have a full, usable sweep. Worse, there is a nice squeal at all times, increased by turning up the voltage. I tried swapping out the 4558 a few times since I sometimes get a bad chip, but no improvement. There are some nice, saggy tones to be had when you dial in the Drive and Fuzz just right, but anything good is made impractical by the squeal.
Farting Cones (Torn’s Peaker)
This one worked fine and sounded decent – until it caught fire. I’m pretty sure I caused that with a short, but I ended up scrapping it to be safe. The layout on this PCB oddly requires you to mount the pots on the component side of the board, so you’d have to finesse it if you want enough clearance in an enclosure (or wire off-board).
Fluster Cluck (Reverberation Machine)
I really, really want to build a functioning Reverberation Machine. I tried the PCBGM version, and it was a huge failure. This one was no different. The best I could get after some troubleshooting was a white noise wash over the dry signal. The components are a little different form the PCBGM version, so one or both of these sellers are not tracing it correctly. I’m giving up on my dream, and maybe one day I’ll shell out for the real thing.
Whirlwind (Expandora)
Silent. I might troubleshoot, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to invest any more time on it, given the rest of my experience. We'll see.
Black Pearl (Electric Mistress) - M.I.A.
All of these PCBs arrived loose in a regular, unpadded paper envelope, even though they shipped nearly 4000 miles from the U.K. to U.S. To no one’s surprise, this PCB arrived with a massive gouge in the surface, making it unusable. I requested a replacement from the seller, who said, and I quote, “That’s a shame, isn’t it?” (which I choose to read as sarcasm, given the packaging). Long story short, they claimed to have sent a replacement, but two months later and there’s no sign of it. Cutting my losses on this one. If I do somehow receive it, I'll use it as a coaster since flangers are finicky enough without the added variable of a potentially wacky PCB.
I don't take (much) pleasure in ripping small businesses, but thought I'd share in case it helps anyone curious. Maybe someone else has had good luck with them, but in my experience, there were too many problems and I’d stick with a more trusted seller.
From good to bad:
Nu Glazer (Shoegazer)
It works fine. No complaints, except that it sounds bad (as it’s supposed to, being a Devi Ever circuit; I don’t know why I keep buying these). The Soda Meiser and Torn’s Peaker sides are tolerable on their own, but together they are ridiculously noisy, and not in a good way. I can't fault the PCB here, that's just how it sounds. Kevin Shields uses it, so maybe it's neat in more capable hands.
Loony Steed (Crazy Horse)
Works, but the controls don’t seem as responsive as in demos of the real thing. The voltage pot doesn’t have a full, usable sweep. Worse, there is a nice squeal at all times, increased by turning up the voltage. I tried swapping out the 4558 a few times since I sometimes get a bad chip, but no improvement. There are some nice, saggy tones to be had when you dial in the Drive and Fuzz just right, but anything good is made impractical by the squeal.
Farting Cones (Torn’s Peaker)
This one worked fine and sounded decent – until it caught fire. I’m pretty sure I caused that with a short, but I ended up scrapping it to be safe. The layout on this PCB oddly requires you to mount the pots on the component side of the board, so you’d have to finesse it if you want enough clearance in an enclosure (or wire off-board).
Fluster Cluck (Reverberation Machine)
I really, really want to build a functioning Reverberation Machine. I tried the PCBGM version, and it was a huge failure. This one was no different. The best I could get after some troubleshooting was a white noise wash over the dry signal. The components are a little different form the PCBGM version, so one or both of these sellers are not tracing it correctly. I’m giving up on my dream, and maybe one day I’ll shell out for the real thing.
Whirlwind (Expandora)
Silent. I might troubleshoot, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to invest any more time on it, given the rest of my experience. We'll see.
Black Pearl (Electric Mistress) - M.I.A.
All of these PCBs arrived loose in a regular, unpadded paper envelope, even though they shipped nearly 4000 miles from the U.K. to U.S. To no one’s surprise, this PCB arrived with a massive gouge in the surface, making it unusable. I requested a replacement from the seller, who said, and I quote, “That’s a shame, isn’t it?” (which I choose to read as sarcasm, given the packaging). Long story short, they claimed to have sent a replacement, but two months later and there’s no sign of it. Cutting my losses on this one. If I do somehow receive it, I'll use it as a coaster since flangers are finicky enough without the added variable of a potentially wacky PCB.
I don't take (much) pleasure in ripping small businesses, but thought I'd share in case it helps anyone curious. Maybe someone else has had good luck with them, but in my experience, there were too many problems and I’d stick with a more trusted seller.
