- Build Rating
As I've mentioned in a few recent posts, I'm really taken with the modified Animal Diamond Peak drive designed by @Chuck D. Bones. I created a PCB for this circuit earlier this year, and called it the "Hard Rock Pinnacle Purebred Drive", see my build report.
I recently revised the PCB. The previous board worked just fine, but l felt compelled to add a few quality-of-life improvements:
Definitely evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I built up two of these new PCBs, but so far have only put one in an enclosure. This is my familiar mandala stickers and Envirotex finish. Last year, I built a Mach 1 with a similar finish, but have since sold that pedal. I always thought it looked nice, so wanted to create a similar aesthetic with the revised Hard Rock Pinnacle.
Not much to say that hasn't been said in my previous build report! It's great!
The knobs are aluminum 1510-style knobs. They are more expensive than plastic, but so worth it IMO! I don't think I can ever go back to plastic knobs now!
It worked on first power-up. The only minor issue was that I could not get Q3's bias voltage to 4.6v - I only got it up to about 4.25v. So I had to remove R11 (7k5) and replaced it with a 1k. I did that from the top of the board to spare myself having to take the whole thing apart. I just barely kissed the trimpot with the soldering iron, but otherwise the "surgery" went pretty well.
As always, I have a few extra boards I'm happy to give away, PM me if interested.
I recently revised the PCB. The previous board worked just fine, but l felt compelled to add a few quality-of-life improvements:
- I added an (optional) LDO to the relay bypass sub-circuit. The original forced the relay to run at the same voltage as the effect itself (presumably 9v); this change allows the relay to run at 5v, so the effect itself can run at an arbitrary voltage (e.g. 12v or 18v)
- Changed the potentiometer spacing (i.e. drill offsets) to match PedalPCB's 4-knob boards
- Use giant TO-39 footprints for Q2 and Q3; these are the "money" transistors that you might want to experiment with; I got some low-HFE 2N2218A's from @StompBoxParts (I measured hfe 64 on my CCT)
- Try to avoid capacitors on at least one side of pot solder holes to make assembly easier
- Use larger footprints for C10 and C11 to more easily facilitate silver mica capacitors
- Ensure trimpots are adjacent to their corresponding test points
Definitely evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I built up two of these new PCBs, but so far have only put one in an enclosure. This is my familiar mandala stickers and Envirotex finish. Last year, I built a Mach 1 with a similar finish, but have since sold that pedal. I always thought it looked nice, so wanted to create a similar aesthetic with the revised Hard Rock Pinnacle.
Not much to say that hasn't been said in my previous build report! It's great!
The knobs are aluminum 1510-style knobs. They are more expensive than plastic, but so worth it IMO! I don't think I can ever go back to plastic knobs now!
It worked on first power-up. The only minor issue was that I could not get Q3's bias voltage to 4.6v - I only got it up to about 4.25v. So I had to remove R11 (7k5) and replaced it with a 1k. I did that from the top of the board to spare myself having to take the whole thing apart. I just barely kissed the trimpot with the soldering iron, but otherwise the "surgery" went pretty well.
As always, I have a few extra boards I'm happy to give away, PM me if interested.
