comradehoser
Well-known member
I think this might be my first "proper" build report--not a PTP.
It's not particularly exciting--There really isn't a lot of extraneous skilled stuff to show off with like tidy off-board wiring--this thing was titetitetite. I have to say, I don't think I like board-mounted jacks much, but that might be a function of the fact that I hand-drill all my enclosures. The nice white enclosure was because stompbox parts didn't have any bare aluminium ones in stock. I did put some nice knobs I sourced at Lee's Electronics last time I was home on there so it would look good, but as is usually the case, I neglected to put on a real graphic or LEDs in favor of building another pedal. Still my most pro-look Gucci pedal so far.
The one thing I did do was add a volume pot. Why, you may ask?
Well.
6 controls: left 3pdt toggles between clean (top center gain knob does nothing) or dirty. Right 3pdt is bypass. Center bottom knob is a selector switch that controls the width of the frequency spectrum affected by the pedal--can go from quite wide to quite narrow. The narrower the selection, the more noticeable the effect. Center top knob controls gain and amount of clipping in "dirty" mode. Left center knob sweeps the frequency spectrum up or down. Right center knob controls the amplitude of cut (CCW) or boost (CW) with center being flat.
Basically, you can dial a whole bunch of sounds with this. Selection switch somewhere in the middle, amplitude knob at 2:00 boost and sweep knob at noon-2:00 can give you a tube-screameresque mid hump; move the amplitude to 9:00 to cut, and dime the gain, and you can have a pretty good big muff mid-scoop imitation. If you sweep the cut down into the bass frequencies (around 9:00), you can get chonky tite chugs. The distortion is pretty alright--it has it's own character, but I don't think it's going to boot off the low gain or high gain specialist distortion pedals (Tyrian, for example).
BUT, the one thing that was very difficult to deal with for me is that the volume is really all over the place (in my build, at least), from unity to WAY above unity in the dirty mode, depending on setting (especially when amplitude approaches 12:00), so I inserted a volume pot the only place I could see would clearly work. Not ideal placement, and I initially cut the wrong wire to the jack out making the pedal a volume control in or out of bypass. Fixed at the cost of an ugly solder. Maybe I should have gone for between the 3PDTs (and I still might).
So, @Robert howzabout that special expression pedal adapter-type deal, eh?
It's not particularly exciting--There really isn't a lot of extraneous skilled stuff to show off with like tidy off-board wiring--this thing was titetitetite. I have to say, I don't think I like board-mounted jacks much, but that might be a function of the fact that I hand-drill all my enclosures. The nice white enclosure was because stompbox parts didn't have any bare aluminium ones in stock. I did put some nice knobs I sourced at Lee's Electronics last time I was home on there so it would look good, but as is usually the case, I neglected to put on a real graphic or LEDs in favor of building another pedal. Still my most pro-look Gucci pedal so far.
The one thing I did do was add a volume pot. Why, you may ask?
Well.
6 controls: left 3pdt toggles between clean (top center gain knob does nothing) or dirty. Right 3pdt is bypass. Center bottom knob is a selector switch that controls the width of the frequency spectrum affected by the pedal--can go from quite wide to quite narrow. The narrower the selection, the more noticeable the effect. Center top knob controls gain and amount of clipping in "dirty" mode. Left center knob sweeps the frequency spectrum up or down. Right center knob controls the amplitude of cut (CCW) or boost (CW) with center being flat.
Basically, you can dial a whole bunch of sounds with this. Selection switch somewhere in the middle, amplitude knob at 2:00 boost and sweep knob at noon-2:00 can give you a tube-screameresque mid hump; move the amplitude to 9:00 to cut, and dime the gain, and you can have a pretty good big muff mid-scoop imitation. If you sweep the cut down into the bass frequencies (around 9:00), you can get chonky tite chugs. The distortion is pretty alright--it has it's own character, but I don't think it's going to boot off the low gain or high gain specialist distortion pedals (Tyrian, for example).
BUT, the one thing that was very difficult to deal with for me is that the volume is really all over the place (in my build, at least), from unity to WAY above unity in the dirty mode, depending on setting (especially when amplitude approaches 12:00), so I inserted a volume pot the only place I could see would clearly work. Not ideal placement, and I initially cut the wrong wire to the jack out making the pedal a volume control in or out of bypass. Fixed at the cost of an ugly solder. Maybe I should have gone for between the 3PDTs (and I still might).
So, @Robert howzabout that special expression pedal adapter-type deal, eh?
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