Bass pedal build - Amentum into Obsidius

Danbieranowski

Well-known member
Been a while since I did a build report, but this one turned out cool enough to share.

I didn’t mod the Amentum for bass, just left it as is and it sounds great! Had to squeeze everything into the 1590BB so the Amentum is mounted sideways. Themed for the Miami Dolphins for a friend. For the Amentum I subbed an MPSA18. For the Obsidius it’s all stock, including through hole J201s from GuitarPCB. Path hits the boost before the distortion to drive the distortion harder when desired.

Below is a video of what it sounds like through a guitar amp.

A cool mod for the Obsidius might be a footswitch that controls the Drive amount between two values, although I’m not sure how someone would do that. Like if you set it at low gain but hit the footswitch to top the gain out or return back to the knob value.

Print work is by Tayda.

Party on.
-Dan


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Great work, Dan. I love how you squeezed the Amentum in there.

I've got these two pedals and haven't tried them out together - guess I'll have to change that. Thanks!
 
Top notch build, monsieur!


If you added another footswitch (for your dual gain idea), you'd need to go horizontal with the build, I imagine.

For the dual gain switch, you need a DPDT (3PDT for status-LED) and 2-pots or if one is always going to be maxed you could just make the 2nd pot an internal trimmer/Fixed Resistor.
Check out GPCB's 2knobjob:

2-knob-job-v2-guitarpcbcom.jpg



...or just wire it up without the PCB:




161c542298313cf8816f7051f5de2a08.gif


For the Obsidius' Drive, of course, you'd connect each respective pot's Lug 1 to Lug 2 instead of to ground.
 
Top notch build, monsieur!


If you added another footswitch (for your dual gain idea), you'd need to go horizontal with the build, I imagine.

For the dual gain switch, you need a DPDT (3PDT for status-LED) and 2-pots or if one is always going to be maxed you could just make the 2nd pot an internal trimmer/Fixed Resistor.
Check out GPCB's 2knobjob:

2-knob-job-v2-guitarpcbcom.jpg



...or just wire it up without the PCB:




161c542298313cf8816f7051f5de2a08.gif


For the Obsidius' Drive, of course, you'd connect each respective pot's Lug 1 to Lug 2 instead of to ground.
As always, your insight is appreciated. I built the Panner you laid out for us but it didn’t work Bc I’m sure I have a bad solder point somewhere as I’ve never done a perfboard build before (only stripboard) and there are infinitely more points of failure for my weak brain. I didn’t know that’s what the 2 knob job was for and I love it.
 
I'm sorry to hear the panner didn't pan out for you; I hope it wasn't a fault in my layout, I did warn it was untested! I'll see if I can squeeze some time to build it myself.


As you might've guessed, I'm a big fan of the 2knobjob concept. Adds a great deal of diversity to many builds. Two-speed phaser? Check. Two levels of grit? Check. Two levels of level? Check. Two Depths to your Tremolo? Check. Slap Back to mega-repeats delay? Check...

I was lazy and used a 2knobjob to make an either/or loop-switcher. Great for comparing two pedals, back and forth with one click.
Could've just free-wired it up, but the PCB accommodates the LED and makes wiring a doddle.
 
I'm sorry to hear the panner didn't pan out for you; I hope it wasn't a fault in my layout, I did warn it was untested! I'll see if I can squeeze some time to build it myself.


As you might've guessed, I'm a big fan of the 2knobjob concept. Adds a great deal of diversity to many builds. Two-speed phaser? Check. Two levels of grit? Check. Two levels of level? Check. Two Depths to your Tremolo? Check. Slap Back to mega-repeats delay? Check...

I was lazy and used a 2knobjob to make an either/or loop-switcher. Great for comparing two pedals, back and forth with one click.
Could've just free-wired it up, but the PCB accommodates the LED and makes wiring a doddle.
That is brilliant for the back and forth switcher. And I’m sure it wasn’t your layout. I was so confused soldering the traces on the back. Felt like a total newb again. It was kinda fun.
 
That's a great looking pedal Dan. I remember following the Dolphins with Griese, Czonka, Morris, Warfield, etc. Living in Lauderdale it was an unwritten law that some item of clothing must contain at least (one) official Pantone® Dolphin color.

You nailed it!
 
That's a great looking pedal Dan. I remember following the Dolphins with Griese, Czonka, Morris, Warfield, etc. Living in Lauderdale it was an unwritten law that some item of clothing must contain at least (one) official Pantone® Dolphin color.

You nailed it!
All hail Shula.
 
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Really nice! Where did you get those ribbon cables? I’ve been hunting for ones with the right pitch (I know LMS have them but they seem a bit pricey to me).
 
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