Aion 360 preamp build

[mybud]

Build Rating

3.00 star(s)

A preamp made famous by Jaco and John Paul Jones: must be good. Has some slightly esoteric parts (NPN Germanium and transformer), but nothing too weird or unobtanium.



I took my time and populated the board with due care.



When it came to installing the rotary switch daughterboard, all hell broke loose. First, I managed to misorient the retainer thingie so my carefully drilled retaining hole proved useless and then soldered the switch to said daughterboard beforehand. Wrong!

In fairness to Kevin, his instructions are crystal clear (if you follow them). Kludged the whole mess with loose resistor leads. Ugly but it works.



Sound-wise, still some exploring to do. Have to confess the fuzz isn't my bag (subbed a 1304 for the recommended 1306 BTW). I'd prefer it to be more gradual: more control through the pot's range but it gets wild pretty early, so again not really my bag.

The clean circuit is not particularly unique to my ears at least and, for this aspect, I prefer the IVP. Perhaps it's not exactly a fair comparison...



It's quite a fiddly build when it comes to installing the whole mess. Perhaps the long wait for all to fall into place (and the resultant high expectation level) was my downfall. YMMV of course. Thanks for reading as ever.

 

[chrisguk]

Hi a small detail but I haven't been able to hunt down the information myself, how did you mount the LED's to the enclosure so that they sit so neatly without a clip or bezel?

 

[mybud]

Hi Chris: Before securing the whole assembly, I carefully thread the LEDs (3mm flat top variety) into their respective holes. Adjusting as necessary, I finally solder them into place.

You could also use masking tape to secure them from the top if needs be.

It’s always the final task for me in assembly and I try not to mess it up at the last minute.

Ask me how I know.

 

[chrisguk]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Feral Feline]

Diggin' the colour-matched bezel-to-LED treatment!

 

[mybud]

Diggin' the colour-matched bezel-to-LED treatment!

Thanks, Feral. Those outsize washers conceal my inaccurate footswitch drill holes to boot, so the aesthetics serve a higher utilitarian purpose as well.

 

[mybud]

I've spent the last couple of days trying this out in more depth: very nice results with a maxed Jazz Bass bridge pickup to which different degrees of low end beef can be added or subtracted using the Variamp option in tandem with the bridge pickup. It's quite different from the IVP and growing on me day by day, so perhaps my initial comments should be taken with a pinch of salt. I trust y'all do that anyway...

 

[Feral Feline]

I just ordered this PCB (20% off), thanks for the inspiration, mybud.

 

[mybud]

I just ordered this PCB (20% off), thanks for the inspiration, mybud.

A great pleasure. Just case out the rotary switch daughterboard in advance, especially the orientation of the retainer widget, following Kevin's instructions with more care than I did. Not too difficult to manage...

I'm sorely tempted to tackle the L4 and L5 but need to pass this time around. There's a backlog and I need to address this before ordering still more PCBs.