Aion Ares (Clinch FX EP Pre)

[Big Monk]

I had built this a while ago and was using it frequently. It had a bad switch and it was only a matter of time before it went.

The shaft ended up separating from the body of the switch and I decided that because I liked the pedal so much, had liked some of the features of the Clandestine and that I wanted to overall do a cleanup of the wiring and layout that I would reorder and rebuild:




I ended up adapting some of the Clandestine (CT Secret Pre) specs to the Ares board.

I used a 0.027 uf for the “Bright” cap to give a little more separation as I used a 0.01 uf as a “Mid” cap rather than the extremely overbearing 47 uf “Fat”cap of the Ares.

I also used a “Trimit!” in place of the 22k Drain resistor of Q1. I used a 10k trim with a 12k resistor as a “leg” to connect it to the board. I used a resistor lead on the other side and it sits right on top of the nearest film cap.

I just need to tweak the voltage based on the other builds here and the EP3 schematic and switch out the LED. I bought a gang of shorter legged LEDs and they don’t quite sure in the bezel how I’d like.

 

[Harry Klippton]

 

[Big Monk]

Great job Derek. I guess that new soldering rig is working out for you. And good job in the wiring, it's not melted, and not cloth pushback lol. You have redeemed yourself. Looks good all the way around.View attachment 19531

This is the proudest day of my life.

 

[Harry Klippton]

 

[Big Monk]

 

[Harry Klippton]

 

[JamieJ]

Good work Derek! How does it sound??

 

[Big Monk]

View attachment 19539

Good work Derek! How does it sound??

Great! I like the tone of the bright/mid/dark switch of the Clandestine over the year your face off Fat mode of the Ares.

Also, rather than simply matching FETs, I have the trimpot now for dialing in Q1

 

[Big Monk]

I’m gonna mess around with the trim pot tonight tomorrow. Since I downsized my board, I reclaimed one of my 10 port power supplies and that has a 12vDC port.

I’m gonna measure the voltages coming out of the charge pump with 9 and 12 vDC and then see what sounds best.

The OG EP3 schematic seems to deliver 22 vDC to the 22k drain resistor of that stages JFET. Nominal drain voltage was 14.4 vDC, so I can use 65% as a target.

 

[Big Monk]

As a final tweak today, I put another Trimit! assembly in, this time with a 20k trim and 10k resistor.

I now have a better range of drain voltages. I left mine at 12.5 vDC in a 22.8 vDC source voltage.

I know the Chase Tone and Clinch units have different power stages so I’m running mine of a 12 vDC tap to get 22.8 vDC coming out of the 2nd diode off the charge pump.

It sounds really good and like @thewintersoldier mentioned with his Clandestine build, the settings are subtle but noticeable and I have been having fun playing around with it.