Aion Duellist Gladiator Heavy Hand side too distorted?

[Chrisq206]

I finished the Aion Duellist and the Heavy Hand/Blues breaker side is super distorted, even with the gain all the way down. I checked over the hard clippers to make sue they weren’t engaged as well as checking other components.

The Soloist side sounds good

Not sure what’s going on

Here are some pictures of the Heavy Hand side

 

[harmaes]

Check the values of the components, did you measure those dual and triple combined resistors?
Trace the dip switches because the single Heavy Hand from AION had the asym and hard clipping reversed.
The single heavy hand can go very clean because it has a clipping toggle switch next to the internal dip switches which I connected to external switches.

 

[Chrisq206]

Check the values of the components, did you measure those dual and triple combined resistors?
Trace the dip switches because the single Heavy Hand from AION had the asym and hard clipping reversed.
The single heavy hand can go very clean because it has a clipping toggle switch next to the internal dip switches which I connected to external switches.

I checked the double and triple resistors (odd values, so I had to do it that way) they are spot on

The dip switches are confusing. The instructions say the hard clippers are engaged when the switch is off, the the board says they are engaged when on. I checked and “on” is engaged.

I have quite a few Blues breaker variants I’ve built over the years and this is by far the most distorted, more like a distortion pedal than overdrive in many ways. Even with the gain all the way down, it’s quite distorted.

I watched demos on the pedal, but it’s hard to tell if people are riding the guitar volume knob to clean up the pedal or not

It does clean up a lot very quickly with the guitar knob and that makes me wonder if that’s how it’s supposed to work and it just wasn’t what I was expecting compared to KOT and British Ballbreaker types of Bluesbreakers.

 

[Chrisq206]

Check the values of the components, did you measure those dual and triple combined resistors?
Trace the dip switches because the single Heavy Hand from AION had the asym and hard clipping reversed.
The single heavy hand can go very clean because it has a clipping toggle switch next to the internal dip switches which I connected to external switches.

Okay

Went through all of the components. Classic mistake of having a 4k7 instead of the proper 47k in R22. Al most missed it. I’m t was the last resistor I checked because it was a bit obscured by the switch board wiring

Thank you for your help

 

[harmaes]

Okay

Went through all of the components. Classic mistake of having a 4k7 instead of the proper 47k in R22. Al most missed it. I’m t was the last resistor I checked because it was a bit obscured by the switch board wiring

Thank you for your help

Did it resolve the gain issue? The heavy hand side should be able to be clean and work more as a boost on lower gain settings. You’ll hear the difference between hard clipping on or off quite well. Asymm is more a feel thing where it’s a little less compressed imo

 

[Chrisq206]

Did it resolve the gain issue? The heavy hand side should be able to be clean and work more as a boost on lower gain settings. You’ll hear the difference between hard clipping on or off quite well. Asymm is more a feel thing where it’s a little less compressed imo

Oh yes!!!

Sounds amazing now. Much more of a great Bluesbreaker now. Take my opinion for what it’s worth. I’ve been messing with BB circuits for a while, so even though I know it pretty well, I didnt play the Heavy Hand that long. What I heard was amazing though. I was playing it with my R7 Les Paul into a Divided by 13 JRT 9/13. The pedal tightened up the low end while still sounding nice and full. Had a nice 3/D sound. Great on the neck pickup too! Very impressed!