Joben Magooch
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Wrapped up this build a couple days ago… mostly, anyways.
I got it assembled and at that moment realized I completely forgot to order some knobs. So I scrounged up some random spares and at least made them symmetrical. To be replaced eventually, but oh well.
The finish is kinda crummy too. I used spray on truck bedliner. (So it’s not orange peel, it’s meant to be textured) I actually quite like it on, you know, truck beds (and other random parts) but don’t care for how it turned out here. I think the enclosure was prepped okay but it just didn't really seem to cure up right. If you look closely you can see where the finish is “mushed” around the edges washers and knobs and such; tightening them down pressed right into the soft finish. I assume that’s probably weather related as this past week it was 100 degrees with like 70 percent humidity, which is of course less than ideal for spray finishes. If I get up the gumption perhaps I’ll disassemble and refinish, but for now it’s whatever. I guess will need to figure out some kind of labeling too.
I know some have very strong opinions on the white footswitch washers but I have a weird soft spot for them. When I was younger I pretty much divided pedals into two groups. “Cheap” pedals were stuff like Boss, Digitech, DOD, Ibanez Tone-Lok, etc, stuff with that style of (typically) non-true bypass foot switch. And then “boutique” or “high end” manufacturers used 3PDT (cuz you know, true bypass is always better and stuff) and I always associate the white footswitch washers with a lot of stuff that was coming out during the “boutique revolution” (I just made that term up, but I feel like in the late 90s/early 2000s there was really an explosion of boutique manufacturers popping up, if you know what I mean). So all that to say that - while probably misguided - I’ve always had a weird subconscious association where white footswitch washer means fancy, high-end, “pro” pedal. Anyways, tangent over…
As for the pedal itself I really like it. As you may know it’s more or less a take on a tube screamer and bluesbreaker so nothing revolutionary but I’m very pleased with how it’s dialed in. According to Aion the original uses BA282 diodes (out of production) but closest sub would be BAS33. I’ve never used BAS33 before but put them in here and am really pleased with them. Will have to snag some more and throw in future builds.
One of the main selling points for me was the four-jack wiring. I use a bypass switcher so having a dual drive that can be separated out, order swapped, etc is really nice. You can plug into the “outside” jacks just like normal, or use four to split the two sides. It does require a taller enclosure to fit… that said I know nothing about circuit design but it felt like with some tweaks could probably be made to fit into a standard 1590BB, but I’m just guessing to be fair. I find the Aion breakout boards to be a little fiddly; I didn’t run into any issues but definitely caught myself thinking “if there’s gonna be somewhere this goes wrong, it’ll be here,” haha.
In general, I like Aion’s projects but they often seem to just have some quirks to them. I quite like the documentation included, but all things being equal if a board is offered by both Aion and PPCB I’ll pretty much always go for the PPCB board. But, all that said, I’d wholeheartedly recommend this one and suspect it will be on board for quite some time.
I got it assembled and at that moment realized I completely forgot to order some knobs. So I scrounged up some random spares and at least made them symmetrical. To be replaced eventually, but oh well.
The finish is kinda crummy too. I used spray on truck bedliner. (So it’s not orange peel, it’s meant to be textured) I actually quite like it on, you know, truck beds (and other random parts) but don’t care for how it turned out here. I think the enclosure was prepped okay but it just didn't really seem to cure up right. If you look closely you can see where the finish is “mushed” around the edges washers and knobs and such; tightening them down pressed right into the soft finish. I assume that’s probably weather related as this past week it was 100 degrees with like 70 percent humidity, which is of course less than ideal for spray finishes. If I get up the gumption perhaps I’ll disassemble and refinish, but for now it’s whatever. I guess will need to figure out some kind of labeling too.
I know some have very strong opinions on the white footswitch washers but I have a weird soft spot for them. When I was younger I pretty much divided pedals into two groups. “Cheap” pedals were stuff like Boss, Digitech, DOD, Ibanez Tone-Lok, etc, stuff with that style of (typically) non-true bypass foot switch. And then “boutique” or “high end” manufacturers used 3PDT (cuz you know, true bypass is always better and stuff) and I always associate the white footswitch washers with a lot of stuff that was coming out during the “boutique revolution” (I just made that term up, but I feel like in the late 90s/early 2000s there was really an explosion of boutique manufacturers popping up, if you know what I mean). So all that to say that - while probably misguided - I’ve always had a weird subconscious association where white footswitch washer means fancy, high-end, “pro” pedal. Anyways, tangent over…
As for the pedal itself I really like it. As you may know it’s more or less a take on a tube screamer and bluesbreaker so nothing revolutionary but I’m very pleased with how it’s dialed in. According to Aion the original uses BA282 diodes (out of production) but closest sub would be BAS33. I’ve never used BAS33 before but put them in here and am really pleased with them. Will have to snag some more and throw in future builds.
One of the main selling points for me was the four-jack wiring. I use a bypass switcher so having a dual drive that can be separated out, order swapped, etc is really nice. You can plug into the “outside” jacks just like normal, or use four to split the two sides. It does require a taller enclosure to fit… that said I know nothing about circuit design but it felt like with some tweaks could probably be made to fit into a standard 1590BB, but I’m just guessing to be fair. I find the Aion breakout boards to be a little fiddly; I didn’t run into any issues but definitely caught myself thinking “if there’s gonna be somewhere this goes wrong, it’ll be here,” haha.
In general, I like Aion’s projects but they often seem to just have some quirks to them. I quite like the documentation included, but all things being equal if a board is offered by both Aion and PPCB I’ll pretty much always go for the PPCB board. But, all that said, I’d wholeheartedly recommend this one and suspect it will be on board for quite some time.
