DEMO Aion FX VH Drive Channel (Ampeg VH-140C Preamp Pedal) - Full demo/playthrough

This post contains an audio or video demo

lowpitch

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
Third time I built this pedal (I may be addicted). This time with an actual printed enclosure. Happy with how this turned out! Obviously the enclosure design is heavily inspired by the original amp. MP-140G because Ampeg VH-140C. Get it? 🫠
First time I built this was with a kit from Musikding in Germany, the next one was with hand picked (higher quality) components mostly from Mouser and this time around I thought I'd go for a budget version with cheap (mostly) Tayda parts only - and honestly, this sounds pretty much exactly the same, maybe even better than the second "high quality" version I built... The only build I had problems with (high crosstalk and oscillations) was the Musikding kit which I now think is more because of their choice of components rather than any issues with the actual PCB layout.
I learned from my past builds and mounted some of the electrolytic caps on the daughterboard and the DC-DC converter upside down. This way the build fits perfectly in a 1590BB2 enclosure without any clearance issues.
By the way, if anyone is looking for an alternative for the rather expensive Traco TEC 2/3-0923 I can vouch for the WRA0515S-3WR2 (4.5-9V input) and WRA1215S-3WR2 (9-18V input) by Mornsun et al. These can be had on AliExpress for less than half the price of the Tracos. I socketed the converter at first and compared both to the Traco. They all work perfectly fine with a regular 9VDC power supply.

Anyway, here's a full playthrough/demo of the pedal:

Metal and hardcore riffs only. This circuit is not really suited for anything else in my opinion. I wouldn't call it a one trick pony though since the active tone controls have such a wide range but yeah, high gain only. The pedal doesn't really work for low gain stuff.
 

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I have made a bunch as well it hammers riffs like a jack hammer! How did you do that enclosure it’s nice? What amp are you running it to… your clean tone sounds odd. And why guitar and pickups…And what the pedal next to it. That’s it I don’t have 17 more questions.
 
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I have made a bunch as well it hammers riffs like a jack hammer! How did you do that enclosure it’s nice? What amp are you running it to… your clean tone sounds odd. And why guitar and pickups…And what the pedal next to it. That’s it I don’t have 17 more questions.
Thanks for checking out the video! I designed the enclosure in Illustrator from scratch, taking heavy inspiration from the original amps (fonts, knob scale markings, etc.). UV print job was done by Tayda. I overhauled the design a while ago, here's one I recently built:

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I'm running the pedal directly into the audio interface, that's why the clean tone sounds a little dull. I'm pasting some more details here from the video description:

"Signal chain: Charvel So-Cal Style 1 with Seymour Duncan Black Winter (bridge) and Distortion (neck) → Kartakou Warmer (true bypass when blue LED is not lit) → VH Drive Channel → Audio interface

In my DAW I'm using IRs of a Soldano 4x12 with Eminence V12 speakers, some very slight EQ (high pass filter at 75 Hz with a slope of 6 dB/octave) and a little room reverb."
 
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gosh that’s cool, i’m gonna have to build one of these eventually.
great demo 🤟🏻🤟🏻
Thanks, man. It's a cool pedal and very fun to play. Interesting circuit as well with those zeners in the clipping stages. A little on the dark side but R19 or C15 can be lowered to up the presence.
 
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