- Build Rating
This is my second Aion Hexeract, I built my first about 2.5 years ago. It feels like it was much farther in the past that I built that! And looking at my Reverb sales, I let it go early this year - that also feels much longer past!
This is of course a clone of the EHX "Hot Tubes". What's interesting is, EHX made this pedal many many years ago, in a large form factor. Then production stopped, and they made a short-lived pedal of the same name, but completely different circuit (IIRC, it actually used a tube). More recently, they've re-released the original CMOS-based circuit in their nano format.
Anyway, I started thinking about CMOS-based drives again, and wanted to revisit this guy. It's a quick and easy build. My off-board wiring could definitely be a little neater (most of the wires are too long), but otherwise I think it looks pretty nice. Everything worked on first power-on. The bypass board is my own design, which also uses a CMOS chip for logic control. Aion sometimes puts actual circuit components on the bypass board, so that's why one of the connections between the effect PCB and bypass board is a resistor.
I think the exterior finish looks great! I stole the silver aluminum knobs from my most recent Hard Rock Pinnacle build, as I never loved them there (they've been replaced with black aluminum knobs). I think the silver knobs go really well with the "weston grey" enclosure (from @StompBoxParts).
In terms of tone: the drive sounds absolutely fantastic! At least in this circuit, I think the CMOS chip absolutely nails the tube-like overdrive sound; it does an absolutely glorious edge-of-breakup thing. However... after playing with it a bit, I couldn't get a tonal balance exactly where I wanted it. Nothing terribly wrong, this is pure neurosis (and/or having been spoiled by playing through so many drives). But I found myself wishing I could "keep it like this, but add a bit more that"; but the tone knob, when adding more "that" would then take away some of "this". IOW, I think it needs separate bass and treble controls. EHX makes the "Hot Wax" which is a two-in-one pedal, with the Hot Tubes on one side, and their Crayon on the other. But it's not just a simple two-in-one, they actually dropped the tone control and tone bypass of the Hot Wax, and moved the Crayon's bass and treble controls to the end of the circuit (i.e. shared by both effects). The Crayon is hard-wired to be first in the chain. There's also a clean blend knob. I briefly had a Hot Wax that I bought used, but after playing with it a bit, it was defective and I sent it back. Some day I might buy another and send it to @Robert, as from my memory (and the brief time I had with it), the tonal balance of the Hot Tubes side was more easily dialed-in, and being optionally pushed by the Crayon (or using the Crayon alone) made for a really versatile drive pedal.
This is of course a clone of the EHX "Hot Tubes". What's interesting is, EHX made this pedal many many years ago, in a large form factor. Then production stopped, and they made a short-lived pedal of the same name, but completely different circuit (IIRC, it actually used a tube). More recently, they've re-released the original CMOS-based circuit in their nano format.
Anyway, I started thinking about CMOS-based drives again, and wanted to revisit this guy. It's a quick and easy build. My off-board wiring could definitely be a little neater (most of the wires are too long), but otherwise I think it looks pretty nice. Everything worked on first power-on. The bypass board is my own design, which also uses a CMOS chip for logic control. Aion sometimes puts actual circuit components on the bypass board, so that's why one of the connections between the effect PCB and bypass board is a resistor.
I think the exterior finish looks great! I stole the silver aluminum knobs from my most recent Hard Rock Pinnacle build, as I never loved them there (they've been replaced with black aluminum knobs). I think the silver knobs go really well with the "weston grey" enclosure (from @StompBoxParts).
In terms of tone: the drive sounds absolutely fantastic! At least in this circuit, I think the CMOS chip absolutely nails the tube-like overdrive sound; it does an absolutely glorious edge-of-breakup thing. However... after playing with it a bit, I couldn't get a tonal balance exactly where I wanted it. Nothing terribly wrong, this is pure neurosis (and/or having been spoiled by playing through so many drives). But I found myself wishing I could "keep it like this, but add a bit more that"; but the tone knob, when adding more "that" would then take away some of "this". IOW, I think it needs separate bass and treble controls. EHX makes the "Hot Wax" which is a two-in-one pedal, with the Hot Tubes on one side, and their Crayon on the other. But it's not just a simple two-in-one, they actually dropped the tone control and tone bypass of the Hot Wax, and moved the Crayon's bass and treble controls to the end of the circuit (i.e. shared by both effects). The Crayon is hard-wired to be first in the chain. There's also a clean blend knob. I briefly had a Hot Wax that I bought used, but after playing with it a bit, it was defective and I sent it back. Some day I might buy another and send it to @Robert, as from my memory (and the brief time I had with it), the tonal balance of the Hot Tubes side was more easily dialed-in, and being optionally pushed by the Crayon (or using the Crayon alone) made for a really versatile drive pedal.
