- Build Rating
This is my build of the AionFX Lithium, which is based on the EHX Small Clone. It's a fairly complicated build for a no-nonsense pedal.
I decided to build this pedal as gift - so I ended up making two. After all, if I'm ordering all the parts, designing the enclosure, and assembling, might as well have a copy myself for not much more work. Plus if anything went wrong, I could send the better pedal and keep the backup for myself. I wouldn't have selected this build on my own, but my partner and I decided that a handmade guitar pedal would make a good gift for her father - a longtime guitar player who played electric mostly in the 70s and 80s and then switched more to acoustic. When I asked him what kid of pedal he wanted, he said "Microchorus" - I think referring to the MXR Micro Chorus (he wasn't sure). He had some recordings where he used it so I could listen, but I couldn't find any schematics of that particular pedal. The Small Clone seemed similar in concept and design, so I went with that instead.
Since this is a "small" chorus pedal, I went with a very small noisy bird that travels in groups - the bushtit. Also one of my favorite bird names
! We get bushtits in our yard a lot here in Seattle and they're always a blast to watch. They're extremely small (they weigh about 5 grams... a paperclip is about 1 gram), closer in size to a hummingbird. Usually they'll arrive at berries or feeders in groups of about 20, and they'll cover blocks of suet, often hanging upside down. They often have an angry sort of look and the flocks chirp noisily. Bushtits often travel with other small birds like chickadees and kinglets.
The build was honest a pain. I hadn't built an Aion pedal since I first started - when I started with two full kits. Now with ~30-40 PedalPCB pedals under my belt there's a bunch I don't like. The large daughterboard is a pain, it's annoying that all the cables need to be threaded through to the bottom of the pedal, the star wiring isn't my favorite. And worst of all, not having the component values printed on the board itself.
I appreciate that the build has two different versions (MN3007 and MN3207). However, it meant I had to keep consulting the build doc and I don't like seeing the empty diode and capacitor holes - it felt like I was doing something wrong or forgetting something. I ended up building the simpler one, the MN3007 version. Additionally, sourcing the parts was kinda a pain, although Aion sells the ICs. I couldn't find the tiny DPDT slider switch on Tayda and ended up getting a small bag of them on Amazon because I didn't have enough I needed from Mouser.
Finally, I accidentally soldered the footswitch the wrong way on one of the boards - my own dumb mistake when not paying attention. It was a good opportunity to order and practice with a desoldering pump, which I'd been meaning to buy.
Those are the reason for the 3 stars for the build. The pedal fired up straight away when I turned it on without any trouble, so all in all it wasn't that bad.
This is my second chorus (after the Caesar/Julia). I like that one more - it has more options, more ability to shape the tone, and a wider range of possibilities; although I haven't played the Bushtit much, it feels a little more tame and sterile. Still, it works well and I have two pedalboards, so this is sticking around on my large "backup" board for now.
I decided to build this pedal as gift - so I ended up making two. After all, if I'm ordering all the parts, designing the enclosure, and assembling, might as well have a copy myself for not much more work. Plus if anything went wrong, I could send the better pedal and keep the backup for myself. I wouldn't have selected this build on my own, but my partner and I decided that a handmade guitar pedal would make a good gift for her father - a longtime guitar player who played electric mostly in the 70s and 80s and then switched more to acoustic. When I asked him what kid of pedal he wanted, he said "Microchorus" - I think referring to the MXR Micro Chorus (he wasn't sure). He had some recordings where he used it so I could listen, but I couldn't find any schematics of that particular pedal. The Small Clone seemed similar in concept and design, so I went with that instead.
Since this is a "small" chorus pedal, I went with a very small noisy bird that travels in groups - the bushtit. Also one of my favorite bird names
! We get bushtits in our yard a lot here in Seattle and they're always a blast to watch. They're extremely small (they weigh about 5 grams... a paperclip is about 1 gram), closer in size to a hummingbird. Usually they'll arrive at berries or feeders in groups of about 20, and they'll cover blocks of suet, often hanging upside down. They often have an angry sort of look and the flocks chirp noisily. Bushtits often travel with other small birds like chickadees and kinglets.The build was honest a pain. I hadn't built an Aion pedal since I first started - when I started with two full kits. Now with ~30-40 PedalPCB pedals under my belt there's a bunch I don't like. The large daughterboard is a pain, it's annoying that all the cables need to be threaded through to the bottom of the pedal, the star wiring isn't my favorite. And worst of all, not having the component values printed on the board itself.
I appreciate that the build has two different versions (MN3007 and MN3207). However, it meant I had to keep consulting the build doc and I don't like seeing the empty diode and capacitor holes - it felt like I was doing something wrong or forgetting something. I ended up building the simpler one, the MN3007 version. Additionally, sourcing the parts was kinda a pain, although Aion sells the ICs. I couldn't find the tiny DPDT slider switch on Tayda and ended up getting a small bag of them on Amazon because I didn't have enough I needed from Mouser.
Finally, I accidentally soldered the footswitch the wrong way on one of the boards - my own dumb mistake when not paying attention. It was a good opportunity to order and practice with a desoldering pump, which I'd been meaning to buy.
Those are the reason for the 3 stars for the build. The pedal fired up straight away when I turned it on without any trouble, so all in all it wasn't that bad.
This is my second chorus (after the Caesar/Julia). I like that one more - it has more options, more ability to shape the tone, and a wider range of possibilities; although I haven't played the Bushtit much, it feels a little more tame and sterile. Still, it works well and I have two pedalboards, so this is sticking around on my large "backup" board for now.
