Arche Build

[Dan0h]

I’ll admit, when TPS featured this boost on their video last month I wanted it. And it delivers. The General Tso was one of my first builds and has never left my board. Big fan of Thorpy’s pedals. This might just give the simulcast a run for its money, as that has been my almost always on pedal for a long time now. This thing rules and I love the Low knob… it’s also cool how few components this has. Simple is really better. And this thing is loud as F$&k.

 

[MichaelW]

Would 2 of these fit into a single 1590BB? I'm thinking it would be cool to do one with Ge diodes and one clean, like the Thorpy Dual Heavy Water.

 

[Dan0h]

Would 2 of these fit into a single 1590BB? I'm thinking it would be cool to do one with Ge diodes and one clean, like the Thorpy Dual Heavy Water.

These boards are 2”. Sideways a 1590bb is 4.7”. Should work.

 

[fig]

Would 2 of these fit into a single 1590BB? I'm thinking it would be cool to do one with Ge diodes and one clean, like the Thorpy Dual Heavy Water.

You might stack 2 in a 125B with the right components.

 

[Coda]

You might stack 2 in a 125B with the right components.

You could almost definitely stack two in a 125B with the WRONG components as well…

 

[MichaelW]

Arghhh, I just went and watched that episode of TPS......now I really want to build this one....but with both sides.... It was definitely the best sounding boost of all they went through. Although I really liked the Source Audio Zio as well.

 

[Dan0h]

Arghhh, I just went and watched that episode of TPS......now I really want to build this one....but with both sides.... It was definitely the best sounding boost of all they went through. Although I really liked the Source Audio Zio as well.

TPS has caused more build purchases than anything for me. They cause massive gas.

 

[Feral Feline]

Bepto Pismol pink!

I may have to build this, too, now...

 

[Dan0h]

Review time:
Ok, after having several days with the Arche Boost on my board (it kicked off my General Tso,which has been on my board since I started building pedals) I have some thoughts to share. At the beginning I really thought this might actually replace my Simulcast as my clean boost of choice.
The good: Turns out the Arche is a better clean boost than the Simulcast, it covers all the magic frequencies (even without a transformer!) super warm lows and mids and diamond crisp highs. In my opinion it handles the upper mids and highs better than the simulcast. This is for sure the cleanest sharpest warmest sound I’ve heard from my rig.
The bummer: The only catch is it doesn’t stack very well compared to the simulcast. When I stack drives after my simulcast it’s delicious, when I stack drives after the Arche it’s great, but it’s almost ice pick sharp and a few of them I get the background whine and oscillation. If I didn’t have the simulcast to compare I’d be stoked but I can’t undo hearing the difference.
Arche is staying on my board though, it’s seriously the cleanest fullest tone pimp on its own, just doesn’t play as well with my other drives as my ole trusty simulcast does.
My 2¢, yes you should build one, and pay up for the 1n747a’s. That must be where the unicorn dust is hiding.

 

[Funnel]

@Dan0h have you tried stacking pedals before the arche

 

[Dan0h]

@Dan0h have you tried stacking pedals before the arche

Good idea, I will pop it in at the end and see how it works. I did try my double barrel clone into it and it also sounded ice picky on the highs. Maybe the others won’t be so bad. I’m also going to try using it on its own power jack and see if that helps with the whine.

 

[Feral Feline]

It makes sense that the Simulcast stacks well because it effectively has a buffer-buster in it (transformer just before the output).

Anyway, I ordered the Arche after reading this thread and having the "420" sale dangled in front of me — like a Great Northern Pike seeing a frog limping through the water, I took the bait...

 

[Dan0h]

It makes sense that the Simulcast stacks well because it effectively has a buffer-buster in it (transformer just before the output).

Anyway, I ordered the Arche after reading this thread and having the "420" sale dangled in front of me — like a Great Northern Pike seeing a frog limping through the water, I took the bait...

Ah, the good ole days of leaders and daredevils catching northerns for fun. There is a lake in the UP of Michigan that was polluted with Mercury so you can’t eat anything from it which made it a lake of monsters. Deer lake. At least that was the case when I was a kid an my dad took me there. Never caught so many so fast. I just looked it up and it seems it has been delisted from Mercury contamination but is still listed as a “Catch and release” lake. Cool.

 

[Feral Feline]

Dang, I had a nifty pic of a pike-eating-frog for my post but I guess it didn't load... whatever.


There was a lake in North Ontario that was contaminated by mercury (?IIRC) that initially the scientists couldn't find the source of the contamination — no obvious industrial polluters on the lake (it was a remote area) and nothing upstream on the tributaries — turned out there was a naturally occurring high-content of mercury in the rocks surrounding and in the lake and the water was just leeching it out.

As a kid my friend and I would bike down to the lake here and the GNPs were so big you'd ride home with it hanging off the handlebar by the gill and the tail would be dragging on the ground. Steering always worked better if you had two fish, one on each side of the handlebar.

 

[Dan0h]

@Dan0h have you tried stacking pedals before the arche

Update: I was able to get the whine to go away by giving it its own power supply line instead of daisy chain. And some how that also cleared up the ice pickness on all my drives except the Mojito which doesn’t need a boost in the first place so win win. I’m still keeping the Simulcast because it has a mid frequency that is untouchable. This Arche just has the most crystal clear highs and tasty lows. If I were to design a circuit I would try to create the low and high of the Arche and the mids of the Simulcast along with the transformer, perfect preamp pedal right there for any “wizards” looking to flex out an epic boost @Chuck D. Bones hint hint…

 

[Funnel]

Update: I was able to get the whine to go away by giving it its own power supply line instead of daisy chain. And some how that also cleared up the ice pickness on all my drives except the Mojito which doesn’t need a boost in the first place so win win. I’m still keeping the Simulcast because it has a mid frequency that is untouchable. This Arche just has the most crystal clear highs and tasty lows. If I where to design a circuit I would try to create the low and high of the Arche and the mids of the Simulcast along with the transformer, perfect preamp pedal right there for any “wizards” looking to flex out an epic boost @Chuck D. Bones hint hint…

Good to know! I’ll have to add it to the list. Perhaps with a few simulcast and duo cast boards. I have a vero build on my troubleshooting shelf. But I’d rather the smaller footprint of the simulcast.

 

[Dan0h]

Last update on this build: I stacked the Simulcast into the Arche, both clean and HOLE LEE FOOK! I literally considered the possibility of just having a two pedal pedal board. It’s insane. If you have both, you gotta try it. Wow! No drive pedal I have played sounds this good. Light touch = very alive clean. Medium touch = beautiful breakup. Heavy touch = lightening bolts shooting out of my brain crunch. This sound is very inspiring to me, I spent almost two hours yesterday just noodling away. I may be buying a new simulcast and Arche boards to make a dual in one box.