Best non-dirt pedal you've built

Grubb

Grubb

Well-known member
I'm trying to convince myself to branch away from overdrives and distortion. I need to get excited about a non-drive pedal for this to happen. So please tell me about your favourite pedal that isn't an overdrive, distortion, boost or fuzz. I'd love to hear about why you chose to build it and what you learned along the way.
 
I have been attempting this as well. The abyss was a super rewarding build. I wanted to get that bit of shift when I kick on a drive to make single note lines more interesting. That said... It works with everything from fuzz to clean funk lines. I could kick it on and leave it for hours. It seemed like a good jumping off point also since it was super easy to source the parts for rather than diving deep and doing a Low Tide or Univibe.
 
Grubb, I hit the same point you describe and have a bunch of non-dirt pedals in progress.

Favorite completed pedal: Hydra delay

Favorite “almost done” pedal: FreakZeq. The board is populated, but not boxed. I built it first on a breadboard and got lost running it before and after various dirt pedals. It’s very cool.
 
Spirit Box with R4 18K mod to solve the volume drop. I needed a reverb and this has proven to be immensely fun. Put a Hydra in front of it for some early reflections and you have some great reverb possibilities.

Low Tide. I built this to hop on the bandwagon and have something unique, but I find myself using it a lot more than I thought. It pissed me off as I built it, but really grew on me.

General Tso compressor. Brings out the single coil sparkle!
 
Caesar Chorus. I'm shocked that it sounds exactly like a real WA Julia. Really outstanding chorus pedal.

Another one is the Low Tide Modulator. I had no idea how I would feel about it. After playing with it though I can find a lot of good uses. It's great for adding a bit of modulation on a quiet track, something really subtle and random but with a beauty to it. That's about the best way to describe it. Really kind of organic.
 
I second the Caesar. It's my favorite build after more than a dozen, and it hasn't left my board since I built it a year ago.

I personally love the CE-2 sound, but it's also a good option for those who don't even like chorus. The blend and lag controls let you dial in subtle tones that enhance cleans without the 80s cheese, if that's not your thing.

That being said, now is not a great time to source the chips.
 
Harry Klippton said:
I'm still waiting to build a pedal of any kind that makes it into regular use 🤡
Click to expand...
My only other constant is the Sherwood, because it's one of few ODs that sound good through my Jazz Chorus, but it's weirdly voiced for a TS variant and sounds harsh through my other amps. The rest are rotated in and out on a daily basis, and the bad ones go on the shelf because at least they look cool!
 
I'll third the Caesar. I just finished it up last night and was super impressed by how great it sounds. I had an actual WA Julia back when I first got into pedals, and this one sounds identical to my ears.
I've been gradually working my way up to taking a stab at the Low Tide, so this felt like a nice little confidence boost when I was able to fire it up and have it work right away. It's not necessarily super challenging, but it does feel like it's a step above most of the drive/fuzz builds I've done so far.
 
I love ridiculous things (shout out to Pauleo1214). One of my favorite ridiculous things is the dead end fx floop which is a feedback looper with an lfo. Momentarily making other pedals sound like a whale demon is very fun to me. It turns everything into a ridiculous pedal

More useful favorites per category: Hydra, viib, ocelot, arcadiator, low tide, flyleaf. I am still shocked how good that flyleaf sounds without vactrols.
 
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