Band of Dans
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is my first build report, so how about a quick and easy one? I've been quasi-lurking for a while (I've built over a dozen PPCB pedals at this point) and am looking forward to posting more build reports soon!
On to the build: I've owned a TS9 for...erm...almost 20 years and never really liked it. Mostly because I'm just not a good guitar player and never learned how to use my own gear. I also just haven't ever played with bands consistently enough to appreciate the utility of a mid-boosted overdrive, but I digress. A buddy was recently going on about how much he loves his Plumes, so I figured why not build one and see if I like it? Turns out this YATS is just different enough and I've really been enjoying it. The clipping options are fun, the mid-boost doesn't seem as pronounced as my TS9 (or at least is more pleasing to my ears), and it still seems to do some nice tone-shaping in tandem with other drives.
The build itself was super straightforward. I think my only mod was swapping the volume pot for an audio taper. I ran into some trouble stuffing it into a 1590b, but that's entirely my fault. Despite making this mistake on my two previous 1590b retrofits, I still managed to overshoot when moving the drill measurements down to make room for top jacks, putting the board way too close to the footswitch. These low-profile jacks from antique electronic supply help a ton. Rather than scrap the enclosure or resort to bondo, I just filed a couple mm out the top of the knob holes and the bottom of the footswitch hole. I had to file things out a bit more than I would've liked, so the Dreaded White Washer of Shame is there to cover the Gap of Shameful Mis-measurement below. I still had to rotate the footswitch 90 degrees, but that presented a good opportunity to use one of the LED footswitch breakout boards I ordered last year by mistake.
For the enclosure finishing, I tried combining punched labels with acrylic paint "art" and am pretty pleased with the way it came out. I did a little green/yellow gradient with watered-down paint, waited for it to dry, and topped it all with flowers/filled in the letters with black paint pen. Finished the whole thing off with some acrylic lacquer from a rattle can.
On to the build: I've owned a TS9 for...erm...almost 20 years and never really liked it. Mostly because I'm just not a good guitar player and never learned how to use my own gear. I also just haven't ever played with bands consistently enough to appreciate the utility of a mid-boosted overdrive, but I digress. A buddy was recently going on about how much he loves his Plumes, so I figured why not build one and see if I like it? Turns out this YATS is just different enough and I've really been enjoying it. The clipping options are fun, the mid-boost doesn't seem as pronounced as my TS9 (or at least is more pleasing to my ears), and it still seems to do some nice tone-shaping in tandem with other drives.
The build itself was super straightforward. I think my only mod was swapping the volume pot for an audio taper. I ran into some trouble stuffing it into a 1590b, but that's entirely my fault. Despite making this mistake on my two previous 1590b retrofits, I still managed to overshoot when moving the drill measurements down to make room for top jacks, putting the board way too close to the footswitch. These low-profile jacks from antique electronic supply help a ton. Rather than scrap the enclosure or resort to bondo, I just filed a couple mm out the top of the knob holes and the bottom of the footswitch hole. I had to file things out a bit more than I would've liked, so the Dreaded White Washer of Shame is there to cover the Gap of Shameful Mis-measurement below. I still had to rotate the footswitch 90 degrees, but that presented a good opportunity to use one of the LED footswitch breakout boards I ordered last year by mistake.
For the enclosure finishing, I tried combining punched labels with acrylic paint "art" and am pretty pleased with the way it came out. I did a little green/yellow gradient with watered-down paint, waited for it to dry, and topped it all with flowers/filled in the letters with black paint pen. Finished the whole thing off with some acrylic lacquer from a rattle can.
