British Royalty Overdrive (Greer Royal Velvet)

[geoffrey]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

So I have to start off by saying that my relationship with Greer clones is a bit complex. The Lightspeed is still my favorite light "transparent," "organic" (insert whatever buzz word you like here) OD of all time, and my Mach 1 was on my board since I built it until @szukalski's Speedy Sheep came along and kicked it off due to it's extra gain stage.

But other Greer clones have been let downs: the Southland (Southern Belle) and Tomahawk (Hatchet) pretty much sucked imho. That said, his "amp in a box" clones that I've built (Ghetto Stomp and Black Mountain) have been fun to play and really feel like AIB's. I can say almost the same about the British Royalty - the exception being that it's more fun and just plain better than the aforementioned. Well, let me tell you why.

To be fair, I don't have the relative amps to compare the Green Ghetto to Black Mountain to...nor do I have an AC 30. But I do have a sweet little Vox AC4TV (a fantastic little 4W tube amp, btw, for those of you in apartments or other situations where you need something with lower head room). That said, I know what a Vox sounds like and the British Royalty has it down pretty well. Although some may use it as an OD, it is definitely more of a preamp - lots of "British sparkle" on tap, stays relatively clean until you get around noon with the gain control and then it starts to get grimy - all while maintaining that Voxy chime. It stacks well (as a preamp should) and sounded fantastic when getting hit with my Speedy Sheep, Texel, or Modus Operandi. The EQ is interesting in that it seems to affect both the volume and gain quite a bit to my ears; but that doesn't bother me and the tone control sounds pretty damn good with my Strat around 3 o'clock - even better when dimed out. It's a lot of fun at both 9V or 18 and is pretty responsive to your attack and guitar's volume control.

It's possible I just think the British Royalty is better than the other AIB's because I like that British/Vox sound better; but I truly think it's because it has that amp like "feel" down better than the others. Even when I had it plugged into my Joyo Bluejay BanTamp (a great little 20W single tube head that I solely use as a headphone amp late at night), I felt like I was playing my Vox.

All the glowing praise aside, it does have its limits. If you don't like that British sound, then you have no use for this. And it won't find a permanent place on my board (if I want to play a Vox, well, I'll just play my Vox). But it's a super fun pedal and if you like that sound you'll definitely want to build this whether you have a Vox or not (but especially if you don't and you want you want your Monotone to sound like one ).

Easy, straightforward build except for the fact I had to sort through a few "poopy" (as @MichaelW likes to describe them ) sounding J201's before I was able to get the right sound (biased at 4.5V). I'm going to have to get my SMD skills up to par pretty quickly because I swear it's getting harder and harder to find good throughhole JFets (had the same problem with the J113 in my General Tso's). Anyway, it all worked out in the end.

Went with the "Red Sparkle" enclosure from Love my Switches' December powder drop. The red sparkle has a really dope dark hue to it and the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Again, unless you just plain don't like this particular kind of sound, just build it and and have fun!

 

[MichaelW]

Easy, straightforward build except for the fact I had to sort through a few "poopy" (as @MichaelW likes to describe them ) sounding J201's before I was able to get the right sound (biased at 4.5V). I'm going to have to get my SMD skills up to par pretty quickly because I swear it's getting harder and harder to find good throughhole JFets (had the same problem with the J113 in my General Tso's). Anyway, it all worked out in the end.

I said that? ....sounds like something I'd say....

Great build and write up. I'm with you on the Greer pedals. I absolutely love the Mach 1 and Speedy. The Southland I built twice, the stock version was "meh" to me, but the second I used low vF Ge diodes and it made a big difference. (Also changed the nature of the drive).
I've avoided the transformer based Greer pedals because I did not like the Soma 63. But your post has me intrigued by this one.

 

[spi]

The Mach 1 is great. The Southland was underwhelming for me, and the Tomahawk was just OK. Unlike Michael, I really like the Soma 63 though. I've avoided the Black Mountain because I already have plenty of Marshall based pedals and didn't think Greer's track record was good enough to ensure it'd be a hit.

I've never really fell in love with the Vox sound, but your description makes me think I should try this pedal anyway--at least to have the option.

 

[Fama]

I'm going to have to get my SMD skills up to par pretty quickly because I swear it's getting harder and harder to find good throughhole JFets (had the same problem with the J113 in my General Tso's).

I saw someone mention sot-23 ZIF sockets, and I was looking for them just now for this reason - so you could audition SMD JFET's before soldering.

So something like this is the best I found https://www.ebay.com/itm/403483171477 (or aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004896032216.html)

But they all either look pretty sketchy or cost a lot.

Ideally I think I would put some jumper wires directly into the adapter, and just pop in an SMD JFET (or two at a time?) and plug the jumper wires into the through-hole-holes on the PCB to audition the JFET before soldering. But it doesn't feel like a great solution.

 

[geoffrey]

I saw someone mention sot-23 ZIF sockets, and I was looking for them just now for this reason - so you could audition SMD JFET's before soldering.

So something like this is the best I found https://www.ebay.com/itm/403483171477 (or aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004896032216.html)

But they all either look pretty sketchy or cost a lot.

Ideally I think I would put some jumper wires directly into the adapter, and just pop in an SMD JFET (or two at a time?) and plug the jumper wires into the through-hole-holes on the PCB to audition the JFET before soldering. But it doesn't feel like a great solution.

Interesting stuff, @Fama. It may be worth taking a punt on one of those cheapos just to see how they work

 

[geoffrey]

I said that? ....sounds like something I'd say....

Great build and write up. I'm with you on the Greer pedals. I absolutely love the Mach 1 and Speedy. The Southland I built twice, the stock version was "meh" to me, but the second I used low vF Ge diodes and it made a big difference. (Also changed the nature of the drive).
I've avoided the transformer based Greer pedals because I did not like the Soma 63. But your post has me intrigued by this one.

The "poopy" description was one I used before, and this was supposed to be kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke to your response to that .

Your second build of the southland sounds interesting. Maybe I'll give it another go.

I've had the Soma in my pile forever so I'm finally just going to have to build it and finally see what it's all about.

As an aside, I'm always worried I "over hype" things and describe things better than they actually are (at least that's what my wife says I do ). But knowing what you like to experiment with Michael I doubt you'll regret building this one, even if you don't end up falling in love with it.

 

[geoffrey]

The Mach 1 is great. The Southland was underwhelming for me, and the Tomahawk was just OK. Unlike Michael, I really like the Soma 63 though. I've avoided the Black Mountain because I already have plenty of Marshall based pedals and didn't think Greer's track record was good enough to ensure it'd be a hit.

I've never really fell in love with the Vox sound, but your description makes me think I should try this pedal anyway--at least to have the option.

Yea, I have to move the Soma to the top of my pile now. As far Marshall pedals go, I actually like the Black Mountain better than say an Angry Charlie. But that whole Marshall thing is more of an amusement to me than an actual tool for my rig.

That said, that is what the British Royalty might end up being to you, @spi - an amusement that's just fun to pull out every once and awhile (since you don't really dig the whole Vox thing). For me, that's enough to try something out.