mkstewartesq
Well-known member
This will probably be my last build for a little while. I find the process of building incredibly interesting and relaxing – but I’ve pretty much built everything I want or need right now (in fact, multiples of several of them). So I’m waiting until some of the upcoming projects Robert has announced come to the store. That being said, I have a friend who wants me to build a few pedals for him so if that comes to pass, that will fill my building jones in the interim.
This is a Cataclysm delay, which is based on the EQD Disaster Transport Jr. It’s a PT2399-based delay - no modulation, but it does have a tone control that affects the tone of the wet signal (the repeats).
Sound: I like it, although it’s a bit more “tape delay” than I was expecting based on the demos I heard – meaning that the repeats are generally more lo-fi and indistinct rather than being crisp and clear with the first repeat and generally becoming more “muffled” like some other tape delay emulators I have heard. Definitely not nearly as hi-fi as a digital delay but, of course, that’s to be expected. If you’re into self-oscillation (full disclosure: I’m not, and never understood the attraction of it), the pedal starts to self-oscillate when you have the repeats set at around 4 o’clock or so.
The tone control on the repeats is nice but doesn’t seem to make any earth-shattering difference for me. I hear a bit of noise in the repeats, so I’ll probably audition a few other PT2399s from my stash to see if I have a quieter chip I can put in.
The appearance: ………. did not come out as intended.
This is a film free decal. I don’t know whether Sunnyscopa changed their glue formula or I just got a bad batch but, for whatever reason, the glue cured much harder and much quicker than it normally does. After the initial 10 minute bake, the decal film was incredibly difficult to remove and there was a lot of very hard cured glue residue– basically what you would’ve expected if you had baked it for 30 minutes rather than 10. The glue had also caused some of the black lettering to “swell”, which is why the font on the top row looks a bit larger and more bolded than the lower row even though, in the Adobe illustrator file, they are the exact same size and weight.
Isopropyl alcohol did nothing to get rid of the glue residue so I decided to just strip the decal off and apply a new one. That was a complete no-go. Acetone (in nail polish remover)) did absolutely nothing to strip the decal off . In fact, it started attacking the powder coating but wasn’t really touching the decal. In the end, it did inadvertently take off some of the finer detail the vortex design at the top (which was a bummer) before I finally decided to leave well enough alone and just live with the graphic as-is.
Then I discovered that I didn’t have 4 knobs of the same color, so I went for a two-tone look by necessity. I think it will grow on me.
Thanks for looking,
Mike
This is a Cataclysm delay, which is based on the EQD Disaster Transport Jr. It’s a PT2399-based delay - no modulation, but it does have a tone control that affects the tone of the wet signal (the repeats).
Sound: I like it, although it’s a bit more “tape delay” than I was expecting based on the demos I heard – meaning that the repeats are generally more lo-fi and indistinct rather than being crisp and clear with the first repeat and generally becoming more “muffled” like some other tape delay emulators I have heard. Definitely not nearly as hi-fi as a digital delay but, of course, that’s to be expected. If you’re into self-oscillation (full disclosure: I’m not, and never understood the attraction of it), the pedal starts to self-oscillate when you have the repeats set at around 4 o’clock or so.
The tone control on the repeats is nice but doesn’t seem to make any earth-shattering difference for me. I hear a bit of noise in the repeats, so I’ll probably audition a few other PT2399s from my stash to see if I have a quieter chip I can put in.
The appearance: ………. did not come out as intended.
This is a film free decal. I don’t know whether Sunnyscopa changed their glue formula or I just got a bad batch but, for whatever reason, the glue cured much harder and much quicker than it normally does. After the initial 10 minute bake, the decal film was incredibly difficult to remove and there was a lot of very hard cured glue residue– basically what you would’ve expected if you had baked it for 30 minutes rather than 10. The glue had also caused some of the black lettering to “swell”, which is why the font on the top row looks a bit larger and more bolded than the lower row even though, in the Adobe illustrator file, they are the exact same size and weight.
Isopropyl alcohol did nothing to get rid of the glue residue so I decided to just strip the decal off and apply a new one. That was a complete no-go. Acetone (in nail polish remover)) did absolutely nothing to strip the decal off . In fact, it started attacking the powder coating but wasn’t really touching the decal. In the end, it did inadvertently take off some of the finer detail the vortex design at the top (which was a bummer) before I finally decided to leave well enough alone and just live with the graphic as-is.
Then I discovered that I didn’t have 4 knobs of the same color, so I went for a two-tone look by necessity. I think it will grow on me.
Thanks for looking,
Mike
