MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
I've built a Jfet phaser (XC Phase), a OpAmp phaser (Phase II & Duo Phase) but not an OTA phaser. Based on how well liked this pedal was on the forum I decided I had to give it a go even though I rarely use a phase.
I know that our resident wizard has some cool mods for this board but I decided to build it stock first and see if I wanted to go down the mod rabbit hole.
Also, I grabbed a bunch of LM13700's from Barry at GuitarPCB when he had them on sale, so this was a good excuse to use them
So overall, the Circulator has a bit of a more subdued phasing to it compared to the Phase II and XC. It's got it's own thing going on and sounds pretty good to me in it's stock configuration.
First thing I noticed (after I built the pedal) is that my Range toggle doesn't do anything in the middle position. BOM called for an On-Off-On toggle. But it's quite possible I mistakenly put in an On-On-On. I haven't taken it apart to check yet but I'm actually getting quite a bit of range with the two toggle positions, so I may just leave it.
The second issue I had was that the "PV" toggle (Phase/Vibrato) doesn't do anything. I'm only getting phase in both toggle positions. From the website I saw that it's supposed to be true pitch vibrato. I have a feeling I have a bad toggle switch, it was behaving a bit weird at first, getting a volume jump if I wiggled the bat. I re-flowed the solder pads on it. Now it's not making any weird noises but I still only have phase. Unfortunately it was my last on-on SPST so I'm going to have to wait until I get some more in before troubleshooting that any further. I may just leave it since I don't foresee using it in Vibrato mode, not when I have the awesome VIIB pedal for that sound.
So toggle problems aside it's a pretty cool sounding phase. The build itself went smoothly and although it's a fairly heavy component count board, it's all so logically laid out that I breezed through it pretty quickly.
I recorded a short demo clip comparing it to the Phase II (Mutron) and the XC Phase (MXR Phase 45/90). I decided to leave the DuoPhase out of the shootout because it's really it's own animal. Actually, so is the Phase II, still my favorite phasor, it's got such a rich and complex sound even with the sharp resonant filtering effect dialed low.
Having said that, the Circulator is a cool pedal and definitely worth building! Glad to add it to my ever growing arsenal of analog modulation sounds!
I used the Tayda Light Violet enclosure but it looks more pink to me, but I'm not very trustworthy when it comes to colors, as I've mentioned before I'm a bit color blind. (More than a "bit" according to my wife heh)
Hacking up Danny O'Keefe's classic tune....I kicked on the Bullrush Overdrive a few minutes into the video.
I know that our resident wizard has some cool mods for this board but I decided to build it stock first and see if I wanted to go down the mod rabbit hole.
Also, I grabbed a bunch of LM13700's from Barry at GuitarPCB when he had them on sale, so this was a good excuse to use them
So overall, the Circulator has a bit of a more subdued phasing to it compared to the Phase II and XC. It's got it's own thing going on and sounds pretty good to me in it's stock configuration.
First thing I noticed (after I built the pedal) is that my Range toggle doesn't do anything in the middle position. BOM called for an On-Off-On toggle. But it's quite possible I mistakenly put in an On-On-On. I haven't taken it apart to check yet but I'm actually getting quite a bit of range with the two toggle positions, so I may just leave it.
The second issue I had was that the "PV" toggle (Phase/Vibrato) doesn't do anything. I'm only getting phase in both toggle positions. From the website I saw that it's supposed to be true pitch vibrato. I have a feeling I have a bad toggle switch, it was behaving a bit weird at first, getting a volume jump if I wiggled the bat. I re-flowed the solder pads on it. Now it's not making any weird noises but I still only have phase. Unfortunately it was my last on-on SPST so I'm going to have to wait until I get some more in before troubleshooting that any further. I may just leave it since I don't foresee using it in Vibrato mode, not when I have the awesome VIIB pedal for that sound.
So toggle problems aside it's a pretty cool sounding phase. The build itself went smoothly and although it's a fairly heavy component count board, it's all so logically laid out that I breezed through it pretty quickly.
I recorded a short demo clip comparing it to the Phase II (Mutron) and the XC Phase (MXR Phase 45/90). I decided to leave the DuoPhase out of the shootout because it's really it's own animal. Actually, so is the Phase II, still my favorite phasor, it's got such a rich and complex sound even with the sharp resonant filtering effect dialed low.
Having said that, the Circulator is a cool pedal and definitely worth building! Glad to add it to my ever growing arsenal of analog modulation sounds!
I used the Tayda Light Violet enclosure but it looks more pink to me, but I'm not very trustworthy when it comes to colors, as I've mentioned before I'm a bit color blind. (More than a "bit" according to my wife heh)
Hacking up Danny O'Keefe's classic tune....I kicked on the Bullrush Overdrive a few minutes into the video.
