Coda Effects status? Or Black Hole PCB replacement?

Fama

Fama

Well-known member
Hello!

I ordered the PCB with the SMD JFET's presoldered from Coda Effects, but after doing some more research I'm not sure if he's still working? Nothing has been updated in a long time, and the FB page has some comments from months ago asking if he still sends PCB's with no answer. Does anyone here have an idea whether it might be coming eventually, I'm not in a huge rush if it takes a while.

If it turns out that I won't get that PCB, are there any good options? GuitarPCB and PCB Guitar Mania seem to both have a similar circuit, but I've already got the components and a pre-drilled 125B case coming from Tayda, so I'm not sure if the Mania PCB would even fit (plus I'd like the 6 knob version over the 9 knob version). GuitarPCB seems to have switchable channels - I'd prefer the boost version.
 
I don't know about the current status of Coda Effects. When I bought his boards on the past, I always got answers to my questions, that was by email.

As for options: I would hesitate to buy a Mania board without making sure that there are people who succesfully built it ... I bought the (first?) version of their Model T PCB and it was untested, not working and basically useless.

The Mofeta should fit the Coda drilling (I've built both) and if you want the Coda style boost, that's a LPB-1, you can add it up front, with a switch and trimmer like Coda, or as I've done it, always on and the trimmer as a potentiometer on the outside, instead of the switch.

Electro Harmonix LPB1 with trimmer.png
 
Granted I didn't email him yet about the order, maybe I'll do it now. I did email him a bit back about adding kits to Musikding, but heard no response to that. It could be that he answers order related emails - best case scenario is that he shipped it already but there was just no update email about it or whatever.

Thanks for the Mofeta suggestion, that's probably my best back-up solution - although best case would be if I don't need to resort to any backup solutions. I'll check the parts lists later to see if I got everything I need, I assume the parts are pretty similar. I can see the Mofeta is available as a kit on Musikding, I'll have to see how much shipping + taxes would be just for the PCB from PedalPCB, I think they ship from the US? I might also be interested in the Protoboard, but tbh I'm not sure if I'm ready to jump off the deep end yet. Might get it too if the shipping works out like that.

I'm very much a beginner, I've only just built three pedals from simple kits so far. The circuit you posted is for stripboard, right? So something like this would work https://www.musikding.de/Stripboard-50x100mm? I also found a couple of booster PCB's on Musikding otherwise too, The HardOne (SHO probably) or MC4, which could work for me. Other stores are also fine, but Musikding doesn't have added taxes for me (Finland) plus the shipping is rather quick and not too expensive.

Btw, what is the red square for, are you supposed to drill it out to break the strip there?
 
I'm pretty sure, you'll get your Coda order, he's a good guy, at least from my experience.

And yes, you could order just the Mofeta PCB from PedalPCB.

About the stripboard: I wasn't aware that you're really new to this, so I totally understand the hesitation. On the other hand, you will probably try it one day anyway, and that boost is the perfect circuit as a first try. The stripboard you linked will work and yes, the red square is a "cut", meaning you need to break the horizontal connection at this spot.

Of course, you can use a PCB for the boost part, Musikding has this which would suit your needs perfectly (doing the LPB-1):
www.musikding.de

Lovely Power Boost kit, 10,00

One transistor boost
www.musikding.de www.musikding.de

Your boost should be "clean and full range".
 
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Everything I read on his blog definitely gave me the image that he's a good guy and it's definitely not a scam. You're probably right, I'll keep waiting for the PCB - it's also possible that it'll just arrive one day without warning since it's probably untracked.

I originally ordered a drilled enclosure for it from Tayda plus a couple of PedalPCB pre-drilled enclosures (pre-drilled AND painted, excellent, decent price too if you order a bunch at once, even with taxes) that I was planning on building some time after the Black Hole. I'll build the Bellum Fuzz mk. 2 first while I wait for the Black Hole PCB, if worst comes to it I'll go with the Mofeta and Lovely Power Boost (or maybe strip board, it looks very doable and interesting too), thanks for the recommendations!

Once I get the parts for the Black Hole I'll possibly post about wiring a dual color LED for the boost switch instead of just the normal way, but I'll try to figure it out myself first because that's the best way to learn.
 
Fama said:
Hello!

If it turns out that I won't get that PCB, are there any good options? GuitarPCB and PCB Guitar Mania seem to both have a similar circuit, but I've already got the components and a pre-drilled 125B case coming from Tayda, so I'm not sure if the Mania PCB would even fit (plus I'd like the 6 knob version over the 9 knob version). GuitarPCB seems to have switchable channels - I'd prefer the boost version.
Click to expand...
I've ordered from PCB Guitar Mania, and honestly, I don't trust them anymore to actually have correct info in their build documentation. I haven't looked for a while, but even after multiple people reporting clear errors in some of their build docs, they never updated them. They've also never shown a working example of their Cosmos Delay and no one who has bought them in the Facebook group seems to have been able to successfully build it.
 
I would avoid PCB Guitar Mania as well, for the same reasons as already mentioned. Building from his PCBs with his documentations is almost like playing russian roulette 🥳.
Concerning Coda Effects, I read a few other persons in the last year or so not managing getting an answer from him, usually after ordering something from him, which seems strange, as he always had a pretty good reputation.
I hope this dude is alive and well.
 
fritzypatzy said:
I would avoid PCB Guitar Mania as well, for the same reasons as already mentioned. Building from his PCBs with his documentations is almost like playing russian roulette 🥳.
Concerning Coda Effects, I read a few other persons in the last year or so not managing getting an answer from him, usually after ordering something from him, which seems strange, as he always had a pretty good reputation.
I hope this dude is alive and well.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm definitely avoiding PCB Guitar Mania.

It has now been almost 50 days since I ordered, and no shipping confirmation, no PCB, no answers to emails or anything. I did do some light cybersnooping and let's say he is active online. I don't want to speculate any more or invade on his privacy since it's just 13€ I paid for the PCB, plus Paypal has a 180 day refund option, but I would advise other people to not order from his webstore unless you're ok with possibly waiting a very long time.

IMO the responsible thing would be to set everything to "out-of-stock" if you're not actively shipping things, but I'll update this post again if something happens here. I've got a bunch of PCB's on the way so I'm fine with waiting right now.
 
FWIW I found out that Fuzzdog has the "Model T Mini" PCB which fits in a 125B (almost in the same holes for pots too, might have to file one millimeter to make them fit my pre-drilled enclosure), so I ordered that one plus a LPB PCB from the store. It's a bit more expensive than the Coda Effects one, but again, no response now after over 60 days and no signs of life on any social platforms. I requested a refund through Paypal.

Edit: And Fuzzdog dispatched it in 3 hours. I'm no mathematician, but I think that is much faster than 60 days.
 
Last edited:
Just an update on this.

I just got an email that the PCB has been shipped?

I already got a refund over 3 months ago (since remember, I ordered it in February).

Man, if I actually do get the PCB I feel like I should send him some money for it.
 
That's frustrating. I've ordered a few times from coda and everything was shipped really quickly though the last time was easily 4 years ago.
 
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