Covert

Phil hodson

Well-known member
So the second of my recent builds that will be given away. This one I haven’t built before and am thinking I already need to build one for myself.

This one is going to a friend of my wife who is obsessed with Lemmy and is a part time bass player in a band.

He has been helping my wife with her work so as a thank you she volunteered me to build him a pedal! How could I refuse.

I reached out on here and it pretty quickly was decided that the Covert was the way to go to get that Lemmy cranked Marshall sound.

It was also mentioned about some mods that could make it more controllable. Especially the bass. Which I believe some think can be quite muddy.

Will (@Harry Klippton) at outskirts pedals suggested about missing the super lead section of the pedal and just running it as a super bass.

So with that in mind it also meant it wouldn’t screw up my artwork with a switch!

Taking to him and reading the mods done here: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/covert-overdrive-too-wooly.1289/#post-14388

He also pushed/led me into missing out the components used in the super lead. So using my trusty DMM I traced from the 4PDT to various components using the schematic and decided to leave out C3/C13 and R15 that seemed enough to me! Was a fantastic lesson in reading schematics for me too.

I jumped the 4PDT switch to make it permanently on the super bass setting.

As per @Chuck D. Bones suggestion I changed the volume pot to an A50k and following the suggestions in the thread above I changed:

C18 to 22nf
R4/R11 to 220ohm
C19 to 220nf
R3/R10 to 1Kohm

Finally it’s in an etched enclosure with the Motörhead made in England logo. It seemed fitting to have that and also some Marshall knobs on there.

And wow! Firstly it actually works. Which is great for my first kind of solo mod board. Thanks to everyone for their help though. I couldn’t have done other with out all the fantastic help on here and information on the forum too.

I’m very happy with that and just after an initial play it sounds exactly what I’m looking for for him to unleash his inner Lemmy.

I will dust off my bass in the morning and put it through its paces before sending it on its merry way. And hope I will get to see it live in action sometime soon.

Also it’s a homage to a true hero and inspiration of mine for many years. God rest his soul.

You know I'm born to lose
And gambling's for fools
But that's the way I like it, baby
I don't want to live forever
And don't forget the joker


Have fun out there.
 

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Managed to get some time on it this morning too which was fun. Both bass and guitar and sounded beautiful. The preamp pot totally controls the crunch of it.
It’s still heavy on the bass but manageable with the tone controls.
I increased the presence trim pot to around 3 o’clock position and it give a lot more “definition” to the sound.
All in all I’m super happy and hope our friend will be too.
 
Totally! Have a back log to get through first though but I’m sure that one of these will be on its way to me soon enough.
I’ve been doing this entirely too long, you’ll never get through a backlog, there will always be one. I have boards from 8-10 years ago I still haven’t built. I’m not even sure what they do anymore, but I persevere.
Also when it's friends they can have a tendency to take the piss and assume you'll build them anything they want for free. A few of my friends are still under the belief that any pedal I build only costs me a few quid.
oh yeah, definitely. Everyone of them can get it for what it comes me to build….kind of …🤣
 
Can I borrow a friend or two? 😂
These are friends I have made in the last two years. They are a bunch of absolutely wonderful guys who are all around ten years younger than me and I wish I had met them years ago. To them I'm the old guy who builds amps and pedals and has stories about the band scene from just before they were involved in it. I started playing in the '80s, which was an incredibly vibrant time for bands and music where I live, and Australia in general. They're more '90s kids when the music scene was shrinking and venues were closing up. There were a few new venues starting then but nowhere near as many as were around in the '80s. I get all misty eyed just thinking about it. But these fellas are the friends I wish I'd had since forever. Better late than never I guess. They have a morality and friendliness that impresses the hell out of me. I wish everyone was like this. I feel lucky to have been included in their circle.
 
These are friends I have made in the last two years. They are a bunch of absolutely wonderful guys who are all around ten years younger than me and I wish I had met them years ago. To them I'm the old guy who builds amps and pedals and has stories about the band scene from just before they were involved in it. I started playing in the '80s, which was an incredibly vibrant time for bands and music where I live, and Australia in general. They're more '90s kids when the music scene was shrinking and venues were closing up. There were a few new venues starting then but nowhere near as many as were around in the '80s. I get all misty eyed just thinking about it. But these fellas are the friends I wish I'd had since forever. Better late than never I guess. They have a morality and friendliness that impresses the hell out of me. I wish everyone was like this. I feel lucky to have been included in their circle.

That's fantastic. I've had a similar experience in coming home. I was worried whether my old friends I lost contact with wouldn't want to have anything to do with me but instead they all welcomed me with open arms and huge hugs.

I genuinely didn't realise until I got them back that making music and good friends are some of the most important things we need for our quality of life and mental health.
 
Was that heaviness while testing with a bass or a guitar?
I found that I needed the mids up to about 3 o’clock and the treble up that way too while the bass had to be backed off to about 9 o’clock. Turning the bass up kind of “muddied” the sound.
Bearing in mind I was playing through a guitar amp, custom plexi. So probably not the best for playing a bass through.
And it’s set up as a super bass pedal so probably not the best for playing a guitar through 🤦‍♂️🤣
I did find that I creasing the presence trim pot inside to around 3 o’clock made a hide difference and made the notes noticeable clearer.
The Pra-amp pot I found can turn it from a boost/drive through distortion and right into muff territory. I thought it had a really dynamic range which was very useable.
I managed to get exactly the tone I was looking for from it.
Hope that helps a bit??? Let me know if you need any more info. I still have the pedal for a few more days…
 
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