rwl
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is my report on the Deflector, the PPCB version of the EQD Afterneath Reverb. I built this pedal because a bunch of people had recommended it in threads here.
Inspiration
I really struggled with inspiration. I think this pedal is best described as a "cave reverb." There's a few birds that can live in caves but I wasn't feeling inspired. Nor did anything come to me around "reverb" or "deflector." Finally I looked into the wizard on the original Afterneath pedal. A magical bird? What about a Merlin? I was sold.
I didn't want to just have a small bird of prey hovering in the air like my Kestral Reverb, so I decided to shake things up, go less naturalistic, and stick with the magical cave theme, giving the bird a Gandalf-like staff. I'd seen a red-colored Afterneath at some point, which I liked, so I went with red across the whole pedal - red illumination from the staff, red knobs, and best of all, the metallic candy red paint (easily the coolest-looking enclosure color from Tayda that I've seen).
The merlin is a small falcon, and one of the first uncommon birds I saw when I started birding in the US. You can sometimes see them at the very tops of trees, searching for prey. It's a sturdy bird, maybe the size of a pigeon - a little bigger than a kestral.
I'm very happy with the design!
The Build
I was a bit nervous about the build. I misunderstood the listing and didn't realize I could just purchase the FV-1 pre-soldered onto the board. Instead I got a slightly cheaper FV-1 from Stompboxparts, I think. Then I got nervous about SMD soldering and pushed this build off for a bit.
In the end the FV-1 wasn't that bad to attach. I started wtih pins on opposite corners to make sure it was well-positioned, then went carefully down each leg with a conical solder tip. The end result was a little messy but it hasn't had problems. I've since soldered the FV-1 on a Hydra and didn't have problems there either. Make sure you have it oriented the right way!
Besides that, the pedal is quite a simple build with few parts and it fired right up. No changes to this one, I just made it stock.
I do have one complaint: I appreciate that PPCB is faithful to the original pedals, but sometimes it's hard to understand how I should be labeling things (switches are often hard to understand the settings for from the build manual). My assumption is that the layout will be consistent with the original pedal, but I don't think that's always the case. For the Deflector, Robert decided to get cute and give every knob a "D" name, and I spent a while trying to figure out if I got the labels right. Looking now, I think I might have mislabeled the Drag and Reflect knobs.
The Pedal
It's a really great, unique reverb pedal. I've played with this pedal for maybe two months now, but besides a few experiments mostly kept it dialed down closer to a regular reverb. There's a lot going on here and in both the PPCB version and the original the knobs aren't exactly intuitive. So I don't feel like I really understand the pedal even now. The manual is fairly helpful.
Still, there's an awful lot you can do (especially if what you want to do is "hear a lot of wash and luminous echos"), but I guess I prefer more demure reverb sounds, so I haven't gone all out with it.
My only complaint is that sometimes the texture of the reverb feels a little bit grainy. It's not a big deal - only on some settings and if you really listen for it.
Firsts
: Easy build, and even easier if you order the FV-1 pre-soldered.
Pedal rating: 5/5: Really great for what it is - wacky overwhelming reverb that you can dial down close to a more basic reverb pedal.
Inspiration
I really struggled with inspiration. I think this pedal is best described as a "cave reverb." There's a few birds that can live in caves but I wasn't feeling inspired. Nor did anything come to me around "reverb" or "deflector." Finally I looked into the wizard on the original Afterneath pedal. A magical bird? What about a Merlin? I was sold.
I didn't want to just have a small bird of prey hovering in the air like my Kestral Reverb, so I decided to shake things up, go less naturalistic, and stick with the magical cave theme, giving the bird a Gandalf-like staff. I'd seen a red-colored Afterneath at some point, which I liked, so I went with red across the whole pedal - red illumination from the staff, red knobs, and best of all, the metallic candy red paint (easily the coolest-looking enclosure color from Tayda that I've seen).
The merlin is a small falcon, and one of the first uncommon birds I saw when I started birding in the US. You can sometimes see them at the very tops of trees, searching for prey. It's a sturdy bird, maybe the size of a pigeon - a little bigger than a kestral.
I'm very happy with the design!
The Build
I was a bit nervous about the build. I misunderstood the listing and didn't realize I could just purchase the FV-1 pre-soldered onto the board. Instead I got a slightly cheaper FV-1 from Stompboxparts, I think. Then I got nervous about SMD soldering and pushed this build off for a bit.
In the end the FV-1 wasn't that bad to attach. I started wtih pins on opposite corners to make sure it was well-positioned, then went carefully down each leg with a conical solder tip. The end result was a little messy but it hasn't had problems. I've since soldered the FV-1 on a Hydra and didn't have problems there either. Make sure you have it oriented the right way!
Besides that, the pedal is quite a simple build with few parts and it fired right up. No changes to this one, I just made it stock.
I do have one complaint: I appreciate that PPCB is faithful to the original pedals, but sometimes it's hard to understand how I should be labeling things (switches are often hard to understand the settings for from the build manual). My assumption is that the layout will be consistent with the original pedal, but I don't think that's always the case. For the Deflector, Robert decided to get cute and give every knob a "D" name, and I spent a while trying to figure out if I got the labels right. Looking now, I think I might have mislabeled the Drag and Reflect knobs.
The Pedal
It's a really great, unique reverb pedal. I've played with this pedal for maybe two months now, but besides a few experiments mostly kept it dialed down closer to a regular reverb. There's a lot going on here and in both the PPCB version and the original the knobs aren't exactly intuitive. So I don't feel like I really understand the pedal even now. The manual is fairly helpful.
Still, there's an awful lot you can do (especially if what you want to do is "hear a lot of wash and luminous echos"), but I guess I prefer more demure reverb sounds, so I haven't gone all out with it.
My only complaint is that sometimes the texture of the reverb feels a little bit grainy. It's not a big deal - only on some settings and if you really listen for it.
Firsts
- FV-1 build
- SMD soldering
- Candy red enclosure
: Easy build, and even easier if you order the FV-1 pre-soldered.Pedal rating: 5/5
: Really great for what it is - wacky overwhelming reverb that you can dial down close to a more basic reverb pedal.
