Dielectric Boost - Tchula - Just Joshin'

[Jono SPR Pedals]

My first ever pedal build. I've had the PCB sat in a drawer for about 18 months, and I've been following posts on this amazing forum for nigh on two years now. My wife says I'm a world class procrastinator. She's not wrong.

I've had a couple of Tchula pedals over the years, and it was always a favourite of mine. I'm now largely a digital user (was Line6 Helix, now Fractal FM9) so I'd sold off my numerous pedals and I've not bought one in years. I miss the interaction though, and rather than spend a small fortune again on pedals, which are frankly wasted with my lack of playing talent, I've embarked on the build my own route.



The name is an homage to Josh Smith who is probably the most widely recognised user of the Tchula pedal over the years, and I've given it a brand of Scissors Paper Rock or SPR depending on the space available to identify it as my handiwork. I didn't want to blatantly copy the Tchula's look. As expected, I made a few mistakes along the way, especially since bar some repairs to guitar wiring I've never done anything like this before. Thank you to those who suggested some things to check when I posted in the Troubleshooting forum.

• I missed one component off my order, so that had to be ordered separately.
• I'd also ordered stereo jacks and not mono, they would have worked but I got hold of some mono jacks just to keep things simpler on a first build.
• The holes in the enclosure allowed every component to fit, except the power plug. So I purchased a reemer to enlarge the hole. Easy fix.
• The holes for the boost control and LED's only just allowed enough room for the footswitches to be put in place, so I'll move them up fractionally next time.
• Somehow, despite checking multiple times, I got the labelling for the bypass and boost footswitches backwards. Doh. So mad at myself for that. Other than that, I'm really happy with how the finish turned out. Figuring out how to get the UV printing layers correct was a learning curve, some YouTube tutorials were invaluable.
• The iron I'd used for the inital build was a cheap $10 thing, which pretty much melted itself during the build. I've invested in a decent soldering station, which has made a world of difference. So worth the money and will last for many, many years.
• When I first plugged the completed pedal in, the bypass completly cut the signal. Resoldered a couple of joints, to resolve that. But then the boost channel did nothing other than turn the LED on. Some more resoldering required.
• Then nothing was working, it appeared that I'd made things worse. I couldn't figure out what I'd done. Of course it would have helped if I'd checked that the pedal power supply was turned on. I'll chalk that up to having a senior moment.

I'm amazed at how close it sounds to how I recall the Tchula behaving. That characteristic jump in output when engaged, which some people don't like, but if you set your amp up on the edge of breakup I think this pedal really shines. It's incredibly dynamic, you can just leave it on and ride your guitar's volume pot. Onto the next build, which hopefully won't take another two years and will go a little more smoothly having been through this frustrating, but ultimately very rewarding, experience.

 

[HamishR]

If the labelling of the switches bothers you it looks like you might just about have enough slack in the wiring to simply swap the switches. Maybe not... That's what I would do though.

The enclosure looks really good.

 

[Jono SPR Pedals]

If the labelling of the switches bothers you it looks like you might just about have enough slack in the wiring to simply swap the switches. Maybe not... That's what I would do though.

The enclosure looks really good.

I did try that funnily enough, but then it became obvious to me that the LED's wiring would also then have to be reversed and I've already soldered them to the PCB. There's no extra wiring left on them to play with and not a lot of room between the LED bezels and the underneath of the PCB. My wife has a nifty label printer so I might see what it looks like if I tape over the boost, bypass and boost level markings but I don't think it would look quite as polished. I can live with it as is, or always fix it with a replacement enclosure down the road. I think I'll have a crack at the Twill Deluxe "Les Lius" pedal next which is similar in terms of its complexity. Baby steps.

 

[chris.knudson]

Despite the fact that the foot switches are labeled backwards (check out my builds if you want to see the horror of mislabeling controls) this thing turned out awesome. Fantastic job for a first build. The frustrating part -- I get that, but I'm glad that you ultimately found it a very rewarding experience.

 

[MattG]

That looks great! It’s always satisfying to have a working pedal that you built yourself. But there’s something special about the very first build. So much learning, and the anxiety of “Is it going to work? What do I do if it doesn’t?” And then to have something that actually works - I don’t want to give up all the experience I have from building a lot of pedals, but reliving the first few builds would be a treat.

And it certainly doesn’t look like a first build! Welcome to the club!

 

[jcpst]

That is a clean first build!

Somehow, despite checking multiple times, I got the labelling for the bypass and boost footswitches backwards. Doh. So mad at myself for that.

This is something that surprised me about pedal building. It seems so simple to keep straight. But with all the build steps that require considering the orientation on the other side of the board, I still get mixed up from time to time.

 

[Fish]

Hey man great build im about to box my tchula up trying a horizontal placement. Im already worried about messing up the switches since every thing is sideways

 

[Jono SPR Pedals]

Hey man great build im about to box my tchula up trying a horizontal placement. Im already worried about messing up the switches since every thing is sideways

Staying true to the original layout, I like it ! I put on longer wires than necessary between the footswitches and the board so I had room to work, knowing I'd probably be pulling it apart to fix something I got wrong. The same goes for the leads to the input and output jacks. I believe Tayda had a horizontal layout for their Tchula PCB, so perhaps look that up to see how they handled it? If you're also planning on moving the potentiometer placement then are you going to secure the board in a different way? In my build, following the PedalPCB layout, the board is secured by the boost level control, and it rests on the LED bezels that I used. Show us how you get on with your build, though.