coltonius
Well-known member
This build has been literal years in the making, and I want to thank @jjjimi84 for putting the DK Pedals touch on it.
Here are some photos before I dive in:
As you can see, the artwork is AMAZING! Holy crap, I am blown away. I approached Dan about painting an enclosure a few months ago as a fun way to participate in my kids' obsession with red pandas, and he enthusiastically agreed. I'm not sure whether it started with the movie Turning Red, but they now have red panda stuffies, books, etc... And it's convenient these animals are pretty damn cute. I've gotten in on the fun too, and my wife jokingly accuses me of being obsessed.
Seriously, though. What's not to love about these fluffy little critters?
Now for the build info...
Part One (Background):
As stated, this build began several years ago when Peter first started licensing his circuits to @bean for the DIY community. I purchased the Tractor Beam, Choral Reef, and several others back then but never got around to building due to the novel parts and apparent complexity of some of the builds. The 2-in-1 switching board was purchased from Swirl Pedals back in the day when he was building DIY VFEs as well. (Some of you may remember his mega pedal with all the VFE circuits in one giant enclosure...)
Part Two (Assembly):
The most nerve wracking part was the enclosure, which I laid out using naught but painter's tape, a carpenter's square, and a center hole punch. Then I had to meticulously hand drill every single hole. As you can see, it's a tight squeeze and parts have to be aligned perfectly for everything to fit. To that degree, it turned out quite well!
I was only a little nervous about the actual boards, but they fired right up and biased easily. The Tractor Beam was ungodly loud unless the internal Level trimmer was nearly all the way off, and I quickly discovered I used 200k instead of 20k. (This is important, because that Level adjustment is in the negative feedback loop of the recovery stage- much like the Gain knob on a typical overdrive, minus the diodes and overdrive). After some quick math, I was able to bridge the trimmer with a resistor and knock it down to the appropriate value. Much better!
Part Three (Play Time / Tweaker's Delight):
The Choral Reef has always been one of my favorite choruses and this one does not disappoint! The voltages were a little low, but thankfully I remembered something Brian wrote in one of the Madbean build docs about the inductor dropping too much. I cut it out / bridged it and voila! Problem solved. It's lush and can be as subtle or whacky as desired, a man for all seasons. I typically just use it for a subtle thickening with the Range toggle in the center position.
The Tractor Beam, however, is presenting quite a learning curve, but I remember a similar experience when I had an original many years ago. The 4-2-3 Stage toggle requires nearly every knob to be adjusted to find the sweet spot, which I think is normal. 2 stages is too subtle for my taste, so I lean toward 4 or 3 stages and Vibe mode for a watery whoosh.
The internal order toggle is handy, but I've landed on TB > CR for my preferred order and don't see myself messing with it.
____________
Over-all, this is a modulation workhorse! I'm so glad to have completed it and very grateful to everyone who had a hand in making it possible.
The End.
Here are some photos before I dive in:
As you can see, the artwork is AMAZING! Holy crap, I am blown away. I approached Dan about painting an enclosure a few months ago as a fun way to participate in my kids' obsession with red pandas, and he enthusiastically agreed. I'm not sure whether it started with the movie Turning Red, but they now have red panda stuffies, books, etc... And it's convenient these animals are pretty damn cute. I've gotten in on the fun too, and my wife jokingly accuses me of being obsessed.
Seriously, though. What's not to love about these fluffy little critters?
Now for the build info...
Part One (Background):
As stated, this build began several years ago when Peter first started licensing his circuits to @bean for the DIY community. I purchased the Tractor Beam, Choral Reef, and several others back then but never got around to building due to the novel parts and apparent complexity of some of the builds. The 2-in-1 switching board was purchased from Swirl Pedals back in the day when he was building DIY VFEs as well. (Some of you may remember his mega pedal with all the VFE circuits in one giant enclosure...)
Part Two (Assembly):
The most nerve wracking part was the enclosure, which I laid out using naught but painter's tape, a carpenter's square, and a center hole punch. Then I had to meticulously hand drill every single hole. As you can see, it's a tight squeeze and parts have to be aligned perfectly for everything to fit. To that degree, it turned out quite well!
I was only a little nervous about the actual boards, but they fired right up and biased easily. The Tractor Beam was ungodly loud unless the internal Level trimmer was nearly all the way off, and I quickly discovered I used 200k instead of 20k. (This is important, because that Level adjustment is in the negative feedback loop of the recovery stage- much like the Gain knob on a typical overdrive, minus the diodes and overdrive). After some quick math, I was able to bridge the trimmer with a resistor and knock it down to the appropriate value. Much better!
Part Three (Play Time / Tweaker's Delight):
The Choral Reef has always been one of my favorite choruses and this one does not disappoint! The voltages were a little low, but thankfully I remembered something Brian wrote in one of the Madbean build docs about the inductor dropping too much. I cut it out / bridged it and voila! Problem solved. It's lush and can be as subtle or whacky as desired, a man for all seasons. I typically just use it for a subtle thickening with the Range toggle in the center position.
The Tractor Beam, however, is presenting quite a learning curve, but I remember a similar experience when I had an original many years ago. The 4-2-3 Stage toggle requires nearly every knob to be adjusted to find the sweet spot, which I think is normal. 2 stages is too subtle for my taste, so I lean toward 4 or 3 stages and Vibe mode for a watery whoosh.
The internal order toggle is handy, but I've landed on TB > CR for my preferred order and don't see myself messing with it.
____________
Over-all, this is a modulation workhorse! I'm so glad to have completed it and very grateful to everyone who had a hand in making it possible.
The End.
Last edited:
