greypilgrim76
Member
I haven't been doing build reports for each pedal as I've gone along, but wrapping up 20 builds seemed like a good moment to stop and share my results so far:
I posted troubleshooting threads about a couple of these, and I did post a build report on the Shade of Night pedal, just becAcause it was such a complicated build. From top to bottom, though, here's what I've done so far:
Screamer: Stewmac Screamer Kit
Lynel: Stewmac Ghost Drive Kit
Shade of Night: Stewmac Two Kings (extra PCB)
The Hole OD: Glory Hole Overdrive
Fumbalaya Boost: Fumble Boost
Union Jack OD: Acrylic Overdrive
HULK SMASH!: Butt Head Distortion (still glad to finally have this one working!)
JTM Blue Drive: Blue Breaker
Big Muffinator Fuzz: Muffinator Fuzz
Big Fuzz: Stewmac Sun Fuzz Kit
Superhero Distortion: Uber Drive
Chief of Berk: Stewmac Two Kings Kit
Son of Screamer: Stewmac Screamer (extra PCB) (changed the clipping diodes and some resistors to tweak sound)
Blue Rider OD: Cobalt Drive (with the BD-2w mods from the forum)
Barrel Proof OD: Bootleg Overdrive
Irate Chuck JCM 800: Angry Charles
PTSD Overdrive: ADHD Overdrive
Chill Chuck JTM45: Van Pelt Drive
JCM 900 Drive: Guvernator Distortion
(Not pictured: a Tubescreamer clone I built for a friend with a 3-position diode switch)
As you can see, I've played around with a lot of different finishes and labeling. My daughter decorated a few (Screamer, Big Fuzz), and then I switched to trying to do fun tweaks to established pedals (Lynel, Chief of Berk). After that, I did a run where I drilled my own boxes, sanded the raw metal, and then stamped and dyed the lettering (Barrel Proof OD, Irate Chuck, etc.). I actually really liked the industrial look of these, but they were pretty labor-intensive. For my final batch, I ordered pre-painted and drilled boxes from Tayda. I tried to use waterslide decals on them (PTSD Overdrive, Superhero Distortion, etc.), but the decals didn't stick well to several of the enclosures, so I switched to using my daughter's acrylic paint markers for the final batch (Blue Rider OD, JTM Blue Drive, etc.). I think I might just take that approach moving forward. It's not the most polished look, but it's easy and reliable. Or I might try something else entirely--who knows?
Obviously, I've built a ton of boost/drive/overdrive/distortion/fuzz so far, but I'm impressed by the variety of sounds I've gotten. (I'm going to start switching to other pedal types in my next round of builds, though there will still be plenty of overdrives!) If I had to pick a favorite out of this batch, it'd probably be either the Shade of Night or the PTSD. The SoN just sounds so good, with lots of options. The PTSD is probably the rawest sound out of them all and just rips. Honorable mention goes to the Irate Chuck, which is basically AC/DC in a box, and also the Blue Rider. (My favorite commercial pedal is my Blues Driver, and this one just cranks that up while also being notably quieter.) The Big Muffinator Fuzz is also pretty great. I put silicon diodes in for one clipping option, red LEDs for the other, and also used ON/OFF/ON switches for the "no clipping" option.
Honestly, none of these pedals are bad at all. If I had to pick some that I'll likely use less, I'd probably go with the HULK SMASH! just because the DOD Grunge itself isn't exactly...umm, overly refined. I also don't quite know what to do with the Big Fuzz yet, but that might just be because I haven't gotten it dialed in yet, and I might take another pass at the internal trim pots.
Overall, though, this has been so much fun, and I'm definitely a bit addicted at this point. I've already gotten my next set of PCBs, and once I place my next Tayda order for enclosures and components, I'll be jumping back in. Here's what's next on the docket:
Pastel Preamp
Angry Andy Plus
Blue Shoe Gai Pan
VHS
NOTAKLICHE
Taqueria Overdrive
Double Muffin Fuzz (doing a Ram's Head and Triangle)
Cepheid Chorus
Parentheses Fuzz
6-Band EQ (My GE-2 is way too noisy)
Thanks again for all the support and guidance so far! It's been a blast learning how this all works and turning out some eminently usable effects. Maybe someday I'll finish making all the pedals and actually practice guitar instead! (That's probably not true, though, because once I run out of pedals to build, I've still got a Stewmac S-Type guitar kit to build. Never a dull moment in hobby-land!)
I posted troubleshooting threads about a couple of these, and I did post a build report on the Shade of Night pedal, just becAcause it was such a complicated build. From top to bottom, though, here's what I've done so far:
Screamer: Stewmac Screamer Kit
Lynel: Stewmac Ghost Drive Kit
Shade of Night: Stewmac Two Kings (extra PCB)
The Hole OD: Glory Hole Overdrive
Fumbalaya Boost: Fumble Boost
Union Jack OD: Acrylic Overdrive
HULK SMASH!: Butt Head Distortion (still glad to finally have this one working!)
JTM Blue Drive: Blue Breaker
Big Muffinator Fuzz: Muffinator Fuzz
Big Fuzz: Stewmac Sun Fuzz Kit
Superhero Distortion: Uber Drive
Chief of Berk: Stewmac Two Kings Kit
Son of Screamer: Stewmac Screamer (extra PCB) (changed the clipping diodes and some resistors to tweak sound)
Blue Rider OD: Cobalt Drive (with the BD-2w mods from the forum)
Barrel Proof OD: Bootleg Overdrive
Irate Chuck JCM 800: Angry Charles
PTSD Overdrive: ADHD Overdrive
Chill Chuck JTM45: Van Pelt Drive
JCM 900 Drive: Guvernator Distortion
(Not pictured: a Tubescreamer clone I built for a friend with a 3-position diode switch)
As you can see, I've played around with a lot of different finishes and labeling. My daughter decorated a few (Screamer, Big Fuzz), and then I switched to trying to do fun tweaks to established pedals (Lynel, Chief of Berk). After that, I did a run where I drilled my own boxes, sanded the raw metal, and then stamped and dyed the lettering (Barrel Proof OD, Irate Chuck, etc.). I actually really liked the industrial look of these, but they were pretty labor-intensive. For my final batch, I ordered pre-painted and drilled boxes from Tayda. I tried to use waterslide decals on them (PTSD Overdrive, Superhero Distortion, etc.), but the decals didn't stick well to several of the enclosures, so I switched to using my daughter's acrylic paint markers for the final batch (Blue Rider OD, JTM Blue Drive, etc.). I think I might just take that approach moving forward. It's not the most polished look, but it's easy and reliable. Or I might try something else entirely--who knows?
Obviously, I've built a ton of boost/drive/overdrive/distortion/fuzz so far, but I'm impressed by the variety of sounds I've gotten. (I'm going to start switching to other pedal types in my next round of builds, though there will still be plenty of overdrives!) If I had to pick a favorite out of this batch, it'd probably be either the Shade of Night or the PTSD. The SoN just sounds so good, with lots of options. The PTSD is probably the rawest sound out of them all and just rips. Honorable mention goes to the Irate Chuck, which is basically AC/DC in a box, and also the Blue Rider. (My favorite commercial pedal is my Blues Driver, and this one just cranks that up while also being notably quieter.) The Big Muffinator Fuzz is also pretty great. I put silicon diodes in for one clipping option, red LEDs for the other, and also used ON/OFF/ON switches for the "no clipping" option.
Honestly, none of these pedals are bad at all. If I had to pick some that I'll likely use less, I'd probably go with the HULK SMASH! just because the DOD Grunge itself isn't exactly...umm, overly refined.
I also don't quite know what to do with the Big Fuzz yet, but that might just be because I haven't gotten it dialed in yet, and I might take another pass at the internal trim pots.Overall, though, this has been so much fun, and I'm definitely a bit addicted at this point. I've already gotten my next set of PCBs, and once I place my next Tayda order for enclosures and components, I'll be jumping back in. Here's what's next on the docket:
Pastel Preamp
Angry Andy Plus
Blue Shoe Gai Pan
VHS
NOTAKLICHE
Taqueria Overdrive
Double Muffin Fuzz (doing a Ram's Head and Triangle)
Cepheid Chorus
Parentheses Fuzz
6-Band EQ (My GE-2 is way too noisy)
Thanks again for all the support and guidance so far! It's been a blast learning how this all works and turning out some eminently usable effects. Maybe someday I'll finish making all the pedals and actually practice guitar instead! (That's probably not true, though, because once I run out of pedals to build, I've still got a Stewmac S-Type guitar kit to build. Never a dull moment in hobby-land!)
