MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This one has been sitting for a while. Not being a huge TS fan I'm not exactly sure why I bought this board heh....(I actually have yet one more YATS in the backlog to go).
But as it turns out, I had an empty but drilled enclosure that needed some guts. It was originally a 5 hole pattern that I converted into the 6 knob pattern and the Frost was the only board I had in my pile that fit the bill.
This enclosure was from an earlier failed build that wound up getting scuttled, my drilling was still a little wonky back then and it particularly shows on these 6 knob builds. Despite my "adjustments" it's still a bit off.
The build itself went super smooth as with most PedalPCB projects. I pretty much built it stock with the exception of using an A1M in place of the D1M gain pot called for in the BOM.
It's actually a very good sounding TS variant with a lot of tonal options. Maybe even option overload. But the ability to dial out some of the mid-hump and make it a more "transparent" sounding drive is pretty cool. There's a pretty huge amount of eq control between the mid, Hi and Lo cut controls and then there's also a dedicated "tone" control that's got an adjustable EQ sweep via an internal trim pot. Like I said, there's a TON of tonal options, heh.
There's also an internal impedance trimpot that I've found to be pretty useless so far. Probably because I'm running a buffer at the beginning of my signal chain anyway.
Then there's an internal DIP switch clipping options for Sym, Asym, and no clipping if being used as an opamp boost.
I wound up leaving it in the 3+1 Asym clipping setting, which sounds the best to me. I left both the Q and Z trimpots at noon, after messing around with them, they sounded best at noon to me.
I built the "Vanilla" version, not exactly sure what the "Mint" and "Sherbert" versions do, so I just went with Vanilla.
If you're a TS fan but want tonal flexibility, this might just be the "one screamer to rule them all". There's really lot of variety in this pedal. As I mentioned, it's not my favorite sound, and I find that I actually prefer the "GreenGage" a bit more, if for nothing else than the simplicity of being able to dial up a good sound with only 3 knobs. I'm finding that I really enjoy my 3 knob pedals the most. I suppose I've got such a wide variety of overdrives that I've built on my shelf that I can usually pick one for the sound I'm looking for.
If you're looking for a TS variant to run as boost to push your amp in the typical 3 o'clock/9 c'clock level/drive setting, I'm finding the Frost somehow doesn't have the same "grunt" as a stock TS808 or the GreenGage. Not exactly sure what's missing. Maybe I just haven't figured out the right mix of the 4 eq controls (5 if you count the internal trimpot!)
Having said all that, it's still a pretty cool pedal and enjoyable build!
But as it turns out, I had an empty but drilled enclosure that needed some guts. It was originally a 5 hole pattern that I converted into the 6 knob pattern and the Frost was the only board I had in my pile that fit the bill.
This enclosure was from an earlier failed build that wound up getting scuttled, my drilling was still a little wonky back then and it particularly shows on these 6 knob builds. Despite my "adjustments" it's still a bit off.
The build itself went super smooth as with most PedalPCB projects. I pretty much built it stock with the exception of using an A1M in place of the D1M gain pot called for in the BOM.
It's actually a very good sounding TS variant with a lot of tonal options. Maybe even option overload. But the ability to dial out some of the mid-hump and make it a more "transparent" sounding drive is pretty cool. There's a pretty huge amount of eq control between the mid, Hi and Lo cut controls and then there's also a dedicated "tone" control that's got an adjustable EQ sweep via an internal trim pot. Like I said, there's a TON of tonal options, heh.
There's also an internal impedance trimpot that I've found to be pretty useless so far. Probably because I'm running a buffer at the beginning of my signal chain anyway.
Then there's an internal DIP switch clipping options for Sym, Asym, and no clipping if being used as an opamp boost.
I wound up leaving it in the 3+1 Asym clipping setting, which sounds the best to me. I left both the Q and Z trimpots at noon, after messing around with them, they sounded best at noon to me.
I built the "Vanilla" version, not exactly sure what the "Mint" and "Sherbert" versions do, so I just went with Vanilla.
If you're a TS fan but want tonal flexibility, this might just be the "one screamer to rule them all". There's really lot of variety in this pedal. As I mentioned, it's not my favorite sound, and I find that I actually prefer the "GreenGage" a bit more, if for nothing else than the simplicity of being able to dial up a good sound with only 3 knobs. I'm finding that I really enjoy my 3 knob pedals the most. I suppose I've got such a wide variety of overdrives that I've built on my shelf that I can usually pick one for the sound I'm looking for.
If you're looking for a TS variant to run as boost to push your amp in the typical 3 o'clock/9 c'clock level/drive setting, I'm finding the Frost somehow doesn't have the same "grunt" as a stock TS808 or the GreenGage. Not exactly sure what's missing. Maybe I just haven't figured out the right mix of the 4 eq controls (5 if you count the internal trimpot!)
Having said all that, it's still a pretty cool pedal and enjoyable build!
