GCI Apostle, Pathogen distortion, ROG Azabache.

[eh là bas ma]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

I had a lot of fun building these three circuits. I started saturday, I didn't have a lot of time to play with them. This part is starting now.

https://kurtballou.com/docs/N.E.W.%20Apostle%20Build%20guide.pdf

ROG Azabache AmpSim kit, 34,00

Amp simulation

www.musikding.de

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Pathogen-PedalPCB.pdf

I guess the longest step was painting them, but I am sure I will spend even more time tweaking all the biasing trimmers in a near future.

1/ The Apostle sounded a bit muddy at first, so I lowered all 5457 from 17.50V to 16.20V. Not sure if changed anything noticeable, but it's really easy to love this circuit and find some beautiful settings. I never tried an Orange amp before, so I can't tell if it's effective to emulate this sound. I can't really notice anything singular or unusual, but I still need to take some time and play with it.
I never tried illuminated 3PDT before, it was a first. I like the alternative, but I am not sure if i am going to order more. Aren't they ugly ?

2/ The Pathogen is impressive too. Wild and violent character. Perfect to blow some steam. On musikding the only description is : "The Pathogen Distortion emulates an American high gain amp".
I tried to find which amp, but all I could find on this circuit is that it has been developped in collaboration with Wampler and Mr Abasi, a gifted guitarist playing in "Animals as leaders". I discovered a good band, with many ideas and maybe a bit too technical, but I am still wondering about the circuit.

At first glance the PPCB board looks very similar to the Tyrian and the Sanguine, so maybe it's some kind of Wampler's take on these kinds of circuit ?
I tried with 4558, NE5532, I can notice a slight difference in the distortion texture, maybe I dreamed it, but 5532 felt a bit warmer. Now i am going to do more tests with TL72...

3/ I also like the Azabache, it can do many things from overdrive to distortion with a simple but effective character. I found some great ideas on Chuck's Boneyard about it. He kindly helped me to successfully install a Presence control and a cabsim toggleswitch. Thank you very much !

Chuck seemed surprised, maybe even shocked, by the trimmers supplied by musikding. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about them. I was surprised to find ten through-hole J201, with an "F" as brand logo, in the kit's plastic bag. I guess they are from Onsemi/Fairchild, but I am not sure how reliable this brand is.

I biased the circuit as instructed by the building files, sounds really good, I can see myself using it a lot on my pedal board.




Stay safe and take good care of you !

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I've always avoided those because they look like white washers when turned off. Which is a turn off for me. Looks fine on yours though. No hate.

Reminds me of that Rodney Dangerfield line...

"Oh, this is the worst-looking hat I ever saw. What, when you buy a hat like this I bet you get a free bowl of soup, huh?

Oh, it looks good on you though."

 

[eh là bas ma]

Quick update on these builds :

I removed the illuminated 3PDT on the Apostle, because I couldn't get rid of a loud pop noise.

I tried the fix from AMZ :

AMZ - LED Popping

How to stop the pops in audio from LED current surges when switched.

www.muzique.com

With 10k + 470R (don't have 390R) and 47uF, I managed to supress the noise when the effect is switched on, but it remains very noisy when i am switching off.

This fix works on the Azabache : I fried one of the 3PDT colors, so the wiring is simpler.

I tried the Apostle with a standard status led, AMZ fix installed, and I still have the same issue : no noise on activation, loud pop on bypass. I checked the output cap C26 1uF big film cap, connections are good.

As a last resort, I will try to ask the other Apostle builders if their build has the same issue, in order to understand if the popping noise is caused by some mistake on my build.

Finally, I tried the Pathogen with TL72CP, I like very much how it sounds. I think the final battle will be NE5532 vs TL72.

 

[Feral Feline]

Probably had a problem with that apostle 'cause it was a Judas...



So what pedal, if anything, is following the Apostle? If it's popping when bypassing it, I'll suggest to add a pull-down resistor at the end of the Apostle circuit, but if you have something following it, that may be the problem and theoretically a PDR at output should solve it?

 

[eh là bas ma]

So what pedal, if anything, is following the Apostle? If it's popping when bypassing it, I'll suggest to add a pull-down resistor at the end of the Apostle circuit, but if you have something following it, that may be the problem and theoretically a PDR at output should solve it?

There are a lot of circuit after it... seven, plus a simple effect looper (switched off) connected to a blender mixer with 4 circuits in one loop and 5 in the second loop... And six circuits before it.

I hear a popping noise on activation, it's almost silent on bypass. I was mistaking in my previous post, I beg your pardon.

I tried it alone, meaning no guitar in the input, input free, output connected to a boss rc3 going in the amp. Same issue, no obvious change. The popping noise isn't super loud, but it's still more noticeable than what I can hear on all my builds and industrial stompboxes, despite the AMZ fix.

I would have been delighted to be able to engage it on the fly, without being disturbed by some noise, just like every effects I am using.
Pathogen is a high gain circuit, and it's silent in comparison.

I'd like to try the pull-down resistor :

Would 1M or 2M resistor, between the switchboard Jack Out and the tip of the output jack, be ok ?


Edit : I tried to add 1M and 2M on the Out jack's tip, both significantly darken the tone and lower the global volume. I guess I'll just need to accept that this circuit will be popping a bit.... It's hard... maybe I will try some higher value on the led resistor, like 15k...

 

[Feral Feline]

If it's popping upon activation, then something's going on upstream, at the input.

I just had a look at the Apostle schematic, it's already got a 1M PDR at the input. That leads me to believe you may have an issue with the bypass-indication LED making the popping noise. There are threads about 'Bypass-LED popping with better info than I can provide.


Not specifically LED related, but if you turn it on/off rapidly a few times does the popping diminish with each activation?

 

[eh là bas ma]

Not specifically LED related, but if you turn it on/off rapidly a few times does the popping diminish with each activation?

Thanks for your help !

I think I can remember such behavior when the illuminated 3PDT was still installed.

Now, I changed the 3PDT, the 3PDT wiring board, connected the switchboard directly to 9V DC instead of the pcb's Led+ pad, led resistor is 20k and the AMZ fix shown on the picture reply #5 is still connected : an extra 10k + 470R and a 47uF, negative side connected to 9V DC ground.

I just tried to quickly switch on and off several times, and I can't say it's diminishing, the pop is rather steady, unfortunately.

 

[Fuzzonaut]

I've built the Apostle, twice, and don't remember having any (remarkable) popping issues.
Might be an LED thing as pointed out ... did you try it without the whole "LED circuitery"?

I've had LED popping issues with white or super bright LEDs before ... changing the LED helped.
That's all I got, sorry, probably not really helping I guess. Hope you get it fixed anyway!

 

[eh là bas ma]

did you try it without the whole "LED circuitery"?

Yes I did, and I could still hear some noise, but much more quiet and acceptable.

Maybe I am being too demanding with the activation noise, maybe an other builder wouldn't have noticed it...

here is a sound sample. I compare a Sapphire (BD-2) with the Apostle :

https://soundcloud.com/ehlabas-ma-chaussure%2Fled-popping-comparisonwav

The noise sounds a bit louder on the Apostle, but would you say there is an issue that can be fixed ?

Edit : @Fuzzonaut : Is it similar to your Apostle builds ?

 

[Fuzzonaut]

Edit : @Fuzzonaut : Is it similar to your Apostle builds ?

Here's a short clip with a loop of my first build. I recorded this with a zoom in front of the amp. As the pedal was kinda close to the mic, you can hear the footswitch at 6 seconds, but the sound is not amplified like in your clip, just picked up by the mic.
Same thing when I turn it off at 1:13.

https://soundcloud.com/fuzzonaut-1%2Fdunwich-apostle-test