Erik S
Well-known member
Last of my build report catch-up, and it's a two-fer.
I'd normally prefer to keep them separate for posterity, but I finished both of these over the weekend, and they made for an interesting comparison.
Garish Ecto-Cooler theme for the Pickle, Red and white for the Muff-Elk-Hizumitas-Shika.
Both Muff based I guess, but very different. TLDR: I like the Shika way better.
I watched a "blind shootout" video on Anderton's a while back where they make Rebea pick his favorite whatever, and the Swollen pickle was the champion of the fuzzes which was enough to get the gherkin on my wishlist. I finished that one first, and had fun playing it. It sounds good, but I was pretty mystified by the controls (I was even more mystified by the trimmers) It's got some tricks up it's sleeve, but definitely not intuitive. Everything is interactive, and moving anything changes two other things. This is where @Betty Wont would usually tell me to go read the manual like an adult, but I haven't seen her here in a minute. Hope she's doing good.
So after lots of head scratching and knob twisting with the Gherkin, I plugged up the Shika with all the knobs at noon, and I couldn't be happier. I didn't want to change a thing. Noon on the volume is WAY above unity, but that's fine. I compared both of these to my current favorite Dream Fuzz Op Amp Muff, and the Shika wins hands down. Even taking my time to sound-match them as close as I could, the Shika had some magic that I couldn't get enough of.
No real drama with the board assembly. I did screw up and install the pots on the Shika before I put one of the caps in, and installed the cap from the top, so that looks a little funny.
One small note of caution about the enclosures - the Shika went in the first one of the new-style Tayda enclosures I've assembled, and the gap at the top for the I/O jacks is definitely tight. With Neutrik open frame jacks, they're basically touching on both sides with no room for drilling error. Unfortunately, I just drilled a ton of enclosures, but I may need to adjust my layout in the future.
The new tighter enclosure has "Tayda Electronices PV1" Cast into the lid. The spacing is a bummer, but I like that it says "Electro-Nices".
I'd normally prefer to keep them separate for posterity, but I finished both of these over the weekend, and they made for an interesting comparison.
Garish Ecto-Cooler theme for the Pickle, Red and white for the Muff-Elk-Hizumitas-Shika.
Both Muff based I guess, but very different. TLDR: I like the Shika way better.
I watched a "blind shootout" video on Anderton's a while back where they make Rebea pick his favorite whatever, and the Swollen pickle was the champion of the fuzzes which was enough to get the gherkin on my wishlist. I finished that one first, and had fun playing it. It sounds good, but I was pretty mystified by the controls (I was even more mystified by the trimmers) It's got some tricks up it's sleeve, but definitely not intuitive. Everything is interactive, and moving anything changes two other things. This is where @Betty Wont would usually tell me to go read the manual like an adult, but I haven't seen her here in a minute. Hope she's doing good.
So after lots of head scratching and knob twisting with the Gherkin, I plugged up the Shika with all the knobs at noon, and I couldn't be happier. I didn't want to change a thing. Noon on the volume is WAY above unity, but that's fine. I compared both of these to my current favorite Dream Fuzz Op Amp Muff, and the Shika wins hands down. Even taking my time to sound-match them as close as I could, the Shika had some magic that I couldn't get enough of.
No real drama with the board assembly. I did screw up and install the pots on the Shika before I put one of the caps in, and installed the cap from the top, so that looks a little funny.
One small note of caution about the enclosures - the Shika went in the first one of the new-style Tayda enclosures I've assembled, and the gap at the top for the I/O jacks is definitely tight. With Neutrik open frame jacks, they're basically touching on both sides with no room for drilling error. Unfortunately, I just drilled a ton of enclosures, but I may need to adjust my layout in the future.
The new tighter enclosure has "Tayda Electronices PV1" Cast into the lid. The spacing is a bummer, but I like that it says "Electro-Nices".
