MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Two weeks ago I never heard of this pedal. But it's been recommended by so many different people since then that I just had to build it.
And am I very glad I did! Fantastic sounding pedal. Some HUGE sounds out of it. Huge as in very 3d-like and open sounding.
I had this pedal drilled and ready to go earlier in the week but was missing one A1M pot which arrived in todays mail Woohoo!
Probably the most amp-ish sounding Marshall style pedal I've played yet. It doesn't feel like I'm playing through a pedal but rather an amp.
For those unfamiliar with it, it's a transistor clipping Marshall-in-a-box type pedal that has 3 different flavors on a toggle that map to a 1987 JCM style, 1959 Plexi and a JTM.
Do they sound like any of those amps? Uhm.....well....no, not really. But the 3 modes DO sound fantastic. The controls are not real intuitive and I'm still figuring them out but there's a whole range of low to high gain sounds in there. I was comparing it side by side with my XS Drive (Xotic Super Lead), Van Pelt (JHS Charlie Brown).
Each has their own thing going on. The XS side by side with the Golden Falk sounds a bit nasally and for lack of a better term "pedal-ish".
Both the Van Pelt and Golden Falk sound more open, organic and amp-ish. The Van Pelt is more of a one trick pony as a lower gain pedal where the Golden Falk can do it all and do it all well. My one niggle with it is that it's a very bass heavy pedal. I'm still learning how to dial out some of that bass with the two EQ controls.
I've only played around with it with my Strat so far and it sounds really great with both neck pickup and bridge pickup. The way my Strat is wired the middle pickup is like a "blow switch" that bypasses the tone stack and is wide open for soloing, it sounds fantastic through this pedal for a convincing "Strat through a Plexi" kind of sound.
The original pedal uses ceramic disc capacitors. Of which I have none....heh. But I was able to populate most of the ceramic pads with MLCC caps.
I really have no idea if it would sound any different with box film caps or cheap ceramics but if the designer of the pedal went with ceramics then there must be a reason. I'm toying with the idea of building another one with the disc ceramics just to see if it makes a diff.
Since it was named by @PedalPCB as the "Golden Falk" is decided to use the new Gold Glitter enclosure from Tayda (that still looks a little green to me...)
Put it in a 125B as it's a pretty long board. I probably "could" have fit it in a 1590B with some pot leg bending but I didn't have a Gold in a 1590B.
I also used SMD MMBFJ201's. Man those things are tiny, but I think I'm getting the hang of soldering those little suckers in. The real trick is in how to pick them up with pair of tweezers. They have a life of their own and are like Mexican jumping beans.......squeeze a little too hard and they'll go flying. And they would be impossible for me to find on my garage floor!
I biased the transistors to the specs that are silkscreened on the board. Very handy! Sounds great with those settings and I probably won't bother messing with it any further.
And am I very glad I did! Fantastic sounding pedal. Some HUGE sounds out of it. Huge as in very 3d-like and open sounding.
I had this pedal drilled and ready to go earlier in the week but was missing one A1M pot which arrived in todays mail Woohoo!
Probably the most amp-ish sounding Marshall style pedal I've played yet. It doesn't feel like I'm playing through a pedal but rather an amp.
For those unfamiliar with it, it's a transistor clipping Marshall-in-a-box type pedal that has 3 different flavors on a toggle that map to a 1987 JCM style, 1959 Plexi and a JTM.
Do they sound like any of those amps? Uhm.....well....no, not really. But the 3 modes DO sound fantastic. The controls are not real intuitive and I'm still figuring them out but there's a whole range of low to high gain sounds in there. I was comparing it side by side with my XS Drive (Xotic Super Lead), Van Pelt (JHS Charlie Brown).
Each has their own thing going on. The XS side by side with the Golden Falk sounds a bit nasally and for lack of a better term "pedal-ish".
Both the Van Pelt and Golden Falk sound more open, organic and amp-ish. The Van Pelt is more of a one trick pony as a lower gain pedal where the Golden Falk can do it all and do it all well. My one niggle with it is that it's a very bass heavy pedal. I'm still learning how to dial out some of that bass with the two EQ controls.
I've only played around with it with my Strat so far and it sounds really great with both neck pickup and bridge pickup. The way my Strat is wired the middle pickup is like a "blow switch" that bypasses the tone stack and is wide open for soloing, it sounds fantastic through this pedal for a convincing "Strat through a Plexi" kind of sound.
The original pedal uses ceramic disc capacitors. Of which I have none....heh. But I was able to populate most of the ceramic pads with MLCC caps.
I really have no idea if it would sound any different with box film caps or cheap ceramics but if the designer of the pedal went with ceramics then there must be a reason. I'm toying with the idea of building another one with the disc ceramics just to see if it makes a diff.
Since it was named by @PedalPCB as the "Golden Falk" is decided to use the new Gold Glitter enclosure from Tayda (that still looks a little green to me...)
Put it in a 125B as it's a pretty long board. I probably "could" have fit it in a 1590B with some pot leg bending but I didn't have a Gold in a 1590B.
I also used SMD MMBFJ201's. Man those things are tiny, but I think I'm getting the hang of soldering those little suckers in. The real trick is in how to pick them up with pair of tweezers. They have a life of their own and are like Mexican jumping beans.......squeeze a little too hard and they'll go flying. And they would be impossible for me to find on my garage floor!
I biased the transistors to the specs that are silkscreened on the board. Very handy! Sounds great with those settings and I probably won't bother messing with it any further.
