Golden Falk (Plexi Breed)

[rhaas]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

I decided to give this one a shot and I'm glad I did! There's a really satisfying texture to the distortion and it cleans up so nicely with the guitar volume. As others have noted, it's pretty bass-heavy, even with the normal "channel" turned all the way down — maybe just a bit too bass-heavy for my taste. That being said, I've only tried it with humbuckers and I still need to put it through its paces with a Strat.

Some build notes:

• I had soldered a random SMD JFET here and there with my regular iron and some really thin solder. I decided to get a hot air station and that made the task way easier! Watching those pieces snap into place when the solder paste melts is kind of mesmerizing.
• Having the bias voltages printed directly on the PCB was a really nice touch. Way easier than having to go back and reference the docs after the pedal was built. Speaking of which...
• I only had 100k trimpots on hand (rather than the 50k called for in the docs). Not visible in the picture is a 1/8 watt 100k resistor sitting underneath each trimpot. Yay for those extra "utility" pads on the PCB!
• The latching basic relay bypass is awesome. It's now my default for every build.

 

[steviejr92]

Wow amazingly clean! Beautiful execution!

 

[Fama]

Indeed, that is very clean! Great job!

I am a little confused by this:

I only had 100k trimpots on hand (rather than the 50k called for in the docs). Not visible in the picture is a 1/8 watt 100k resistor sitting underneath each trimpot. Yay for those extra "utility" pads on the PCB!

Why do you need those resistors? If the trimpot needs range from 50k to 0 (well, it doesn't need the full range), couldn't you just use a 100k trimpot instead and just set it lower? I guess you lose a little bit of accuracy, but I did that with one of my builds and it didn't really affect the accuracy of the biasing I don't think.

 

[rhaas]

couldn't you just use a 100k trimpot instead and just set it lower

Absolutely! I was just concerned about dialing it in precisely within the first half of the rotation (and those trimpots have less than one full turn available).

 

[Fama]

Absolutely! I was just concerned about dialing it in precisely within the first half of the rotation (and those trimpots have less than one full turn available).

That's a fair point - I do find myself doing very small nudges with a screwdriver often when dialing in trimpots accurately (multi-turn trimpots would work better for accuracy I guess), but doing said small nudges has never really been an issue preventing me from getting the bias there.

 

[music6000]

For the sake of Science, I just removed C5 - 22nF & replaced with 10nF.
You can increase the Normal Knob alot more but its still Bass Heavy.
I got radical & tried 4n7 & it got a lot more rotation but it still Bass heavy & starts getting too much saturation.
It tends to be more of a Bass control to me & the Treble Gain Pot dictates how much dirt you want.
I think for now I'm going to stick with 10nf.

 

[Erik S]

That’s beautiful. I want all my components to be blue!

 

[rhaas]

For the sake of Science, I just removed C5 - 22nF & replaced with 10nF.
You can increase the Normal Knob alot more but its still Bass Heavy.
I got radical & tried 4n7 & it got a lot more rotation but it still Bass heavy & starts getting too much saturation.
It tends to be more of a Bass control to me & the Treble Gain Pot dictates how much dirt you want.
I think for now I'm going to stick with 10nf.

Interesting! I might give this a shot (and/or mess with C6 for the treble channel). Thanks!

 

[Guilherme Collateral]

You can also try adding a input capacitor, like 22 or 47nF. Remove the jumper that goes to the input pad of the pcb and put the capacitor in its place, it will cut some bass right at the beginning of the circuit

 

[szukalski]

That’s beautiful. I want all my components to be blue!

I love my builds with TDK/EPCOS capacitors. They're very pleasing.

 

[szukalski]

If it's bass-heavy.. then it's a good representation of a JTM45!

 

[HamishR]

He's right you know! And it makes sense because the JTM45 was based (excuse the pun) on the '59 Bassman, as we all know. But Marshall took it even further and used a 330µF cathode bypass cap on the first stage which is way OTT for a guitar amp. Stock Bassman was 250µF and most Fenders use a 25µF there.

You have me thinking about getting a hot air station. I have watched a few demos and it actually looks like something I could do. I have been avoiding anything to do with J2101s for a few years now, and there are some fantastic pedals which use J201s, such as the Menatone King of the Britains. Fantastic pedal but such a PITA to build because J201s.

 

[szukalski]

MMBFJ201 are piss-easy to solder by hand. Tin the board pads, then use tweezers to hold the JFET to do one leg, then it's simple to do the other legs.

Or get a hot plate, or DIY one..

GitHub - AfterEarthLTD/Solder-Reflow-Plate: PCB based SMD reflow plates

PCB based SMD reflow plates. Contribute to AfterEarthLTD/Solder-Reflow-Plate development by creating an account on GitHub.

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