MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
So I actually built this over this past weekend but didn't post a build report till now.
I've been playing it trying to warm up to it but it's not really happening.
Out of all the Bjorn Juhl circuits I've been building this one has been the most underwhelming to me.
It's a high gain distortion but like most Juhl circuits it cleans up surprisingly well. With the gain turned almost full CCW it could pass as a medium overdrive pedal
and doesn't sound too bad. With the gain in the "mid zone sweet spot" it's got a ton of gain but to me kinda sounds like any other modern distortion circuit.
Nothing really stands out as very unique to me despite the "Bjorn-ish" components.
It's a CD4069 CMOS based distortion circuit that also leverages a pair of 2N3819's presumably as part of the clipping circuit (have not seen a schematic).
I built it with stock components including the TL051 opamp although I imaging an 061 or 071 would work just fine. For that matter any other N-jfet as well.
I think mostly it's because it's not a style that I play very much with so much bitting piercing gain, but it might fit you shredders out there. I just can't make much of it except at it's lowest gain settings with my half assed blues noodling....
.
I think to really take advantage of this pedal you'd probably want some pretty hot pickups or active pickups (neither of which I own).
This board has the provision to populate the components for the limited run "Modern Distortion Version" components. From what I could find out, this mod actually thickens the sound a bit, without them it's supposed to be even more thin and piercing. I built it with the Modern option. I imagine I'd like it even less stock.
The board is as usual very well laid out and the build went lightning fast (I built both this and the Symbolic on Saturday afternoon).
Fairly low component count and is an easy build.
I used a re-purposed enclosure that I had to patch and repaint. This is a pewter/silver hammered finish rattle can paint job.
I'd love to hear @UtilityBeltFX do some shredding on this pedal!
I've been playing it trying to warm up to it but it's not really happening.
Out of all the Bjorn Juhl circuits I've been building this one has been the most underwhelming to me.
It's a high gain distortion but like most Juhl circuits it cleans up surprisingly well. With the gain turned almost full CCW it could pass as a medium overdrive pedal
and doesn't sound too bad. With the gain in the "mid zone sweet spot" it's got a ton of gain but to me kinda sounds like any other modern distortion circuit.
Nothing really stands out as very unique to me despite the "Bjorn-ish" components.
It's a CD4069 CMOS based distortion circuit that also leverages a pair of 2N3819's presumably as part of the clipping circuit (have not seen a schematic).
I built it with stock components including the TL051 opamp although I imaging an 061 or 071 would work just fine. For that matter any other N-jfet as well.
I think mostly it's because it's not a style that I play very much with so much bitting piercing gain, but it might fit you shredders out there. I just can't make much of it except at it's lowest gain settings with my half assed blues noodling....
.I think to really take advantage of this pedal you'd probably want some pretty hot pickups or active pickups (neither of which I own).
This board has the provision to populate the components for the limited run "Modern Distortion Version" components. From what I could find out, this mod actually thickens the sound a bit, without them it's supposed to be even more thin and piercing. I built it with the Modern option. I imagine I'd like it even less stock.
The board is as usual very well laid out and the build went lightning fast (I built both this and the Symbolic on Saturday afternoon).
Fairly low component count and is an easy build.
I used a re-purposed enclosure that I had to patch and repaint. This is a pewter/silver hammered finish rattle can paint job.
I'd love to hear @UtilityBeltFX do some shredding on this pedal!
