Headfirst dive - Spatialist/Isosceles/Muroidea/Angry Charles/Kliche

GuitarJack

New member
After playing for years using a PodXT and ultimately being unhappy with my tone, I decided last year to break out of the digital world some and build up a pedalboard. Even without getting into the limitations of the PodXT, having to dive into menus for everything just didn't fit me, I wanted to get my hands on knobs and be able to see all the setting in one view. After seeing the prices of pedals nowadays, I dove into the deep end and opted into building several between March and May. I have a mechanical bent for projects, but this was my first time soldering, working with PCBs and components, and drilling enclosures, so you'll see (hopefully) improvements as I went along. Maybe eventually I'll learn how to add proper graphics to these and future pedals, but I enjoy the DIY look for my personal use.

#1 Isosceles Boost - I play mostly high gain metal, and had to get one after learning about the whole TC PreAmp/Fortin pedal tightening up detuned guitars. Tonally it matches pretty well with the NeuralDSP Nameless Grind, although the level doesn't match due to how the plugin normalizes inputs. Played cranked through my 5150 though and the effect is very noticeable. For E/E-flat tuning I prefer an SD-1 overall, and the Isosceles for C# and lower. I can't really tell a difference between the two Fortin modes, but seems like there isn't much of one after watching some frequency response videos and other comments. If you look closely you can see three resistors that are high off the board - when soldering the bottom they moved and I didn't catch it, and didn't think at the time that I could just reflow the leads and push them back down. The transistor was swapped for a reversed 2N5210. I also didn't use a breakout board for this one - I proved to myself I can do a true-bypass 3PDT and understand that circuit, in the future I'm taking the easy route.
isosceles top.jpeg isosceles guts.jpeg

#2 Kliche - After seeing how the obsession in the last couple of years with the original pedal caused worldwide inflation and crashed crypto markets, I thought this would be a fun klone to make next and see what the hype is like. It does make the tone seem more expansive, and works great driving another boost/preamp pedal. Nothing special with the germanium diodes.
kliche top.jpeg kliche guts.jpeg

#3 Muroidea - Simple build for a classic sound. Starting with this pedal I stopped trimming down the wires coming from the LED.
muroidea top.jpeg muroidea guts.jpeg


#4 Angry Charles - This pairs really well after the Kliche or Muroidea for me. Don't know how it compares to either the JHS or a JCM800, but it sounds good for rock.
angry charles top.jpeg angry charles guts.jpeg


#5 Spatialist - This was the last one I built, and oh man was it a pain. Not the FV1 chip so much, but drilling the enclosure. I was off when making my center punches, and it seems like all the holes were spaced too close together and required me to oval them out some - thankfully hidden for the most part by the knobs. I added in the mod that I read about from @MichaelW in this thread and the links contained. Again, more difficulties in that the toggle switch I ordered was accidentally on-off-on instead of on-on, and the shaft height is too too and can get hit when stepping on the footswitch. It was the first time working with SMD, I couldn't get drag soldering or using a chisel tip to work so I ended up doing it point-by-point with fine tip. Looking at the pictures I see I should've spent time cleaning the top of the PCB around the rotary switch and FV1, instead of just the bottom. I will eventually either clean the board, replace the switch, and rehouse in a properly drilled enclosure, or just make another. It's a really fun pedal a lot of options available

spatialist top.jpeg spatialist guts.jpeg

One question I have after building these - I used prewired LEDs with integral resistor, however reading the schematics it looks like for PedalPCB boards space for a 4k7 resistor is included already. In the future I can use just a plain LED, correct?

Really great information I've learned reading these forums on building and techniques. Absolutely happy that they all worked first time plugged in, and how straightforward it was to follow the documentation and work on these boards. Hats off to the people behind this site and the boards!
 
One question I have after building these - I used prewired LEDs with integral resistor, however reading the schematics it looks like for PedalPCB boards space for a 4k7 resistor is included already. In the future I can use just a plain LED, correct?
Yes. Just throw the LED in there as long as the 4.7k resistor is installed on the board. Great job, BTW
 
Nice looking builds! I've been eyeing the Angry Charles as well, it sounds like it's a solid distortion pedal.

How was your experience soldering the FV-1? I bought an FV-1 board recently and have been putting it off because of how intimidating it seems haha.
 
Nice looking builds! I've been eyeing the Angry Charles as well, it sounds like it's a solid distortion pedal.

How was your experience soldering the FV-1? I bought an FV-1 board recently and have been putting it off because of how intimidating it seems haha.
The Angry Charles is fun, both on its own with the drive, and with the drive down and staged into by another pedal.

re: FV-1 - When I tried to be fancy and do drag soldering or other techniques I saw on Youtube, it just wasn't working, lots of bridges formed and wouldn't clean up easily. In the end I used the finest point tip I had and did each lead individually. I think I put the solder tip where the lead meets the board for a second or two, add the solder above the lead, and drag away from the chip to pass the solder from lead to pad. I had good success with that and the shoulders looked good under a magnifier. It'd be a pain if you had to do many but for a one-off it was good enough. It is intimidating that the chip is a bit pricey and hard to find so you really don't want to mess up, but I will say after the previous failed attempts and time I spent removing the bad solder joints and bridges and then doing each lead one-by-one, that the chip is fairly robust, as long as the chip isn't too hot to touch then you'll probably be ok.

I have seen some SMD practice boards on Amazon and may pick up one to work on the other techniques.
 
Good looking builds and I like the uniformity from one pedal to the next, the angle on some of the labels is enough to jazz them up.


I noticed that you have installed all the resistors on each board including the current limiting resistor (CLR), which when combined with the built-in resistance-LEDs means you must have quite dimly lit LEDs as the combined resistance will be high. So long as you can see if it's on/off then it's no problem, but if you want a bit more brightness you could de-solder the CLR off the PCB or you could swap out the built-in resistance LEDs for regular ones.

Different projects of mine get different LEDs and so different CLRs, 1k8 is the smallest resistance I've used (IIRC) for a very dim LED and for some super-bright LEDs I've gone as high as 5k2? Maybe it was just 4k7. Anyway, adjust to taste.



Also, for SMD-solder practice, I recommend buying some SMD transistors and through-hole adapter boards. That way you get something useful out of your practice; even if you bodge a few you'll have some that you can use. SMD Transistors are cheap compared to FV-1 and other chips.
 
I added in the mod that I read about from @MichaelW in this thread and the links contained.
Yah, if you're listening to THAT guy you're in trouble, he has no clue wtf he's talking about.......:)

Great looking builds dude, and I'm willing to bet it's much more satisfying sound than the PodXT.

You could easily swap out that toggle for a "short bat" version and then add a dress nut. That's what I did and it lets you stomp away on the footswitch without hitting the toggle.

IMG_3080.JPG
 
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