Honeysuckle Drive (CKK Scream Honey)

[MichaelW]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Ok, I have to admit the main reason I built this one knowing that it's a YATS was because of the name. I'll leave it to the imagination of this forum what "Scream Honey" connotes, I shall keep mine....um....private

Second reason I built it......is because @jeffwhitfield built it, and I liked the way his looked and loved his write up. (Did I mention that I am easily influenced and marketed to?

So my experience with TS circuits is limited to the Greengage (Plumes) which I almost don't even group into the category of TS circuits because it sounds so different, and the Lone King (Kingtone Soloist) that I was initially underwhelmed with but has grown on me, particularly running it at 18v.

This pedal is squarely in the TS camp, and I'm not really hearing anything unique about it, but then I did not use the "NO LONGER AVAILABLE COMPONENTS" mojo parts.

Having said that, it's a pretty cool variant.

The two toggle switches have an extremely subtle effect. The "Hollow" switch is only discernible to me with the gain cranked and the tone control cranked. Then I can hear a difference. I'm really not sure what it's supposed to do.

The "Bold" toggle, is supposed to bring in the clippers and this one has me really confused. I tried a variety of different clippers since I don't have any MA150's.
I even tried inverting one or the other clipper in an asymmetrical arrangement, I can still barely hear any difference toggling the switch. With headphones on I "think" I can hear something. I suppose its possible I have a bad toggle, or it's just more ju ju marketing? I dunno.

As for clippers, I tried 4148's, BAS33's, 1SS133's, I finally settled on a combination of diodes.
In D2 I've got a BAS33 in series with the Ge diode (I used a D9K with ~.390mv) and a BAT41 in D1. This combination sounded the best to me both in terms of what I am hearing and how the pedal feels playing it. It's probably got a bit more compression than it's supposed to due to the BAT41.

I'm not sure how close this sounds to the original, I've only watched Pete Thorn's video and he was mostly using it to goose a dirty Marshall.

I tried using it to push a dirty Plexi amp model as well as a Friedman DS40 (which is loosely based on a modified JTM45) and it does what any TS is supposed to do.
Nothing particularly special imo.

Playing into a clean amp with the gain set around noon running at 18v and the tone up around 2 o'clock I was getting the best sounds (to me) as a standalone overdrive.

So it was an easy weekday build, but sonically occupies the same space as my Lone King. Still worth building though. Probably not the first pedal I'll reach for but nice to have the option in my tonal palette.

 

[swyse]

Cool build, I appreciate the in-depth write up. Looking at the switches, I can see how they would feel subtle, the tone switch mostly affects the very upper and lower ends of the tone control and in the center its basically unchanged.

 

[MichaelW]

Cool build, I appreciate the in-depth write up. Looking at the switches, I can see how they would feel subtle, the tone switch mostly affects the very upper and lower ends of the tone control and in the center its basically unchanged.

Ok that splain's why I can discern a difference at the extreme ends of the tone range. Now that you mentioned that, I looked at the schematic and it makes sense. Which has got me thinking about modding the resistor/cap pairs in the two toggle positions to "open up" the pedal a bit more.

The clipper toggle still has me a bit baffled. Seems like no matter what set of diodes I have in there, it clips regardless of the position of the toggle. The only time it made a more dramatic difference was when I deliberately put the Ge diode in there backwards. But I've since soldered the D9K in.

 

[MichaelW]

while this may not be the type of pedal that excites me I have to comment on on your build quality. nice progression. I have seen a big improvement and just wanted to say that's what this is about and not just throwing things together in a hurry to get it done and on to the next one. I appreciate people who take pride in their work and attention to quality and details. It shows here.

Is that just a nice way of saying "Damn, you're anal....." ?

 

[jeffwhitfield]

The two toggle switches have an extremely subtle effect. The "Hollow" switch is only discernible to me with the gain cranked and the tone control cranked. Then I can hear a difference. I'm really not sure what it's supposed to do.

The "Bold" toggle, is supposed to bring in the clippers and this one has me really confused. I tried a variety of different clippers since I don't have any MA150's.
I even tried inverting one or the other clipper in an asymmetrical arrangement, I can still barely hear any difference toggling the switch. With headphones on I "think" I can hear something. I suppose its possible I have a bad toggle, or it's just more ju ju marketing? I dunno.

Thanks for the compliment man! Mucho appreciate it!

As for the Hollow and Bold toggles, here's my two-cents on those...

The Hollow does change the way the Tone knob works so you're right in that it interacts directly with that. And, yeah, mileage does vary depending on the amp. I found that it's really quite subtle on Fender amps especially (at least with my amp models. )

The Bold is also another one that can be subtle. All that one does is take the germanium diode in and out of the circuit. Really depends on what diodes you're using for sure. The MA150 diode as a forward voltage of around .70v. Both the BAS33 and BAT41 are around 1v with the BAT41 likely giving a bit more compression like you said.

You could try some different germanium's that have a higher forward voltage. I have one pedal that was pretty subtle with a typical 1N34A diode. But when I changed it to a 1N60P diode it all came together. Adds a bit more compression which is more noticeable. Could be the thing that makes that Bold switch more useful. Heck, could use slightly lower forward voltage silicon diodes mixed with a higher germanium one. That way you can select between higher compression with the germanium and a bit lower without it. That's kind of how it's supposed to work anyways.

 

[MichaelW]

Hmmmm....I actually have some 1N60P's, maybe I'll yank the Ge diode and socket it. Still, it sounds pretty good as is. Compared to the Lone King it doesn't have as much range of tone, more like right in the middle of the TS Hump. But it does do that very well.

 

[joelorigo]

For all interested, I’ve finished mine and have been comparing it to a CKK Scream Honey. One of the 2nd batch from this year that is “20% better.” I have tried it in several ways and I can’t really hear a difference. Maybe, maybe, slightly more compression on the CKK. Maybe. Slightly.