I built a bunch of PCBGM pedals so you don’t have to

sticky1138

sticky1138

Well-known member
I just finished my last build from the stack of PCBGMs I bought on sale a while ago, and looking back, I built a lot more of them than I realized.

I would advise against ordering from there if you can, but if you happen to already own some of their PCBs, this might help you decide what is worth (or not worth) spending time on. Feel free to add to the list if you’d like.


Acapulco Lite (Acapulco Gold) – Works and sounds great, the pre-gain mod is useful and convenient to have on the PCB

Forestal Device (Westwood) – Works, but definitely does not sound the original, it’s more aggressive and fuzzy which you might find interesting, but I don’t necessarily recommend

Sunn Beta Lead – Works and sounds excellent, but some of the pot values or tapers are a little off and the build doc wrongfully states it fits in a 1590BB, when in fact you need a deeper enclosure if you want the jacks to fit (don’t ask me how I know)

Terminal Device (Terminal Fuzz) – “Works” but not like the original, it's the worst sounding POS I’ve ever heard, like a dying Gameboy blended with the clean signal, it was included with my order for free - I can’t imagine why?

Death By Reverb (Reverberation Machine) – Swallowing a Belton brick would be a more pleasant experience than attempting to build this horrible sounding abomination

La Rata (RAT) – Perfectly fine RAT clone if you build it without the mods, the sweep mod does work but I couldn’t get the softness mod to do anything

Crisalida (Chrysalis) – Works and sounds great, but I couldn’t get the clip toggle to do anything (maybe my fault, maybe not)

Acapulco Tone (Acapulco Gold with EQ) – Couldn’t get it to work and didn't care enough to troubleshoot

Death By Overdrive (Interstellar Overdriver) – “Works” but sounds nothing like the original and is a completely unpleasant overdrive that spikes weird frequencies, second worst dirt pedal I’ve ever played after the aforementioned Terminal

Angry Carlos (Angry Charlie) – Works and sounds great, but the extra clipping options don't sound good enough to include

Cherry Fuzz (Peach Fuzz) – Works and sounds great, no complaints
 
The Cosmos is a total bust, but I did have success with the Master Phaser and the Vutron. I have not compared to originals, but the master phaser sounds good regardless, the Vutron is a pretty meh envelope filter, whether that is circuit or pcb maker I can’t really say
 
Just remembered a couple more:

Their Ghost Echo clone works as it should and sounds identical to the PPCB Spirit Box I built (obviously you should buy that version instead).

Their Gray Channel clone technically works, but it sounded kind of harsh compared to my gray spec 250 build, so I stripped it for components and then built the Effects Layouts version (Black and Tan), which is way better.
 
I helped a friend finish a tremolo factory recently. It was quite unpleasant as the layout doesn’t seem well thought out since the jacks would interfere with the pcb. He had followed the drill doc. I guess low profile jacks could have fit above the pcb (when viewed from gut), if drilled all the way to the edge. But it was too late, he cut away some of the pcb that seemed unused to put the jacks on the face. Turns out that cut through a trace that we had to track down, but in the end it works. I saw another build where they couldn’t fit the jacks so they just have 1/4” cables soldered to the pcb coming out of the jack holes, so it wasn’t just our problem.

But now there’s a PPCB version!
 
Last edited:
sticky1138 said:
I just finished my last build from the stack of PCBGMs I bought on sale a while ago, and looking back, I built a lot more of them than I realized.

I would advise against ordering from there if you can, but if you happen to already own some of their PCBs, this might help you decide what is worth (or not worth) spending time on. Feel free to add to the list if you’d like.


Acapulco Lite (Acapulco Gold) – Works and sounds great, the pre-gain mod is useful and convenient to have on the PCB

Forestal Device (Westwood) – Works, but definitely does not sound the original, it’s more aggressive and fuzzy which you might find interesting, but I don’t necessarily recommend

Sunn Beta Lead – Works and sounds excellent, but some of the pot values or tapers are a little off and the build doc wrongfully states it fits in a 1590BB, when in fact you need a deeper enclosure if you want the jacks to fit (don’t ask me how I know)

Terminal Device (Terminal Fuzz) – “Works” but not like the original, it's the worst sounding POS I’ve ever heard, like a dying Gameboy blended with the clean signal, it was included with my order for free - I can’t imagine why?

Death By Reverb (Reverberation Machine) – Swallowing a Belton brick would be a more pleasant experience than attempting to build this horrible sounding abomination

La Rata (RAT) – Perfectly fine RAT clone if you build it without the mods, the sweep mod does work but I couldn’t get the softness mod to do anything

Crisalida (Chrysalis) – Works and sounds great, but I couldn’t get the clip toggle to do anything (maybe my fault, maybe not)

Acapulco Tone (Acapulco Gold with EQ) – Couldn’t get it to work and didn't care enough to troubleshoot

Death By Overdrive (Interstellar Overdriver) – “Works” but sounds nothing like the original and is a completely unpleasant overdrive that spikes weird frequencies, second worst dirt pedal I’ve ever played after the aforementioned Terminal

Angry Carlos (Angry Charlie) – Works and sounds great, but the extra clipping options don't sound good enough to include

Cherry Fuzz (Peach Fuzz) – Works and sounds great, no complaints
Click to expand...
I'll add that the Submarine Device (EQD Depths)
And Eagle Claw (EQD Talons) are solid builds. But why bother when you can get them from PPCB?

(Unless some really cool dude gifted you a bunch of boards:)
 
sticky1138 said:
I just finished my last build from the stack of PCBGMs I bought on sale a while ago, and looking back, I built a lot more of them than I realized.

I would advise against ordering from there if you can, but if you happen to already own some of their PCBs, this might help you decide what is worth (or not worth) spending time on. Feel free to add to the list if you’d like.


Acapulco Lite (Acapulco Gold) – Works and sounds great, the pre-gain mod is useful and convenient to have on the PCB

Forestal Device (Westwood) – Works, but definitely does not sound the original, it’s more aggressive and fuzzy which you might find interesting, but I don’t necessarily recommend

Sunn Beta Lead – Works and sounds excellent, but some of the pot values or tapers are a little off and the build doc wrongfully states it fits in a 1590BB, when in fact you need a deeper enclosure if you want the jacks to fit (don’t ask me how I know)

Terminal Device (Terminal Fuzz) – “Works” but not like the original, it's the worst sounding POS I’ve ever heard, like a dying Gameboy blended with the clean signal, it was included with my order for free - I can’t imagine why?

Death By Reverb (Reverberation Machine) – Swallowing a Belton brick would be a more pleasant experience than attempting to build this horrible sounding abomination

La Rata (RAT) – Perfectly fine RAT clone if you build it without the mods, the sweep mod does work but I couldn’t get the softness mod to do anything

Crisalida (Chrysalis) – Works and sounds great, but I couldn’t get the clip toggle to do anything (maybe my fault, maybe not)

Acapulco Tone (Acapulco Gold with EQ) – Couldn’t get it to work and didn't care enough to troubleshoot

Death By Overdrive (Interstellar Overdriver) – “Works” but sounds nothing like the original and is a completely unpleasant overdrive that spikes weird frequencies, second worst dirt pedal I’ve ever played after the aforementioned Terminal

Angry Carlos (Angry Charlie) – Works and sounds great, but the extra clipping options don't sound good enough to include

Cherry Fuzz (Peach Fuzz) – Works and sounds great, no complaints
Click to expand...
I just received the Sunn Beta Lead and am glad to here it sounds good because I had my hopes up when I ordered it.

A couple of questions based on your comments: do you think the extra height of a 1590BBS would be sufficient? And as far as the pot tapers, do you think I should use different than what the build doc says?

Thanks for posting this!
 
geoffrey said:
I just received the Sunn Beta Lead and am glad to here it sounds good because I had my hopes up when I ordered it.

A couple of questions based on your comments: do you think the extra height of a 1590BBS would be sufficient? And as far as the pot tapers, do you think I should use different than what the build doc says?

Thanks for posting this!
Click to expand...
The EQ section is fine, but experiment with different pots for Volume and Gain. If I recall, they were both hair triggers.

Mine did fit into a BBS. I drilled the pot holes first, put the PCB in, then measured for the jacks and had a decent amount of room to work with.
 
Diynot said:
Don’t do it man, not even worth the headache. Save those pt2399s and get the legit Sagan from Carcharias fx. It’s a fun build. May not have the exact same functions, but there is a reason the circuit was redesigned.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think I’m just gonna get the Sonomatic instead. It sounds pretty good and people have had no issue with it so far.
 
sticky1138 said:
The EQ section is fine, but experiment with different pots for Volume and Gain. If I recall, they were both hair triggers.

Mine did fit into a BBS. I drilled the pot holes first, put the PCB in, then measured for the jacks and had a decent amount of room to work with.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice!
 
The Terminal worked for me, sounded just as shitty as the demos 🤷‍♂️

While we're on topic: Uno Fuzz (Superfuzz), Transport Device (Disaster Transport), Submarine Device (The Depths, didn't attempt adding the switch), Sea Device (Sea Machine, personally didn't like the speed taper but it seems OK according to other schematics), Podcaster (Broadcast Dual), Whiteboard (White Pedal), Stoner NFT (Catalinbread SFT, hope they fixed the 2 resistor values by now), Patreon (Wampler Pantheon), Tremolo Device (Hummingbird, skip the rate LED or find how to actually do it for the transistor you're using) and Face Melter (Pussy Melter, high gain mode felt too noisy for me but maybe that's just the pedal) all do work as they should, caveats in the brackets.

Cosmos V1.3 was a mess both in terms of function as it wouldn't work and no fix was ever posted and the drilling template absolutely does not work as they laid it out. There are little or big issues that pop up all the time (pots wired in reverse, missing components that need some degree of hacking, wrong values even though the schematics are copied from other PCB sellers for sure) and even though they appear to be testing their boards finally, I feel like their reputation will be tarnished.

Always check in the Facebook groups and forums whether the board is vetted and only buy while they're on sale... and you're European. In the US there are just so many better options really.
 
jesuscrisp said:
The Terminal worked for me, sounded just as shitty as the demos 🤷‍♂️

While we're on topic: Uno Fuzz (Superfuzz), Transport Device (Disaster Transport), Submarine Device (The Depths, didn't attempt adding the switch), Sea Device (Sea Machine, personally didn't like the speed taper but it seems OK according to other schematics), Podcaster (Broadcast Dual), Whiteboard (White Pedal), Stoner NFT (Catalinbread SFT, hope they fixed the 2 resistor values by now), Patreon (Wampler Pantheon), Tremolo Device (Hummingbird, skip the rate LED or find how to actually do it for the transistor you're using) and Face Melter (Pussy Melter, high gain mode felt too noisy for me but maybe that's just the pedal) all do work as they should, caveats in the brackets.

Cosmos V1.3 was a mess both in terms of function as it wouldn't work and no fix was ever posted and the drilling template absolutely does not work as they laid it out. There are little or big issues that pop up all the time (pots wired in reverse, missing components that need some degree of hacking, wrong values even though the schematics are copied from other PCB sellers for sure) and even though they appear to be testing their boards finally, I feel like their reputation will be tarnished.

Always check in the Facebook groups and forums whether the board is vetted and only buy while they're on sale... and you're European. In the US there are just so many better options really.
Click to expand...
As a European, I still skip them. Anything trouble free is easy enough to build on vero. Anything harder has too much of a risk factor.

PCBs for sale need to be taken care of. That means they just work, or any fixes need to be documented and discounted.

Especially as a European, with EU taxes on top of all we buy from overseas, it’s an expectation that if something isn’t working, it’s our fault, not the PCB designer.
 
The Cosmos Delay was a nightmare that made me question my skills. Traced that like crazy until I saw people on this forum say they couldn't get it working either. Death by Reverb was where I decided it was them, not me. Wasted a whole Belton Brick on that one.

I'm so sad that the Carcharias Effects Sagan delay isn't available. I'm bound and determined to make one of these.

That said, I've made a few that worked beautifully --- will list 'em soon.
 
mcluff said:
The Cosmos Delay was a nightmare that made me question my skills. Traced that like crazy until I saw people on this forum say they couldn't get it working either. Death by Reverb was where I decided it was them, not me. Wasted a whole Belton Brick on that one.

I'm so sad that the Carcharias Effects Sagan delay isn't available. I'm bound and determined to make one of these.

That said, I've made a few that worked beautifully --- will list 'em soon.
Click to expand...
I built the Sagan delay a few years ago, it is totally worth it!

1672148998121.png

1672149036499.png
 
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