gila_crisis
Member
Fresh from the workbench a pair of Infanem clones: blue Driving Notion and bare aluminium 141G.
141G: this was a straight forward build. I went for the G version (somebody who owns both G & T versions reported me that: "G has the most mids for sure. It's not properly a mid boost, but it's way more mid voiced than the T, which is mid scoopedy", so G it has to be).
I did a tweak and installed 4.7uF NP caps instead of the 10uF NP, as I felt the sound was a tiny bit too bass heavy (but in a good way), and played a bit around with the transistors to get a different texture than with the stock 2N2222 (for example I used some MPSA18 and BC239C instead).
Driving Notion: this gave me a long afternoon of multiple headaches, as the "good folks" at Banzai Music made a tiny delivery mistake (and it's not the first time such mistakes happen with them...). They sent 4k7 resistors instead of 47k, which totally un-biased the circuit... anyhow (and yes also my fault I didn't double check the parts prior soldering), after I found out the mismatch, and recovered some 47k resistor from my house stock, the pedal started working properly!
Here as well I did some tweaks, especially in the High part of the circuit: I used sockets for R30 (which is actually an extra capacitor) and after few trials I ended with an additional 2n2 cap in this slot, as it adds a nice extra grit to the distortion (but I wouldn't go higher that 4n7, otherwise the up position on the thicker switch sound a bit useless). Further, I socketed C12, as I found a pair of schematics with different values for this part. The stock per Deadend schematic 1nF sounds a bit too glassy/piercing IMHO, so I tried bigger values. I ended with a 47nF (still bright but fuller and without glassy-ness, but already 10nF sounds way better than then 1nF).
Finally, to properly bias Q6 and Q7 I installed 100k trim pots for R23 and R26, and doubled the values of C19 and C20 to have even more range from the Thicker switch.
I really like these 2 overdrive/fuzzes, they have a strong character of their own, and the circuits are very different from the usual stuff I see around. Highly recommended for everybody who's looking for something unusual but cool.
As usual: big kudos to Deadend FX for the stellar PCBs and their efforts to preserve knowledge about these lost gems!
141G: this was a straight forward build. I went for the G version (somebody who owns both G & T versions reported me that: "G has the most mids for sure. It's not properly a mid boost, but it's way more mid voiced than the T, which is mid scoopedy", so G it has to be).
I did a tweak and installed 4.7uF NP caps instead of the 10uF NP, as I felt the sound was a tiny bit too bass heavy (but in a good way), and played a bit around with the transistors to get a different texture than with the stock 2N2222 (for example I used some MPSA18 and BC239C instead).
Driving Notion: this gave me a long afternoon of multiple headaches, as the "good folks" at Banzai Music made a tiny delivery mistake (and it's not the first time such mistakes happen with them...). They sent 4k7 resistors instead of 47k, which totally un-biased the circuit... anyhow (and yes also my fault I didn't double check the parts prior soldering), after I found out the mismatch, and recovered some 47k resistor from my house stock, the pedal started working properly!
Here as well I did some tweaks, especially in the High part of the circuit: I used sockets for R30 (which is actually an extra capacitor) and after few trials I ended with an additional 2n2 cap in this slot, as it adds a nice extra grit to the distortion (but I wouldn't go higher that 4n7, otherwise the up position on the thicker switch sound a bit useless). Further, I socketed C12, as I found a pair of schematics with different values for this part. The stock per Deadend schematic 1nF sounds a bit too glassy/piercing IMHO, so I tried bigger values. I ended with a 47nF (still bright but fuller and without glassy-ness, but already 10nF sounds way better than then 1nF).
Finally, to properly bias Q6 and Q7 I installed 100k trim pots for R23 and R26, and doubled the values of C19 and C20 to have even more range from the Thicker switch.
I really like these 2 overdrive/fuzzes, they have a strong character of their own, and the circuits are very different from the usual stuff I see around. Highly recommended for everybody who's looking for something unusual but cool.
As usual: big kudos to Deadend FX for the stellar PCBs and their efforts to preserve knowledge about these lost gems!
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