JHS Kilt

[bhcarpenter]

I heard it’s based on the Expandora, but it would still be a great one to have in the collection. You can never have too many Rats.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

It's an Expandora with a boost. JHS declined to provide a schematic when I asked them. Must have been too embarrassed.

 

[jesuscrisp]

It's an Expandora with a boost. JHS declined to provide a schematic when I asked them. Must have been too embarrassed.

You really expect peak boutique builders like JHS provide schematics? I mean Josh embarrassingly did for the 3 Series, but I don't think most of them are that transparent regarding their circuits.

 

[thesmokingman]

having owned an original expandora and built a clone as well ...
the expandora doesn't really need a boost either before or after it. in fact a boost before it kind of defeats the purpose and at that point you could save yourself a ton of effort and build a rat. that is to say that what the expandora does is 2 things a rat doesn't: you have the envelope provided by the opto-fet and the gain structure switching taking it from overdrive to gated fuzz ... if you want the "expander" effect this is a first-in-line pedal ... comps, boosts, etc are going to ruin feature #1
in short, build the pedalpcb pandora's box, look into whether you want the "fat" switch from the later expandora, and call it a day. I thought the kilt was stupid when JHS released it and it hasn't aged well since

 

[bhcarpenter]

According to JHS it’s a “a heavily tweaked Expandora style dirt box”.

Then again, they probably consider the Morning Glory to be a “heavily tweaked Blues Breaker style dirt box”.

 

[bhcarpenter]

JHS declined to provide a schematic when I asked them.

Out of curiosity, do manufacturers typically share schematics (e.g. for repair purposes) upon request? I always thought it was very cool that David Barber does this, but I would in no way expect it.

 

[jesuscrisp]

According to JHS it’s a “a heavily tweaked Expandora style dirt box”.

Then again, they probably consider the Morning Glory to be a “heavily tweaked Blues Breaker style dirt box”.

Are you implying that adding a smoothing cap on a switch because you're working off the "wrong" version of the BB and a JFET boost doesn't mean heavy tweaking?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Out of curiosity, do manufacturers typically share schematics (e.g. for repair purposes) upon request? I always thought it was very cool that David Barber does this, but I would in no way expect it.

I didn't expect it, but there's little to be gained by trying to keep it a secret. Just ask Bill Finnegan. Dave Barber, Marc Ahlfs & Brian Wampler are proud of their work.

 

[carlinb17]

I didn't expect it, but there's little to be gained by trying to keep it a secret. Just ask Bill Finnegan. Dave Barber, Marc Ahlfs & Brian Wampler are proud of their work.

Still waiting on my Mr. Finnegan call back...

 

[zgrav]

oddly enough, putting a compressor in front of an envelope-sensitive effect does not make as much difference in how it works as you might think. at least if you are leaving some dynamic range in your audio path and you can adjust the input level for the effect coming after the compressor.

of course it won't be the same sound as if you put the envelope sensitive effect first, since you lose the sound of the effect compressed too.

 

[thesmokingman]

According to JHS it’s a “a heavily tweaked Expandora style dirt box”.

Then again, they probably consider the Morning Glory to be a “heavily tweaked Blues Breaker style dirt box”.

You'll forgive me if "according to JHS" is a non-starter for me. I shared what I know of such things, you do what you want with it.