Band of Dans
Well-known member
- Build Rating
A while back I got the idea stuck in my craw that I'd build a fun headphone rig as a gift for my brother-in-law so he could break out his electric guitar without waking up his young kids. I tested the PPCB headphone amp and Unicab with a few of my preamp pedals, but it just never sounded great without reverb and it seemed a little over the top to build a 4-pedal setup for what I'd originally envisioned as a quick and easy way to sneak in some quiet jams.
Anyway, I just happened to be trawling old build reports when @jjjimi84 started offering his Destiny Behemoth boards and was lucky enough to snap one up. AIAB + unicab + belton brick reverb + headphone amp in a 1590xx? Yes please.
I was a bit intimidated by this substantial build, not least because I'd never done SMD soldering before, but it went great. The build docs were thorough and helpful and the layout is impressively easy to work on, especially given how much it stuffs into one box. I'm not proud of the off-board wiring, but I had to really white-knuckled this one to finish on time. It was a xmas gift and I fired it up for the first time the night before an early holiday travel departure. Labels are just a quick paint pen job, but I was happy enough with the outcome. The jacks are also labeled, but I forgot to grab a picture before sending it on its way.
How does it sound? Well, I didn't get a ton of time with it and I'm not 100% certain I biased the JFETs perfectly, but we were still able to dial in some great sounds on xmas morning and my brother-in-law didn't want to put it down. I believe the AIAB section is the same circuit that's in the PPCB mammal. I've never owned a Marshall so it took me a while to figure out how the controls interact, but it sounded nice to my ears. The unicab is kind of a known entity around here. The reverb is really nice! My first belton brick 'verb and it has a surprisingly wide range, from super subtle to big near-ambient sounds. A good choice for a headphone rig.
The best part? My brother-in-law recently sent a photo of him and his daughter jamming out together using a headphone splitter to share the Behemoth. Exactly what I'd hoped for.
Thanks for making this project happen, @jjjimi84!
Anyway, I just happened to be trawling old build reports when @jjjimi84 started offering his Destiny Behemoth boards and was lucky enough to snap one up. AIAB + unicab + belton brick reverb + headphone amp in a 1590xx? Yes please.
I was a bit intimidated by this substantial build, not least because I'd never done SMD soldering before, but it went great. The build docs were thorough and helpful and the layout is impressively easy to work on, especially given how much it stuffs into one box. I'm not proud of the off-board wiring, but I had to really white-knuckled this one to finish on time. It was a xmas gift and I fired it up for the first time the night before an early holiday travel departure. Labels are just a quick paint pen job, but I was happy enough with the outcome. The jacks are also labeled, but I forgot to grab a picture before sending it on its way.
How does it sound? Well, I didn't get a ton of time with it and I'm not 100% certain I biased the JFETs perfectly, but we were still able to dial in some great sounds on xmas morning and my brother-in-law didn't want to put it down. I believe the AIAB section is the same circuit that's in the PPCB mammal. I've never owned a Marshall so it took me a while to figure out how the controls interact, but it sounded nice to my ears. The unicab is kind of a known entity around here. The reverb is really nice! My first belton brick 'verb and it has a surprisingly wide range, from super subtle to big near-ambient sounds. A good choice for a headphone rig.
The best part? My brother-in-law recently sent a photo of him and his daughter jamming out together using a headphone splitter to share the Behemoth. Exactly what I'd hoped for.
Thanks for making this project happen, @jjjimi84!
