MichaelW
Well-known member
Man, so many awesome build reports this week of some epic builds.
This is the latest of my building spree this past week. Seems like I had a lot of builds ready to go and just waiting for a this or that part.
I think I've cleared them all out and now waiting for the next order of components to come in. I actually only have 2 in queue right now that I know I'm building.
There hasn't been a dud in any of my last 5 or 6 builds, they've all sounded AWESOME (even with my backwards Ge diode adventure hahah)
I was not very familiar with the KingTone Duellist until I started getting interested in the King of Tone pedal and it was often reviewed as an alternative.
I ordered this board with a bunch of other stuff during the last sale and kinda have been ambivalent about building "another Bluesbreaker" variant. (This is the problem with ordering crap from my iPad lying in bed half asleep......"why did I order this again?"
) I don't really care much for the actual Bluesbreaker I built. (AionFx Cerulean). Just too fizzy and splatty and weak for me.
There's no schematic for the Kings Hand yet from PedalPCB so I really wasn't sure what it was all about but when I scored a bunch of (probably the last bunch) of cheap BA282's from Small Bear I decided to build this out.
MAN am I glad I did, what an AWESOME sounding overdrive pedal! I would not categorize this as a "better BluesBreaker" as I think the tonal options go way beyond what even a modded BB can offer. I would characterize it as a better Analogman "Prince of Tone". It's got more balls, more girth, more meaty thick rich and chewy overdrive sounds yet it's still only a "medium gain" pedal. It actually shares some external resemblance to the Pauper/POT.
So not really knowing what to expect, I built it stock initially. Then when I started futzing around with the internal dip switches I decided that there's enough useful sounds that I would want easier access to so I installed an external toggle. The one already existing external toggle (Stock-Fat-Glass) that is common across the KingTone pedal line has some pretty significant EQ shifts and and I think would be useful in switching between HB to single coil guitars. The internal dip switch turns on/off Asym/Sym clipping modes and also a hard clipping mode. The Asym/Sym was not super significant difference to me so I decided to put the DIP on a single DPDT On-Off-On toggle. Plus I did the 2 mini-toggles on my Pauper build and it was a biotch getting it all to fit and I didn't want to do that again!
As is my preference since it was a small board I put it in a 1590B but I had to tilt board a little bit for the electrolytic caps to clear. I hadn't considered that before soldering them in, (always learning something new to watch out for with every build!) I'm also still trying to come up with a common template for top jack drilling but it seems like I'm just going to need to measure each 125B -> 1590B conversion as they've all had some different little considerations to account for.
Super glad I built this pedal. If you like the Paragon/Paragon Mini/Pauper family of overdrives you will really love this pedal. It's like Chai Tea Latte (Paragon) vs Chocolate Milkshake (Kings Hand). Both are great! Oh and it does the Low Gain thing very well too. Covers the same ground as the Paragon. I'd still love to see the schematic for this circuit to see what makes it tick.
I have the "other side" of the Duellist in queue. It's supposed to be a better TS variant and I actually got the board to build for my brother. I recently sent him a Greengage/EQD Plumes (which is the best sounding TS variant I've come across yet). If the "Lone King" is as good as the "Kings Hand" I may wind up keeping it.
It was a lot neater the first time I built it before taking it apart to install the toggle.....
This is the latest of my building spree this past week. Seems like I had a lot of builds ready to go and just waiting for a this or that part.
I think I've cleared them all out and now waiting for the next order of components to come in. I actually only have 2 in queue right now that I know I'm building.
There hasn't been a dud in any of my last 5 or 6 builds, they've all sounded AWESOME (even with my backwards Ge diode adventure hahah)
I was not very familiar with the KingTone Duellist until I started getting interested in the King of Tone pedal and it was often reviewed as an alternative.
I ordered this board with a bunch of other stuff during the last sale and kinda have been ambivalent about building "another Bluesbreaker" variant. (This is the problem with ordering crap from my iPad lying in bed half asleep......"why did I order this again?"
) I don't really care much for the actual Bluesbreaker I built. (AionFx Cerulean). Just too fizzy and splatty and weak for me. There's no schematic for the Kings Hand yet from PedalPCB so I really wasn't sure what it was all about but when I scored a bunch of (probably the last bunch) of cheap BA282's from Small Bear I decided to build this out.
MAN am I glad I did, what an AWESOME sounding overdrive pedal! I would not categorize this as a "better BluesBreaker" as I think the tonal options go way beyond what even a modded BB can offer. I would characterize it as a better Analogman "Prince of Tone". It's got more balls, more girth, more meaty thick rich and chewy overdrive sounds yet it's still only a "medium gain" pedal. It actually shares some external resemblance to the Pauper/POT.
So not really knowing what to expect, I built it stock initially. Then when I started futzing around with the internal dip switches I decided that there's enough useful sounds that I would want easier access to so I installed an external toggle. The one already existing external toggle (Stock-Fat-Glass) that is common across the KingTone pedal line has some pretty significant EQ shifts and and I think would be useful in switching between HB to single coil guitars. The internal dip switch turns on/off Asym/Sym clipping modes and also a hard clipping mode. The Asym/Sym was not super significant difference to me so I decided to put the DIP on a single DPDT On-Off-On toggle. Plus I did the 2 mini-toggles on my Pauper build and it was a biotch getting it all to fit and I didn't want to do that again!
As is my preference since it was a small board I put it in a 1590B but I had to tilt board a little bit for the electrolytic caps to clear. I hadn't considered that before soldering them in, (always learning something new to watch out for with every build!) I'm also still trying to come up with a common template for top jack drilling but it seems like I'm just going to need to measure each 125B -> 1590B conversion as they've all had some different little considerations to account for.
Super glad I built this pedal. If you like the Paragon/Paragon Mini/Pauper family of overdrives you will really love this pedal. It's like Chai Tea Latte (Paragon) vs Chocolate Milkshake (Kings Hand). Both are great! Oh and it does the Low Gain thing very well too. Covers the same ground as the Paragon. I'd still love to see the schematic for this circuit to see what makes it tick.
I have the "other side" of the Duellist in queue. It's supposed to be a better TS variant and I actually got the board to build for my brother. I recently sent him a Greengage/EQD Plumes (which is the best sounding TS variant I've come across yet). If the "Lone King" is as good as the "Kings Hand" I may wind up keeping it.
It was a lot neater the first time I built it before taking it apart to install the toggle.....
