Fingolfen
Well-known member
So... say you want an Aqua Puss Mk I AP 2 pedal, but don't happen to have $4,000+ lying around in your couch... Fortunately the Tone Geek can set you up with a PCB - of course then you have to find all of the parts!
For this build I went ahead and just ordered the Mouser BOM on the Tone Geek page. This part load out best mirrors the original Mark I units. I couldn't find an original MN3005 BBD chip, but there is an Xvive Audio reproduction which can be had for a fairly reasonable price. Obviously, try to get the BBD and the MN3101 clock driver chips from as reputable sources as you can. Note, in the photo above the SA571 chip is reversed, the correct orientation is below. The fact that it had a dot and an indentation threw me off initially.
Wiring for the pedal is fairly manual with no daughter board for the 3PDT switch (like the original). My wiring is a bit more "spaghetti" than the original pedal, but hopefully I can neaten that up on any future builds. The wiring diagram recommended a shielded wire from the input jack to the switch. I decided to go one better and run shielded on both the input and output. I doubt it makes a difference, but it was easy enough to do since I had the wire available.
The Tone Geek board is designed to drop into an Aqua Puss Mk 2 enclosure. The Mark 2 pedal can be had for about $90 used, but I have an aversion to just junking a perfectly good pedal, and $90 is a lot to pay for an enclosure! Fortunately there is now a face place and drilling template available for a 1590BBS enclosure, so that's the way I decided to go. At this point the enclosure is just a basic black sand finish... hence the "Lord Vader, your delay pedal is ready..." I'd thought about going with "how much more black could this pedal be..." but I suppose one could do the markings in a gloss black over matte black, so it could technically be a bit more black...
For this build I went ahead and just ordered the Mouser BOM on the Tone Geek page. This part load out best mirrors the original Mark I units. I couldn't find an original MN3005 BBD chip, but there is an Xvive Audio reproduction which can be had for a fairly reasonable price. Obviously, try to get the BBD and the MN3101 clock driver chips from as reputable sources as you can. Note, in the photo above the SA571 chip is reversed, the correct orientation is below. The fact that it had a dot and an indentation threw me off initially.
Wiring for the pedal is fairly manual with no daughter board for the 3PDT switch (like the original). My wiring is a bit more "spaghetti" than the original pedal, but hopefully I can neaten that up on any future builds. The wiring diagram recommended a shielded wire from the input jack to the switch. I decided to go one better and run shielded on both the input and output. I doubt it makes a difference, but it was easy enough to do since I had the wire available.
The Tone Geek board is designed to drop into an Aqua Puss Mk 2 enclosure. The Mark 2 pedal can be had for about $90 used, but I have an aversion to just junking a perfectly good pedal, and $90 is a lot to pay for an enclosure! Fortunately there is now a face place and drilling template available for a 1590BBS enclosure, so that's the way I decided to go. At this point the enclosure is just a basic black sand finish... hence the "Lord Vader, your delay pedal is ready..." I'd thought about going with "how much more black could this pedal be..." but I suppose one could do the markings in a gloss black over matte black, so it could technically be a bit more black...
