BuddytheReow
Breadboard Baker
Months ago, I tried designing my own PCB and was pretty successful with it. It wasn't anything special; just an Electra distortion. FOr those of you who don't know what that is, think of a textbook transistor amplifier (in our case, a booster) followed by hard clipping diodes. I had a number of boards sitting in my drawer, but without an enclosure to put it in. I really didn't want to waste a 125b on a tiny board. Fast forward to about a month ago and @DGWVI was gracious enough to send over a small enclosure along with a bunch of other goodies. I think this is a 1590G or something kind of close to it. Either way its shallower than a 1590a and slimmer than a 1590b. I knew if I didn't do something with it, it would taunt and stare at me for possibly years in a drawer.
Ok, so. Building in a small enclosure. It's definitely a challenge and something I would recommend doing at some point in your build career. Would I build another 1590a or 1590g? Probably not unless I had to. It was a real PITA with the wiring. I had to put some electrical tape on the inside of the lid to stop the stomp switch from shorting out. The board itself was stupid simple and took all of 10 minutes to populate. I didn't add the diodes to my board and only wanted a booster.
What can I say about how it sounds? Well, my coupling caps were 1uf, so this definitely fattens up any guitar sound. I also use hot humbuckers so if i play real hard then there is some clipping being done by the transistor itself. Not a lot, but enough to notice that it's being driven pretty hard.
My limited experience with boosters, or at least this one, is that it doesn't affect everything. Some drive pedals take a booster before it really nicely, others not so much, and others I hear virtually no difference. This is something I will definitely be playing around with on my board to see what I do and don't like.
Still unsure about any artwork, but considering how much of a bitch this was to put together, I may just leave it as is.
Ok, so. Building in a small enclosure. It's definitely a challenge and something I would recommend doing at some point in your build career. Would I build another 1590a or 1590g? Probably not unless I had to. It was a real PITA with the wiring. I had to put some electrical tape on the inside of the lid to stop the stomp switch from shorting out. The board itself was stupid simple and took all of 10 minutes to populate. I didn't add the diodes to my board and only wanted a booster.
What can I say about how it sounds? Well, my coupling caps were 1uf, so this definitely fattens up any guitar sound. I also use hot humbuckers so if i play real hard then there is some clipping being done by the transistor itself. Not a lot, but enough to notice that it's being driven pretty hard.
My limited experience with boosters, or at least this one, is that it doesn't affect everything. Some drive pedals take a booster before it really nicely, others not so much, and others I hear virtually no difference. This is something I will definitely be playing around with on my board to see what I do and don't like.
Still unsure about any artwork, but considering how much of a bitch this was to put together, I may just leave it as is.
