- Build Rating
Here's my Madbean Blue Steel, a Boss BD-2 clone. Madbean's take adds a "subs" switch which allows the amount of bass to be tweaked. I built this to the Keeley mod specs. I used 1n4007 instead of 1n4002, since that's what I had on hand. But as has been discussed in numerous places, the "clipping" diodes in the BD-2 are basically just for show. So, according to the Blue Steel docs, the Keeley mod really comes down to a couple capacitor changes.
I mostly built this as a compliment to my Aion Heliodor (Boss OD-3). I have the actual Boss versions of both of these, and both find their way into the rotation from time to time. I was actually a bit conflicted on building these, as I really like Boss enclosures and their build quality leaves little to be desired, and I don't have anything against their buffers. On the other hand, I like building pedals, and I'm also looking for excuses to put my relay bypass into as many builds as possible.
The actual build was mostly unremarkable. I was populating the PCB at the same time as the Heliodor. Both of these are non-PedalPCB projects and the boards don't have the component values on the silkscreen. So I was working from a printed BOM, and kept worrying that I would accidentally mix the parts up (since there are a similar number of components in both pedals). But the Heliodor/OD-3 turned out great, and the same goes for the Blue Steel. (My only "problem" was, on first power-on, I got nothing when I engaged the pedal... turns out I forgot to pop in the opamp!) I also drilled the pot knobs a bit too near the top of the enclosure, as it was really hard to get the input/output jacks in there. I originally had a dust cover over the dual gang pot, but there was no way the jack was getting in there with that cover on, so it had to go. I was so glad when it worked on the first power-up, because I kind of had to force those jacks in there, meaning it would be a major pain in the posterior to take it apart.
Soundwise... I compared it to my BD-2w. It's pretty close, though they don't sound identical. The differences aren't glaring by any means. I suspect if blinded, I could tell it's two different pedals, but I couldn't say which is which. I chalk it up to the usual component tolerances. I also didn't do any checking of my JFETs before soldering. Looks like, particularly with through-hole JFETS, there can be a pretty big difference from one to the next. Either way, it definitely sounds like a BD-2, so I don't think I made any mistakes. As what is clearly one of the most popular pedals ever, I don't think there's really anything I can say about it that hasn't already been said. Here's an interesting video where Brian Wampler talks about the BD-2. And if you haven't seen this yet, do check out the great series @Chuck D. Bones did on the BD-2: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
I mostly built this as a compliment to my Aion Heliodor (Boss OD-3). I have the actual Boss versions of both of these, and both find their way into the rotation from time to time. I was actually a bit conflicted on building these, as I really like Boss enclosures and their build quality leaves little to be desired, and I don't have anything against their buffers. On the other hand, I like building pedals, and I'm also looking for excuses to put my relay bypass into as many builds as possible.
The actual build was mostly unremarkable. I was populating the PCB at the same time as the Heliodor. Both of these are non-PedalPCB projects and the boards don't have the component values on the silkscreen. So I was working from a printed BOM, and kept worrying that I would accidentally mix the parts up (since there are a similar number of components in both pedals). But the Heliodor/OD-3 turned out great, and the same goes for the Blue Steel. (My only "problem" was, on first power-on, I got nothing when I engaged the pedal... turns out I forgot to pop in the opamp!) I also drilled the pot knobs a bit too near the top of the enclosure, as it was really hard to get the input/output jacks in there. I originally had a dust cover over the dual gang pot, but there was no way the jack was getting in there with that cover on, so it had to go. I was so glad when it worked on the first power-up, because I kind of had to force those jacks in there, meaning it would be a major pain in the posterior to take it apart.
Soundwise... I compared it to my BD-2w. It's pretty close, though they don't sound identical. The differences aren't glaring by any means. I suspect if blinded, I could tell it's two different pedals, but I couldn't say which is which. I chalk it up to the usual component tolerances. I also didn't do any checking of my JFETs before soldering. Looks like, particularly with through-hole JFETS, there can be a pretty big difference from one to the next. Either way, it definitely sounds like a BD-2, so I don't think I made any mistakes. As what is clearly one of the most popular pedals ever, I don't think there's really anything I can say about it that hasn't already been said. Here's an interesting video where Brian Wampler talks about the BD-2. And if you haven't seen this yet, do check out the great series @Chuck D. Bones did on the BD-2: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
