Alan W
Well-known member
The pedal’s three controls work fine. The LED is pulsating, but the green is overwhelming the red quite a bit; but I do feel that both frequencies are being modulated appropriately. When first tested, last night, there was quite a bit of gain (unity was at about 9 o’clock) and there was a good amount of distortion. Disappointing, but pretty lovely, reminiscent of an old Supro or Magnatone amp being pushed—I got lost for a good while in it, even though there was part of me wanting to know why it was distorting that much. I read all the posts I could find last night, and turned my night light off after looking at the schematic quite a bit.
This AM decided to measure voltages, and all seemed within range. So, I tried some other 5457s. All were tested and were also within spec. Pretty much the same…
Next I subbed in some J201s, and it sounds much cleaner; I’d say like any of the demos I watched (and last night I watched parts of several). Less gain, unity now more like 10:30. I’d say problem solved—and it is, but now I need to go back and decide what I want this pedal for; if I can match that distortion quality with one of my drives, then I’ll leave it with the 201s, but I have a feeling that it may be an effect that I’ll use when I want that specific distortion and throb. My main amp has a lovely bias trem (but not harmonic), and I have a Tremulous as an additional option (although not harmonic in any sense)—or, I could end up building a second Mesme riser (or, possibly one of the other harmonic projects), and keep this one dirty.
When I take it apart to dress the box up, I’ll add in extra resistance for the green LED, just to try and balance it (plus the green is way too bright). There was a comment in one of the threads that mentioned the depth increasing quite a bit when the LED res was upped, which I don’t need (plenty of depth available), and also don’t understand, from my poor understanding of the schematic. I’ll send in pictures when the box is done. I have quite a few waiting for paint and graphics, and it’s much less expensive to do them in batches.
This AM decided to measure voltages, and all seemed within range. So, I tried some other 5457s. All were tested and were also within spec. Pretty much the same…
Next I subbed in some J201s, and it sounds much cleaner; I’d say like any of the demos I watched (and last night I watched parts of several). Less gain, unity now more like 10:30. I’d say problem solved—and it is, but now I need to go back and decide what I want this pedal for; if I can match that distortion quality with one of my drives, then I’ll leave it with the 201s, but I have a feeling that it may be an effect that I’ll use when I want that specific distortion and throb. My main amp has a lovely bias trem (but not harmonic), and I have a Tremulous as an additional option (although not harmonic in any sense)—or, I could end up building a second Mesme riser (or, possibly one of the other harmonic projects), and keep this one dirty.
When I take it apart to dress the box up, I’ll add in extra resistance for the green LED, just to try and balance it (plus the green is way too bright). There was a comment in one of the threads that mentioned the depth increasing quite a bit when the LED res was upped, which I don’t need (plenty of depth available), and also don’t understand, from my poor understanding of the schematic. I’ll send in pictures when the box is done. I have quite a few waiting for paint and graphics, and it’s much less expensive to do them in batches.
