My first build

Username123

Well-known member
A long time ago I started and finished this build. I have finally gotten around to making a build report. It's the El Sol which is the EQD acapulo gold. I got to say I actually quite like the way it sounds. The only downside is it starts to oscillate after sustaining for a while and that is somewhat irritating. It has a lot of volume that's for sure. I think unity volume is at 8:00 which is interesting. My build is very simple and primitive and I realize that. It's not fancy. No graphics, no fancy bezel or knobs, and no super clean wiring, but I learned a lot from the first build. I had a friend do the off board wiring, and I did the PCB except the opamps which he did.
 

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Here's a video. Tell me if you think it's oscillating or if it is just feedback.
 
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Doesn’t sound like any of the 2 to me.

I don’t hear anything wrong at all.
Yeah it's not picking up on video for some reason. It's really not that big of a deal, but I just thought it was odd. You can hear it a little more at the end, but it's still not clear.
 
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I changed my mind. I actually like the sound of it after trying it again! :) I don't normally play stuff that requires heavy distortion, but I will definitely be playing it more often.
 
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Hey, your first build works. And it sounds like it works pretty good. Can’t ask for too much more than that... and you only get better the more you do it.
Yeah that's a good point. I am definitely happy it worked on the first try. One thing is that the person helping me with the offboard wiring wired the jacks to be center positive. He didn't realize that most pedals are wired center negative, so I got to rewire that. Not really an issue at the moment.
 
The only thing I could make out as “oscillation” was the beating from the clashing upper harmonics— distortion brings out a lot of the harmonics that are typically less audible, and it also really exacerbates the natural inharmonicity of guitar strings. It’s just harmonics clashing against harmonics clashing against harmonics clashing against harmonics. You get that from heavy distortion in any scenario if the conditions are right.
Edit: you can usually eliminate most of the more intense beating by rolling back your tone knob a little bit.
 
The only thing I could make out as “oscillation” was the beating from the clashing upper harmonics— distortion brings out a lot of the harmonics that are typically less audible, and it also really exacerbates the natural inharmonicity of guitar strings. It’s just harmonics clashing against harmonics clashing against harmonics clashing against harmonics. You get that from heavy distortion in any scenario if the conditions are right.
That's probably it. I appreciate the answer. I don't have a lot of experience with heavy distortion because the types of music I play rarely need it.
 
Are the ICs soldered directly to the board? If you use sockets, you can solder those in without issue and just insert the chip. First build works and you like the sound, that's a win!
 
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