Nobleman Overdrive, in-progress and finished gut shots

[DAJE]

Pics 1 and 2: I got some SMD 5457s that were pre-soldered to adaptor boards a while back. I got some right-angle pin things too, they fit well and are very good for the job except the legs are too big for sockets so they have to be soldered to the board. I don't mind that but it might be an issue for some.

You can also see my parallel capacitor, which luckily did fit through the PCB holes. I needed a 120 pF cap but only had 100s and 33s, but both were lower than their nominal ratings and added up to pretty close to 120 pF.

Pics 3 and 4: Tranny adaptor board in place, sitting over the resistors. It was the last thing I soldered to the board before the pots and wires.

Pic 5: Complete and working well.

I haven't done the outside yet, will probably post more pics when I do.

I'm very happy with how this pedal sounds. I've only tried it through a small amp, but I like the extra low-end oomph in this circuit. Possibly it'll muddy up if I put it through a larger amp at stage volume, but realistically that ain't likely for a while yet. I haven't directly compared it with my other overdrives yet, but I feel like it's a very worthwhile addition to the arsenal.

 

[DAJE]

I did hook it up alongside 5 other overdrive pedals, which was pretty interesting. I was using headphones and tried the overdrives into an Omni-Cab and a Joyo American Sound.

They all sound distinctly different. Each has their strengths. The ODs are:

1: Caline Pure Sky (a Timmy clone, reputedly)
2: Kliché Mini
3: Kokko Overdrive (Tube Screamer)
4: Kokko Supa Drive (Bluesbreaker, reputedly)
5: Boss OD-1, mildly modded, not one of the early good ones

Conclusions: I can see why people say the Nobels and clones sound bassy. There's a lot of low end in there. It does make chordal stuff a bit muddy, but I really like it for single notes, it has a very nice timbre for bluesy leads. It approaches distortion territory at full drive.

The Kliché is the most convincing at sounding like a driven amp.
Tube Screamers sound like they do, you know it.
The Boss sounds fine but I had one of the early good ones and sold it, thought I was smart by buying a replacement and discovered it just didn't sound like my old one. Then eventually discovered that they changed the design. I tried some simple mods, and that improved it, but for me it'll always be a disappointment.
The Caline Timmy-esque one is also fine, but I prefer the sound of the others.
The Kokko Supa Drive is, surprisingly, the one I kept going back to. It has a really usable range of tones and sounds good at all settings.

So, perhaps I need a better Bluesbreaker. Not that there's anything wrong with the Kokko, but I think it's possible to improve on it, in the same way that my Kliché Mini sounds better than my Mosky Golden Horse.

So... Blue Breaker added to my PPCB wish list. And, possibly, perhaps I also need a Paragon Mini.

 

[Preverb]

Conclusions: I can see why people say the Nobels and clones sound bassy. There's a lot of low end in there. It does make chordal stuff a bit muddy, but I really like it for single notes, it has a very nice timbre for bluesy leads. It approaches distortion territory at full drive.

It really does need a bass control. I had an ODR mini and sold it within a week because of this. I am planning to build the Aion FX version of the Nordland. The Nordland was designed by the same guy but had a few improvements.

 

[DAJE]

It really does need a bass control. I had an ODR mini and sold it within a week because of this. I am planning to build the Aion FX version of the Nordland. The Nordland was designed by the same guy but had a few improvements.

Yes, a low cut would be good. I've read the Aion page about the Nordland, it does sound like it would be a nice upgrade. I don't really mind as I'm more interested in Blues Breaking now. The Noblemen is useful, just not an all-rounder for me.

 

[music6000]

I did hook it up alongside 5 other overdrive pedals, which was pretty interesting. I was using headphones and tried the overdrives into an Omni-Cab and a Joyo American Sound.

They all sound distinctly different. Each has their strengths. The ODs are:

1: Caline Pure Sky (a Timmy clone, reputedly)
2: Kliché Mini
3: Kokko Overdrive (Tube Screamer)
4: Kokko Supa Drive (Bluesbreaker, reputedly)
5: Boss OD-1, mildly modded, not one of the early good ones

Conclusions: I can see why people say the Nobels and clones sound bassy. There's a lot of low end in there. It does make chordal stuff a bit muddy, but I really like it for single notes, it has a very nice timbre for bluesy leads. It approaches distortion territory at full drive.

The Kliché is the most convincing at sounding like a driven amp.
Tube Screamers sound like they do, you know it.
The Boss sounds fine but I had one of the early good ones and sold it, thought I was smart by buying a replacement and discovered it just didn't sound like my old one. Then eventually discovered that they changed the design. I tried some simple mods, and that improved it, but for me it'll always be a disappointment.
The Caline Timmy-esque one is also fine, but I prefer the sound of the others.
The Kokko Supa Drive is, surprisingly, the one I kept going back to. It has a really usable range of tones and sounds good at all settings.

So, perhaps I need a better Bluesbreaker. Not that there's anything wrong with the Kokko, but I think it's possible to improve on it, in the same way that my Kliché Mini sounds better than my Mosky Golden Horse.

So... Blue Breaker added to my PPCB wish list. And, possibly, perhaps I also need a Paragon Mini.

The Nobels got its reputation in Nashville Country Music because of Tele players get a Fatter Bridge Pickup from the ODR-1!
Stay tuned, a similar Overdrive with more options maybe around the corner!!!

 

[JamieJ]

Adding a bass pot mod to cut bass is a super simple mod for this pedal. Have a look at the Aion fx build doc and if you compare it to the PedalPCB doc it shows how to add the pot. You could do it with a switch using a fixed resistor value of you wanted.

Aion use a C50k in between the 1k5 of R7 and the 2u2 cap of C5.

 

[DAJE]

All stickered up now. I stuck with the green theme.

Also bonus OUTIE 9V JACK! This is the first time I tried one and I'm sold, this is the way.