On Target! Cloning the EQD Arrows

Fingolfen

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
The Earthquaker devices Arrows is a simple tone sculpting pre-amp booster. It stacks well with other pedals, taking the mud out of heavy fuzz pedals or brightening light boost pedals. It can also be used on its own to really make your signal stand out – especially on neck pickups. This project is the last of the first three pedals in Kyle the Ankylosaurus' "one knob" collection, and as with some previous Earthquaker Devices builds, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

SO Morale Booster - Archaeoceratops - 01.jpg

Once again, this is a fairly simple circuit and build based on the South Obolon FX Morale Booster board, one of the early Ukraine support boards. It consists of only a few resistors, capacitors and one transistor (the diode is a simple reverse polarity protection diode). Since this is a modern, rather than vintage, build I used all new components - Yageo resistors, KEMET film resistors, Nichcon audio grade electrolytic capacitor, and one 2N5089 (not 5088) transistor. The resistors are angled because the board is set up for 1/8W (3.1mm) resistors, but I had a huge stock of the more typically used 1/4W, so I went with what I had - there was plenty of vertical room to accommodate them.

SO Morale Booster - Archaeoceratops - 02.jpg

Once again I'm using the smaller 1590B enclosures for these, and even with the smaller enclosure there is plenty of room left inside. I could have included a battery connection, but I honestly don't know many people who use batteries on modern pedals, so I've left it out to leave more room for art and for the sake of simplicity. For these smaller enclosures I've been using Lumberg jacks with a star ground on the input. All of the jack-wire solder connections are covered in heat shrink tubing.

SO Morale Booster - Archaeoceratops - 03.jpg

The enclosure itself came out a bit darker than I'd hoped. If I do any more, I may try and lighten it up a bit, but the overall effect is there. In terms of sound, honestly this is a great clean boost on its own. I haven't experimented with too many other pedals yet, but I'm planning on it, as this pedal is really a hidden gem.

A bit more at the blog (mostly paleontology!): https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2022/11/on-target-cloning-eqd-arrows.html
 
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I agree - it is a decent circuit. Mine has no dinosaurs on it unfortunately so yours is definitely a step up from mine.

I was lucky enough to photograph a fish paleontologist a few years ago. She had uncovered an incredibly detail fossil of the oldest fish to ever have been discovered. I got to see the fossil. It was possible to see the soft organs inside the fish it was so detailed. We were inside one of the Museum of Western Australia's buildings and as I went to where she was working I passed a complete blue whale skeleton in storage. It used to be on display at the WA museum.
 
I have a few of these. I like it for anytime I need a cleanish boost. I recently cracked one open and added switchable clipping diodes and bigger in/out caps for bass.

I was wanting a jptr fx jive, this comes pretty close
 
I've heard good things about this one. Is it a treble-boost style boost or more flat (or colored in some other way)?
 
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