- Build Rating
I'm fortunate to live on a street with several people who play instruments and like to play in bands. So every year, a few other guys and me get together as a band to play our annual neighborhood block party. I made this Paragon as a gift for my friend/neighbor (who's a great player!). He generally tends toward the lighter gain range; I also noticed he was using an always-on GE-7 set to a slight "frown" shape for a bit of midrange push. I thought the Paragon/King of Tone might be a nice fit for him because of that. I delivered it to him on Sunday, and he spent a good hour or so playing through it. I think he likes it!
Not much can be said about this circuit that hasn't already been said. I did built it with the suggested Paragon PCB Mods by @ckaudioeffects (though I didn't use the carbon-comp resistors). I don't have a Pargon/KoT clone for myself, but I do have a Pauper (Prince of Tone), but I forgot to compare the two pedals before I delivered the Paragon. But it did sound how I expected. And it's a very flexible circuit, with the stacked design, clipping options, and presence trimpot. And in fact that was the other reason I chose this circuit for my buddy - given how flexible it is, I figured there was a good chance he'd find something he liked in it. Hype aside, I think the popularity is justified, especially for the gigging guitarist - you can cover a lot of ground with this pedal.
Anyway - the actual effect build was unremarkable. Most of my recent builds use my own CMOS inverter-based relay bypass design. I doubled-up that design in a custom PCB for use in the Paragon (or other two-in-one pedals in a similar enclosure). Thank you @Nostradoomus for documenting the offboard wiring holes (and thank you @Robert for the confirmation) - this forum is such a great place!
My friend also deserves the best, so I gave him the aluminum 1510 clone knobs. It's a small detail, but they feel like a noticeable upgrade from plastic!
Exterior finish is yet another mandala sticker and Envirotex resin. I went with this, because my neighbor noticed my pedalboard with all my DIY pedals on it, and he said he really liked that look (e.g. my Amethyst). Unfortunately, I did get pretty bad lift-up when I drilled the resin. I haven't really found a great solution for this... my theory is that these mandala stickers are just too smooth, and the resin doesn't really stick to them at all, so will lift off with the slightest disturbance. So I think I'm going to try to lightly sand the stickers before I pour the resin, to see if scuffing them up a bit will improve adhesion to the Envirotex.
Not much can be said about this circuit that hasn't already been said. I did built it with the suggested Paragon PCB Mods by @ckaudioeffects (though I didn't use the carbon-comp resistors). I don't have a Pargon/KoT clone for myself, but I do have a Pauper (Prince of Tone), but I forgot to compare the two pedals before I delivered the Paragon. But it did sound how I expected. And it's a very flexible circuit, with the stacked design, clipping options, and presence trimpot. And in fact that was the other reason I chose this circuit for my buddy - given how flexible it is, I figured there was a good chance he'd find something he liked in it. Hype aside, I think the popularity is justified, especially for the gigging guitarist - you can cover a lot of ground with this pedal.
Anyway - the actual effect build was unremarkable. Most of my recent builds use my own CMOS inverter-based relay bypass design. I doubled-up that design in a custom PCB for use in the Paragon (or other two-in-one pedals in a similar enclosure). Thank you @Nostradoomus for documenting the offboard wiring holes (and thank you @Robert for the confirmation) - this forum is such a great place!
My friend also deserves the best, so I gave him the aluminum 1510 clone knobs. It's a small detail, but they feel like a noticeable upgrade from plastic!
Exterior finish is yet another mandala sticker and Envirotex resin. I went with this, because my neighbor noticed my pedalboard with all my DIY pedals on it, and he said he really liked that look (e.g. my Amethyst). Unfortunately, I did get pretty bad lift-up when I drilled the resin. I haven't really found a great solution for this... my theory is that these mandala stickers are just too smooth, and the resin doesn't really stick to them at all, so will lift off with the slightest disturbance. So I think I'm going to try to lightly sand the stickers before I pour the resin, to see if scuffing them up a bit will improve adhesion to the Envirotex.
