Paragon Mini

Big Monk

Well-known member
Thought I’d document my Paragon Mini build here.

Here is the enclosure I had drilled from Tayda:

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Had a chance to populate the majority of the board yesterday and today:

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Any opinions on the high/low gain resistor options? I’m emptied to make one side high gain or just put the resistors on a switch but enclosure real estate is tight.
 
I agree with Jamie, do sockets. I did on my paragon. I would do high gain regardless because it only adds about 20-25% more available gain and that's not a lot on a pedal with very little gain. At the very minimum I would do it on the side you plan on using for overdrive and leave the boost side regular gain.

Agree

I find that the classic higher gain (100k) into lower gain (1k) is perfect.
 
Agree

I find that the classic higher gain (100k) into lower gain (1k) is perfect.

So Side 1 = High Gain and Side 2 = Normal?

I agree with Jamie, do sockets. I did on my paragon. I would do high gain regardless because it only adds about 20-25% more available gain and that's not a lot on a pedal with very little gain. At the very minimum I would do it on the side you plan on using for overdrive and leave the boost side regular gain.
I may just end up going high gain for both as it is not that much more gain to be honest.
 
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I put sockets in my last king of tone build too and after playing with it for a few weeks have ended up on the lower gain values for both sides.

Somewhat annoyingly though the yellow boost side sounds marginally better than the red side. It doesn't matter how I set the knobs the yellow side always sounds just a bit sweeter. Yay parts tolerances. Because I built it on vero I could take both sides out and switch them but I'm not sure I can be bothered with the hassle and will probably just live with it... Maybe.
 
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Ended up going with 100k on both sides. I left both treble trims all the way off and both sides with side 1 of the switch engaged to start.

Now that I think about it, I’m not 100% sure what the internal switches even do!

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Ended up going with 100k on both sides. I left both treble trims all the way off and both sides with side 1 of the switch engaged to start.

Now that I think about it, I’m not 100% sure what the internal switches even do!

View attachment 16288
View attachment 16289

The internal switches select the clipping for both sides. I haven't looked at the build doc for the mini but all switches off is the boost setting so you're just getting opamp clipping. Switch 1 on either side should select soft clipping diodes for the overdrive setting and switch 2 will probably be the hard clipping for distortion mode.
 
I played it at full volume today.

I’m really impressed. It has a different flavor than my Boss SD-1 at equivalent settings and I really enjoyed layering boost and drive and then kicking them both on. Between my Vick Audio Overdriver, SD-1, Paragon Mini and the soon to be finished Kliche Mini, I have a real comprehensive overdrive section on my board.
 
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What diodes did you end up using?

You’ll love the kliche mini. Kliche into paragon is probably my favorite stacked drives.
 
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My beloved PM is going in for some minor surgery next week. When I built it, I had to use 0.68 uf instead of 1 uf film caps. So I added some 1 uf films in with my SBE order.

Also, I’m going to tweak up the treble trim caps as well. I find mine hella bright and I’m a humbucker guy!
 
Noice! I'm building a full Paragon. Enclosure and parts should be here this week. First enclosure I'm using that uses the hammered copper type. Should be very interesting in terms of design. :D
 
Hi All, I was looking at data sheets for 1n4148 (https://www.vishay.com/docs/81857/1n4148.pdf) and it says 1n4148 is equivalent of 1n914. Are they same diodes just with different part numbers. Am I missing something? Does that mean I can (theoretically) use 1n914 for all 12 clippers (hard as well as soft)?

here are the data sheets: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/308/1N914_D-2309448.pdf
Yeah, you can use either, or both diodes. 1n914 are an older version, but they are essentially the same. I built mine with sockets and tried all sorts of diodes, 1n914 and 1n4148 sounded no different. IMO, a diodes circuit placement and Vf has most effect on tone. Experiment!
 
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