MichaelW
Well-known member
Back to working through the generous pile of boards that came in a goodie bag from @DGWVI, next up is the PCBGM Horn Device (not sure why they called it that). But essentially this is a pretty straight up iteration of the EQD Hoof (available from pedalpcb.com as the “Ungula”.
This is another pedal totally not on my radar. but what caught my attention was the silkscreen of a rams head on the board. So my initial thought was that it was some sort of Rams Head BMP variant. Well a quick peek at the build doc dispelled that notion. It’s actually based on the Green Russian. But it’s a hybrid Si/Ge fuzz.
There’s the option to build the ”Cloven Hoof” variant which is a full Si version with a few minor component changes.
I was torn on whether to build the stock or Si version, but i rooted around in my stash and had exactly two NPN ge trannies (man i hope that order from Ukraine comes soon!)
One was a gift from @Dan0h! Neither has the optimal gain ranges so I socketed in case i wanted to swap them later.
Q1 is around 60 hfe and Q2 right around 100 hfe. According to the build docs they recommended 150-200 for the Ge.
But guess what? it sounds pretty darn awesome! I went back and compared mine to the demo videos for the Hoof and it sounds extremely close. So go figure. I still need to trim the leads and finagle some way to get that GT404B to fit before buttoning it up.
Its a neat fuzz….fuzzy but with a lot of articulation, so in that sense it’s almost more like a distortion.
When I first started tweaking the “Shift” knob I thought maybe had a bad pot, it didn’t do much. But then i started messing with the tone knob and saw that “shift” is highly interactive with the tone knob. Tone has a really wide range from woofy fuzz to ice pick in your ear buzzing…..really interesting.
I generally don’t enjoy building PCBGM boards, the layouts are not conducive to top jacks on many.
I made it work but it feels like the knob layout is really goofy in the middle of the pedal. The knob layout was inherently goofy anyway, the board is designed for a 1590b but the drill pattern barely leaves room for a 16mm pot. Add a pot cover and it’s butting up hard against the side wall. I had to widen the holes one size bigger to give the pots room to tighten down and then bend the legs slightly to fit the board.
It’s little details like that bug me about these boards. Having said that, it was a smooth build and no issues. Fired up
right after i boxed it and checked for power. (I’m a box then rock kinda builder
.) And like the last couple of PCBGM projects I’ve built, sounds awesome!
I have a feeling i’d really like the Si version and may order the Ungula board to build that.
Thanks again @DGWVI for the board and @Dan0h for the NPN Ge!!
Used a new orange matte color rattle can. I think it could have used a couple coats of primer but in general it came out ok. This one’s calls “Fire Orange”. Glad I just got these tiny knobs in from Tayda last week. Anything larger would be falling off the edges…..and we can’t have that now can we?
This is another pedal totally not on my radar. but what caught my attention was the silkscreen of a rams head on the board. So my initial thought was that it was some sort of Rams Head BMP variant. Well a quick peek at the build doc dispelled that notion. It’s actually based on the Green Russian. But it’s a hybrid Si/Ge fuzz.
There’s the option to build the ”Cloven Hoof” variant which is a full Si version with a few minor component changes.
I was torn on whether to build the stock or Si version, but i rooted around in my stash and had exactly two NPN ge trannies (man i hope that order from Ukraine comes soon!)
One was a gift from @Dan0h! Neither has the optimal gain ranges so I socketed in case i wanted to swap them later.
Q1 is around 60 hfe and Q2 right around 100 hfe. According to the build docs they recommended 150-200 for the Ge.
But guess what? it sounds pretty darn awesome! I went back and compared mine to the demo videos for the Hoof and it sounds extremely close. So go figure. I still need to trim the leads and finagle some way to get that GT404B to fit before buttoning it up.
Its a neat fuzz….fuzzy but with a lot of articulation, so in that sense it’s almost more like a distortion.
When I first started tweaking the “Shift” knob I thought maybe had a bad pot, it didn’t do much. But then i started messing with the tone knob and saw that “shift” is highly interactive with the tone knob. Tone has a really wide range from woofy fuzz to ice pick in your ear buzzing…..really interesting.
I generally don’t enjoy building PCBGM boards, the layouts are not conducive to top jacks on many.
I made it work but it feels like the knob layout is really goofy in the middle of the pedal. The knob layout was inherently goofy anyway, the board is designed for a 1590b but the drill pattern barely leaves room for a 16mm pot. Add a pot cover and it’s butting up hard against the side wall. I had to widen the holes one size bigger to give the pots room to tighten down and then bend the legs slightly to fit the board.
It’s little details like that bug me about these boards. Having said that, it was a smooth build and no issues. Fired up
right after i boxed it and checked for power. (I’m a box then rock kinda builder
.) And like the last couple of PCBGM projects I’ve built, sounds awesome!I have a feeling i’d really like the Si version and may order the Ungula board to build that.
Thanks again @DGWVI for the board and @Dan0h for the NPN Ge!!
Used a new orange matte color rattle can. I think it could have used a couple coats of primer but in general it came out ok. This one’s calls “Fire Orange”. Glad I just got these tiny knobs in from Tayda last week. Anything larger would be falling off the edges…..and we can’t have that now can we?
