OD is Glorious
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is an excellent crystal clear boost.
Overview & Sonic Impressions
Of the boosts I have built and others I have messed around with, I give this one high marks. On its own, it can get you serious headroom, and placed before an overdrive pedal it absolutely shines.It has plenty volume and breaks up only ever so slightly at the very top of the gain range. It is in no way a pedal that produces distortion or big crunch—produces a minuscule of crunch with both knobs at full. Instead, it delivers a clear, transparent overdrive/gain. I am highly impressed with the way it sounds like my amp is simply being cranked, rather than a pedal artificially coloring my tone.
The Enclosure & Aesthetics
The enclosure is an LMS powder-coated 1590B that originally arrived in a matte finish. I wanted a high-gloss look, so I shot it with SprayMax 2K Clear Glamour. After baking, I decided it needed a full sand and buff to get it perfectly flat and glassy—sometimes you can skip that step, but this one definitely required the extra effort.For the graphics, I used a film-free color decal printed on my Canon MF660C. The design itself is a nod to the original ZVEX Channel 2, which typically comes in an orange 1590A enclosure. To pay homage to that look, I incorporated orange accents into the decal design and paired it with a bright orange LED.
Hardware & Boxing
There is plenty of room to stick this circuit into a 1590B, and the side jacks don't even have to sit underneath the PCB. I am confident you could easily squeeze this into a 1590A if you used 9mm off-board pots instead. I wasn't motivated to go that small on this project, but I'm sure someone out there will!- Enclosure: LMS 1590B (Powder coated, clear-coated with 2K Glamour)
- Jacks: Lumberg side-mount jacks
- Footswitch: Low-profile 3PDT
- Knobs: Black fluted MXR-style
Parts Count
This is a low-part-count build, making it a quick and rewarding project:- Resistors: 4
- Capacitors: 3
- Transistor: 1 x BS170
- Diodes: 2 (including one 9.1V Zener)
- Potentiometers: 2
Attachments
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