PedalPCB Deflector Reverb/Afterneath

[OD is Glorious]

This pedal has quite a bit going on; probably more than most players need. I am not a person who would enjoy all of these sounds but I am working my way through the reverb pedals and I put this together in an afternoon. After adding components and wires it went on the PedalPCB auditorium platform for testing.. I thank PedalPCB for this platform. Previously I would just box it and if it had problems I had the frustration of removing everything and fraying wires. On the platform I discovered the pedal was underpowered so I looked for incorrect resistors and found a 470k in R12 where a 470r should have been. Who the heck did that? Thank God I have a solder sucker. The solder sucker is my friend on many builds. So I finished the main parts of this pedal yesterday but I boxed it this morning. It could have been completed in a day.

I thought it was fairly easy to assemble. Personally in most things I prefer less choice… so I prefer less knobs than this… too many choices reminds me of Cheesecake Factory’s menu – so many options that I cannot decide. Really I just like straight spring reverb and usually the kind in my Fender amplifiers. I previously assembled the PedalPCB Sproing Reverb which was a great one knob design with classic reverb, and I assembled the PedalPCB Gravitation Reverb which has more going on. My friend is a Nashville producer and I sent him the Gravitation which he said he loves. Gravitation has reasonable and useable reverb choices. Contrast that with the Deflector which could be used to make horror movie soundtracks. If you like “out there” sounds you should build one.

I used a powder coated matte white enclosure from Tayda with a decal I made with clear media in my Brother QL-1110NWB (only prints black). The FV-1 was installed at PedalPCB and the resistors are ¼ watt. I use pre-cut wire from Love My Switches and all the pots have dust covers. IMO the dust covers are needed because there are so many potentiometers close together. I used Switchcraft jacks and the control knobs are anodized 15mm blue aluminum; knobs match the blue LED.

Note: Lumberg D.C. Jacks do not work with the PedalPCB top jack faceplate. Ask me how I know?

 

[phi1]

Nice build. I've been using a combination of stainless steel pins and braid for clearing out holes, but then I never mastered the solder sucker.

Stainless Steel Desoldering Needles

Top Quality Parts for Guitar Effects Pedals and DIY Music Devices. Knobs, Pots, Switches, Kits, LEDs, Enclosures, Jacks, Wire, Resistors, Capacitors, Semiconductors

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For what it's worth, I recently built this PCB and compared it to my friend's Afterneath. I found the sound to be quite a bit different, the Afterneath can give much more distinct audible delays with the Diffuse knob turned down (Disperse knob on the Deflector).

That's not surprising considering the Afterneath FV-1 code is proprietary, so ppcb didn't copy the code, rather made their own reverb patch to try to approximate it. It may be the only project form ppcb that I don't think matches the sound of the original. Anyway, the Deflector still sounds cool, just different.

 

[OD is Glorious]

Nice build. I've been using a combination of stainless steel pins and braid for clearing out holes, but then I never mastered the solder sucker.

Stainless Steel Desoldering Needles

Top Quality Parts for Guitar Effects Pedals and DIY Music Devices. Knobs, Pots, Switches, Kits, LEDs, Enclosures, Jacks, Wire, Resistors, Capacitors, Semiconductors

stompboxparts.com

For what it's worth, I recently built this PCB and compared it to my friend's Afterneath. I found the sound to be quite a bit different, the Afterneath can give much more distinct audible delays with the Diffuse knob turned down (Disperse knob on the Deflector).

That's not surprising considering the Afterneath FV-1 code is proprietary, so ppcb didn't copy the code, rather made their own reverb patch to try to approximate it. It may be the only project form ppcb that I don't think matches the sound of the original. Anyway, the Deflector still sounds cool, just different.

Well, that makes sense. I’m sure this is usable in some context, but I had to search out YouTube to make sure I was getting the right sounds out of mine. I watched a few demos where this pedal sounded pretty good with a better player than me. FYI: if you like reverb pedals My friend in Nashville is an incredible player and he loves the gravitation I sent him. I’m going to order another one of those. The only drawback in building the gravitation it’s probably the same for all of these reverb petals... components cost a lot!

 

[phi1]

Belton designs are nice for light to medium reverb, I have a one built inside my valve jr amp head (1776 Effects rub-a-dub deluxe, now out of business). Might try the Gravitation at some point for the extra tone knobs.

Specifically, I've preferred BTDR-3 over BTDR-2. Some people complain they don't like the modulation, or something else about the beltons, but I've never disliked them. For huge reverbs, I like the ppcb spatialist Cavern mode quite a bit.

 

[OD is Glorious]

Belton designs are nice for light to medium reverb, I have a one built inside my valve jr amp head (1776 Effects rub-a-dub deluxe, now out of business). Might try the Gravitation at some point for the extra tone knobs.

Specifically, I've preferred BTDR-3 over BTDR-2. Some people complain they don't like the modulation, or something else about the beltons, but I've never disliked them. For huge reverbs, I like the ppcb spatialist Cavern mode quite a bit.

I too like the number three. You can get some really nice sounds out of both of those. I will get myself one of these caverns that you speak of!

Edit: I have an arachnid, and looking at the PedalPCB Spatialist pedal you mentioned, it appears to be the same pedal as the arachnid?