Bit of a cursed build. Soldering the components went fine, drilling at first also went fine, problems started to arise once I actually went to box up the thing.
I soldered in the rotary switch first, which turned out to be a bad idea. The body is a little shallower than those of the pots, which I didn't know beforehand, so the whole PCB was at a not so healthy angle when I went to screw everything down. Easy fix, just put a spacer on the rotary. Next, I had to cut down the shaft of the rotary because it was too long. No biggie, knew that already when I ordered the parts – Tayda doesn't carry short shaft mini rotaries. So, rather than actually measure where I should cut the shaft I just eyeballed it and managed to cut it too short. Amazing. I then had the idea to simply build up a little material on top with super glue and activator. Oh, what a terrible idea that was. Of course the glue went down the shaft and blocked the rotary. FUCK.
Unsoldering the switch was a pain in the ass. I gave up trying to get it out in one piece after a while and simply cut the pins. There wasn't a lot of space, so I scratched the PCB and exposed the ground plane in a couple of spots. I put some lacquer over it to hopefully prevent accidental solder bridges when soldering in the new switch.
Went on AliExpress and ordered a mini rotary with the correct shaft length. I'm very glad I had a couple of days to cool down before returning to the build and possibly fucking it up even more.
From here on out everything went smooth for the most part. My measurements for the side jacks were slightly off – what was that about measure twice, drill once in another thread just a couple of days ago? Anyway, nothing a little bit of filing couldn't fix. I put a couple of dings in the finish during filing but it's alright. I'm just glad this build is now complete.
So, how does it sound? Well, it's yet another Tube Screamer, but I like the overall voicing of the circuit a lot and the attack switch is actually very useful. It helps you get a more consistent tone across different guitars and amps, and in combination with the bright control really lets you fine-tune the high end response of the signal in a way that a regular Tube Screamer simply doesn't.
A couple of years ago, I bought a Kartakou Warmer – basically a Tube Screamer with some extra switches. I've never felt the need to get another Tube Screamer type of pedal since then, but I think I'm just about to retire it. Yes, I like the Dwarven Hammer that much. Well, other than the name. I wasn't feeling that, so I named this one Focus Overdrive.
Apologies for the dirty board.
I soldered in the rotary switch first, which turned out to be a bad idea. The body is a little shallower than those of the pots, which I didn't know beforehand, so the whole PCB was at a not so healthy angle when I went to screw everything down. Easy fix, just put a spacer on the rotary. Next, I had to cut down the shaft of the rotary because it was too long. No biggie, knew that already when I ordered the parts – Tayda doesn't carry short shaft mini rotaries. So, rather than actually measure where I should cut the shaft I just eyeballed it and managed to cut it too short. Amazing. I then had the idea to simply build up a little material on top with super glue and activator. Oh, what a terrible idea that was. Of course the glue went down the shaft and blocked the rotary. FUCK.
Unsoldering the switch was a pain in the ass. I gave up trying to get it out in one piece after a while and simply cut the pins. There wasn't a lot of space, so I scratched the PCB and exposed the ground plane in a couple of spots. I put some lacquer over it to hopefully prevent accidental solder bridges when soldering in the new switch.
Went on AliExpress and ordered a mini rotary with the correct shaft length. I'm very glad I had a couple of days to cool down before returning to the build and possibly fucking it up even more.
From here on out everything went smooth for the most part. My measurements for the side jacks were slightly off – what was that about measure twice, drill once in another thread just a couple of days ago? Anyway, nothing a little bit of filing couldn't fix. I put a couple of dings in the finish during filing but it's alright. I'm just glad this build is now complete.
So, how does it sound? Well, it's yet another Tube Screamer, but I like the overall voicing of the circuit a lot and the attack switch is actually very useful. It helps you get a more consistent tone across different guitars and amps, and in combination with the bright control really lets you fine-tune the high end response of the signal in a way that a regular Tube Screamer simply doesn't.
A couple of years ago, I bought a Kartakou Warmer – basically a Tube Screamer with some extra switches. I've never felt the need to get another Tube Screamer type of pedal since then, but I think I'm just about to retire it. Yes, I like the Dwarven Hammer that much. Well, other than the name. I wasn't feeling that, so I named this one Focus Overdrive.
Apologies for the dirty board.
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Why didn’t you go for the 4558DD?
