I wish I was cool enough to make this enclosure. This pedal belonged to my neighbor as a kliche build that he’d bought on reverb. It was not working, and he was more interested in having me make a klon similar to my own build’s look and mods, so we did that. I’m sure the kliche could have been repaired, but we decided it’d be fun to re-build with a pendulum circuit. Cool effect to go with the hydro-dip.
I’d been curious to try this one to see how it compares to the Jon Patton Cardinal tremolo I’d built. They have some similarities, but each have their own sound. The cardinal seems a bit warmer in the top end, maybe due to some caps on the jfets G-D, or just the jfet topology in general. The frequencies of the hpf and LpF are different. These can be adjusted by capacitors, and though I tried the pendulum with theoretically the same frequencies as the cardinal, it didn’t sound quite the same. Not in a bad way though, both sound cool. Stock, the pendulum has more mid-scoop and a more phasey character, while the cardinal doesn’t scoop the mids, and the phasing sound is more subtle. Bringing the HPF cutoff frequency on the pendulum down brings it closer to the cardinal, but still not the same. There’s other factors, like jfets vs op amps, or how the ldr attenuation is situated in the circuit, that may contribute to the different overall sound.
I ended up making a little vero board to switch between 2 HPF settings. Stock 6n8, and then the dip switches bring in a 3n3 in parallel, bringing the total to around 10n. The difference isn’t crazy drastic, but enough to make a difference. Stock is a bit more scooped and phasey, with the 3n3 added the mids back a bit. (Both 1&2 of the dip sw are tied together, it’s just what I had handy. Could have made even more C settings but this was enough for me). I added solder to the cap in socket after I was done selecting.
Overall a fun and satisfying build. One more thing to note, which has been discussed on other reports is to physically adjust the led/ldr spacing to get the right balance between the two sides. After I play with it some more it will go back to my neighbor, since I already have the cardinal.
I’d been curious to try this one to see how it compares to the Jon Patton Cardinal tremolo I’d built. They have some similarities, but each have their own sound. The cardinal seems a bit warmer in the top end, maybe due to some caps on the jfets G-D, or just the jfet topology in general. The frequencies of the hpf and LpF are different. These can be adjusted by capacitors, and though I tried the pendulum with theoretically the same frequencies as the cardinal, it didn’t sound quite the same. Not in a bad way though, both sound cool. Stock, the pendulum has more mid-scoop and a more phasey character, while the cardinal doesn’t scoop the mids, and the phasing sound is more subtle. Bringing the HPF cutoff frequency on the pendulum down brings it closer to the cardinal, but still not the same. There’s other factors, like jfets vs op amps, or how the ldr attenuation is situated in the circuit, that may contribute to the different overall sound.
I ended up making a little vero board to switch between 2 HPF settings. Stock 6n8, and then the dip switches bring in a 3n3 in parallel, bringing the total to around 10n. The difference isn’t crazy drastic, but enough to make a difference. Stock is a bit more scooped and phasey, with the 3n3 added the mids back a bit. (Both 1&2 of the dip sw are tied together, it’s just what I had handy. Could have made even more C settings but this was enough for me). I added solder to the cap in socket after I was done selecting.
Overall a fun and satisfying build. One more thing to note, which has been discussed on other reports is to physically adjust the led/ldr spacing to get the right balance between the two sides. After I play with it some more it will go back to my neighbor, since I already have the cardinal.
