Locrian99
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Hello all,
This is kind of my 2nd go round with this circuit. The first time around I built a stripboard version of it from dirtboxlayouts. I went through that thing for about 2 months and was never quite satisfied with the sound other than when the gain below about 11 o’clock. I checked everything over and over everything seemed right, I’m convinced the way the gain pot wiring straddled the savage pot wiring was causing an interference issue and decided to try the pcb as I really liked the demo and could tell I liked the pedal other than this strange noise. Am I ever glad I did. I’m kind of smitten with this thing, one of my favorite builds I’ve done for sure.
Everything was pretty straight forward with this build. The only real thinking I had to do was the diode choosing. The schematic shows the diodes used in the original were around 650mv so I thought I’d try out some 4148’s initially. I knew I was going to want to audiotion some so I ran a couple wires out from the pads to a breadboard. Then hooked up this coppersound diode chooser @fig was generous enough to give away in a contest.
Pretty quickly I determined it was either going to be 4148s or 1n34a’s. But I just couldn’t make up my mind. The difference really wasn’t that big between the two but it was there and really they both sounded pretty good. I finally decided I should try out the 34’a I had on hand. I had some from stompbox parts that were all perfectly in spec right around 340mv, they all sounded pretty much spot in to the tester. I then tried some diodes I got from small bear I forget the part # but they were all around 250mv and didn’t sound as good as the 34a’s imo. I then remembered I had a few that I had gotten from diystompbox shop that all ran a bit high. I had a few in the 550mv range, a couple ober 1V (which I labeled and put seperate and two were right around 450mv. I tried the 450mv ones and they were perfect for me. Finally time to actually box this thing up even though it’s been built for a few weeks (my mystery meat board is still in diode choosing purgatory for going on a month now).
All in all I really enjoy this pedal, it does the low gain klon thing quite well and so much more. For sure sounds better than the klon with the gain turned up to me and the drive control helps add that extra dirt. Does quite well imo being pushed by another drive pedal (I like to use a timmy type for this).
For the enclosure I went very simple a Tayda powder coated I think winked silver I don’t remember at this point. Some sort of silver. And just some labels using a waterslide decal.
I may dig through my knobs and see if I have 5 of something maybe a little smaller. Kind of cramped with those and 5 of them.
This is kind of my 2nd go round with this circuit. The first time around I built a stripboard version of it from dirtboxlayouts. I went through that thing for about 2 months and was never quite satisfied with the sound other than when the gain below about 11 o’clock. I checked everything over and over everything seemed right, I’m convinced the way the gain pot wiring straddled the savage pot wiring was causing an interference issue and decided to try the pcb as I really liked the demo and could tell I liked the pedal other than this strange noise. Am I ever glad I did. I’m kind of smitten with this thing, one of my favorite builds I’ve done for sure.
Everything was pretty straight forward with this build. The only real thinking I had to do was the diode choosing. The schematic shows the diodes used in the original were around 650mv so I thought I’d try out some 4148’s initially. I knew I was going to want to audiotion some so I ran a couple wires out from the pads to a breadboard. Then hooked up this coppersound diode chooser @fig was generous enough to give away in a contest.
Pretty quickly I determined it was either going to be 4148s or 1n34a’s. But I just couldn’t make up my mind. The difference really wasn’t that big between the two but it was there and really they both sounded pretty good. I finally decided I should try out the 34’a I had on hand. I had some from stompbox parts that were all perfectly in spec right around 340mv, they all sounded pretty much spot in to the tester. I then tried some diodes I got from small bear I forget the part # but they were all around 250mv and didn’t sound as good as the 34a’s imo. I then remembered I had a few that I had gotten from diystompbox shop that all ran a bit high. I had a few in the 550mv range, a couple ober 1V (which I labeled and put seperate and two were right around 450mv. I tried the 450mv ones and they were perfect for me. Finally time to actually box this thing up even though it’s been built for a few weeks (my mystery meat board is still in diode choosing purgatory for going on a month now).
All in all I really enjoy this pedal, it does the low gain klon thing quite well and so much more. For sure sounds better than the klon with the gain turned up to me and the drive control helps add that extra dirt. Does quite well imo being pushed by another drive pedal (I like to use a timmy type for this).
For the enclosure I went very simple a Tayda powder coated I think winked silver I don’t remember at this point. Some sort of silver. And just some labels using a waterslide decal.
I may dig through my knobs and see if I have 5 of something maybe a little smaller. Kind of cramped with those and 5 of them.
