DEMO Ragin' Cajun-sheepylove/GotA joint production

This post contains an audio or video demo
Guardians of the analog

Guardians of the analog

Papi Fuego
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I've gotten to know some of the best people making boards in the diy scene. I've been fortunate enough to stand on the shoulder of giants and learn many things, so it's extremely humbling to be able to really get to know Dave aka @szukalski and pick his brain and watch him grow into one of the up and coming people to watch out for in DIY. What started as him messaging me turned into an ongoing conversation about the state of the hobby and pedals amongst other things. The first of hopefully many passion projects to come is the wobbly sheep aka the Ragin' Cajun that's based on the V1 Boss TR-2 using the defunct Mitsubishi M5207L01.

I have been trying to do a TR-2 project for years. The circuit has been thru 2 major revisions. The first uses the VCA chip used in this pedal. The second uses the THAT 2181 VCA. The second board uses nearly twice as many components and 2 additional dual opamps to compensate for the THAT chip being logarithmic. Since the Mitsubishi VCA is long out of production making the easier circuit didn't make sense. I was able to find a source for some NOS chips and tested them in my late 90s TR-2 and they were legit. Dave was ready to push himself and his boundaries and he completely crushed it.

That's not to say we didn't learn some things along the way 🤣. This being a super limited run and only gracing the bench of a few brave souls we decided to roll with the punches and make lemonade. Super proud of Dave and the work he did here and the future of the hobby shines brighter because of people like him. I assisted with the schematic and updating to modern transistors and adding the volume trimmer in place of R9. Dave did an awesome layout that was like building on a purple pedalpcb board.

The TR-2 itself sounds fantastic. Low noise, no nonsense, no extra controls...all killer no filler. The most useable range amongst the three knobs for simple dialing in of your ideal tremolo sound. I could leave this on all the time and often do. From hard chop to subtle movement not a bad sound in this box. For the graphics I went with My boi Remy because I always associate trem with the swampy bayou. I went with a tayda pastel green and while I love the color the finish was rather brittle and had some chipping that was hidden by the washers but it's kinda hard to recommend it based on that. Sound clip with a song that features the TR-2. Thanks again Dave and I can't wait to share the next one you worked up!
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It looks amazing. We all have our strengths, and I am grateful to have been able to contribute towards something better than I could do myself.

Great build and a great demo!

Did we forget to mention the offboard wiring of the pots because I was under the assumption that 125Bs have an infinite length..? 🤣
 
Paradox916 said:
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for some reason I always forget that trem can do more than just a hard chop… the first tone that always pops into my head with a trem is sevendust Black intro…. You can judge me .
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Trem is the unsung hero of modulation and doesn't get the love it deserves. I know everyone jumped on the harmonic bandwagon a few years back but good old fashioned bias vary trem is my shit and I could never have a board without one.
 
Killer build and art! I've never been much of a comics/MCU/etc type person, but I have always been partial to X-Men, and Gambit was always by far the coolest/my favorite character, and I've been waiting for a build of yours with him on it.

And killer work on the PCB @szukalski ! I didn't even know Boss made a tremolo. What is the long skinny black thing in the lower left of the board, the VCA?
 
iamjackslackof said:
Killer build and art! I've never been much of a comics/MCU/etc type person, but I have always been partial to X-Men, and Gambit was always by far the coolest/my favorite character, and I've been waiting for a build of yours with him on it.

And killer work on the PCB @szukalski ! I didn't even know Boss made a tremolo. What is the long skinny black thing in the lower left of the board, the VCA?
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The long skinny sip IC is the VCA. It's a long boy with 10 legs. It was also used in the NS-2 noise suppressor I believe. And yeah, Gambit is also one of my favorites and I've been saving him for this for years now.

Mentaltossflycoon said:
Some serious flexin' going on around here.
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Nah, I'm just reppin the good work Dave did. He set the bar pretty high with this one.
 
Love this! I want a TR-2 project really bad. I wouldn't say it's under rated but it doesn't always get the attention it deserves. Great job guys!

Is the Trim for the level? I do like the old Keeley mod where he put the concentric pot in to add a volume control. The earlier TR-2s had a tiny volume drop that they eventually fixed with a trim pot that could be adjusted. Set perfectly at the factory but you could tweak it if you were so inclined.
 
I also agree that a lot of the newer Tayda colors are using some kind of cheaper paint or process. They chip super easy. I suspect they are going cheaper to widen the margins. The color is great though.
 
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