MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
I've been watching @psb962 's threads on his Clark Gainster build with some interest as I'm always interested in mods.
And thanks to @manfesto for putting together the nominal changes to the Red Herring board (Menatone Red Snapper) it made it pretty easy.
I had never heard of the Clark Gainster but I do remember the Barber version when he was building them apparently in collaboration with Clark.
When I saw how much Clark (who is now building them again himself) is charging for the Gainster I was a bit gob-smacked. ($750....
)
So of course I had to build one if for nothing else than a poke in the eye at Clark Amplification....
.
Also, big shout out to @innerlight for sending me the Red Snapper board a few months ago. It was totally not on my radar.
So, to my surprise, I really like the Gainster. There's an old school overdrive vibe about it.
Very simple circuit and to both my eyes and ears has it's legacy in the Boss OD-1 and perhaps more closer to the SD-1.
@manfesto 's BOM changes call for a JRC072 opamp which is what I believe Dave Barber was using in his version.
I didn't have one so I started off with a TL072. It sounded really good with that. But I also messed around with auditioning some other opamps.
I think if I were to use this strictly as a standalone overdrive, the LM1458 sounded the best. JRC4558 also sounded good.
But I ended up liking the LF353 in it the best. Both of the JFET opamps (TL072 and LF353) had significantly more output and makes the pedal better for boost duties.
They also sounded a bit more "cleaner" in the gain if that makes sense.
So it was a fun project. Thanks to @psb962, @manfesto and @innerlight!
Now I need to order another Red Herring board and build it stock and see how different it sounds
As much as I love the Tayda Brown Sugar Glimmer color, I've had so many issues with it chipping during drilling. For some reason this particular color is the most prone to fragility. So I was super careful with the punching and drilling. It STILL chipped where my status led hole was and I had to drill it out and use a bezel.
THEN.....of all the cockamamie stupid things, I knocked it off the bench and it took a couple of bounces on the concrete garage floor, which chipped it all to hell.
So I said screw it, I'm using it, chips and all.
Offboard wiring for the "Presence/Bite" knob. Which actually functions as a nice tone knob.
I recorded a short demo of how the "Red Gainster" sounds and also compared it to the Uber Drive (Boss SD-1) and the Oddity Drive (Boss OD-1).
I think you can hear the Boss lineage pretty clearly, at least I can
And thanks to @manfesto for putting together the nominal changes to the Red Herring board (Menatone Red Snapper) it made it pretty easy.
I had never heard of the Clark Gainster but I do remember the Barber version when he was building them apparently in collaboration with Clark.
When I saw how much Clark (who is now building them again himself) is charging for the Gainster I was a bit gob-smacked. ($750....
)So of course I had to build one if for nothing else than a poke in the eye at Clark Amplification....
.Also, big shout out to @innerlight for sending me the Red Snapper board a few months ago. It was totally not on my radar.
So, to my surprise, I really like the Gainster. There's an old school overdrive vibe about it.
Very simple circuit and to both my eyes and ears has it's legacy in the Boss OD-1 and perhaps more closer to the SD-1.
@manfesto 's BOM changes call for a JRC072 opamp which is what I believe Dave Barber was using in his version.
I didn't have one so I started off with a TL072. It sounded really good with that. But I also messed around with auditioning some other opamps.
I think if I were to use this strictly as a standalone overdrive, the LM1458 sounded the best. JRC4558 also sounded good.
But I ended up liking the LF353 in it the best. Both of the JFET opamps (TL072 and LF353) had significantly more output and makes the pedal better for boost duties.
They also sounded a bit more "cleaner" in the gain if that makes sense.
So it was a fun project. Thanks to @psb962, @manfesto and @innerlight!
Now I need to order another Red Herring board and build it stock and see how different it sounds
As much as I love the Tayda Brown Sugar Glimmer color, I've had so many issues with it chipping during drilling. For some reason this particular color is the most prone to fragility. So I was super careful with the punching and drilling. It STILL chipped where my status led hole was and I had to drill it out and use a bezel.
THEN.....of all the cockamamie stupid things, I knocked it off the bench and it took a couple of bounces on the concrete garage floor, which chipped it all to hell.
So I said screw it, I'm using it, chips and all.
Offboard wiring for the "Presence/Bite" knob. Which actually functions as a nice tone knob.
I recorded a short demo of how the "Red Gainster" sounds and also compared it to the Uber Drive (Boss SD-1) and the Oddity Drive (Boss OD-1).
I think you can hear the Boss lineage pretty clearly, at least I can
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