Shut Up, Booster!

[BuddytheReow]

Edit: See post #3 for final build and write up

Boosters and EQ have been lacking on my board or even in my collection, so I thought it was time to build what I consider to be both. This is the Catalinbread Varioboost and was built on stripboard. Here's the layout from Dirtbox Layouts.


This was a pretty simple build for the circuit itself. The offboard wiring is usually a pain, but I had the time last week and was pretty relaxing.

How does it sound? Pretty much just like the demos you hear online. My only "complaint" about this circuit with a guitar is that boosting the low end or cutting the high end (opposite extremes of the boost/cut and freq knobs) produce the same result. Another way of saying it is boosting the lows or cutting the highs produces the same sound. But, for a relatively simple EQ pedal, I'm not going to complain so much. This is a good change to get my feet wet on tone shaping.

Or, I could just dial in the EQ on my amp, right? RIGHT?

Unfinished enclosure and temporary knobs, but time will tell where this takes me.

 

[DailyDovetails]

You have been prolific recently! I agree with you on the boost/cut on this for the most part. I have a preamp that has 1 para EQ on one channel and 2 on the other and it can be kind of fun to dial in 2 different sounds that way. I find using cuts is typically less noisy than using the boost.

 

[BuddytheReow]

The more I use it the more I love it! This is an absolutely phenomenal tone shaper and will be used a lot on my board. Could it be an "always on" pedal? Maybe, maybe not.

What does this mean? I decided to replace the stomp switch with a relay bypass. This gives the gut shot a weird vibe with a "roll your own" plus a PCB thrown in there. When boxed up you won't know the difference (one of the benefits of messy stripboard builds).

For the enclosure art I went with a booster LOL. This is based on an Arnold Schwarzenegger christmas movie called "Jingle All the Way". The film is about the adventures of a workaholic family man trying to find his kid the hottest toy of the Christmas season: a Turbo Man doll. Turbo Man's trusty sidekick is an animal named Booster. Act 1 of the film is Arnold going from toy store to toy store looking for the sold out Turbo Man, and each store offers him a Booster doll as an alternative. Nobody wants the Booster doll.

It's a cheesy family Christmas movie worth at least one watch. This is on my family's Christmas movie rotation each year.

 

[mybud]

The more I use it the more I love it! This is an absolutely phenomenal tone shaper and will be used a lot on my board.

Thanks for this. Glad to say one's on the way here.

 

[peccary]

I'll say it again: EVERYONE NEEDS A VARIO-BOOST!