@MichaelW's always-great build report and demo turned me on to this. I need another overdrive like a need a hole in the head, but I just can't help myself!
The build itself was unremarkable. I didn't change anything, except using film caps instead of electrolytic when possible. The bass cut pot is supposed to be B200k, I used B250k because that's what I had on hand.
The relay bypass is a custom PCB I made from the circuit posted here (I omitted the muting parts). I've become a bit neurotic about bypass lately. I want a soft-touch (i.e. momentary) footswitch, the lowest possible current draw, and a simple/small implementation. This is conceptually simple, but as you can see, it's an awful lot of parts. That big 14-pin chip is a CD40106 inverter: it has six individual inverters on it, and as used here (without the muting control), only one inverter is used. The other five are doing nothing. But it uses a tiny amount of current! I finally bit the bullet and ordered some microcontrollers, and am working on making an ultra-low power microcontroller-driven latching relay bypass circuit.
Anyway - the Snozzberry worked on first power-on. I think it sounds great. It's not transparent, but I don't find that it dramatically changes the sound. The marketing copy makes it sound like the intent is not to sound like anything in particular, but instead be kind of a generic great-sounding overdriven tube amp sound. I had that expectation bias going in, so can't say if it really does sound like the verbal description, or if it became a self-fulfilling thing, having been biased by first reading the marketing blurb. When I did the initial quick play on it, just to make sure it works, I was kind of like, "yeah, sounds good, but nothing to write home about". But then I went and did some work around the house. I came back and did a whole practice session using it, and the more I played it, the more I liked it. To my ears, it has a very "thick" sound - if I designed this, I'd call it the "milkshake overdrive". I'm going to keep in on the board, and give it a go in band practice. If it works as well in a live mix as it does at home, it might earn a long-term spot on the board.
The exterior finish is a waterslide decal on a March 2023 limited run finish 125B from Love My Switches. I know a red enclosure would be more appropriate here, but I didn't have any red enclosures in my inventory. So blue-green it is! I think it looks pretty good.
Kind of a tight fit with my silly-big bypass PCB, but otherwise, not too shabby I think.
The build itself was unremarkable. I didn't change anything, except using film caps instead of electrolytic when possible. The bass cut pot is supposed to be B200k, I used B250k because that's what I had on hand.
The relay bypass is a custom PCB I made from the circuit posted here (I omitted the muting parts). I've become a bit neurotic about bypass lately. I want a soft-touch (i.e. momentary) footswitch, the lowest possible current draw, and a simple/small implementation. This is conceptually simple, but as you can see, it's an awful lot of parts. That big 14-pin chip is a CD40106 inverter: it has six individual inverters on it, and as used here (without the muting control), only one inverter is used. The other five are doing nothing. But it uses a tiny amount of current! I finally bit the bullet and ordered some microcontrollers, and am working on making an ultra-low power microcontroller-driven latching relay bypass circuit.
Anyway - the Snozzberry worked on first power-on. I think it sounds great. It's not transparent, but I don't find that it dramatically changes the sound. The marketing copy makes it sound like the intent is not to sound like anything in particular, but instead be kind of a generic great-sounding overdriven tube amp sound. I had that expectation bias going in, so can't say if it really does sound like the verbal description, or if it became a self-fulfilling thing, having been biased by first reading the marketing blurb. When I did the initial quick play on it, just to make sure it works, I was kind of like, "yeah, sounds good, but nothing to write home about". But then I went and did some work around the house. I came back and did a whole practice session using it, and the more I played it, the more I liked it. To my ears, it has a very "thick" sound - if I designed this, I'd call it the "milkshake overdrive". I'm going to keep in on the board, and give it a go in band practice. If it works as well in a live mix as it does at home, it might earn a long-term spot on the board.
The exterior finish is a waterslide decal on a March 2023 limited run finish 125B from Love My Switches. I know a red enclosure would be more appropriate here, but I didn't have any red enclosures in my inventory. So blue-green it is! I think it looks pretty good.
Kind of a tight fit with my silly-big bypass PCB, but otherwise, not too shabby I think.
