Son of Ben aka Benji

[ttolliver]

Here it is -- my first build report although not my first Son of Ben

Son of Ben was my first 'from PCB' build. It didn't sound like I remembered a Benson Preamp from a local shop and I assumed I had strayed on the build somehow. I have a few pedals under my belt now and decided to toss together a second Son of Ben and compare the two.

To answer that burning question first, there is only a slight difference between the first and second builds. I guess my memory didn't allow for the magic of the amp and guitar, but that's okay.

I really shouldn't say much about the tone because I just finished this and I hadn't spent that much time with the first one. But it's safe to say it's a well-behaved overdrive with a range that starts transparent and doesn't quite get to distortion. The bass and treble cuts are pretty subtle, but who needs so much range that you can turn it to stupid at the extremes?

I despaired of finding any graphics inspiration using this green enclosure, but then came up with the Benji idea. This is a vinyl decal done with a Cricut. I'm super happy with the graphics. The knobs will be swapped out for something a bit bigger in diameter.

 

[Dirty_Boogie]

Very nice and clean. And great use of blue hookup wire - that's where the real mojo is!

Never heard of a Cricut - just looked it up and it looks like a great tool for pedal graphics.

 

[ttolliver]

Thanks!

With the foot switch breakout board making those connections so easy it didn't seem necessary to have multiple colors of wire. I'll get more from Small Bear at some point, but for now the blue does the trick.

 

[eaglehat]

Looks great! Now you got me looking into the Cricut too!

 

[Barry]

Looks great!