Son of Ben Preamp

[jwyles90]

Just finished this guy up yesterday. I'm calling it the Jenson Preamp (my girlfriend painted the enclosure, and her name is Jenson so it felt fitting). This thing sounds freaking amazing, I'm honestly pretty blown away by it. On the lower gain settings, it adds this warmth and fullness to my tone that I haven't heard in quite the same way in some of my other low-gain OD pedals. I think that has a lot to do with the JFETs, which I got through Mouser, and thanks to this forum I was able to figure out how to bias them pretty easily. I'm also really digging the way it sounds with the gain and bass cranked, lots of fun bluesy fuzz sounds to be had there.
Overall, super fun build that I would definitely recommend!

 

[almondcity]

The paint is killer

 

[jwyles90]

The paint is killer

Yea she’s painted a few of my builds now, they always turn out way cooler than any that I’ve tried to do haha. These are the other two that she’s done so far

 

[SCTTWTR]

Those are awesome ! ... one of a kind originals which makes them special. I built a son of Ben a couple of months ago and was curious what you used for the JFETs ... I couldn't find any new old stock J201's in the conventional transistor package so I bought the surface mount (SMD) variety and soldered them to some adapter boards (a real eye and hand steadiness test). Works great and agree with all of your comments above ... it's a great sounding pedal with lots of different sounds.

 

[jwyles90]

Those are awesome ! ... one of a kind originals which makes them special. I built a son of Ben a couple of months ago and was curious what you used for the JFETs ... I couldn't find any new old stock J201's in the conventional transistor package so I bought the surface mount (SMD) variety and soldered them to some adapter boards (a real eye and hand steadiness test). Works great and agree with all of your comments above ... it's a great sounding pedal with lots of different sounds.

Thanks! Yea I’ve been really enjoying making them, such a cool way to spend some free time.
As far as the jfets go I found some through hole ones on Mouser. They’ve got about 6,200 in stock right now from this company called Interfet. As far as my ears can tell they sound awesome, although they’re like $3.60 a pop so the price is a little steep. For personal projects though I’m ok with that. I’ve got a few of the pre-soldered SMD ones too, have yet to try them out but it seems like they sound equally as good!

 

[SCTTWTR]

Hey thanks I didn't realize those were available I will chek it out and probably stock up on a few. Building a Botah Drive now that takes a couple but I have already soldered the SMD's to the adapters. Maybe I will socket them and see if I can hear any difference just for yucks. Thnaks again !

 

[jwyles90]

Hey thanks I didn't realize those were available I will chek it out and probably stock up on a few. Building a Botah Drive now that takes a couple but I have already soldered the SMD's to the adapters. Maybe I will socket them and see if I can hear any difference just for yucks. Thnaks again !

No problem! I found them here: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/InterFET/J201?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtXHE36kCvv35PAMrGRCOWF1hJ1oNgO3Bs=
As I said, they're kinda pricey but they also sound great so if I'm just making the pedal for myself or only need a couple of them at a time it's worth it to me.