Stratoblaster Kit

Alan W

Well-known member
Build Rating
3.00 star(s)
No pictures this time. I spent pretty much all of yesterday helping a friend build his first pedal. We did about 30 minutes of soldering practice, then went on to what resistors do, etc…

Rather than my suggested kit, he got a General Gadgets Stratoblaster kit. Very simple circuit, 1 transistor, 1 knob. Parts were pretty much Tayda baseline. The main hitch was that the directions indicated top mounted jacks, (as did the internal spacing of parts, determined by the pre-drilled holes). With the side mounted jacks, the only place big enough for the (very small) circuit board was on the side. The board had spacing for using a board mounted pot, which would’ve solved the issue, but I had no C taper pots in the right range in my stock, and if it were for me I would’ve made some Ls of heavier wire and done just that, but I wanted to keep it more simple for him.

Wow! It’s a nice, clean, close to transparent drive. I’m going to breadboard it, testing out some different power supply configurations, etc. I think it would also make a great first project for someone doing their first veroboard construction. I had just finished a single knob boost, the Transcendence, which does benefit from the additional headroom, and possibly the higher grade caps etc. that I used. But I was impressed with the Stratoblaster.
 
The ggg stratoblaster was my first project! I used it on my board for years before I changed my entire drive section.
 
I seem to recall that 400 years ago when I started this hobby I whiffed on a couple of Fuzz Faces (which in hindsight sets the hook for a lot of DIY builders) and the Stratoblaster not only sounded great but was my first successful build. I don't recall if I got the board from GGG or got all crazy and etched it myself.
 
I got my stratoblaster pcb from Tayda and it makes my Fender HSS strat sounds punchy, clean and gives me nice modern quack on position 2 and 4. The quack because of the Stratoblaster reminisces to me the sound of Dan Huff's 80's clean. Chaining it with chorus, detune/harmonizer and delay I can mimick a cheap version of expensive 80's rack effects of Lukather, Landau, etc... Below is the picture of it i tested it this morning chained with Thumbsucker compressor and Thermionic distortion. Even without the compressor it sounds good already. Not on the picture are my chorus, detune pedal and Boss delay.

myPeds.PNG
 
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