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.
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.