- Build Rating
I've been wanting to build this for a while. Like so many of my recent builds, @MichaelW's Tellurian build report planted the mental seed in my mind. Kit Rae also posted a fairly lengthy review on his website of the Sarno Earth Drive.
The build itself was pretty unremarkable. It's a small PCB, with not too many components. Architecturally, it's familiar ground: a single dual-opamp and soft clipping. I built it exactly per the build docs, except for the germanium diodes, where I used BAT41. I have a "tasting flight" of GE diodes on order from Smallbear; I was hoping to have them by now, but I couldn't wait to finish this build, so I'm using the BAT41 in the interim.
I thought this enclosure was going to really pop, but it ended up slightly "relic'ed", unintentionally: I used the Sunnyscopa no-film waterslide decals. I printed a dashed outline, so that I could center the decal on the enclosure. Then I used a paper towel and isopropyl alcohol to remove the dashed outline. That turned out to be a decent amount of work - it took a fair amount of scrubbing to remove those guide lines. In fact, I scrubbed so hard, and while the enclosure was still pretty warm (after the first heat sock/hair dryer treatment), and a little bit of the factory green started to rub off. So I thought, if it takes a lot of hard scrubbing/elbow grease to remove the unwanted lines, then I should be able to make a few very light passes over the whole face without affecting the print (so I could try to clean up some of the uneven glue, and smooth the scuffed green paint a bit). Well, that failed - all the nice, thick, dark print I originally had got wiped away after only a couple quick and light passes with the rubbing alcohol. It still looks reasonable, in my opinion, just one more lesson learned.
I wanted to use some clip art of the earth, or maybe a globe. But I don't have a color printer, so can only do black or shades of grey. And I think anything with the earth just needs to be blue - that's the defining characteristic of our planet. So I randomly thought mushrooms might look cool, and they grow in the earth, so why not?!
As for the sound: it's interesting, it's fairly neutral (dare I say "transparent"), except for a noticeable bass cut. I haven't tried, but I have a hunch that I could do a reasonable approximation of the sound with a Timmy with the bass rolled back. The Earth Drive seems to often get compared to the Klon for some reason; I can see some vague semblance, particularly in the bass cut; though the Tellurian does not appear to have that distinct "quack" of the Klon. I found the drive range pretty useful, from subtle hint of dirt, to edge-of-breakup, up to what I consider mid-gain levels. I found that the gain didn't seem to change much once the gain knob hit around 2:00 or 3:00 or so (i.e. 3:00 to maxed out is a very subtle difference). I played for a while, generally keeping the gain around 11:00 for a low(ish) gain sound, a touch beyond edge-of-breakup, where all but the most lightly struck notes have at least a hint of dirt. I had the tone knob rolled back slightly, also around 11:00. At first I thought I wasn't going to like all the bass roll off, but the more I played it, the more it grew on me. It doesn't sound weak or thin by any means - it actually manages to sound fairly thick, despite the bass cut. It's strengths seem to be sustain and string/note definition. I also found it fairly touch-responsive. I'm definitely going to keep using it for a while; I suspect the bass roll off might come in handy in a band mix.
Once my Smallbear order shows up, I'll probably experiment with a little GE diode rolling. I'm particularly exited to give the Phillips OA9 a try, per @MichaelW's report.
The build itself was pretty unremarkable. It's a small PCB, with not too many components. Architecturally, it's familiar ground: a single dual-opamp and soft clipping. I built it exactly per the build docs, except for the germanium diodes, where I used BAT41. I have a "tasting flight" of GE diodes on order from Smallbear; I was hoping to have them by now, but I couldn't wait to finish this build, so I'm using the BAT41 in the interim.
I thought this enclosure was going to really pop, but it ended up slightly "relic'ed", unintentionally: I used the Sunnyscopa no-film waterslide decals. I printed a dashed outline, so that I could center the decal on the enclosure. Then I used a paper towel and isopropyl alcohol to remove the dashed outline. That turned out to be a decent amount of work - it took a fair amount of scrubbing to remove those guide lines. In fact, I scrubbed so hard, and while the enclosure was still pretty warm (after the first heat sock/hair dryer treatment), and a little bit of the factory green started to rub off. So I thought, if it takes a lot of hard scrubbing/elbow grease to remove the unwanted lines, then I should be able to make a few very light passes over the whole face without affecting the print (so I could try to clean up some of the uneven glue, and smooth the scuffed green paint a bit). Well, that failed - all the nice, thick, dark print I originally had got wiped away after only a couple quick and light passes with the rubbing alcohol. It still looks reasonable, in my opinion, just one more lesson learned.
I wanted to use some clip art of the earth, or maybe a globe. But I don't have a color printer, so can only do black or shades of grey. And I think anything with the earth just needs to be blue - that's the defining characteristic of our planet. So I randomly thought mushrooms might look cool, and they grow in the earth, so why not?!
As for the sound: it's interesting, it's fairly neutral (dare I say "transparent"), except for a noticeable bass cut. I haven't tried, but I have a hunch that I could do a reasonable approximation of the sound with a Timmy with the bass rolled back. The Earth Drive seems to often get compared to the Klon for some reason; I can see some vague semblance, particularly in the bass cut; though the Tellurian does not appear to have that distinct "quack" of the Klon. I found the drive range pretty useful, from subtle hint of dirt, to edge-of-breakup, up to what I consider mid-gain levels. I found that the gain didn't seem to change much once the gain knob hit around 2:00 or 3:00 or so (i.e. 3:00 to maxed out is a very subtle difference). I played for a while, generally keeping the gain around 11:00 for a low(ish) gain sound, a touch beyond edge-of-breakup, where all but the most lightly struck notes have at least a hint of dirt. I had the tone knob rolled back slightly, also around 11:00. At first I thought I wasn't going to like all the bass roll off, but the more I played it, the more it grew on me. It doesn't sound weak or thin by any means - it actually manages to sound fairly thick, despite the bass cut. It's strengths seem to be sustain and string/note definition. I also found it fairly touch-responsive. I'm definitely going to keep using it for a while; I suspect the bass roll off might come in handy in a band mix.
Once my Smallbear order shows up, I'll probably experiment with a little GE diode rolling. I'm particularly exited to give the Phillips OA9 a try, per @MichaelW's report.
