Erik S
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Earlier this year, Benson did a signature fuzz-delay for the band Deep Sea Diver. I watched some videos about it, and fell into a brief internet crush for Jessica Dobson who fronts that band and does some cool stuff. In one of her Rig Rundowns, she said there was some magic in a pedal I hadn't heard of - the Sarno Earth Drive. Saw Robert had a board, and into the cart it went.
When I finished the Earth Drive, the other drive on my board was one a friend built based on an SD-1, so that's what the this ended up getting compared to. I've been enjoying the SD1, but it has one property I don't love - If I let a chord decay out to silence, it'll go from a nice drive tone, then clean up as the signal drops, but there's a point as it's going clean where the transition isn't smooth. It kinda sputters in a weird way. It's the sort of thing I might not even notice if I was playing music, but when I'm hyper focusing on the sound of a new overdrive it irks me. The Duocast I built does a similar thing, and it's the only thing I don't like about that pedal. All that to say - the Earth Drive definitely does not do that. It is super-smooth all the way down. It also sustains much longer at similar volume, so I guess there's a lot more compression? Right now I'm really enjoying it with the drive around 9-10 o'clock where I can move in and out of overdrive depending on how hard I hit it.
I'm a little ashamed that I've built this many pedals without taking the time to really study and understand the various clipping diode arrangements. I've read a few articles, but I haven't spent enough time studying schematics for it to really stick. I wonder if I was better versed in schematic reading if I could have looked at these two circuits and predicted those sound differences, or whether that could have helped inform my choice of diodes. Goals I guess. I've got the schematics out on my desk now. Maybe I'll learn something.
Speaking of diodes, the build doc lists some options for the two germanium diodes. I went with a pair of ITT 1N192 (vf 370 on my Peak 75) that I bought 100 of from Small Bear when they were running their parts for a penny sale. I briefly thought about rigging something up to audition different ones, but @MichaelW did a build report where he vouched for something similar, so I just went with it and soldered them in.
If you're considering building one of these Michael's build report is a must-read. If I had read that before my girl Jessica turned me on to this one, it would have already been in my cart.
When I finished the Earth Drive, the other drive on my board was one a friend built based on an SD-1, so that's what the this ended up getting compared to. I've been enjoying the SD1, but it has one property I don't love - If I let a chord decay out to silence, it'll go from a nice drive tone, then clean up as the signal drops, but there's a point as it's going clean where the transition isn't smooth. It kinda sputters in a weird way. It's the sort of thing I might not even notice if I was playing music, but when I'm hyper focusing on the sound of a new overdrive it irks me. The Duocast I built does a similar thing, and it's the only thing I don't like about that pedal. All that to say - the Earth Drive definitely does not do that. It is super-smooth all the way down. It also sustains much longer at similar volume, so I guess there's a lot more compression? Right now I'm really enjoying it with the drive around 9-10 o'clock where I can move in and out of overdrive depending on how hard I hit it.
I'm a little ashamed that I've built this many pedals without taking the time to really study and understand the various clipping diode arrangements. I've read a few articles, but I haven't spent enough time studying schematics for it to really stick. I wonder if I was better versed in schematic reading if I could have looked at these two circuits and predicted those sound differences, or whether that could have helped inform my choice of diodes. Goals I guess. I've got the schematics out on my desk now. Maybe I'll learn something.
Speaking of diodes, the build doc lists some options for the two germanium diodes. I went with a pair of ITT 1N192 (vf 370 on my Peak 75) that I bought 100 of from Small Bear when they were running their parts for a penny sale. I briefly thought about rigging something up to audition different ones, but @MichaelW did a build report where he vouched for something similar, so I just went with it and soldered them in.
If you're considering building one of these Michael's build report is a must-read. If I had read that before my girl Jessica turned me on to this one, it would have already been in my cart.
