synthesiserror
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Good morning everyone. I've been building pedals for a few months now and the info on this forum has been extremely helpful. I figured I'd quit lurking and start posting.
I built this one for a friend who wanted a compressor pedal. Sourcing parts was fun, particularly the obsolete THAT2159 VCA called for in the build docs. Did some reading and discovered they replaced the chip with a 218X series, and Smallbear carried the Coolaudio equivalent V2181 for a few bucks. Sweet. Here's the THATcorp datasheet for substitutions if anyone needs it: https://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/dn137.pdf
Their specs call for deleting certain resistors to retrofit the newer chips. I figured I'd do a direct substitution first and see if it works. Turns out, it not only worked but sounded great with no jumpers necessary. I decided to leave it alone and send it to the customer this way. Your experiences may vary.
The rest of the build was uneventful. I used standard RC4558's, but socketed them in case they needed to be changed later to something more exotic. Again, I thought it sounded great as is. Yes, that is a SM 15pf cap in the C2 position. I neglected to order that value MLCC and didn't want to delay the build further, so I ate the cost of it and stuck a SM one I already had in. Oh well. I did use a NOS J201, ended up ordering a few in case I need one for a future build.
The paint scheme isn't my style, but it was what the customer asked for and he was happy with it in the end. I use waterslide decals laid out in Canva Pro for my graphics. Turns out well with minimal effort. Sometimes I'll add a few layers of lacquer after everything's dried for longevity. I didn't do it here because I liked the contrast between the matte pink and gloss lime.
Anyway, I don't really use compressors so I didn't build one for myself. But, it did sound pretty good compared to ones I've used before. Not sure it was worth the trouble of ordering nonstandard parts, but it was a fun build nonetheless.
I built this one for a friend who wanted a compressor pedal. Sourcing parts was fun, particularly the obsolete THAT2159 VCA called for in the build docs. Did some reading and discovered they replaced the chip with a 218X series, and Smallbear carried the Coolaudio equivalent V2181 for a few bucks. Sweet. Here's the THATcorp datasheet for substitutions if anyone needs it: https://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/dn137.pdf
Their specs call for deleting certain resistors to retrofit the newer chips. I figured I'd do a direct substitution first and see if it works. Turns out, it not only worked but sounded great with no jumpers necessary. I decided to leave it alone and send it to the customer this way. Your experiences may vary.
The rest of the build was uneventful. I used standard RC4558's, but socketed them in case they needed to be changed later to something more exotic. Again, I thought it sounded great as is. Yes, that is a SM 15pf cap in the C2 position. I neglected to order that value MLCC and didn't want to delay the build further, so I ate the cost of it and stuck a SM one I already had in. Oh well. I did use a NOS J201, ended up ordering a few in case I need one for a future build.
The paint scheme isn't my style, but it was what the customer asked for and he was happy with it in the end. I use waterslide decals laid out in Canva Pro for my graphics. Turns out well with minimal effort. Sometimes I'll add a few layers of lacquer after everything's dried for longevity. I didn't do it here because I liked the contrast between the matte pink and gloss lime.
Anyway, I don't really use compressors so I didn't build one for myself. But, it did sound pretty good compared to ones I've used before. Not sure it was worth the trouble of ordering nonstandard parts, but it was a fun build nonetheless.
