The Fingers Overdrive

MattG

Well-known member
Here's my build of The Fingers Overdrive. This is a PedalPCB original. I believe it is essentially a Timmy, but with discrete transistors instead of opamps.

I actually populated the board several weeks ago, but never got around to boxing it up. I got the incentive to box it up when I received my factory-assembled SMD buffered electrical bypass modules. As you can read about in the bypass thread, I made a silly mistake on the first batch of boards which caused the status LED to never light up. I received my corrected boards, and dropped in a replacement: now it works perfectly, and I can actually enjoy using the pedal.

The only mod I did was to add an additional series clipping diode, otherwise, everything is stock. I haven't yet put it next to my Tommy III for comparison, but I believe The Fingers circuit is closer to a Timmy v1/v2. Anyway, it's more or less what I expected: a "transparent" (i.e. neutral-EQ capable) drive with flexible bass and treble controls, and a drive range from clean(ish) boost all the way up to mid(ish) drive.

The only criticism I might have is that I suspect the discrete transistors themselves might be overdriving a bit in this circuit, as I do sometimes hear some Boss BD-2 or Colorsound Power Boost style "crackly" decay. Of course it's entirely possible I made a build error! It's not super noticeable.

I think the enclosure is a Peacock Ore[/ur] from @StompBoxParts, but I'm not 100% sure. It's really pretty, and sparkles nicely in the right light (and hard to do justice in a quick cell phone pic). The knobs are aluminum 1510-style.

All-in-all, a pretty good build IMO, but the "star" of the show is really the buffered electrical bypass module.
 

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Here's my build of The Fingers Overdrive. This is a PedalPCB original. I believe it is essentially a Timmy, but with discrete transistors instead of opamps.

I actually populated the board several weeks ago, but never got around to boxing it up. I got the incentive to box it up when I received my factory-assembled SMD buffered electrical bypass modules. As you can read about in the bypass thread, I made a silly mistake on the first batch of boards which caused the status LED to never light up. I received my corrected boards, and dropped in a replacement: now it works perfectly, and I can actually enjoy using the pedal.

The only mod I did was to add an additional series clipping diode, otherwise, everything is stock. I haven't yet put it next to my Tommy III for comparison, but I believe The Fingers circuit is closer to a Timmy v1/v2. Anyway, it's more or less what I expected: a "transparent" (i.e. neutral-EQ capable) drive with flexible bass and treble controls, and a drive range from clean(ish) boost all the way up to mid(ish) drive.

The only criticism I might have is that I suspect the discrete transistors themselves might be overdriving a bit in this circuit, as I do sometimes hear some Boss BD-2 or Colorsound Power Boost style "crackly" decay. Of course it's entirely possible I made a build error! It's not super noticeable.

I think the enclosure is a Peacock Ore[/ur] from @StompBoxParts, but I'm not 100% sure. It's really pretty, and sparkles nicely in the right light (and hard to do justice in a quick cell phone pic). The knobs are aluminum 1510-style.
All-in-all, a pretty good build IMO, but the "star" of the show is really the buffered electrical bypass module.
The Fingers OD is a super under-rated pedal. For low to medium gain fans, Timmy Variant fans, etc, definitely worth building!
 
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