The Zen Steggo Overdrive - AionFX Zendrive-based Clone

Fingolfen

Well-known member
I just might have had a little too much fun with this one. I started with the AionFX Azimuth board. As this is a fairly simple build, AionFX sells this as both a kit and a bare PCB. The overall component count is fairly low, but buying as a board allows me to hand pick the more important components like transistors and diodes.

Aion Azimuth - Zen Steggo - 01.jpg

The instructions indicate that D3 can be either a BAT41 Schottkey or that "some versions" use a 1N34A Germanium diode. I decided to go with the Germanium diode, as I doubt the kit includes one. The transistors are 2N7000 MOSFETs and the op amp is an NE5532P. The rest of the components are standard Yageo and Speer 1% metal film resistors, WIMA and Kemet metal film capacitors, and Nichicon electrolytic capacitors.

Aion Azimuth - Zen Steggo - 02.jpg

For the enclosure, I decided to stick with the Asian theme of the original enclosure - in a very "Steggo" way, of course! The enclosure artwork is in many ways similar to my Geisha Drive clone, using modified, licensed Adobe Stock images. Both include a stegosaurus interacting with the environment toward the bottom of the pedal as well. As the Zendrive itself features a yin-yang, I decided to add a stegosaurus version as a callback to the original.

Aion Azimuth - Zen Steggo - 03.jpg

I decided to go with fairy small knobs as they don't cover up as much of the art, and the black and white works well with the rest of the enclosure. The pedal sound is amazing, though I still need to compare it to the real thing. My friends at Five Star seemed to enjoy it a lot, along with a few others I'd brought down for fun. I'm sure I'll find a place for this one in "heavy rotation" on my pedal board!

A little more at the blog: https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-most-tranquil-pedal-with-most.html
 
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