Three Aions in one day!

[Phil hodson]

Three in one post here, saves space and all that!
Three kits grin Aion. The Obelisk, Monolith and Solstice.
The Obelisk and Monolith are Lovetone clones based on the brown sauce and big cheese. And with names like that who could resist!
It was the rotaries i was more Interested in as I haven’t built anything with them involved yet.
The Solstice is based on the shredmaster.
Noticing exciting build wise and with most Aion kits they went together well and fired up first time.
I have to say im a bit underwhelmed with the Obelisk and Solstice so far. Maybe I need more time with them but the Obelisk sounds very much like a DS-1 (am I allowed to say that or even mention that pedal?!) and the Solstice isn't what I was expecting. Not very shreddy at all. More like mild. I did manage to get some of “the Bends” sounds out of it so it is close to what it says. I will keep playing with them though and see of I change my mind.
The Monolith though sounds fantastic. Raspy high gain. With loads of crunch. Well worth it.

 

[steviejr92]

Your on fire man!

 

[swyse]

Your on fire man!

I was basically typing this when I saw the pop up that more messages have been posted haha.
I've seen so many builds today, I'm jealous!
I've been interested in the brown source for a bit, but i've never built one. The pedal the obelisk is based on was used by the metallica at some point, I would assume to push their amps harder, so maybe it's good for that more than the stand alone drive thing.

 

[Phil hodson]

That’s one of the reasons I went for it too. I would love to get their sound. I’m guessing since it’s and old pedal it would be an easier sound of theirs, Justice maybe. But then Bob Rock could have used it on the Black album in addition to a myriad of other things. So it could have been used but maybe like you said bot as a stand alone pedal. I will keep mucking around with them and see what works.

 

[Diynot]

Damn I love the look of a good etched enclosure. Very nice!

 

[swyse]

That’s one of the reasons I went for it too. I would love to get their sound. I’m guessing since it’s and old pedal it would be an easier sound of theirs, Justice maybe. But then Bob Rock could have used it on the Black album in addition to a myriad of other things. So it could have been used but maybe like you said bot as a stand alone pedal. I will keep mucking around with them and see what works.

I tried to look it up and i mostly saw references to using it on garage inc with wizard modern classic amplifiers, it was surprisingly unclear.

 

[Phil hodson]

Thanks @Diynot
I’m still working on my technique. Needs some work still but getting there slowly.
Here’s the enclosures before the guys were added.

 

[Phil hodson]

I tried to look it up and i mostly saw references to using it on garage inc with wizard modern classic amplifiers, it was surprisingly unclear.

Interesting. I can possibly see why. Not one of my most played albums that’s for sure. But certainly experimental enough for them to be trying new things like this.

 

[Diynot]

Thanks @Diynot
I’m still working on my technique. Needs some work still but getting there slowly.
Here’s the enclosures before the guys were added.

Are you using the laser toner method of transfer? What kind of etchant are you using?

 

[Phil hodson]

Are you using the laser toner method of transfer? What kind of etchant are you using?

I’m laser printing on premium presentation paper and etching with sodium hydroxide at the moment.
I tried the blue etching paper but it didn’t work at all and was stupidly expensive.
Any hints and tips much appreciated!

 

[Route14]

If you haven't tried it already, I highly recommend lowering the value of C16 in the Solstice/Shredmaster. (as per the build docs) Or socket it if you want options. It worked much better in my rig and made the pedal more usable to me. Not a pedal I would gig with but I think everyone should build the original Marshall trio of dirt pedals at least once.

 

[Fingolfen]

The Obelisk and Monolith are two of my favorite AionFX boards... build up really well.

 

[Phil hodson]

If you haven't tried it already, I highly recommend lowering the value of C16 in the Solstice/Shredmaster. (as per the build docs) Or socket it if you want options. It worked much better in my rig and made the pedal more usable to me. Not a pedal I would gig with but I think everyone should build the original Marshall trio of dirt pedals at least once.

I did socket it so may give that a try. Maybe try it’s the magic fix!
I totally agree. I wanted to build it more for the nostalgia than anything else.

 

[Phil hodson]

The Obelisk and Monolith are two of my favorite AionFX boards... build up really well.

They do build really well. I was a bit daunted when I first saw them. Never having worked with rotary pots before but these were so easy to put together. And like I said fired up first time with no issues.

 

[Route14]

I did socket it so may give that a try. Maybe try it’s the magic fix!
I totally agree. I wanted to build it more for the nostalgia than anything else.

I would definitely try it then. Stock version I thought it was a bit too muddy and dark. Lowering that value made a huge difference to my ears. I don't think it changes the overall character of the pedal but it does improve the EQ.

 

[Phil hodson]

just dropped it to the 330 and sound better. Way less muddy. I had the 470 in there before. I wonder how low to go…. Needs some more working on.

 

[Feral Feline]

Your Solstice build and comments in the thread inspired me to come up with a tone/character switch.

Using a Type 1 on-on-on, you could have three values for C16.

Picofarad values (from Tayda's monolithic selection) to play with 100 150 220 270 330 470 560 680 820 1000 — (1000p=stock).

Using 3 caps of your choosing, you'd solder the central switch position cap between lugs 1&6 (type 2 lugs 3 & 4), with the other two caps soldered to 1&4 and 3&6 — signal in to 2 and out from 5 as per normal. At no time are any of the caps in series or parallel with each other.

Actually, the diagram shows a DP3T, if you wanna get technical.

The outer switch-positions’ caps are not in the circuit when bat is in middle; when bat activates 1&4 the centre-diagonal cap is not in the mix because 5&6 are unconnected, and vice versa for cap on 3&6 where the 1&4 and diagonal are not recognised — so 3 separate Values can be attained and placed in order of preference — what I like about this as opposed to doing the same with on-off-on and caps in parallel is that you don't have to have the smallest value in the middle position — it can be a logical low-to-high or high-to-low.

So…
 what'll it be?
100p, 560, 1n OR
100p, 470p, 820p OR

220p, 680p, 1n OR

150p, 330p, 680p OR


— OF COURSE ONE COULD JUST BREADBOARD/SOCKET IT AND FIND A PREFERRED OVERALL VALUE, if the differences are too subtle.


Now extrapolate and use this method on an input cap, or other significant signal shaper in a circuit... Maybe the tone cap in a Rat or 808.
Use a 4PDT 4P3T on-on-on (essentially two DP3Ts) on a Muff Tone control...

 

[Phil hodson]

Have one of these on order so kind of the same idea. And hopefully will be able to try out a lot of different values!

Capacitor Switcher

Simple utility board to swap out one or two caps in a circuit, offering up to 6 different values on each. Great way to alter the input and output caps at the same time. Designed to take two sets of either 6 x 5mm pitch box caps, or 3 box and 3 electros per side. Pads positioned for Alpha-type...

shop.pedalparts.co.uk

 

[Feral Feline]

You can get something similar from GuitarPCB, check out this Roto-Tone PDF.

 

[Phil hodson]

That looks good too. Might try them both.