Top Five '24

C

comradehoser

Well-known member
At the request of members, here is the new, improved, and moved from "Build Reports" Top Five Pedal Builds for 2024/2025!!!!!!

The idea remains the same, though.

Name your top 5 pedals to build, and give a reason for each. Can be short, can be long, ranked, unranked, can be top 5 just in the genre that you love--like (barf) compressors--can be any justification at all. But it has to be five. Not 3. Not 7. 5.

To placate those of you who love all of your special children equally, honorable mentions are ... fine. Short and sweet/a good time not a long time is probably the way.

If you published last year, revisit your list and see if anything has changed. I actually built quite a few circuits from other folks' top 5.

And of course, pics, and especially clips/demos are encouraged. Who doesn't love those? I sure do.

I can go first.

My list from last year was:

Deofol/Okko Diablo
Thorpy Heavy Water/Fallout Cloud
Hydra Delay
EQD Afterneath/Deflector Reverb
Acorn ADHD/Nutty Fuzz

This year, I will have to say...
Corroder/HAO Rust Overdive--a deceptive little MIAB with so very few parts and controls. Can get chonky, can be gritty, can go almost clean--all from your guitar volume control. My PTP version was maybe my favorite PTP yet, too. I don't know if it's particularly a pure reproduction of a Marshall, or if it's anything special, or if it plays super well with other pedals, but I don't care, it sounds good and I reach for it often because it's fun to mess with.

Trembling Loon/4ms Tremulus Lune--I don't always or often play tremolo, but this is also a pretty uncomplicated build with impressive flexibility and I admire it and enjoy myself every time I kick it on.

Deflector/EQD Afterneath--The sole survivor! I built a couple of extra reverbs based on the fives lists, but this is still so great to get into, plays well with others, and lends itself to a lot of creativity without menu diving. And I hate the sound of Belton self-oscillation. I built one for a friend, and he used it on his band's next big record SO THERE

Moonn Dromtydning/DBA Echo Dream-- A very close call against the awesome tape delay controls of the Hydra; it's not a delay if you want orthodox delay for orthodox delay stuff like filling out your solos or something, but I LOVE THIS DAMN HERETIC PEDAL TOO MUCH. It is weird and modulated, the delay is grungy and the fuzz is like the degenerating echo of a pre Dolby movie soundtrack. Solder the fuzz kill footswitch leads to the Effect Depth pot lugs 1 and 3 and then it's even a more enjoyable pedal as you now can keep the delay straight joe, or kick on the Barbarella 60s sci-fi delirium.

Mannnn, that last slot already....

The 3-channel mixer. Yup. It's not a bunch of fooferaw 3-pedal 12 gain stages with a shrubbery of clipping toggles and a verb in there, it's a solid, impressive and uncomplicated little utility pedal with its sibling the 3-channel splitter, and its cousin the 4-tap power supply. It just makes it so easy to share an amp so I can play guitar with my daughter in the living room. And that is what it's all about.


************
(Honorable mentions if you just can't do 5):

The Effects Layout Grizzled Grime: It's just THAT tone that I've been searching for in bass fuzz and distortion. This is it. Nasty, snarly, unmanicured, razor-blade-having, bad attitude bass efferupper. Good times.

Ionosphere/Ionostrofear: It's a fuzzer's fuzzery. From overdrivey rawk tastes early in the rotation to clouds and yet more clouds of crushing yet musical sonic collapse. Feel like it gets slept on, but it's a great circuit for doom metal and all lovers of the low and the slow. Still love my Pyrocumulus, though.

GCI N.E.W. Apostle: even though I keep having issues with this pedal, including one epic troubleshooting/discovery thread here (heyo stickman and zanshin!), it just keeps sounding better. Orange/Matamp 120-like ampy fun times for days and daze.


So, how about you?
 
The first thread just predated when I started building pedals. It was a great way to sift through all the PPCB boards and bulk out my shopping cart. Here's my top 5, in no particular order:

1. PPCB Dung Beetle (Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe/fuzz) - Gotta have at least one fuzz pedal on the list. I love the flexibility of this pedal, there's a lot of different sounds, and most of them sound good. Also a quick build with very simple parts. I think I like Tonebenders in general.
2. PPCB Low Tide Mini (Fairfield Shallow Water/random modulation) - Built this recently, so maybe it's just because it's new, but I love all the weird sounds. I don't think the weird ones are particularly useable, but if you turn the knobs back a lot, you get a very subtle organic-sounding chorus that comes and goes. Almost hard to tell if it's there until you turn it off and things just sound emptier. Works well for cleaner tones, I haven't figured out a use I enjoy with fuzz. I think this may become my most always-on modulation. I spent a long time playing with this one, it's hard to turn off once you get it biased. Besides the biasing, was a pretty straightforward build, just a lot of components.
3. PPCB Chop Shop (Fairfield Barbershop/overdrive) - It took me a little while to figure this one out. On its own it's not my favorite overdrive. But this pedal improves the sound of about half the overdrives/fuzz/distortion pedals. I put it after a few bluesbreakers and other ODs. I think someone described it as "taking a blanket off your amp." It can bring a lot of clarity to the tone, without making it icepicky or trebley. I'm not sure how to describe it. Downside: It was a bit annoying to bias. I wish PPCB build guides came with biasing instructions. But then, I wish PPCB pedals came with build guides...
4. PPCB 6-Band Eq [slider] (Equalizer) - Not a sexy pedal but it's so flexible. I love the feel of sliders compared to pots, and to be honest the stacked boards with headers are surprisingly fun. I think this was my favorite effect to build, and it's always-on for me.
5. GuitarML FunBox (Multieffects) - I think this is pretty similar to the PPCB Terrarium. I've now built 3 of these. @keyth72 has some great pedals to download (lots of wonderful shimmery effects) and the amount of hardware packed into this thing is impressive (dip switches, 6 knobs, 3 SPDT switches, expression in, 2 momentary footswitches. I've ended up building 3 because the PCB minimum order was 3 and I don't want to constantly swap out programs. Really looking forward to getting more into programming the Daisy using this thing.

---

Honorable mentions
Full disclosure, I built a lot of pedals that might get an honorable mention but ran out of boxes. As a result, I only played some of them with an Auditorium and couldn't give them their full due. This goes particularly for the Parasit pedals I've built. Anyway, here's 5 honorable mentions.

PPCB Sea Horse (chorus) - This was just edged out by the Low Tide Mini, and that in turn the Sea Horse just edges out the Caesar. This one is newer for me than the Caesar, which was one of my first boards, but right now it wins for me for two reasons: (1) it seems to do what the Caesar can do, but also can have a bit more of a mechanical sound if I want it. (2) The Caesar uses your standard expensive V3207/V3102 chips, this thing is mostly off-the shelf, although it does need 1/8W resistors which you might not have. But those are cheap and you could always stand up 1/4Ws.

PPCB Circulator (phaser) - This was my first phaser. I think I love the sound of phasers. But I also end up wanting to turn them off after a bit, so while I think it deserves honorablemention. It was a pretty straightforward build and the sound is fun.

PPCB Paragon Mini (bluesbreaker) - Probably my most-used overdrive on its own. It sounds better with the Chop Shop. I included the Chop Shop in my top 5 because I think it's more likely to stay on my board long-term, or for the circuit to work its way into my own future design. While I like the paragon, it's not head and shoulders above other overdrives such as the Glory Hole and I feel like there's probably still something a bit better out there.

PPCB War Scythe (muff/octave/tube bender) - I've learned that combo pedals aren't as much fun as I was expecting. Also, I prefer the 125B form factor. However, this, the Stockade, and the Parentheses were the first big pedals I ended up making. I haven't boxed up the Stockade although I built it a while ago (not a bad sound, and I need to play it more, I just loved other pedals more); the Parentheses will probably come off my board soon (it just didn't click for me). But this thing has a ton of great sounds in it. I wish I knew how flexible you can be with transistors before building this, as I stressed out a bunch over finding the right mojo parts.

Dudson Narrowcast (overdrive) - I haven't seen anyone talking about this pedal by Dylan159. It's a stripped-down Hudson Broadcast clone, but with cheap stock components and no transistor, and it sounds amazing. Really chunky sound. I haven't built the Broadcast itself yet, so maybe I'll like the sound of that even more. I'll be posting a gerber file of the PCB soon. I haven't gotten this boxed up yet (waiting on new enclosures to arrive today before rehousing a bunch of pedals), but don't want to unclip it from my Auditorium, so at this point I'd kinda expect this to move up in my rankings.

Honorable honorable mentions: Muffin Factory (awesome layout), Trumpeter, Deflector, Chalumeau, Sugarbag, "That" Compressor.
 
Well, I started building pedals in September, so I'm really new to this and have a limited list. All of them are PPCB. Here they are, in no particular order:

#1 El Sol – This was the first pedal I completed. It almost fired up on the first try, but I forgot to put in the ICs. That tends to help, so I’m told. It’s housed in a glittery pink enclosure with the Casa Bonita logo on it. For those who don’t know, Casa Bonita is a themed entertainment restaurant here in Denver, featuring an indoor waterfall, cliff divers, magic shows, and more. It’s best known for its terrible food, though, and it was made famous on an episode of South Park. In fact, it was bought by the creators of South Park during the pandemic and revamped, and they did a great job. The food is still not great, but it's edible!

#2 SiliSmile – This is the second pedal I finished, and I gave it to a friend as a gift. It’s a great fuzz face-style pedal, offering lots of fuzz but cleans up nicely when you turn down the volume.

#3 Plaid Preamp – Growing up in the '90s, I love grunge and the Seattle scene. This pedal was designed to be "Pearl Jam in a box," and it delivers. I wish there were a little more control over the EQ, but I’m picky about that.

#4 Klon – This was my Mount Everest. I got the PCB in my first order, and it truly scared me. So many components, such a small space—how could my ogre hands handle it? After building a couple of pedals, I gave it a try and got it running on the first try! I’ve always liked the Klon sound, and it’s great to have it on my pedalboard. The art on the enclosure is another Colorado reference: an anime version of Bluecifer, the creepy sculpture outside the Denver Airport. It’s a giant blue horse with glowing red eyes. It’s terrifying.

#5 Spirit Box – This was my first non-drive pedal, and I was a little intimidated by it due to the BTDR. It’s a $20 part I could easily screw up. That said, it went well and sounds great. I still need to fix the dwell issue. I should have read more build reports before jumping in.

Honorable Mention #1 – All Seeing Eye DS-1 mod. I just did this last week. As I mentioned, I love the '90s sound, and the DS-1 delivers that along with highs that can be like an ice pick to your ears. The ASE mod was fun; I learned about commercial pedals a bit, and the sound is fantastic. It takes away the ice-pick highs while still maintaining the '90s alt-rock vibe. Have my eye out for more DS-1 to do the JHS synth mod as well as another ASE for a friend.

Honorable Mention #2 – All the breadboarding I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying different circuits, putting together building blocks to personalize a pedal. I’m really enjoying it.
 
funnylittleboxes.co.uk

Funny Little Boxes 1991

Overview The award winning 1991 is FLB's flagship pedal. Capturing the sonic profile of Pearl Jam's debut album, think mid-forward; sparkly top end and easy on the bass. The 1991 is a dynamic and versatile overdrive with dual gain controls that covers everything from gritty boost through to...
funnylittleboxes.co.uk

That’s the pedal. I’m actually making a second and third. Second one for me and one for a friend!

rwl said:
@CheapSuitG I love Pearl Jam! Didn't know about the Plaid Preamp... will have to take a look.
Click to expand...
 
Hmm I’m in. No particular order.

Thermionic deluxe-tons of versatility I use it like the dirty channel into my clean amp.

Aion andromeda deluxe-I think the clipping section is interesting and works well. I also like the spectrum control. It’s like a more versatile tube screamer I use it in front of the thermionic when I want more mids.

Fuzz Aldrin-it keeps coming on and off my board. It’s super versatile but I haven’t quite found what I like it for the most. I’m thinking of building a second one in a tayda printed enclosure.

Particle Accelerator-I used this as my main preamp for most of the year. Trying out the Marshall thing for a bit now tho.

Aion Spectron-I don’t use this all that much and am not 100% sure where I would but it was a challenging build and I enjoyed all the critical thinking involved.

Honorable mention-
Muffin Factory-Also a fun challenging build.
Kewpie-probably the best sounding big muff I have played.
 
rwl said:
Dudson Narrowcast (overdrive) - I haven't seen anyone talking about this pedal by Dylan159. It's a stripped-down Hudson Broadcast clone, but with cheap stock components and no transistor, and it sounds amazing. Really chunky sound. I haven't built the Broadcast itself yet, so maybe I'll like the sound of that even more. I'll be posting a gerber file of the PCB soon. I haven't gotten this boxed up yet (waiting on new enclosures to arrive today before rehousing a bunch of pedals), but don't want to unclip it from my Auditorium, so at this point I'd kinda expect this to move up in my rankings.
Click to expand...
FWIW I've built a few Broadcast pedals without the transformer for the same reasons Dylan mentions and they sound great! I often put a small cap across the base and collector of Q2 to tame the brightness. 820pF works, and you can experiment from there. I might have to try Dylan's version too. I mainly use the Broadcast as The World's Most Overblown Treble Booster.
 
My favorites to build are what I've ended up with as the core of my board:
Prince of Tone; AMT M2; Muzzle; Spark Boost; FV-1 Reverb; TPA3118 Power amp.

Prince of Tone is very good boost without to much mid range. Great at pushing a clean channel into breakup or pushing a drive channel into metal.

AMT M2 has a very nice fender clean channel and marshall overdrive plus a solid cab sim to allow sending direct to PA.

Muzzle is the best noise gate there is.

Spark boost is exactly what is needed for a lead boost. Clean, flat volume boost.

FV-1 reverb using the built-in algo #7 is very nice for an always-on reverb.

And, of course, out to my volume-only TPA3118 power amp that also has an XLR out direct to PA.

The above is the meat and potatoes of a board. Nothing fancy. I have a few other pedals on my board for the special needs but didn't build any of those.
 
Drone Master
Vero build based on Fuzzlord Effects Rat variant with a footswitch for mid adjustable tone stack. Been using red led mode and non-mid tone stack. Still doubting if I’d fit metal can LM741 back to it. Better than Mosky King Rat and responds nicely to picking dynamics.

Morgul Boost
Vero based on Blackhawk Amplifiers design. After building found its place near end of my board. Dirrrty boost goodness and adds some trebly grit.

FilterFX
Pcb from Electric Druid. Autofilter madness with so many sonic possibilities. Build it with DigiDelay, but only FilterFX stayed on my board.

Fuzz n Burn
P2P build based Minotaur Sonic Terrors circuit. I really like Electra side too.

Hpf filter
Fron dirtboxlayouts based on broughton, but changed it to two fixed freqs withswitch instead of dual pot.
 
I took a look at my previous 5:

Post in thread 'Top Five'
https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/top-five.22008/post-278637

I said I was at 17 builds. I think I’m at 70 builds now. In no particular order:

Median Compressor - I’ve built the thumbsucker and byrdhouse as well, but this one sounds so good! I enjoy using it way more than the other two.

Kewpie - This is the muff that made it on my board. So thick! So much bass! But I leave that mode switch down out of respect for the bass player in my band!

Mean Green Metal Machine - I need something on my board that can ‘chug’. I tried a Thermionic, Tyrian, Sanguine, Brown Betty… but by the time I got to practice with my amp cranked, I realized I liked using those pedals on a clean amp. My amp already has a lot of grit dialed in. I get clean tones by turning the guitar volume down or switching to single coil. The Fortin-modded TS works great with my setup to get into chug territory. Way more gain on tap and less thin-sounding than a stock TS.

Desolate Fuzz - the instant I heard this thing, I knew I wanted it. I can get lots of octave/ringer style tones out of it. Octave-up style pedals are the most important part of my tone- if I could only use one pedal, it would be a green ringer style.

Parentheses - I only had this pedal for one day. I built it, and it was glorious. I let go of it too soon. I let my drummer borrow it and he had the same experience, and he bought it off me. It still have a Parentheses Mini board to populate, so I’ll see if that fills the void.
 
I decided to restrict myself to PPCB builds, it wasn’t hard :)

My 2024 top 5, not in any particular order:

Dope Priest/74 Ram’s Head #1 on PPCB Muffinator. My build report. Everyone (should) has a favorite muff version and this mine. It’s heavy as fuck while still nimble enough to take on a pile of jack boot thugs in riot gear. The added mid control helps it cut. The clipping options are great for adding headroom and flavor. Runner up muff would be the Kewpie, it’s Japanese, fascist murdering, half brother.

Precision Drive, PPCB Dwarven Hammer. My build report. I do not like tube screamers and derivatives. In fact I did not like this one when I first built it. But somehow this one has the secret sauce. Keep drive at 0 to 5%, dial attack to tighten up your pick ups, volume to taste. It’s the perfect always on first pedal. It makes everything after it sound more vivid and detailed. This is the pedal to drive your muff, high gain amp, etc into ecstasy.

RambleFX Twin Bender, PPCB Two Tone Fuzz. My build report. Simply put, this pedal is rock and roll. It never stays off my board for long. If you only build one Tone Bender, build this one.

PPCB Duo-Phase (Mutron Biphase alike). My build report. I don’t build a lot of modulation pedals, really only the Boss classics. I have the Meris big boxes, Eventide H90, etc that handle that duty for the most part. This pedal is an essential for me. There’s nothing like the sonic mojo it imparts when running in stereo with slow offset LFOs. Perfect for Siamese dreaming, or Al Cisneros role play.

Like my brother @comradehoser I’m going to use my last pick for the 3 channel splitter and mixer. My build report. When I built these I intended to use them on my bass board. Little did I know I’d catch the amp building bug. I’m using one splitter to hit three amps at the end of my dirt board and two mixers to mix the output of UAFX Ox Boxes at the start of my stereo mod/delay/reverb board. I am thinking I’d like to buy two more mixer boards and put two in one box and add panner controls for a stereo three channel mixer to simplify things a bit.

‘Not PPCB’ honorable mentions: All the Boss stuff at AionFX. Love em. Effects Layouts - so much good, literally the crack that supplies my doom-y flavored crack pipe.
 
Zanshin said:
PPCB Duo-Phase (Mutron Biphase alike). My build report. I don’t build a lot of modulation pedals, really only the Boss classics. I have the Meris big boxes, Eventide H90, etc that handle that duty for the most part. This pedal is an essential for me. There’s nothing like the sonic mojo it imparts when running in stereo with slow offset LFOs. Perfect for Siamese dreaming, or Al Cisneros role play.
Click to expand...
I’ve been tempted to get Duo-Phase, but deciding between DIY or just getting Behringer clone is hard. Guess cost wise both options are approx same? Happen to know if Behringer is sonically in same game?
 
JohnnyCreepy said:
I’ve been tempted to get Duo-Phase, but deciding between DIY or just getting Behringer clone is hard. Guess cost wise both options are approx same? Happen to know if Behringer is sonically in same game?
Click to expand...

I think the Behringer has an option or two the original had that the Duo-Phase doesn’t. The Duo-Phase is like two Phasor IIs with options to sync them. The Biphase (and Behringer clone) has a square wave option for both LFOs, plus all the CV stuff (which may be important if you want to do the cocked wah-esque stuff I think they did on Siamese Dream).

That said the Duo-Phase sounds fantastic as is.
 
JohnnyCreepy said:
I have to admit yours gave me inspiration to get through component lead nest even thought my brain hurted bit. Now I’m doing p2p OPA muff with ultra stoner tone stack. It’s harder. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Ay! You just made my day. This ain't the forum, so feel free to hit me up if you want to chat PTP build at all. I got two lined up--and you reminded me I wanted to do a fuzz and burn for myself-- so 3
 
The Behringer has more functionality, and if you can get one for $99 (vs scalper prices) that's a no brainer. I pre-ordered one before the initial release, there is no way I was going to miss out on that one.

With that said, it's huge, mine has a slightly higher noise floor than my Duo-Phase, and I preferred the sound of the Duo-Phase.

Behringer Bi-Phase vs 1590XX / 6500 enclosure
1735415113148.png
 
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