blackhatboojum
Well-known member
Remember when I built my Shadowman Delay, and I said that was the last analog delay I’ll probably ever build? Well… I lied. Back then, I didn’t foresee me getting into pcb layout and design like I have and man… have I gone whole hog into this thing.
What I present to you today, is the first of my Tombstone silver mine series of pedals. The Tough Nut delay. Named after the Tough Nut silver mine in Tombstone Arizona, this project was a huge challenge and earned its name. It was a tough nut to crack. Despite the challenges I faced, it turned into something I’m super proud of and gives the 3205 BBD love that it doesn’t get enough of.
So what is it exactly? Well, it’s an Ibanez AD9 analog delay with an extra V3205 delay chip. Rather than just 300ms like the original circuit has, mine offers 600ms. I added a couple other tweaks here and there to make it true bypass friendly but, at its core… It’s the beloved AD9 from the 80’s. Compared to a Boss DM-2 or DM-3, it’s very similar. In fact, if you were to just glance through the schematics, you’d swear that they’re the same. At closer inspection though, you’ll quickly notice that component values are not the same and there’s a bit of extra components on the AD9. Soundwise they don’t sound the same either. Compared to the DM-2, the AD9 is softer, warmer, and doesn’t have the percussive edge to the repeats like the Boss variant. It melds and fades into the background more as the repeats degrade. Compared to my Shadowman build (DM-3), the repeats are also a little darker. Not necessarily a bad thing if your tastes prefer analog repeats on the darker side. All of this actually make it well suited for running it in front of a dirty amp like I do. It gets out of its own way and doesn’t turn to mush like other delays I’ve used in front of my amp.
Overall, I really dig how this delay sounds and even more proud of pulling this one off. I never imagined I’d be making my own PCBs let alone, making an analog delay from scratch essentially.
I was going to give an AZ history lesson with this build report but, I’m gonna save it for when I do a full wrap up of my Ibanez 9 series clones. Yeah, that’s right… the Blackhat Boojum hasn’t hung up his soldering just yet. I’ve got some more build reports coming.
Thanks for looking and I’ll see you on the next one. Oh, I almost forgot… I included a proof of life demo on this one. Not near the quality of great demos I’ve seen on here but, it’s all I got.
vimeo.com
What I present to you today, is the first of my Tombstone silver mine series of pedals. The Tough Nut delay. Named after the Tough Nut silver mine in Tombstone Arizona, this project was a huge challenge and earned its name. It was a tough nut to crack. Despite the challenges I faced, it turned into something I’m super proud of and gives the 3205 BBD love that it doesn’t get enough of.
So what is it exactly? Well, it’s an Ibanez AD9 analog delay with an extra V3205 delay chip. Rather than just 300ms like the original circuit has, mine offers 600ms. I added a couple other tweaks here and there to make it true bypass friendly but, at its core… It’s the beloved AD9 from the 80’s. Compared to a Boss DM-2 or DM-3, it’s very similar. In fact, if you were to just glance through the schematics, you’d swear that they’re the same. At closer inspection though, you’ll quickly notice that component values are not the same and there’s a bit of extra components on the AD9. Soundwise they don’t sound the same either. Compared to the DM-2, the AD9 is softer, warmer, and doesn’t have the percussive edge to the repeats like the Boss variant. It melds and fades into the background more as the repeats degrade. Compared to my Shadowman build (DM-3), the repeats are also a little darker. Not necessarily a bad thing if your tastes prefer analog repeats on the darker side. All of this actually make it well suited for running it in front of a dirty amp like I do. It gets out of its own way and doesn’t turn to mush like other delays I’ve used in front of my amp.
Overall, I really dig how this delay sounds and even more proud of pulling this one off. I never imagined I’d be making my own PCBs let alone, making an analog delay from scratch essentially.
I was going to give an AZ history lesson with this build report but, I’m gonna save it for when I do a full wrap up of my Ibanez 9 series clones. Yeah, that’s right… the Blackhat Boojum hasn’t hung up his soldering just yet. I’ve got some more build reports coming.
Thanks for looking and I’ll see you on the next one. Oh, I almost forgot… I included a proof of life demo on this one. Not near the quality of great demos I’ve seen on here but, it’s all I got.
Tough Nut Delay
This is "Tough Nut Delay" by Clinton on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com
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! You know my ass been walking around like this all day
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