Valhalla vs Original Diezel VH4

[somethingvague]

I built the Valhalla, which is a Diezel VH4 clone. I didn't want a large pedal, especially compared to the comically large original, so I fit it inside of a 125B enclosure. Getting around the notorious squeal from this PCB was a hassle, but I managed it.

Anyway, I got a hold of an original VH4 to do some comparison testing and found that they differed more than I would like. My clone is substantially darker and more muffled, in a way that I can't really EQ away to achieve the crispness in the original. Has anyone else done a comparison test between the two? Does my layout have something to do with it?


Thanks.

 

[CR0SSBL4DE]

That would be great!

 

[somethingvague]

That would be great!

 

[Robert]

@somethingvague It looks like your original has the 47K / 100K divider, so that explains that.

Yours also has an OPA2134 in IC1.

I'm going to go over your pics and see if I can see any other obvious differences.... I might need to get my hands on one of these to go over all the values.

 

[somethingvague]

@somethingvague It looks like your original has the 47K / 100K divider, so that explains that.

Yours also has an OPA2134 in IC1.

I'm going to go over your pics and see if I can see any other obvious differences.... I might need to get my hands on one of these to go over all the values.

Concerning the divider, the Pedal PCB circuit said to use a 150 k and 100 k combination. I found on another forum that a guy instead went with a 47 k and 15 k combination, through trial and error, to brighten up the pedal. Are you saying that the original circuit does, in fact, use the 47/15 k combo?

Concerning the OPA2134, are you referring to the original pedal or my clone? I know I used it in mine after reading somewhere that it was a possible upgrade to the Pedal PCB recommended IC.

If you need more pictures showing the values, I can keep the pedal another week or so before I definitely need to return it.

 

[Robert]

Are you saying that the original circuit does, in fact, use the 47/15 k combo?

The one that was originally traced over on FSB had the 150K / 100K pair, you can see it in this picture. (R36 / R37)

Your original has the 47K resistor instead of the 100K.

 

[bechbox]

Does different versions of the VH4 exist? Aion claims to have an EXACT adaption of the VH4, but theirs seems quite a bit different compared to the images here? https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/dz4_preamp_documentation.pdf

 

[somethingvague]

Does different versions of the VH4 exist? Aion claims to have an EXACT adaption of the VH4, but theirs seems quite a bit different compared to the images here? https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/dz4_preamp_documentation.pdf

The Aion version has some changes that aren’t supposed to effect the sound, but are to make it more usable. For instance, I believe it’s modified to use a 9 V power supply, and the dual outputs of the original pedal are combined to a single one with a toggle switch. But those types of things aside, I’m not sure how similar it is to the Pedal PCB version or the original I photographed above.

 

[Nostradoomus]

it feels like something vague that's for sure