[Vero] JHS Little Black Buffer

Joben Magooch

Well-known member
Perhaps the crummiest build report you'll ever see, but here it is.
I only happened to snap one pic, but I'm bored at work so figured I'd post nonetheless.

IMG_0528.JPEG

How did we get here?

Well, it starts with a Katana boost....
I ordered one with the intention of putting it in a 1590B enclosure...but mistakenly ordered a 1590G and didn't have the parts nor time/patience/etc to want to make it fit in there. So I was left with a 1590G and nothing to do with it. I figured some sort of buffer would fit no problem but didn't particularly care to order and have to wait around for a PCB as the whole project was something I was looking to crank out in my half-day off on Friday.

Was looking through some of my materials and found a whole untouched sheet of Vero. I haven't touched a vero project in YEARS. I know some are a bit nostalgic/romantic about it. I am not one of those people. I have very few fond memories of Vero beyond it being my "gateway" into building pedals but as soon as I found out there were decent PCB makers out there I pretty much ditched Vero for good and never looked back. Honestly I generally don't mind fabbing the boards themselves in vero - think that bit is kind of fun - but HATE the offboard portions. Never have been able to find a way to do it in a manner that is particularly clean or well-organized and I feel like in general my success rate is just so-so on vero, whereas it's darn near 100% with PCB.

Anyways, all that said, this is a tiny little project with no bypass nor controls so figured it would be pretty hard to mess up. 12x8 I think, I used the layout from Tagboard effects. Just so happened to have all of the stuff lying around in scraps and whipped it together in an afternoon. The enclosure, as mentioned, is just a leftover 1590G I didn't have any other use for; I did absolutely zero surface prep and painted it with one single light coat of plain old flat black Rustoleum and positively did NOT let it cure enough before moving on. It already has some nice fingerprints, scratches, and chips in the paint. But it's going right under my board never to be seen again so it really didn't need paint in the first place, but oh well.

To my surprise I got it wired up and it works right, first try! Like above I always had spotty luck with Vero so this was nice. If it didn't work I probably would've just trashed it and moved on with my life. But to be honest...it sounds pretty good! I didn't really think I "needed" a buffer, just figured it'd be a quick fun project, but upon plugging it in and A'B-ing on/off it's actually a noticeable improvement. So that's nice. I like it, and it will probably be staying!

What is your favorite standalone buffer? I've done a few both Klon and Cornish-style in the past but it's been long enough now that I don't have any real memory of how I felt about them. Something I've really wanted to try someday would be something akin to the Mesa Boogie Highwire, Empress Buffer+ Stereo, Goodwood Interfacer, etc....Buffered input, dual buffered output, etc...the Goodwood stuff really does it up with a master mute, summing switch, ground lift, phase switch, etc...I haven't quite figured out how to DIY that yet :p

Vertex (I know, I know...) does have a simple schematic posted for a buffered input, dual buffered output, tuner out "interface" type pedal that would mostly accomplish this but they have it using these stupid expensive Creation Audio jack-mounted buffers, I'm sure there's a better way than spending nearly $150 on three jack-mounted buffer PCBs...
 
Nicely done! 1590G is … challenging.

I had a LBB for a long time and really liked it. Plugged it in, tucked it away, easy peasy. I made a standalone Centaur buffer (I play single coils 99.999% of the time) and really like it too. Sold the LBB. Then I built a General Tso and just leave it on all the time lol.
 
...

Vertex (I know, I know...) does have a simple schematic posted for a buffered input, dual buffered output, tuner out "interface" type pedal that would mostly accomplish this but they have it using these stupid expensive Creation Audio jack-mounted buffers, I'm sure there's a better way than spending nearly $150 on three jack-mounted buffer PCBs...

Effects Layouts has some jack-mounted buffer boards.
IMG_9466.jpg



Or, skip jack-mounted and just wire in some PedalPCB JFET Buffers with some jacks, through-hole or SMD for your pedalboard-interface box.
 
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