- Build Rating
This is a super fun project. I really like the sounds of JFET overdrive both with the Chop Shop and the Viceroy. The Viceroy can get a lot of the Chop Shop sounds, but is way more versatile. Particularly when playing with headphones and the so-so cab simulator built into my amplifier, being able to dial the Presence control down to take off some of the unpleasant high-frequencies when overdriven hard is great. It can do that without the pronounced affect on tone that the tone switch can have on the Chop Shop (though there are fun tones on the Chop Shop with the tone switch engaged!).
I used the bias procedure given by @Chuck D. Bones and have tried three different kinds of transistor:
The Viceroy w/PF5102, when overdriven with my guitar with coils split and both pickups going (Seymour Duncan Custom '59 in bridge and "Whole Lotta Humbucker" at neck), has a beautiful quality where the chimey-ness of the clean signal comes through modulated in a really sweet way by the grit of the overdrive on the higher strings when playing chords. If I mess around with the Chop Shop and a compressor I can kinda-sorta-but-not-really get this sound, but this pedal on its own can get dialed in easily. The Viceroy has the really nice quality that even with a lot of overdrive (JUICE!) you can hear all of the strings of a chord pretty distinctly, and it's really responsive to volume, pick attack, etc. It also responds well to stacking boost or another overdrive in front of it.
Here's a couple of pictures. These were the knobs I had on hand, but I have some nice orange knobs on order for it. Some build notes:
I used the bias procedure given by @Chuck D. Bones and have tried three different kinds of transistor:
- PF5102 -- I think this one sounds the best in this pedal. Most range for the drive and juice controls. Very nice sounding in many different setting combinations with both humbuckers and single coils.
- J113 -- Works, but I don't think sounds as musical. The PF5102 just sounded sweeter and got much more complex tones.
- 2SK30A-Y -- These work and sound really nice. Not nearly as much range for drive and juice. This one makes the pedal sounds like a hot-rodded Chop Shop. At max drive with juice off, it's very Chop Shop-like. Quite musical. Juice sounds nice. But the pedal is just "nice" with these in there and you have to boost it with something to get even close to the overdrive of the PF5102 (I cranked level on a compressor in front as a boost just to test though both pedals are better with compressor off).
The Viceroy w/PF5102, when overdriven with my guitar with coils split and both pickups going (Seymour Duncan Custom '59 in bridge and "Whole Lotta Humbucker" at neck), has a beautiful quality where the chimey-ness of the clean signal comes through modulated in a really sweet way by the grit of the overdrive on the higher strings when playing chords. If I mess around with the Chop Shop and a compressor I can kinda-sorta-but-not-really get this sound, but this pedal on its own can get dialed in easily. The Viceroy has the really nice quality that even with a lot of overdrive (JUICE!) you can hear all of the strings of a chord pretty distinctly, and it's really responsive to volume, pick attack, etc. It also responds well to stacking boost or another overdrive in front of it.
Here's a couple of pictures. These were the knobs I had on hand, but I have some nice orange knobs on order for it. Some build notes:
- The board is relatively wide for this enclosure, so make sure you center the drill template well. It's hard to see but that board is shoved all the way to the left in that view showing the circuitry.
- Solder the wires to the stomp pedals from the top of the board. I mistakenly soldered them from the bottom and as you can see the board is *close* to these switches so I had to re-route the wires around.
- Socket the transistors and R4 and R12. This circuit must be biased after it's built and the sockets for the resistors in particular will be helpful for that.
