Post-Lockdown pedal building

roberty

Nobels ODR-1 clone, Aion Andromeda. Quite pleased with how this is looking

There's a bass control and an extra pair of clipping diodes in series which presumably takes some hair off. Might end up ditching those, we will see

I'm basically building all the overdrives cos I never went down that rabbit hole before 

Matt_McG

I built the Aion Andromeda a few years ago @roberty and really like it. The bass cut works really well, and the drive has a really useful range. 

roberty

Matt_McG said:

I built the Aion Andromeda a few years ago @roberty and really like it. The bass cut works really well, and the drive has a really useful range. 

Ah nice. It's a great pedal. I'm glad to have the bass control. I nearly got a factory one but for that

~ fin ~

roberty

Kit build from Musikding - Pedal PCB 'Blue Shoe Gai Pan' which is a copy of the JHS PG-14 which is itself a parametric mids circuit running into a copy of the Runoff Groove Supreaux Deaux 

They supplied it with 3x J201s which was nice

Got some solder stuck in an eyelet and instead of taking a break I kept going at it and melted another cap, oops

The knobs are from Ali Express, the seller managed to send two different shades of blue in a pack of 5 so one of them is mismatched which is slightly annoying

It's a great circuit though. You need to know how it works to get the most out of it, it's like boosting a dirty amp, but good if you are a tweaker

english_bob

Nice. I hate getting solder in my eyelets. Such a pain.

roberty

english_bob said:

Nice. I hate getting solder in my eyelets. Such a pain.

NOOOO! MY EYELETS, MY EYELETS!

PedalPCB use thicker boards than Fuzz Dog which makes them more difficult to desolder. I think I had some contamination in there, it was a real bugger

roberty

Had a good play today with all the bits and bobs I've been building. I put those caps back to stock on the fuzz dog klone to reduced bass again. It stacks into other gain stages better with stock values. I had it first in chain and it slices through everything really nicely now. I might put the treble back to stock as well as I'll riding it quite high

roberty

So I populated and tested the Lightspeed PCB I ordered. I had no idea what to expect but it sounds amazing. I had all of the components already including a Burr Brown op amp so it'll be a low cost build for me. I've made a Hitchhiker's Guide themed decal design for it. I will have to drill the enclosure next ugh lol



I have a container full of random LEDs of radically different brightnesses so I made a little LED tester on vero with a battery clip and a trim pot for getting the brightness right. Sort of Year 4 Science level of complexity but it will save time lol. It fits inside the same container as the LEDs and has test points for measuring 

Alex2678

Every time I see one of those I have a brief moment where I think someone’s made a Jimmy Savile 9v battery

roberty

Alex2678 said:

Every time I see one of those I have a brief moment where I think someone’s made a Jimmy Savile 9v battery

Lol it does have that vibe. I've gone off him a bit since he posted his victory song about smashing the unions to YouTube

roberty

The primary colour knobs on my ODR-1 clone were really annoying so I came up with an even more annoying idea instead:



The LED was putting noise into the signal but I sorted that by wiring a 100uF cap in parallel with it backwards. It slowly fades in and out when the effect is toggled now which is a nice touch

It looks much less rage-inducing now (until you turn it on)

Alex2678

I don’t know if this qualifies as building but resurrecting at least - @stylesforfree offered up a couple of abandoned fuzz dog builds last year and finally got round to sorting this one - a Lemon Drop clone, meant to emulate a vox solid state amp as used by the Beatles and Zep. Really liking the sound, very brash 

roberty

That's cool @Alex2678 your dymo labels are tidy

I dymo'd an old build recently but my labelling is chaotic. I had forgotten what it was let alone what the knobs do. It's a lot of fun but I find it too mushy for chords (this one, at least)

roberty

I find the labels either fall off straight away or else you need to prise them off with a screwdriver. There is no in-between

stickyfiddle

Love a good dymo  

Though @Roberty the red knobs against violet LED would make my head hurt...

roberty

They are bright orange @stickyfiddle, I have a red lamp in the corner of the room 

stickyfiddle

roberty said:

They are bright orange @stickyfiddle, I have a red lamp in the corner of the room 

Ah! Slightly better  

Alex2678

@roberty i think the chaotic look and dymo labels go hand in hand. Is the ng2 a big muff thing?

roberty

Alex2678 said:

@roberty i think the chaotic look and dymo labels go hand in hand. Is the ng2 a big muff thing?

I never considered doing the text in landscape orientation, I might have to steal idea off you one day. It looks smart

The NG-2 feels Big-Muffy (no sniggering). A quick google says it has two big muff stages into a fuzz face stage, which sounds plausible given how unruly it is: https://vero-p2p.blogspot.com/2020/07/pete-cornish-ng-2-fuzz-vero-layout.html

It sustains like a Big Muff but then single notes have that unpredictable spitting sound you sometimes get, so they have character. With different settings you can make it fart out or oversaturate too, so there is a lot of noisy fun in there. I would consider it more a special effect than a mainstay

Alex2678

Might have to stick one on the ‘to build’ list