Since we last spoke I've added three more builds to the completed bag. The completed bag is one of Tayda's huge pink bags where I keep the completed circuits in smaller bags, while they await their enclosures. Each circuit's enclosure has already been picked out, it's just a matter of purchasing them. I also have a bag of knobs already setup for each circuit once those enclosures are purchased, drilled and ready to become each circuit's new permanent home. The three newest completed builds are a Box of Hall reverb, an EQD Chrysalis clone, and a JHS/EHX Lizard Queen clone. I'm still working on the tremolo circuit though. It will be done sometime -- sometime!
The Box of Hall comes with the Heaven Within mods and feedback control. This one still requires the Belton reverb module, but I figured I should build at least one of the two reverbs on this years list so that I have something to test the Belton modules in when I get them. I really enjoyed the Rub-a-dub reverb I built last year, even though the reverb is a bit ripply. I feel the more reverb choices I have the better, and they can always be stacked to see how good that might sound. The other reverb I plan to build this year is an EQD Ghost Echo clone.
Speaking of EQD, the EQD Chrysalis is fucking awesome! I listened to a few demos and it sounds like a 1970s op-amp overdrive, but it's actually a very low component count overdrive that uses two transistors to get its sound. Even through my Kalamazoo Model 1 this pedal sounds amazing. It sounded good through my little test amp rig, but once it hit real tubes the pedal, and the amp, came alive. I'm shocked at how good it sounds, when I'm so much more familiar with transistors producing a fuzz style effect.
Speaking of fuzz style effects, I built a Lizard Queen clone. I hate it. I've made it well known that I'm not a big fan of fuzz, and I'm actually even less a fan of octave. Every octave I've heard sounds like someone farting in an attempt to cover up the original note, and failing completely as you can still hear the original note. Now, 50% of the two people who read this blog will be asking their screens "Why did you build it if you weren't going to like it?", and to that I would say, because I could. Every component for each of this year's builds were bagged up, tagged and sorted many, many months before I even got started. With the Lizard Queen being such a new product, I decided to use one of the many layouts and try my hand at it. Is it a waste of components? Nope. I'll just put it in an enclosure and let it be what it is.
As of the posting of this entry I have completed eleven builds this year, putting me three builds away from each of the past two years total builds, and bringing my overall total up to forty-five. There have been a lot of things learned, and I still have a lot of things to learn, but it's still a fun process. Aside from the tremolo, a Boss Blues Driver clone from last year is also being a bit of a pain in the ass. I've gone over it a few times and it's still not putting out much volume, kind of like the tremolo circuit. I felt this might be the right time for me to build a sound probe, so I can probe around and see where the volume drops. That should help diagnose and troubleshoot some issues. No, I don't consider the sound probe one of this years builds, as it's a utility TO build pedals. Hopefully this helps get a few things sorted and I can put these two pains into the completed builds bag!
No comments:
Post a Comment