A Tale of Two Katana Boosts

In my previous Katana build I simply took out the parts for the charge pump, as I didn't currently have them in stock. I figured in the worst case scenario I could use an 18v power supply to get it where it needed to be. When I plugged everything in, I had one JFET that refused to work, but once it was swapped out I had a really nice two-stage boost. I still don't think it's on par with the genuine article, but it was a fun project. That being said, I still wanted to build one based strictly on the layout, so I ordered the parts and I set everything up.

While cutting the board it cracked across the entire top strip, so it looks a bit messy. There weren't too many parts affected, and they ended up working out just fine, thankfully. I did swap out the 2N5484s for J113s, because that's all I had. The one thing I found strange is the oddball JFETs I used in the 9v version didn't need biasing, they were already decently biased from the start. I did boost Q1 and Q2 to my liking, but with this second version it seems as if the JFETs knew they were supposed to be fed 18v from the charge pump, and required quite a bit of patience to bias properly. I like JFET circuits, but sometimes biasing can be a real pain in the ass.

Anyway, once they were biased I now have an 18v Katana clone. Does this one sound like the genuine article? *shrug* It sounds as close as I can get. I'm not running these through an expensive rig to test their full fidelity. I'm simply running them through a combo amp that farts out if pushed beyond 3 on the volume, just to make sure the circuits and their controls work properly. I do plan on buying two push/pull B250k pots for both the 9v and 18v versions, to give them a little more authenticity.

Being September, build season 2025 is coming to a close. I'm glad I didn't build as many circuits this year as I did in 2023 or 2024. I still have a handful of projects that need a parts order, so I know I'll have a few builds for next year. I hope the down shift in building continues in 2026, so I just build what I have, and maybe a few extras if something should pop up, but not going crazy like I did the previous two years. I keep saying this, and it never stops being true, but I need to focus on turning these circuits into actual pedals. Housings, inputs/outputs jacks, power input jacks, knobs, foot switches; all the things that make a circuit an actual pedal. I need to make all of my builds functional pedals. Then, that's when I get to use them!

150th Build: Bring On the Chorus!

My first guitar amp was a Crate GX-30M that had reverb and chorus, two effects that I didn't understand at the time. All I wanted was distortion; loud, obnoxious distortion. Reverb made it sound like I dropped my amp down a well with Timmy, and chorus made it sound like an alien was farting out what I was playing on the guitar. Needless to say, I never used them. Now I find myself building guitar pedals and experimenting with, and actually quite enjoying effects I've never used, or would have otherwise refused to use before. I've made many reverbs, I've made a handful of compressors, I've made a few delays and I've enjoyed the large majority of them. Now, the time has come to tackle chorus!

For a while I thought it was never going to come to fruition. Every DIY chorus circuit felt daunting, and I didn't want to invest all the parts that most of them require to end up with something that might never work, or I might dislike and never use. That was until I found the layout for the Madbean Glam Chorus on tagboard effects. It's simple, it's fairly low component count, for a chorus, and the controls were super simple. This chorus is PT2399 based, which luckily I had. I also was able to use one of the junk TL072s that I have, in place of the TL062. I had to order the 2N5457, but apart from that I had, or could make (spaghetti resistors for the right value) everything else. Once all the parts were bagged, it was time to build it.

This chorus tried to fight me, by which I mean I made some very rookie mistakes. I never order 16-pin IC sockets, I just ordered a ton of the 8-pins. For 16-pin ICs I use two sockets, for 14-pin ICs I remove a row, etc. While I was soldering in the sockets for the PT2399, I misjudged and soldered them one row too low. I'm glad I used 8-pin sockets, or else I would have to desolder all 16 pins and resolder it again. What I ended up doing was just removing (snipped them out entirely) the one row that was wrong, and I soldered in two single sockets at the top to make it correct. After everything was set I plugged it all in and away it went. I didn't even bias the JFET, it just worked.

With Rate and Depth turned all the way down there is a nice subtle shimmer, and with them both turned all the way up there is a very weird wobbly effect. With this chorus I find everything from completely off and completely up to be totally useful. This is a really nice, simple circuit, and a really nice chorus. It's not stereo, it's not feature heavy, but it does a nice job of giving a chorus effect that I find useful. What I once thought was impossible eventually worked out. I never gave up on the idea of building a chorus, and here we are. Again, it's not a perfect chorus, but the more I play with it the more I love it.

Display of Affection: Laptop Screen Replacement

As consumers, we all know the sad fact is that things are manufactured to fail. The technology we use day in and day out will one day give up that virtual specter and need to be replaced with something new a shiny, that essentially does the same thing. If you've read many of my blog entries you'll know I buck against that to the best of my ability. I've always inherited friend's, and sometimes family's outdated technology to make the most of it. I figure if I can make use of it then it's not needlessly taking up space in some e-waste facility. Once a product is well and truly cooked though, I do begrudgingly let it rest in pieces. Those are truly sad days, but believe me I try everything within my power to keep them going.

Such is the case of a Dell Inspiron 3520, I acquired from a friend. This laptop has been through a lot, mostly with me in the past five years. It was given to me in about 2016 as not working. At the tail end of 2019 I fixed it up and used it as my daily driver. I had been using it for everything I usually do on a laptop, but a little over a year ago the screen started flashing. At first it only happened for the first few minutes of boot up. Then it became constant and wouldn't go away. This led to the screen slowly but surely fading into complete and total darkness. What am I to do with a thirteen year old laptop? Buy a new screen? NOPE!

In 2010/2011 I was given a brand new Acer Aspire 5552-3691, which I loved, but it too was eventually relegated to the closet in its travel case. The laptop worked, it was just so slow it wasn't worth using, but it had been my daily driver for most of my life between 2010/2011 to about 2017. It means the world to me, so I kept it even though its not in the best working condition. When the Dell's display decided it no longer wanted to work, I decided to see if the screen from my Acer was compatible. I tried searching online, but there isn't really a lot of information on laptop screen compatibility between models. 

Realizing I was mostly on my own, I decided to look at the connector that attached each screen to the motherboard, which were completely different. I then decided to dig further and check the connector on the back. They were both 40 pin, and everything seemed to look the same. At this point, why not try and see if it works. Long story short it worked just fine. No more flashing, no more dim backlight. The laptop that I loved, my Acer Aspire, had given it's vision to save the Inspiron 3520. Although my Acer Aspire is slowly deteriorating, and I hate to see it, I can now use the Dell I am currently writing this on for, hopefully, a little while longer. The best part, to me, is knowing I'll be doing it all through the same screen that I had enjoyed so much all those years ago.

Fallen Musical Heroes

The recent passing of Ozzy Osbourne dug up a few past emotions for me from the passing of other musicians who I also truly admired. There have been a lot of great musicians who have passed away in my lifetime, for a myriad of reason, but I'll be covering the losses that affected me the most. The ones with whom I feel I have the deepest musical attachments. Since we started off with Ozzy, it's only right we also speak about Randy Rhoads. I'm only 42, so I wasn't even a twinkle in my parent's eyes when Randy Rhoads was tragically killed, but once I started playing guitar and really listening to Randy's playing, I realized what the world had lost. I think you can't talk about Ozzy without also including Randy (obviously post-Sabbath), so for them to both now be reunited in the great beyond brings a little bit of solace, however they are both greatly missed in our Earthly musical realm.

Dimebag Darrell's passing, I think we can all agree, was the most distressing because of how it happened. In terms of my guitar playing Dime's influence wasn't as strong as Randy Rhoads, but he was certainly on the list of guitarists I admired. He himself was influenced by Randy Rhoads, among others. Sadly his life was cut far too short, and what might have been hangs heavy within the minds of his fans.

Peter Steele was the engine that drove Type O Negative. That's not trying to take away from the other guys, but I believe that sentiment may be how they also feel as they disbanded after Peter's passing. A completely one of a kind, Peter Steele's vocals and bass lines gave Type O Negative something no other band had. Although "what ifs" have surfaced, there is absolutely no replacing Peter Steele's vocals. Even though we knew Peter had health issues, even going so far as to make a joke about his own passing five years prior to his actual passing, it was still a bit of a shock. 

Ronnie James Dio had quite a career prior to stepping into the boots left behind by Ozzy in Black Sabbath. From his early days with The Vegas Kings, to Ronnie Dio & The Prophets, to Elf, to Rainbow, then to Black Sabbath, to his solo career, back to Heaven and Hell. I think it's safe to say Ronnie James Dio truly loved to entertain. His passing was sad, but he had been sick, and while that didn't completely take away the shock, it did help blunt that razors edge. 

Gary Moore had become such an important guitarist to me in the five years prior to his passing. In the early 2000s I had read somewhere that Ozzy wanted Gary to replace Randy, but Gary declined. A complete unknown to me at the time, I started listening to some of his music. This took me from the metal head I had been to the blues lover I am today. Although Gary did play rock, and he did knock on the doors of heavy metal, let's not deny that, his career will mostly be remembered for the blues. By early 2011 I was listening to all the Gary Moore that I could. Sadly, it wasn't long into 2011 when he passed away suddenly.

Jani Lane, to me, is an underrated talent that most people saw as just another hair metal pop singer. When I was a teenager my friend traded me two Warrant CDs for Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins, and, I'm sorry Billy Corgan, but I feel I got the better end of the trade. I loved Siamese Dream, don't get me wrong, but Cherry Pie and Dog Eat Dog opened my musical world up to a completely different level. I often reminisce about the summer I spent locked away in my dark room listening to Dog Eat Dog over and over while playing Resident Evil Director's Cut. Jani's writing felt far deeper than just your average Aqua Net endorsement. His voice was also one that stands out to me. I recently ran across some of his time in Great White and, no disrespect to the late Jack Russell (himself a fallen musician), but Jani's vocals on Great White songs made them even better. His passing was sudden, shocking, and to be completely honest the one that hit me the hardest. Of all the great musicians on this list, it was Jani Lane's passing that hit the hardest.

Solder Supply, and Reviews

As an electronics nerd, and amateur guitar pedal builder, solder is one of the most important things to have on hand at all times. I'm always going through it, and I can always use more. Throughout the years I've been trying to find the best deal on the best solder, and along that journey I've found some really good stuff, and some really horrible stuff. Ideally I'm 60/40 rosin core, but even if that's how the spool is marked, that doesn't always mean that's what you're actually getting. Back when RadioShack was an actual place I bought a spool of their stuff and it was great. Smooth flow, great adhesion, and the finished product was nice and shiny. The only problem was, back then I didn't know what diameter to buy and it was way too big. What would have been perfectly fine for large jobs, or maybe even plumbing, was cumbersome for soldering a wire back in an NES controller.

Once that spool ran out I turned to Amazon, and found Kester. Kester is just as good as the RadioShack spool, but in a diameter that I could actually use on the smaller projects I had. In fact, Kester may have been the brand who would OEM for RadioShack, who knows. I used Kester 83-3000-0000, 83-4000-0000, and 83-6337-0027. I'm not sure what the differences in the numbers mean, but I do remember them all being really, really good solder. I think I event tried some 63/37 and didn't notice any differences. Kester just makes really good quality solder.

As solder became far more important, by way of building a ton of guitar pedal circuits each year, I decided to try some cheaper, wacky named solders from Amazon and even Aliexpress. These were 100g spools for a few bucks, and they all flowed like milk left out in the sun for a week, and their finishes were just as lackluster too. I found out they were lead-free, even though they claimed to be 60/40, tin and lead alloy. I tried to avoid using them, but I couldn't afford to keep buying Kester, so eventually I had to make them work. I found they flow best when I turned my soldering iron up to 700f  (371c). Sure they would flow and adhere better, but they cooled as shiny as a lump of charcoal. Long story short; they're not very good.

Then I found what I consider to be the best middle ground solder. It flows like Kester, it cools like Kester, but a 100g spool doesn't carry the Kester price. At first the name had me worried it was just like the other bad stuff, but Yi Lin solder, I found, is the best inexpensive spool of solder I've used. I purchase the 100g spool, then I spiral it around a Sharpie and put it into the little personal Kester dispenser tubes. It usually fills 4 or 5 of the Kester tubes, which usually builds quite a few guitar pedal circuits.

If you're happy with your current brand of solder, that's perfectly fine. If you're looking for a cheaper alternative, try Yi Lin. At least as of the time I'm writing this, it's been the best quality solder I've used. I'm hoping it stays that way. Below I have a link to my wishlist where, if you're feeling generous, you can purchase a spool of solder for all of my future soldering needs. I can always use solder, and I'll greatly appreciate it. While you're at it, buy yourself some too!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/21AZETWJXJ8AR

Spare Parts Slasher (Keeley Katana Clone)

When I first started building pedal circuits I wanted to build a Keeley Katana clone. It seemed all the rage, so I figured I may as well have one. Back before I built all of my Klon Centaur clones, paying a few bucks for a 7660S chip for voltage adjusting seemed useless to me. I questioned why I even needed a charge pump when I could just use an 18v power adapter. At that time the only layout for the Katana Boost clone was from tagboard effects. It sat in the back of my mind for ages, because while I really wanted to build it, I didn't see the need for the charge pump, and I didn't quite understand how to remove it from the circuit/layout. Maybe one day... well today was that day! Actually, a few days ago was the day, because I decided to finally do the modification. I'm not a professional musician, so having the internal charge pump isn't as important to me as it would be to them.

The basic bones of the layout were left the same, but I did sub some oddball JFETs for the 2N5484s. I had a J103, J112 and K223 laying around, so I asked ChatGPT which would work best, and it claimed J103 for the clean boost (Q1) and J112 for the high gain (Q2). It claimed the K223 wasn't a really musically unusable JFET; this will be addressed in just a moment. I only had a C250k potentiometer, so I used that too. Everything else was left the same, and when it came time to test the circuit I got nothing whatsoever. After about an hour of back and forth with my old pal AI bot, I decided it was time to take the J103 out and replace it with the only JFET I had left, the K223.

The issue was J103's gate couldn't be pulled down to 0v, no matter what I tried. The little bastard fought me tooth, nail, source, drain and gate. There just wasn't anything I could do. Once I had subbed the K223 in as Q1 the circuit came to life. I adjusted it to the maximum clean boost and it sounds ok. Does it sound like a Keeley Katana boost? HAHAHA no. The tonal transparency just isn't there. Does it work as a boost with two gain stages? You bet your skid marked underwear it does! Would it sound better with 2N5484s? Probably. I was scared to order parts to build this, being completely unsure if it would even work. I did make sure all components are rated above 18v, but this sounds perfectly serviceable even at 9v. The C250k doesn't sound too bad either, a bit of an odd sweep, but not unusable. Crucial detail: The J103 and K223 have different pinouts, and were adjusted to the required pinout.

I'm sure there are circuit builders who will come across this and think I'm an idiot. *tips hat* Howdy! I simply overthink everything, usually until I talk myself out of it. When I do follow through with something I've created or modified, I'm never confident in it. Ever. Even after the circuit has come to life, and it's been tested thoroughly. There's always a shaky voice in the back of my head telling me it's going to break and never work again. Especially once I've removed it from my test rig and packed it away. Weird stuff happens sometimes, and it makes no sense. For better or worse. Well, if you want to omit the charge pump and build a stripped down clone of the Katana boost, here you go. Full credit for the original layout goes to its original author in the link above. In the future I may build an external charge pump to have around, but for now an 18v power adapter works just fine, but it also does just fine at 9v.

The Best Bluesbreaker Overdrive Ever? *shrug*

In the previous entry I talked mostly about a Bluesbreaker circuit I had built which was inspired by a post I found on Reddit. Thanks to that post I used 2N5457 JFETs as clipping diodes, and it sounds really good. I have since done a few further mods, the first of which was swapping the 220k resistor for a 330k, which should add more gain. I'm not sure I like it. The gain increase is negligible to my ears, but there also seems to be a loss of touch sensitively. At first I thought it was just a placebo effect where my brain knew something had changed, so I became overly sensitive about the outcome. After taking a break from the circuit, I later cranked it up and tried it again. At least on mine there certainly is less dynamic range, but it's not completely gone. Whether this mod will stay in the final form is up for debate. I do have 300k resistors, which may give a slight increase in gain and bring back some touch sensitivity. We'll see.

Another mod I did was adding a presence control, which is inspired by the King of Tone's internal trimpot for presence, sometimes also called the treble adjustment. The Bluesbreaker already has a tone control, but adding a little more treble on top of that gives it more tonal options. It's simply taking a B50k potentiometer and placing it between the 6.8k resistor and 10nf capacitor that connect at volume lug 3. This is a very simple mod, and helps it sound and feel a little more like a King of Tone/Prince of Tone. I don't like how it works counter-intuitively, but at least it works. This mod absolutely will be making it to the final form.

The layout I used came from the tagboard effects website, which used the GGG schematic for their layout's base. This is (at least) the second time I've used this layout, as my very first Bluesbreaker circuit was born from the very same. The volume seems sufficient, so I assume any volume mod is already done in the GGG schematic. I did use a B100k for the volume, instead of Log, and the sweep works just fine. I've built quite a few Bluesbreaker clones and they've all been pretty good, but there just seems to be something special, to my ears, about this build. For the most part it sustains the Bluesbreaker tone while offering added versatility. 

Bittersweet Bluesbreaker Build

On this day, Tuesday 22nd of July 2025, I sat outside blissfully putting together one of my most exciting builds of the year. Six months ago I saw a post on Reddit where OP had built a Bluesbreaker overdrive and used J-fets instead of 1N4148 diodes in the clipping section. I was so impressed I put the kit together that night. Of course I had to order the J-fets, which were the tiniest little things you would ever see, and converter boards, but once they arrived I was excited. As much as I was excited, I was also quite put off by the fact I was going to have to solder the J-fets to the converter board. My micro soldering is absolutely horrible, but I knew I eventually had to make it happen.

Roosevelt is using a J-fet as a bluetooth ear piece

I was actually quite concerned about soldering the J-fets to their converter boards, but I did the micro soldering inside, in case anything went fucky, thankfully it didn't. The next day, today, I built the pedal and put the J-fets in the clipping section. It was a beautiful sunny day, with low humidity and decent 80 degree temps. I listened to my music as I was soldering, and just as I finished up and was about to head inside to test the circuit, I received a message saying Ozzy Osbourne has passed away. My heart sank.

On this day, the birth of this circuit, it also happens to be one of the saddest days in heavy metal. The overdrive turned out great by the way, but the glee of another successful build was smothered by the passing of heavy metals God Father. May he rest in piece.

Crazy ... but that's how it goes.

Bluetooth Headphones Are a Blessing... and a Curse!

Ever since I can remember headphones have been my most preferred way of listening to music. In the past I've discussed, and even reviewed, a few sets that I've owned over the years. It must have started when I was young, and I would sit in a Little Tikes plastic chair in front of my Dad's stereo cabinet. (70s, 80s and 90s kids know the one) One of my parents would set it up for me and I would listen to either the radio, their cassettes, or their vinyl records. My Dad had these puke green colored headphones from the 70s that I used. The main issue though was the fact I was tethered to the stereo by the headphone's cable. Being the rambunctious little scamp I was, I couldn't sit still. What if young Sam wanted to listen to his music AND get a snack, or some Mountain Dew, or my Teddy Ruxpin?

Back in the day there were some, let's just say very primitive sets of wireless headphones on the market. The ones I've tried weren't very good. They ate batteries quicker than a Sega Game Gear play-a-thon, and the range was pretty abysmal. My parents bought one set, which was meant mainly as a means to listen to TV quietly. There was a microphone which mounted onto the TV's speaker, that plugged into a transmitter, which sent that signal to the headphones. The transmitter could also be plugged into a headphone jack. Overall, they functioned, but they just weren't very good. There were probably much better, and more expensive, options on the market, but this was my experience with early wireless headphones.

It's now 2025 and I finally decided to delve into the world of bluetooth headphones, just to see what they're all about. Bluetooth has been a thing for quite some time now. I remember the days of thinking people were talking to me in stores, only to be 3 responses deep before I finally saw their bluetooth earpiece. Thank goodness those embarrassing days are gone, right? Right? I picked the least expensive pair I could find, just in case I hated them, and I have to say they're actually pretty nice. I've never been one to scrutinize the fidelity of headphones, so this pair may not be for someone who does. All I really require is something that delivers music to my ear holes. Most of my MP3s were ripped from CDs years ago, in mud quality, so I'm not a purest by any means.

It took me a while to adjust to wireless because I kept worrying about the non-existent cable in situations where I previously had to worry about the cable. After a while I noticed myself really letting go of the whole cable notion, to the point where I would sometimes forget where I left my phone. Now that I'm not tethered to my cellphone, I would set it down, walk around, and listen to my music as I went on about my day, forgetting where I had left it. I think the worst part is that sometimes I even get so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget I'm even listening to music, or that I have headphones on at all! I love the freedom of bluetooth headphones, but throughout my first 42 years of life I had become accustom to headphones being a certain way, that now I had to unlearn. Once I'm adjusted to them I'm sure everything will be alright. Finally at 42 I've learned it's better than being tethered to the music source, unable to listen to my music AND go get my Teddy Ruxpin.

140th Circuit Built

In the month since I've last updated everyone on my builds, I've built my 140th circuit build in total, which is nice. After the purple smoke I built a treble booster, that didn't turn out sounding too trebly, so at some point I'll need to go back over that one and adjust it. Then I built a Menatone Red Snapper, which is actually a really nice overdrive. Then I built a Caline White Heat clone, which is an op-amp based booster, which is also pretty nice. I socketed the op-amp and tested an NE5532, then an LF353, and finally one of the fake TL072 I have an abundance of, and I couldn't tell any difference. This excites me to no end, as I've been hunting high and low for a circuit that I can use these fake TL072s in without them sounding horrible. Now, not all of the fake TL072s sounded bad, but a majority of them do. I figure at some point I may test a few mods to this circuit and see if I can come up with something useful, that way the fake TL072s will finally have a purpose.

My 140th build is my latest project, which is another Lovepedal JTM Electra-based circuit. I'm playing around with it to see where I can take it. I've tested different clipping diodes to see what sounds best, and right now I'm liking 1N60P diodes. I added a volume control to the output, which isn't on the original. Using the 1N60P diodes quiets the circuit down quite a bit, so I'm not sure how useful the volume control is now, but it's a nice option to have. I might try some more clipping options, but that's for future testing. I knew this circuit was an experiment, so I mainly wanted it to be functional. There is still a lot I want to try with this one, and a lot I'll need to adjust. Regardless it is my 140th build.

I would like to say I'm going to stop building at 150 builds in total, but I'm sure I'll continue to build the occasional circuit beyond that. Currently I only have nine more kits ready to build, and I have two or three more that I want to put together, but I'll need to make another parts order. That might take a little while before I can make that happen, so I'm not sure when that will be. After the main 150 builds, my main focus will become to get the circuits that aren't currently working, or aren't working properly, finalized. Lately when a circuit doesn't work it's just been a silly mistake, so that's what I'm hoping for when it comes to everything that's been waiting years to be fixed. Although I may put together some more builds, I don't foresee myself building another fifty circuits to reach a total of 200. It's time I wrap this up and get my prototypes finished, housed, and fully ready to be used, as they were intended.