Using Archaic Technology!

Since my nephew turned one this year I wanted to build him a simple boost circuit for his birthday. As I've done in the past, for a few friends, I build the circuit on the actual day of their birth so they and the circuit share the same birthday. Typically it's just a simple LPB-1 or a treble boost, nothing too complicated as I'm simply building these mostly for non-musician friends as keepsakes. For little Erik I decided to build him a LPB-1. Maybe someday he'll want me to custom build him something a bit more complex. Heck, maybe by then I'll be building guitar amps too. Who knows!

The LPB-1 being as simple as it is, I didn't want to break out my soldering station and make a big mess, as today was a rainy day, making getting outside a fool's errand. Instead I dug through a little toolbox under my bed and pulled out an old RadioShack 15 watt soldering iron I had barely used before. I found it at the outlet years ago and figured it may come in handy someday. Little did either of us know it would be about ten years before it came in handy, but come in handy it did!

This thing takes forever to warm up, but once it's ready it put plenty of heat into the board and the component to make pretty decent joints. I can't say they're perfect, and sometimes the solder creeped through the hole and onto the actual component being soldered to the board below, but all in all this was a fairly good experience. The tip is conical, which I'm not really familiar with as I prefer a more angled, chisel type, like on my soldering station. Even so, I still have to say this little blast from the past did a decent job.

The joints are a little blobby, but they seem solid. I have to say building the circuit for my nephew, and using the old RadioShack soldering iron made this one of the more enjoyable builds I've done in a while. I probably wouldn't want to use it for anything wildly complex, or high component count, but at least now I know for smaller builds, or maybe even troubleshooting, modifying, or repairs this soldering iron is wholly capable. Now if I could find the chisel tip I like somewhere I think this soldering iron would get a lot more use than it currently is.

Univox Uni‑Comp Vero Nightmare Solved!

It's been sitting in my needs troubleshooting box for over two years, and finally I decided to stare the dragon straight in its eyes and figure out what exactly was going on, or in this case not going on. Many years ago I had built a Really Cheap Compressor and I liked how cheap and effective it was, so when I saw the Univox Uni-comp I decided this would be a piece of cake! Little did I know, initially, it was more like a pile of crap. After this little circuit failed to work at all I went to the search engines and found that, what looks like a very simple circuit on paper, seems to be notorious for not being able to get it right. There are multiple schematics and layouts that all differ, with very poor success rates from what I'm reading as well. I'm not a very smart man, but I am tenacious!

The original layout I used

With legends being passed down from generation to generation that this circuit is indeed viable, I decided to sit down and compare all the schematics and layouts I could find. I made 100% sure that mine was exactly like the layout I used (above), and it was. From there I started tracing things back and forth between all of the layouts and schematics, and I noticed a few things. On the layout I used, the 3.3M is going through a jumper to pin 3, as where all the others went to pin 2. I desoldered the jumper at pin 3, stuffed it through the cut trace beside pin 2, and soldered it where I attached the socket beneath. Then I traced both 1M resistors at pin 3 and realized neither went to ground. The lower of the two went precisely where it was meant to go, so the upper required me to move the top leg down one space, which now gave me the correct voltages on the LM741. I also noticed the LED anode and it's components weren't isolated, so I made a cut to do that.

Once those changes were done, I finally had audio, but just barely. The LED was also behaving like it was possessed. Sometimes stuck on, sometimes refusing to light at all, making me think I’d cooked it. Between the weak output and the LED acting like a mood ring, I was stumped. I checked every schematic and layout again, and everything looked right. That’s when I turned to AI (big ups to Copilot!). I showed it the layout, explained the fixes I’d already made, and after some thinking it told me the LDR needed to connect to Q1’s collector. I scoffed. In none of the schematics or layouts does the LDR go to the collector of Q1. In mocking robot voice: “Error, error, cannot compute.” But the AI was persistent. It suggested disconnecting the LED and LDR entirely to see if the volume came back. Wouldn’t you know it, it did! Not only that, but with the Comp and Level maxed, the thing actually turned into a surprisingly cool little overdrive. That’s a project for another day, but it proved the sidechain was the culprit.

I questioned my use of an MPSA05 instead of an 06, and AI assured me the only thing that needs to happen is the LDR needed to connect to Q1's collector. Fine, we'll try it your way. *eye roll* Well, yet again I was wrong. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it actually works. The LED flickers into the LDR, it compresses, but it is gritty. Could this be the 1N4148s? Who knows. The reality is this little circuit now works, again probably not perfectly. What I had written off over two years ago now actually works. So if you're one of the people who had issues with the Univox Uni-comp, here are the changes to make to the layout above to get you started.

• Add a cut at E12 to isolate the LED and it's components
• Move the Jumper from I6 to H6, connecting to Pin 2
• Move the 1M top leg from D4 to E4, giving the opamp proper voltages
• Connect the top leg of the LDR to C11, connecting to Q1's collector

I will reiterate that this is probably not as close to the Univox Uni-comp as it could be, but it's a good starting point, and it makes the layout above viable. I can officially change my notes on this build from "Doesn't work!" to "Gritty, but works!". Hopefully this helps some of you out there. If it does, please let me know.

The Epiphone 58 Korina Flying V Encounter

In 2023 I came across a youtube video where Joe Bonamassa explains the history behind his 1958 Gibson korina flying v, aka Amos. The guitar originally shipped from Gibson to Arthur's Music in Indianapolis, thus Joe named it after the owner of the music store, Amos Arthur. Myself being from Indiana, and having been to Arthur's Music, I felt a sense of Hoosier pride, and an intangible bond between myself and the 58 korina flying v, in general, was formed. I already have my Greeny clone, I have my Peavey JF-1 to cover all of my semi-hollow blues, all that was missing would be a 58 korina flying v to round out the blues collection.

I started researching my options, but a lot of them aren't anywhere near my budget. Obviously a genuine 1958 Gibson would cost far more than I could ever afford, and a modern Gibson copy is five figures. The cheaper alternatives were plentiful, but for me accuracy is an issue. Dillion made really nice copies that are inexpensive, but they're hard to find, and the neck is maple instead of korina. Epiphone has made quite a few different attempts at copying the 58 korina flying v, but they too seem to be a pig in a poke. The first run from 1998-2013 all supposedly have mahogany necks instead of korina, and the neck heel is a Les Paul style instead of a 58 flying v. In 2017 Epiphone tried again, this time with slightly more accurate specs, and while they're affordable things still didn't seem 100% accurate. In 2018 Joe Bonamassa himself offered a copy of Amos as his annual limited edition Epiphone, it being the most accurate of all, yet they've become a collector's item often with a price tag to match. The Inspired by Gibson series recently surfaced, which are as accurate as Epiphone as ever made them, apart from Amos, and they also come with a price tag to match.

As I do when I'm looking for a guitar, I turned to my brother, as he sees more used guitars in a day than most people. I told him what I was looking for and asked him to keep an eye out, which he did. While I was still researching I saw two 98s sell for $500 each on local FB market place, which set up my budget scale. Even with a supposed mahogany neck I wouldn't scoff at one of the 98-13 korina v guitars for about $500. If one of the Amos or Inspired by series ever showed up below $800 I wouldn't pass it up. If the 2017 to ?? series ever showed up for $600ish I would prefer it over the 98-13, simply for it's slightly more accurate build.

After a few years of waiting, the day finally came when my brother told me he wanted to show me his new guitar. As he walked to the door I saw the unmistakable flying v shaped case with a gold Epiphone emblazoned upon it. But what was actually inside? When I opened the case I was gobsmacked. It was an 04 Epiphone in really good shape. Oddly enough, even though they made them from 98-13, I had never touched one of these before, well maybe to move it out of my way of another guitar, but I never purposely sat down with a 58 style flying v to see what it felt like. Immediately I noticed how light it was and comfortable it was to sit with. The neck was chunky, which I love, and it's maple, instead of mahogany (I still wish it was korina). It has a warm tone, it's fairly resonant, sustain is decent, and it plays ok. When I plugged it in I was surprised by the Epiphone pickups. They're not great, but they're not the worst. They try to do a thing that other pickups do better, but their efforts aren't completely in vain.

Overall I'm impressed with what this guitar brings to the table. Being completely honest my goal is to have a 58 style korina flying v that I can take up to Arthur's Music and let her sit beside their Epiphone Amos and soak up all the mojo that guitar and the store have to offer. I really want accuracy in the one I will eventually own. I want the black pickguard, which this one has white, and I want Kluson style tuners, which this has Grovers, and I want the accurate neck heel, which this is an LP style. After playing this guitar I feel the neck heel isn't a bad thing, it's just my personal preference to want the accurate one. I did notice this was made in the Saein factory which most 04s I see are from the Unsung factory.

While I enjoy this guitar, something in my guts still steer me toward a 2017 or newer. Don't get me wrong, this 04 is an amazing little guitar for what it is! If you want the look and vibe of the 58, on a budget, this is a 100% all day buy. I am super happy that I was given the chance to try it out because now I know what to expect and what I truly need from the 58 korina flying v I will eventually own. Who knows maybe down the road I'll have both this 04 and one of the more accurate ones. For now though, I'll weigh my options as I continue to guitarsit this one for my brother.

My Lament: I Wasted My Time, Until Time Wasted Me

Let me tell you about 22 year old Samuel. He was full of life and energy, but his biggest flaw was always thinking tomorrow was a better time than today to follow his dreams. He had a small nagging anxiety that kept him from leaping, because he always meticulously calculated how hard the landing would be if he missed the mark. He never took the chance, simply out of fear for an illusion of failure. Failure was never assured, but he feared it was, and never made things happen. He could have done so many things, he could have seen so many things, the places he could have gone and the things he could have become. Now, at 42, heavier anxieties have stripped Samuel of any energy he had left. He's watched all his dreams wash away with the tides of change. He's watched everything he's held onto so tightly slip free and bolt. Believe me, when he was 22, he would look at a 42 year old lamenting his past just like he is now, and scoff. Fucking loser pissed away his whole life, but I won't! Not me! I'll be somebody! I'll do something! Time ticks faster than he ever realized, and before he knew it, it's caught him in a web of inability. Don't fucking do it, heed my warning! DON'T FUCKING DO IT!

I started playing guitar around 1996, and I immediately wanted to learn how to maintain my own guitars, as repair work was specialized and expensive back then. I learned the basics, but that led me to want to build my own guitars, and by 2005 I was seriously looking into Roberto-Venn luthiery school. I researched everything, and I nearly signed up, but that nagging anxiety showed me a world of wasted time, wasted money, and complete inability to do anything with the skills I would have acquired. In the end, comfortable stasis was better than the discomfort of challenging the mental illusion of failure. I regret it to this day.

Around the same time, 2005, I was looking into BYOC pedal kits, but I lacked soldering skills back then. While I did eventually start building guitar pedals, in 2020, I often wonder what might have been. Would I have started by modifying DS-1s, like Josh Scott, and made a name for myself? Could I have become like Brian Wampler, who was essentially my neighbor back then. What would have happened if I had crossed paths with Sean Michael of Lovepedal when I lived in Michigan? He too was practically my neighbor when I lived up there. What might have been? We'll never know. Again, at least I finally started building clone circuits, and my only legacy will be DIY pedals that end up in Goodwills or, most likely landfills.

One would think if that's all I've got to complain about the rest of my life must be pretty good, right? Nah. I wasted so many years holding onto the wrong relationship, it's not even funny. I've never been a "player", I've always tried to make it work, although I am not without flaws. I am human, I make mistakes, I repent and I learn. Looking back at all of my relationships, of which there were three long-term, I used to feel if I learned from them what not to do in any future relationship it wasn't wasted time, but nah, it mostly turned out to be just that. Did I have fun in each relationship? Yeah! Did I make memories that still make me laugh and smile randomly to this day? Yeah! But you know what? I saw the signs, I just didn't want to believe them, let go, adjust and do better. Again, the same nagging anxiety calculating how hard the landing would be after the fall kept me clinging on, long after I should have let go. Now I'm still sifting through the ashes of the past trying to find anything left of me to redeem and give to someone new.

Listen, I know this was boring. I know this wasn't what you wanted to read today, but here we are. I'm just trying to reach out to anyone and tell them time is fleeting, time is ticking away, don't waste your time. I'm not saying schedule every single solitary second of your life, unless that's how you already get by, but I am saying if you have a goal, strangle that fucker and make it happen! Snatch every single goal away from the hands of time pulling it away from your capability. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but make it happen! What might have been isn't a good look during a midlife crisis my friend. It's really not. It doesn't matter how lofty your goals are, build toward them. Use that preparation to push you forward. Let the fear of NOT attaining your goal choke the shit out of the illusion of failure. Failure may happen, but it's not guaranteed. Be kind to yourself, and others! I love you all!

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.