Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with a pedal build. Whether it be the number of components, or jumpers that I have to install, I tend to put it off for as long as I can until it can no longer be put off. With only three pedals left to build I did what I always do when I feel overwhelmed, I decided to throw something else together. Completely unplanned and spur of the moment I went through the layout websites and searched high and low until I finally found something I could put together quickly. Sometimes you just need that fresh shot of success juice to give you the confidence to take on that which overwhelms you.
Since I'm all out of new stripboard I had to rummage through my scraps, but I did find a piece just big enough. All the resistors I had in stock, but when it came to capacitors I did use 150nf instead of the required 100nf, just to experiment. For potentiometers I used some experimental ones I had laying around with parallel resistors to adjust their values to suit the needs of other builds, when I didn't have the required value for those builds. For clipping diodes, well I decided four 1N5817s should do the trick. It only requires three for clipping, the fourth was polarity protection. And then the build required two transistors. Stock requirements are two MPSA 18s, of which I do not have. I went through my parts and found the highest gain little bastards I could find and those just so happened to be some reclaimed C1740s, they'll do!
Even though I already built one of these circuits earlier this year, I used a different layout and a completely different component set this time. I can't currently A/B them so I'm not sure how much of a difference the part selection has made, but I can say that this circuit sounds pretty good. I know I say that about almost everything I build, so take that for what it is. However, this circuit sounds similar to an op-amp overdrive even though it's just two transistors. That might be a clue as to what I built, because I'm pretty sure I said the same thing about the previous one I built. One of my initial concerns was the amount of bass due to the higher cap values, but after running this pedal through Kali (who is VERY sensitive to bass) I feel confident the amount of bass these caps might have added isn't going to overpower the ability for it to be removed somewhere else in the signal chain.
All things considered I'm impressed with the fact I can throw together a random selection of parts and get these results. Granted, this circuit was already known to work and sound good, but with my throwing things together that just felt so completely out of spec with what the original circuit calls for I was braced for complete and utter disaster. Since this is my 64th project build I named it Experiment 64. When I get the chance to A/B it with the stock version I will, but to my recollection I don't remember it being much different. Obviously I'm pretty sure there are going to be differences, and I still expect there to be a touch more bass, but which one sounds best, if they sound much different at all, remains to be seen.
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