It's Wednesday, 8th of November and it was almost 80 degrees here. You know what I did? I built the Green Channel! Yeah, but guess what happened. It wasn't fun! Thanks to this unseasonably warm weather I've had my bedroom window cracked for the past few days. Today seemed like it was gearing up to be a really nice day to build the Green Channel. As soon, AS SOON, as I stepped out the door you would have thought a tornado was tap dancing on my back deck. At no other point during the day had it been windy, or even mildly breezy. Needless to say, the wind has jokes and dumped my capacitors all over the deck and made me search for them all. Ugh!!!
This was a very frustrating build, due mostly to the fucking wind, but also because of the oddball resistor values that I needed to build out of two resistors in series. Since I built my first tube screamer clone I've wanted to build a Nobels ODR-1, because it's the other green overdrive. For some reason I've never found a layout that I felt confident enough to take on. Again, you can scream at your device's screen about all the other builds I've done, but that doesn't change the fact I found the Nobels ODR-1 intimidating. Thanks, again, to Dirtbox Layouts for doing the whole Browne Amps Protein because the Green Channel seemed to be perfect. In the end, it actually seems like it was.
After all that had happened I was super frustrated and resigned myself to the fact this build simply wasn't going to work. I was just going to have to put it beside my failed Boss BD-2 clone from last year and just never look at it again. To play devil's advocate I decided to plug it in and try it anyway. The first thing I do when testing a new circuit is turn the volume and gain controls to 0, and the tone control(s) will be set at noon. Next I test it without power. Most circuits will not pass signal without power, although some do, so I listen for any unwanted signal. If nothing comes through, as expected, I put the IC(s) into the socket(s) and then I plug the power in and listen for the pop. If there is a pop, I know the IC(s) received power and I proceed to turn up the volume control and strum a few strings on my guitar. From there I should slowly but surely hear signal coming through. Then I turn up the gain control, which should slowly but surely increase the volume and/or distortion. Once those are working I test the tone control(s).
I plugged in the Green Channel, fully aware it wasn't going to work, and wouldn't you know it --- I WAS WRONG! Just like Bobby Boucher told Colonel Sanders, I was wrong, wrong, wrong! And if being wrong meant this circuit worked perfectly and sounded great, I don't wanna be right! Even though it's coming through my Noisy Cricket and a tiny little speaker it still sounded amazing. I've built a ton of overdrives and maybe it's just because I know the Nobels is "Nashville's secret weapon", but there is a twang to it that comes out like I've never heard before. I use my partscaster strat with an HS-3 in the bridge and an unknown single in the neck, and I've tested a lot of overdrives, but never heard this level of twang before. Psychosomatic? Maybe, but it sounds good.
Maybe it was just the wind messing with me by dumping my capacitors that made me lose faith in this build, and a bit in my ability to build it. Having this outcome against all odds does feel great though. Now that I have the CMAT Mods Butah clone that I slightly modded I think I'm going to try and fit that into an enclosure with the Green Channel and make my own Browne Amps Protein clone. Obviously I'm not going to call it that, but that's the essence I will be going for. Score a third build for the month of November! And with that I'm calling November a done deal. Seriously. Even if we get some more nice days I don't plan any more builds for this month. At most I might work on some circuits that need some troubleshooting, but nothing brand new. The Emerson Drive and Screaming Bird are still set for December, so we'll have to wait and see what it holds in store.
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