One Delay Is Not Enough

I think I've made it abundantly clear that I'm a fan of Gary Moore. Along my journey of building guitar pedal clones I've been known to build a few pedals simply because they were on Gary Moore's pedalboard. The newest addition to that club is my Deep Blue Delay clone. Although I've already built a few delay pedals, that doesn't mean I shouldn't build another one. Right? My delay pedal journey started with a cheap one I bought off Scamazon, then I built my Disaster Transport Jr., then the Faux Analog Echo, and I like them all. These are all PT2399 based delays, but they still all have their own thing. I've never used an analog delay, so I can't say how closely an PT2399 based delay comes to sounding like an analog, but the repeats don't sound perfectly replicated as it decays, so it's at least trying.

The day started out sunny and comfortable, so I decided to get out and build the Deep Blue Delay. Everything went fine, actually better than I expected. When testing time came I used one of the fake TL072s from Scamazon I have an abundance of, to see if the pedal passed sound. Thankfully it did. Then I installed the PT2399 to see if it would echo, which it did. Except... the repeat control did nothing and the repeats were a bit lower than the dry signal, even when Mix was maxed out. I did a quick knifing between the gaps and realized I didn't put a resistor where it actually should go. One mistake is all it takes! I moved the resistor up one spot and voila! It works perfectly now. The repeats can now be varied, and the volume of the delays came up too. It's a really nice delay!

When it came to the op-amp in this one, it was suggested to use an OP275 or AD712, which wasn't going to happen. I know when a circuit doesn't have a lot of gain one of my fake TL072s will work just fine. It's a delay pedal, not a distortion, so I'm glad these fake chips are useful for something at least. I still have one more PT2399 that I'm not sure what to do with, but I'm sure I'll find it a purpose at some point. I truly think unless it's a Memory Man clone I don't need any more delay pedals. I say that now, but the future is always probable to change.

This is circuit build number 115. Remember when I was excited to get my 100th build completed and be completely done with builds? HA! I was so naive a few months ago. With 115 builds done, I have 15 builds left to go. I know, I know. Trust me, I know. I'm currently going through a bit of a phase with two well known, and easily modded, circuits. I'll be posting more about them in their own entries later.

A Pickup Review: DiMarzio HS-3

When I was about thirteen I asked my brother to teach me how to play guitar. Part of his instructions included a list of guitarists to listen to for inspiration. Many of those guitarists are still favorites of mine to this day. Randy Rhoads, Paul Gilbert, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Vernon Reid, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jake E. Lee, the list goes on and on. The one whose speed caught my attention the most at that age was Yngwie Malmsteen. After years of listening to Yngwie I had decided I needed to add a strat to my arsenal. Naturally I want an Yngwie strat, but that was, and still is, far beyond my realm of attainability.

This led to a pair of attempts at what I called Project YJM on a budget. I took any strat style guitar and tried to make it look and sound as close to a YJM strat as I possibly could. The key ingredient though has to be pickups. While I see a lot of people getting really close to Yngwie's tone with stock pickups, I felt my projected needed DiMarzios for authenticity. I eventually found an HS-3 in stock on Scamazon, so I bought it. When it arrived I couldn't have been happier. My banana yellow partscaster was finally ready to have its day as my YJM strat clone. Once the pickup was installed I noticed two things; firstly this pickup was microphonic, like REALLY microphonic. Secondly I noticed just how weak the pickup was. I knew it was a low output pickup, but I didn't know it was this low output. 

To say the least, I hate this pickup. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I bought it, but apparently I didn't. Unless you have another HS-3 or HS-4 in the other positions it's impossible to match the volume and gain. Currently my project YJM strat has a cheap unknown brand single coil in the neck and the HS-3 in the bridge. I can't lower the neck pickup enough, nor raise the HS-3 enough to get them to match. It's such a weak pickup. I understand the concept behind it; allow the preamp and amp to do the overdrive, not the pickup, but I honestly think a pickup's contribution to the overdrive is part of the whole package. Sure, Yngwie's tone sounds great, but this pickup just doesn't appeal to me. Not anymore.

Another of my favorite guitarists, Jero Ramiro, plays what appears to be a YJM strat, and it sounds like a YJM strat, but every thing I can find says he's not using the HS-3, and I can see why. I hate to dump on this pickup, but I just can't see why this pickup costs as much as most other strat pickups and does far, far less, and even then it's less than that. 

I did search around as to why this HS-3 was microphonic the word "fake" was floated around in a few places. The reality being I don't think anyone could possibly fake such a low output pickup. You have to plan to fail as badly as the HS-3 fails, you can't fail this badly on accident. I contacted DiMarzio and they said to send it to them for potting. This was during the pandemic, so that was an impossibility, and thus this pickup is what it is. And certainly at some point this pickup won't be in this guitar anymore.

If you're considering a DiMarzio HS-3, try to find someone who has one, or try a guitar store that has something with one installed already in stock. It might be your dream pickup, but for me it just fails on every level except for the fact it's kind of got me addicted to humbucking single coil pickups. That is this pickups one singular saving grace. I guess.

Pedal Builders Anonymous: Admitting I Have a Problem

Hello, I am addicted to building pedal circuits. I suppose there are far worse things to be addicted to, but it has become a bit of an obsession as of late. About a month ago I had seven builds left to go. I've since built ten circuits and I now have twelve left. See what I'm talking about? I swore 2024 wouldn't have anywhere near as many builds as 2023. I just checked and if I complete all of my current kits that I've put together, I'll be at the exact same number of builds for both years. That's if I don't add any more to the list!

My most recent build is the Cornish CC-1 clone. It was one of the last larger builds I have on the list. Everything works, with the exception of I had wired the bass control backwards. Mine does have a bit of a clean bleed that I've not heard in the demos of the actual pedal. I've x-acto knifed the gaps and made sure everything is in the right place, but still the clean bleed persists. It's not a bad circuit, it's just not exactly what I was expecting.

This one is short because if I talk any more I'll give away the plot to a few upcoming posts. Stay tuned, take care of yourselves and hug the ones you love. If you can. My arms don't stretch 2000 miles, so I can't. Currently. But she's more than welcome to come get that hug!

A Little Fuzzy Muff Diving

I don't know if many of you will remember the op-amp Muff Fuzz I built a few years ago, because I had nearly forgotten about it myself. Anyway, I remembered there was also a transistor version, so I decided it was time to try that version for myself. The goal with this was to see how the two differed and try to be clever by putting together two Muff Fuzz circuits to see what happy accident I could create. The problem being, Electro-Harmonix already thought of this and made a pedal called the Double Muff decades ago, so I'm S.O.L. there. Undeterred I still needed to test how different a transistor version sounded from the op-amp version.

Well, they do sound different. I read one review of the transistor Muff Fuzz as a fuzzy overdriven amp with a torn speaker, and that pretty much hits the nail on the head with this clone I've built. I used old transistors, as I do, which were in the 500 HFE range. Almost all of the resistors were used stock as well, with the exception of needing to make the 2.7k, because it's a super odd value although it shows up sometimes. I used 82nf caps instead of the two 100nf, because I'm all out of 100nf. I'm temporarily using an A100k volume, but I will be removing it later. So there are clearly reasons why this sounds different, apart from op-amp vs transistor, but I didn't know just how different they would sound until I tested them together.

I first tested them each on their own, to get a base line of what each sounded like. Then I tested with the transistor version running into the op-amp version, which became an aggressive distortion that I quite like. Then I tested it with the op-amp version into the transistor version and it just sounds like a boosted transistor version. The transistor version sucked all the distortion out of the op-amp version and made it sound way too mellow. Now I'm wondering if I should build another transistor version to see what two of those sound like, or if I should build another op-amp version and stick it on the tail-end of the transistor version I already have to get that aggressive distortion I liked so much. In the name of science, I almost have to at least build another transistor version. Seriously.

Freaky Fuzz for the Fourth: Finalized!

In the original post I wasn't exactly sure which input cap I was going to use. After testing I really liked the 22nf and some error/oddball caps I have that are marked 104 (100nf), but read 40nf when tested. I'm not sure if my tester just doesn't like these caps or not, because there genuinely seems to be quite a bit of different between 22nf and 40nf, but that's what I went with. Instead of my original idea to just use the one I liked best I went with an on-on switch to choose between the two.

I usually test my circuits with a strat, so I had to make sure humbuckers didn't make this circuit too bassy. After testing it with humbuckers it sounded pretty good. I even did the Kami test and both the overdrive-ish sound and the fuzz sound came out really nice. I've been thinking about building another and tweaking it a bit to just be an overdrive, but that's a potential project for the future. If I had one complaint about this build it would be that it's a tinge bright. I expected it to be bright with the 22nf input cap, but even when I switch it to the fuzz setting it's still bright. Again, this is only if I had one complaint. For my purposes it's perfectly useable and I'm glad it's my 110th build.

The update is now I have seven projects left to do. Yeah, builds keep being completed, but the project number never goes down. Three of these projects still require parts, four of them should be ready to go. I've seen a few smaller projects I might be adding to the build list. It really depends on size of stripboard, because I really want to find a purpose for my scraps. It also really depends on other parts, but mostly on stripboard size.

Freaky Fuzz for the Fourth

Yadda Yadda Yadda, Sam doesn't like fuzz. WRONG! I've been lying to you, the readers, and myself. I'm sorry. I promise to do better from here on. I've built numerous Bazz Fusses, a Fuzz Face clone, a Muff style clone, and countless other fuzz circuits that I'm currently forgetting. Most of them danced sonically in my head for brief moments before being packed away and forgotten. The Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz however, it's a different beast.

The layout popped up, I searched for demos and immediately I recognized how highly tweakable this circuit is. Which is the whole purpose of the original pedal. In some cases, such as the Diaz Texas Ranger, I love the idea of switchable input caps. I never thought this concept would be what won me over to the dark side of fuzz though. The original layout was a bit much, with all the input caps, so I decided to slim it down and use sockets as the input device. This way I can pick and choose what input cap I like best.

With capacitors ranging from 10pf to 1uf I've decided to go on a bit of a journey. The circuit can sound like a nice mellow overdrive or a hairy, velcro ripping fuzz. The only drawback is if you expect it (by which I mean my slimmed down version) to clean up crystal clear, because it doesn't. It's still a bit fizzy, but it does clean up with the guitar's volume control. Anywhere between 4.7nf to 150nf seems to be my favorite, with each value giving the sound its own unique qualities. I tried a 470nf and that's when we reached velcro territory. I've not been brave enough to get into the 1uf world yet, but I have to try, just to be thorough.

The only changes I will suggest are C4 should be sockets, and to use an anti-log, or C/reverse, taper for gain. There is a teardown video on youtube that states the gain pot is C2k, I used a C1k and it works fine. Other than that it's verified, it sounds pretty good and it's highly tweakable. Once I've decided what value I like best as the input cap I will remove the sockets and solder it in. Either that or I'll find a good overdrive sound and good fuzz sound and make it switchable between those two.

Vox Treble Booster: A Circuit So Nice, I Built It Twice!

Welp, I did it again! Just out of curiosity I checked my parts boards to see if I had enough to do another Vox Treble Booster, and I did. At this point it wasn't even a question, I had to build another. Scraps of stripboard that may otherwise go unused, 1/8th watt resistors and transistors I may otherwise never use. It just felt like I being guided by some supernatural force to build another one. It took all of 5 minutes to solder together and it's a really nice little treble booster.

Dime for size comparison.

 Do I need two of them? Probably not, but I wasn't using the parts for anything else. I did add a 1meg input resistor on the second build, just in case. I figure I'll find a use for them at some point. No biggy!

Double Treble!

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm addicted to treble boost circuits. I can't explain it, I don't know why, I just am. Maybe because the majority of them are simple to build. It's not completely that though as I just love the sound of a treble boost. None of my amps are particularly dark. I guess maybe a top end shimmer seems to connect with me deep down in my soul. I can't fully explain it.

As the 2024 build season continues on I find myself still searching for circuits to build, and the exceedingly simple Vox Treble Booster crossed my path. Super simple, super low components and this particular layout gave me a reason to use parts I'd never used before. My collection of 1/8th watt resistors were going unused, as were my collection of ECB transistors. After finding the tiny little scrap of stripboard I needed I threw it all together. This one doesn't use a potentiometer, so that's even better! I plugged it in and let it sing to me. It is truly amazing.

The next one is a bit of a modification that, admittedly, I'm not sure I got right, but it does a bit of what I want it to do. The Joyo Roll Boost has been on my radar for a while, because it's another super simple circuit. I decided to lower the input cap and see if it works. Well, it does, kind of. The Joyo Roll boost seems to take inspiration from the MXR Micro Amp circuit, and with a lower input cap I find there is a nice shimmery top end. The boost throws my amp into overdrive, as it should, but sustains that treble I'm so fond of, without cutting out all the bass. If anything I'm finding it a bit too bassy, but it is what it is. I like this little one too, but not as much as I love the Vox Treble Booster.

These are circuits 107 and 108, and I still have four kits ready to go, and an additional four projects that still need parts. When I planned to stop at 100, I was dreadfully wrong. That's not a bad thing though, because it's keeping my mind busy. Who knows what else I'll be throwing into the mix, but I'm super glad these circuits worked out. I may tinker with the input cap on the Roll Boost, or I may just leave it alone. We'll just have to wait and see. I have another build planned for the fourth of July, just to have that date in my logs as having built a circuit on that day. I'll post about it on the fourth. Stay tuned. Or don't, I don't control you. I appreciate you though!

Nostalgia Is a Hell of a Drug Part 10: Mom's Porcelain Dolls

As a child I was at the mercy of my parents and their collections. While my Dad mostly collected regrets, Mom was into antique teddy bears and porcelain dolls. The issue being she displayed them on the top bunk of the bunk bed in which I slept for many years during my youth. You should already know how creepy antique porcelain dolls are, but the things they did in the dark was downright unnerving. I believe that items that are well loved by their owners are kind of imbued with a part of that person. Since teddy bears and porcelain dolls whole purpose is to become a favorite item for someone, that only assures these items had some kind of spiritual connection to their past owners. Trust me.

The things started innocently enough, things like I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear porcelain clanking against porcelain. No biggy, maybe I wiggled about while I was asleep. As time went on things became a bit more sinister, such as the ones with criers in them would go off without warning. For those unfamiliar with a crier, it's a cylinder that has a diaphragm in it and when turned 180 degrees the diaphragm slides down and makes a crying like sound as it moves. The effect is only repeated once the item, be it doll or bear, are turned upside down. Meaning since these dolls and bears were sitting upright there should be no reason for their criers to be going off in the middle of the night.

Now, I won't say I ever experienced one peaking over the edge of the bed and watching me sleep, but it's creepy enough to have them moving about and crying for no real reason. I'm pretty certain some of these were trauma aids from one of the world wars, or even many sinking ships of the early 20th century. These weren't 10 year old dolls, back in the 90s, these were 1800s, early 1900s porcelain dolls and raggedy old teddy bears. These were well loved by some mischievous little scamps and after they had outgrown them these items were passed down and eventually sold to my Mother. After which they would haunt me in the darkest hours of the night as I tried to sleep, as a mischievous little scamp myself. I've often wondered what items I've picked up from my many thrift trips that might have some connection to a mischievous little scamp.

Giving Myself a Little Push: Build 106

This year has been a whirlwind; an odyssey filled with ups and down. To get back to myself I've had to keep doing what I love doing and relearning each day how things used to be. A few months ago I only had a handful of builds left to do, but after seventeen builds I now have six builds left to do. I keep adding new ones to the build list because I need something to keep myself busy, you know?

Recently added to the docket was a pedal I had never heard of before; the Keeler Designs Push. A layout popped up when I was looking for circuits to build using my small scraps of stripboard and this one piqued my interest. So I threw everything together and I build it. Joe Perkins does an amazing job at selling this pedal. The pedal itself sounds amazing, but The Darkness posters on Joe's walls, and him throwing in some The Darkness riffs won me over. I had to build this circuit simply because of his demo. Thank you Joe!

The circuit itself is very simple, but the sound it produces is what I would consider far beyond it's circuitry. Clearly it's not, because that's how it works, but my mind is still blown at how so few parts thrown together in such a way can produce such an amazing tonal range. Some circuits I've built in the past have very few components but once they're built the circuit is a complete total beast. I'm super glad I built this one! This build was my 106th total, and like I said earlier I still have six circuits left to build, with a few ideas waiting in the wings still. I seriously don't want to build as many as I did last year, but I'm already over half way there. Is there a pedal builders anonymous?

My Faux Faux Analog Echo

On August 31st last year I built what I consider to be my favorite delay pedal (so far). I love my Disaster Transport Jr. clone, and I like the Mugig delay pedal I bought off Amazon almost five years ago, but I just like the Faux Analog Echo clone more. I do plan to build a Deep Blue Delay clone sometime soon, simply because I have the parts to do so, and maaaaaaybe because I saw one on Gary Moore's pedalboard. I'm not sure it's going to be much different from what I already have, but I figured I may as well build a clone, just to have one. One can not have too many delay pedals, especially when some can be set to a faux reverb.

When it came to housing the Faux Analog Echo clone I wanted mine to look like as close to the original version as possible. Since it's for my use only I don't think there will be any problems with that. So the enclosure had to be orange, the knobs had to be white and I decided to go with a white power input jack as well. The LED placement is in a completely different place, but it is blue just like the original. Once it was all wired up and ready to go I had to insolate the board from grounding out on the bottom plate of the enclosure. I use folded up parchment paper for that, if anyone is curious.

Sure, it might be a bit confusing without spending a little time with it first, as to what knob does what. When I put one of my clone circuits in an enclosure I always set it up to have the same control layout as the original. So if the bottom plate of the enclosure says it's a clone of this pedal, or that pedal, all someone needs to do is look up that pedal and the controls will be the same. Plus I make little instruction sheets for all of the pedals I make. Even though I know these pedals are just for my own personal use it feels nice to create something and give it a bit of the whole "production" treatment. I don't think I'll be producing pedals in large quantities, maybe a few for friends etc., but to feel like I'm giving each pedal a bit of fanfare does feel like I've actually done something.

Sometimes Scraps Work

I have a ton of offcuts from the stripboard I've used throughout the years that are just too small for most circuits, which really limits what I can build. Or does it? A while ago (maybe a year or so) I saw someone solder together two pieces of scrap stripboard. Since then I've always toyed with the idea of finding two pieces that butt up together, could be soldered and used to create a pedal circuit. Recently I watched a demonstration of the Colorsound Power Boost and fell in love, but the smallest layout I could find was eighteen spaces wide, which is six more than my current biggest piece of stripboard. Now was the time to test my soldering skills, and the theory on whether or not it would work.

I found two pieces that fit together the best, which wasn't very well at all, and soldered down the seam. I decided to give myself one column grace to avoid soldering components onto the seam and potentially accidentally breaking one of the necessary seam solder joints. As I tend to do with projects like this, I worried this project was doomed from the start so I avoided doing it for a week or so. In the interim I built an MXR Micro Amp clone. It was slapped together using the small scraps I have and spare parts. Instead of the C500k potentiometer it usually requires, I used a C250k and it works pretty well.

Forgive the messy solder, but it should be easy
to see where I seamed the two boards together.

Enough waffling about that build, I decided it was time to either do one of the larger builds, ala my Zoar or CC1 clones, or finally get down to business and complete the Power Boost. I chose the Power Boost, and it went together a lot better than I expected. I was worried I would get too close to the seam and cause a catastrophe, but I never broke any of the seam solder joints. Thankfully! When it came to testing the circuit it works really well, but there are a few issues that need addressed. The layout suggests using a B10k for the gain, or try anti-log. I can already tell I'm going to be removing the B10k pot and trying one of my anti-logs. The A100k I had for the master volume is a bit janky, so I'll need to replace that later down the road, or figure out what's going on with it as it's not working properly at the moment. The bass control also seems to be a bit weak, but that could be my fault somewhere in the soldering. I didn't do much troubleshooting as I was pretty glad it worked at all.

Apart from the few things that need fixed, it does work. It gives that Colorsound Power Boost overdrive and as soon as I get everything fixed it will be a success. I'm still undecided on whether I'll be using this method in the future to create more stripboards for other projects. I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I do prefer to give myself an extra column to make sure I don't solder too close to the seam, which might be too much for some circuits to fit inside an enclosure. For those of you keeping track this is build number 104 and I have seven more kits I've put together left to build. I know, the build number goes up, but the kits I've put together doesn't go down. Funny that, isn't it? I have a modified circuit that I'm really excited to try, but nervous I didn't get the layout right. As much as I love the input cap idea for the Texas Ranger, I'm not a fan of it for a Fuzz Face, but the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz is just that. So I've taken a layout and omitted the input caps and I'll be socketing the input cap to see which one I like the best. I call mine the Tweaked Fuzz. I just hope I did the layout right. *gulp*

Mystery Build: Fruitful or Failure?

Apart from the Univox Unicomp, every build this year had been functional, for better or worse. Worse being the case of the Bazz Fuss rebuild. I check pedal layout sites everyday, throughout the day looking for ideas on what to build next. Even though I've already built my 100th circuit I still want to keep building. I really should stop, but in my current situation I have to find something to keep my mind occupied as much as I possibly can. Months ago a layout popped up that caught my attention, and as I do I downloaded the layout to get the stripboard cut and gather the parts. A few days later the layout was removed from the website and I was left holding the bag, or rather bags of parts.

I don't know why it was removed, it's really none of my business, but at that point I was already too invested to not go ahead with the build. For months I agonized, not from this build but with life in general. Paralleling that was a slight agony from having this build bagged up and ready, but not knowing if it would become a waste of parts or not. I can't look at a layout and say "Yep, that's viable!", or "No, that simply won't do. Move this here and that there and voila!". I consider myself the da Vinci of paint by numbers, when it comes to building circuits. I can solder the parts in place, but if the layout is wrong I can't begin to tell you why, or where. Luckily for me there is a community out there that want to verify layouts quickly, but for this particular one, that was impossible.

I recently decided it was time to stop agonizing and start solderizing. Does that work? I'll go with it anyway. Everything seemed to fight me, and I know from past experiences that if things are fighting me during a build, it's not going to turn out the way it should. There was even a brief thunderstorm during the build to kind of drive home the point that this just wasn't going to work. I persisted and finished the build. During the testing phase my assumptions were proven right. The output was very low and things didn't quite work the way they should. I looked the board over and realized I was a dope and didn't install one of the capacitors right. (Remember the da Vinci comment I made earlier?) The problem being if it works with the capacitor in wrong, fixing it wasn't going to completely cure this build's ailments.

After the capacitor situation was fixed I tested the circuit again and there was no change. With both the volume and gain maxed the output was below unity, with very little overdrive. I did my standard x-acto knife through the gaps and cleared away any unseen solder bridges, but that didn't help either. I sat there for a moment fiddling with the controls and when I moved the bass potentiometer it came roaring to life, but only briefly. Something about the bass control was messing up the output? It was then I noticed a rather large solder bridge that I somehow missed before, so I broke out the soldering iron and cleared it away. Afterwards the output was much better, and the gain control added a little more dirt. The problem now is even after clearing that solder bridge and getting more output volume, the bass potentiometer controls the gain somehow. *shrug*

The circuit functions, the pots do approximately what they're meant to do, and it gets somewhat close to what it's supposed to clone. I wouldn't call it a complete failure, because the issues I initially had were of my own doing. The bass control also controlling the gain isn't something I quite understand yet, and may never will. I'm hoping it's an easy fix, but I've been over the board a few times to make completely sure I placed everything where it should be. If it were a complete loss, like the Univox Unicomp that doesn't work at all, I would be far more frustrated. If that were the case I would have completely dismantled this build and distributed the parts to other projects that need them. Maybe at some point in the future I'll be able to explain what it is, and maybe even get some support on the build, but I won't be holding my breath. Mostly because holding your breath is a bad thing.

The 100th Circuit Build!

A handful of years ago I first heard the name César Díaz while watching a rig rundown for Warren Haynes. César Díaz was a guitarist turned tech; his name mostly being associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan as his amp tech. After doing some research on the Díaz amps I found he also did pedals, the first of these that caught my attention was the Texas Ranger. This was César's take on the tried-and-true Dallas Rangemaster treble booster. The circuits are approximately the same, but with a switchable input capacitor that allows the player to dial in the amount of bass they want. For quite some time now I've wanted to build a Texas Ranger, the main problem was I didn't want to mess with the rotary switch. Instead I added a toggle switch to a Naga Viper clone, which wasn't a very well thought out mod, and called it the Texas Rattler, my take on César Díaz's take on the Dallas Rangemaster. Essentially it's the same idea, but the Naga Viper uses a potentiometer to blend between tone caps, while the Texas Ranger uses a rotary switch, and mine just kind of, well does whatever it does.

Recently I went through a circuit build spree and decided I finally needed to build a Texas Ranger clone. In my previous post I acknowledged my lack of ability to create a layout from a schematic, so I used a layout for a Dallas Rangemaster and just swapped the parts values over. I had my layout looked over by the DIYPedals community on reddit and once it was approved I decided it was time to get to work. I was scared of things not working out very well, so I ordered a handful of varying transistors from Tayda Electronics, just in case. I know from experience that most of them work and sound essentially the same, but sometimes you need a BC108 or a 2N2222a for the cool factor, you know? Oh yeah, I also bought an Alpha rotary switch. I'm not half-assing this build.

The build was fairly easy, except nobody, myself included, found the error in my layout until it was literally staring me in the face, but we'll get to that in a little bit. The build went together nearly perfectly, but it seemed a bit out of bias. In the end I settled on a 2N2222a as the transistor of choice and then I went to work on getting the bias correct. I initially tacked on the 4.7k resistor and tested the voltage, getting 7.7v, which was a tad too hot. I went all the way down to 2k, which gave me 6.7v which was still a bit off. I read that the suggested resistor was a 2.2k in the forum post where I found the schematic, which brought me up to 6.98v. Close enough! After giving it a listen I decided that was the resistor I would settle on. Now all I needed to do was solder it in.

And that's when the mistake became glaringly obvious. I had placed that resistor over the solder hole for the input wiring. Yep! Nobody had noticed that mistake. It happens, so I'll have to figure out what to do when I go to put this circuit in an enclosure, but otherwise it works. Well, I mean it functions. You remember the rotary switch I was so worried about? Turns out I should have been, because it's backwards. When I soldered in the capacitors I tested it on my component tester and it worked exactly as the switch should, but once it's in the circuit it's backwards. It makes no sense. I had to painstakingly desolder the lowest and biggest caps and swap them around, which fully remedied it! With the 2N2222a and the correct bias this circuit now sounds great!

I'm super glad I finally decided to build this circuit. I'm even more proud that I created the layout for it, even if it did have a huge mistake, and it's just swapped component values on a Rangemaster layout. I'm completely stoked at how good it sounds, even if the lingering doubt that it sounds anything like a real César Díaz Texas Ranger haunts my thoughts while using it. Although I have to say, my main concern was the low setting (100nf input), but after listening to a demo of both the Texas Ranger and the Texas Twang clone mine sounds really close to the youtube demo I heard. Mostly I'm glad this is my 100th circuit build. If I found a real César Díaz at a thrift store I would certainly pick it up, but I can't afford one on the used gear market. For now, such as with all of the clone pedal circuits I've built, I'll enjoy it for what it is.

Overindulgence: Circuit Building Madness

(Sorry, it's a long one!)

Sometimes when we go without something for an extended period of time we tend to overindulge once we have another chance. Since my last circuit build was the Plimsoul clone on April 13th, I recently went a bit overboard with circuit builds, building a total of ten. I set a new personal record by building four small circuits in one day, and within 24 hours I had built a fifth small circuit. They were a Klon style buffer, a Lovepedal Champ clone, a(nother) Naga Viper clone, a Diaz Square Face clone, and a Cornish TB-83X clone, respectively. Things didn't stop there though as the urge to solder continued to strike, so I built a Dallas Rangemaster clone, a Menatone Blue Collar clone, a concoction of an MRX Distortion Plus, DOD 250 and YJM 308 all in one, a Cornish SS-2 clone, and a Lovepedal JTM clone.

The Klon style buffer is, well a buffer. The Champ clone sounds great, although I did sub BAT46s for the required 1N60P diodes. This Naga Viper clone is my second, but this time without the stupid modification I did to my previous version. The Diaz Square Face was built with sockets, like the real thing, but mostly to test different transistors. The TB-83X is another treble booster and I was really surprised at how much I like it. The king of all treble boosters, the Dallas Rangemaster, needed the right transistor, but turned out alright. The Menatone Blue Collar is REALLY good! The MXR/DOD mixture is cool too as I opted for an input capacitor switch (MXR/250 10nf and YJM 308 1nf cap) as well as a clipping switch (no diodes/boost, 1N4148 or BAT46 clipping). The Cornish SS-2 is pretty nice too, as is the Lovepedal JTM clone.

Even though I own a real DOD YJM 308 pedal and have both an MXR Distortion Plus and DOD 250 clone, I felt mixing them together into the same circuit - or something that felt similar - was a worthwhile adventure. I've never really been happy with my MXR Distortion Plus clone as the distortion doesn't start until the gain pot is fully dimed. Since I've never touched a real MXR Distortion Plus I can't be 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the way it should work. The only thing I can think might be wrong with it is maybe there is a solder bridge somewhere, or it's the cheap 1N270 diodes I used. They sound perfectly fine in all of my Klon clone circuits, as well as anything else I've used them in. *shrug* I also sourced a W100k for the volume pot, which is accurate to the DOD portion of the built. 

Another pedal I've already built, the Naga Viper clone, is meant to fix a poorly thought out mod I did to my first one. I wanted a Diaz Texas Ranger, but I didn't want to fiddle with the rotary switch, so I added an on/on switch to choose input caps instead. Although the pedal works, and it gives a quasi-Texas Ranger experience, it still doesn't hit the mark. My options were simple; take out the switch and put in the potentiometer to make it a Naga Viper, or leave the past as it is and build a completely new one without the mod. I chose the latter, obviously. I have to say I'm glad I did. Although my modded version has a capacitor still on the board that is useless (again, my stupid mod!), it will stay as built. This new one will become the Naga Viper clone. 

This was all followed by a bit of self reflection. Up to this point I had built a few treble boosters, but again what I really want is a Diaz Texas Ranger. Since I'm still learning I searched high and low for a Texas Ranger stripboard layout, only finding a schematic and a tagboard layout, which were useless to my tiny brain. So I decided to slap my own layout together. Truth be told, I used the same NPN Dallas Rangemaster layout I used to build my Rangemaster clone and just swapped the values to the Texas Ranger values. Building the Rangemaster clone was quick and easy, but finding the right transistor was a bit of a journey. With all these tiny builds I eventually had to work on bigger ones, such as the Menatone Blue Collar and Cornish SS-2 clones. The Blue Collar is a really nice bluesy overdrive, and I'm glad I built it. The SS-2 is a pretty nice distortion, again I'm glad I built this one too. The Lovepedal JTM was built because it's tiny, it's simple and it sounds good. Glad I built it also!

Those of you who have been following my circuit building journey might be wondering how many builds I have done, and if I've decided what my 100th circuit build will be. Well, the Lovepedal JTM was actually build number 99, and I still have six circuits to build. So what's left to build? The Diaz Texas Ranger will be build 100, which I'm extremely excited for, but also scared it won't turn out right. A EQD Zoar clone, which is a big project. A Cornish CC-1 clone, which is also kind of big. I've decided to finally pull the trigger on building a Ruby Tuby guitar amp, just because I can. A Keeler Push clone, something I hadn't heard of before, but sounds good. I also want to build another Stupid Box clone, because I have spare parts to burn.

Now, here is where things get a bit complicated. I'm compiling parts for a 5 watt Champ style guitar amp. This is going to take time, as I'm exceedingly scared of high voltage, for obvious reasons. I feel if I can compile the parts and build the tagboard portion of the amp I will at least have part of the amp done. Then later on I can deal with the high voltage parts down the road, as I feel more comfortable. I'm not currently factoring the Champ style build into the number of circuits I have left to build as it may never be finish. It's a plan I would like to accomplish, but still firmly on the back burner. My main purpose for a 5 watt Champ style amp, even though I own Kali (my Kalamazoo Model 1) is just to see if I can, and to test pedals. Buddy, my Noisy Cricket amp, is great, but there is a huge difference in testing a pedal with Buddy vs Kali. Plus, more amps are better! The Ruby Tuby will also be mostly for practice, and not for testing pedals.

Finally there is a mystery build, but there is a potential set of problems with it. It's a circuit that sparked my interest as soon as I saw the layout, but the layout was later removed from the site for some reason. As I do, I downloaded the layout to get the parts together and cut the board, but I have no clue why the layout was removed, or if it even works as presented. The board is cut and the parts are all setup so I'm pretty dedicated to the build at this point. If it doesn't work I'm all on my own, but if it does work I can't explain what it truly is, to avoid getting in trouble by the layout creator. This is the type of situation I wish I were more capable of looking at a layout and knowing whether it will work or not before I get myself this deep into it. Wish me luck!

What Did I Just Watch?: Cockneys vs Zombies

I am a rabid fan of Shaun of the Dead. It's one of my all-time favorite movies. When it comes to non-Romero zombie movies it's one of the best, in my opinion. Followed closely by the one episode of Spaced, in which I'm sure gave life to the concept of Shaun of the Dead. You know the one. Recently free streaming platforms such as Tubi and Pluto brought a movie to my attention called Cockneys vs Zombies. Since the DVD of the movie likened itself to Shaun of the Dead, in a way, I had to give it a watch. I will be doing my best to #NoSpoilers this, so if you want more details just go watch the movie yourself.

The plot of the movie, to me, seemed interesting, although not completely original. We have a pair of brothers in a single-sided relationship, where one is always bailing the other one out of trouble, paralleling the friendship of Shaun and Ed. Things progressed a bit too quickly for me. It's a bit like the writers had a lot to say, but only had an hour and thirty minutes to say it, so there wasn't really time to let things sink in. The zombie outbreak sprung up super quick, and took control even quicker. The action takes place over a larger span of the movie than it does in Shaun of the Dead.

I know, I know. It's NOT Shaun of the Dead! I did like Cockneys vs Zombies as its own thing, I just felt that it went more action based than it wanted to allow the story to grow organically. Things just felt hastened to push the fun, violent action scenes, but that's just my opinion. You know what I would love to see? A series of movies, with the blessing of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, showcasing other people's adventures, or misadventures, during the exact same outbreak in which Shaun of the Dead took place. In most of them it would even be a nice little Easter Egg to see Shaun's group in the background in various stages of their journey to the Winchester.

Cockneys vs Zombies had its moments that made me laugh at the comedy, recoil at the horror, and even some "DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!" moments thrown in at both the comedy and the horror aspects. The sentiment of the plot is actually kind of nice. The ending throws a few, albeit brief, surprises in for added affect. One little spoiler: Even as an American, the football supporter zombies gag was fucking hysterical. I just wish it had lasted a bit longer, pretty much like everything else in this movie. Is Cockneys vs Zombies anywhere near Shaun of the Dead? No. No, no, no, no no. Is it a decent zombie film? Yep! Will it become part of my Halloween movie lineup? Maybe. Maybe this is just a movie I need to watch a few (hundred) times to appreciate. I don't think it's bad. I'll certainly be giving it another try!

Taking a Break

There comes a time in everyone's life when they must prioritize things. As I've been to the ER twice this month, that time comes now. I've stopped building circuits and focused on my health, maybe a bit too much so. Since I'm not doing anything noteworthy, I figured I would take a break. Hopefully things will resume here shortly, but that depends on how things go. I would like to thank the readers who have stuck with me, or even those of you who have just recently come along. Thank you.

Now, on a very much more personal note:

Paola, if you're reading this, please reconsider. My arms have always been open, and I need you now more than ever. Just think about it.

The Plimsoul Clone

The builds of 2024 continue and the Plimsoul is the latest to be completed. Essentially, in the off season, I was searching for any circuit that could even loosely be associated to the word "blues". I've become more of a blues player as I've gotten older, and lets face it, since my body and fingers don't work the way they used to. I do find blues connects with me though, and I greatly enjoy playing blues guitar, so I figured I wanted as many guitar pedals as possible to give me multiple options for blues tones. One circuit that had been on my radar for a while was indeed the Plimsoul, but I felt it was a bit more distortion than bluesy, but tagboard effects description has the word bluesy in it twice, so that's all it took to convince me it was worth a try.

As far as the build, well, it was going fine until I remembered that it was suggested in the comments of the layout to substitute one of the three A100k pots for an A10k. I decided to go with a C10k as it was the only 10k I had on hand, which works just fine. Luckily it was an easy situation to rectify, once I found out which pot it was. It's the sustain pot by the way. I was a bit anxious about wiring the dual pot for stage two control, because I'm always anxious about wiring dual pots, but that turned out just fine. Once it was all soldered up it was time to test it.

At first the circuit didn't work properly. All I got was a stuttering sound when I played the notes on my guitar. My first tactic is always knifing the gaps, so I took my xacto knife and slit between the rows and tested it again. That did the trick, and the circuit came to life. After testing it a little bit more this circuit did surprised me as it's one that offers quite a bit of flexibility. Is it bluesy? It can be. It can also be a boost, or an overdrive all the way to a distortion. I enjoyed this circuit more than I thought I would, even though I've not really played around with it too much. I pretty much tested how much drive it offers, then engaged stage 2 and left it full tilt as a distortion. Now that the Plimsoul is done what the next build will be is up in the air, but whatever it is will be the 90th build.

Now the Timmy Post!

My Timmy clone was born the same day as the revitalization in my life, but that's the other post. This is all about the Timmy! I was excited to build this circuit because I had heard so many good things about it. So I put everything together and on a nice Tuesday I built it. It was a super simple build. The issue however is I can't find any 4559s, so I used a 4580 instead. I'm still debating whether it sounds anything at all like a Timmy. It's not a bad circuit, and it had plenty of options for tonality, but whether it sounds like a Timmy is still up for debate.

I'm really digging transparent overdrives and that's one of a million reasons why I wanted to build a Timmy clone. I chose the V1, which suits me as well as any other, so I'm not too concerned with what makes them all a little bit different. This is the one I built; this is the one I own, and will use. I'm still uncertain what the internal dip switches do, but it's something I'll learn about over time. There's really not much more to say.

Other than the Timmy being the 88th total build, and the fact I still have 7 more confirmed builds and a few sitting on the outer cusp of consideration I might get to the goal of 100 builds before I know it. The Plimsoul, Menatone Blue Collar, a Klon Buffer, another Naga Viper clone, two Cornish clones and an EQD Zoar are all on their way, bringing the total up to 96 once these are done. I do plan a Diaz Texas Ranger clone, as well as another Texas inspired clone both of which bring the total up to 98. The two final circuits will really need to be something important, and believe me, I bet they will be. I just don't know what they will be yet.

I Didn’t Have Ambulance Ride to the ER on My 2024 Bingo Card, Until I Did!

As some of you may know I suffer from anxiety. It's a disorder that sometimes can not be properly looked after. This year started out with some really bad symptoms to the point I filed to get medical insurance and once I did the real mental fuckery started. Symptoms started to appear that were very concerning, and knowing now I could take care of them made it impossible for me to ignore. However, covid locked me in this mental box that anxiety took control of and made it seem if I left the property I would immediately die in the worst possible way. How does one combat this? Internally, mentally, and eventually they feel like they're drowning with no way of reaching help.

So I decided to try and shake off the horrible way I woke up this morning and build the Timmy clone circuit, which went really well. Once it all was soldered up I brought it inside to test and immediately my skin began to crawl, my body was trembling and my internal alarms were on full alert. But I can't leave the property! I'll die! If I don't take care of whatever is setting off this anxiety, I'll die! Damned if I do, damned if I don't. The option was literally taken out of my control when, suddenly and without warning I simply stopped breathing. I've had anxiety and panic attacks, but this was a completely different beast. This sucked the oxygen right out of me and left me feeling the cold fingers of the Reaper upon my arms, directing me away.

911 was called, and after a brief sit outside the team came over and started taking my vitals. Obviously in a panic things weren't perfect, but things weren't alarming, or so they didn't let on anything was alarming. I was then transferred to the ambulance and awaited the horrible death anxiety had promised should I try to leave the property. As you may be guessing, because I'm writing this entry, it was all bupkis! I was loaded into the ambulance, the vitals guy kept an eye on everything and we talked the whole ride about my life, my anxiety, my hobbies, and even my lost love from Mexico. What stays with me though is how he kept looking at the EKG and saying I have a beautiful EKG, and it slowly got better as we rolled along the way to the ER.

I felt far more calm than I thought I would throughout the whole process, which was surprising, but a welcome change from what anxiety said I should feel. Transitioning from Ambulance to ER was immediate and everyone was there to greet me. My vitals were constantly checked, blood was drawn and everything was underway. I was even given some kind of drug, whose name I already forget, that quieted all the intrusive thoughts in my head. Although my numbers aren't 100% perfect, at least now I know what I need to work on with my PCP.

Listen, if you're having chest pains and shortness of breath, don't simply chalk it up to anxiety, unless you've been to the Dr or ER and you've been cleared time and time again. This isn't anything to mess with, and although mine turned out to strictly be inside my head, for someone else it might not. Do yourself a service and burst through that mental block like I did and give yourself much more life to live. Believe me it's worth living!

The Crap Fuzz [Re]Build

Back on New Year's Day I tried to get an old Bazz Fuss circuit going again, and failed. I figured this was a fairly decent Saturday so I took the time to try again, and still failed. The board was coated with solder, and there was really no way for me to clean off enough solder to prevent bridging, so I decided the next best thing was to scrap the old board and use a new one. It took literal seconds to cut the board, cut the traces and solder everything up. Once all was said and done, it now works! Horribly! I mean, it's horrible.

I strictly stuck with using the parts I had in the original, so instead of a 2N3904 I used a BC546, with pinout adjusted, so it's not biased correctly. It's fuzzy, it's gnarly, but it's really not anything useful unless it's full blast. The circuit works and that's really all I was after. I just wanted to resurrect a very old circuit that I built many years ago, but never gave any real notation to. Now this little circuit, as horrible as it truly is, has a birthday (or more a rebirthday I guess), and it's written in my build log. This brings my total circuits built to 87 officially noted circuits. Remember, that's both pedals and a few amps, but 87 total nonetheless.

The problem now is I still have 8 builds planned for the year, bringing me to a total of 95, once those are completed. As I stated in my last entry, about building, I need that nicely rounded, even 100 total. I don't want to build a bunch of Bazz Fuss circuits, or buffers, or other simple builds just to pad it out. I want circuits that truly mean something to my building history. I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'll do my best to come up with something.

Fallout 3: Heading Back Into the Wastelands

Of all the Fallout games I've played, Fallout 3 is my favorite. That's not to say Fallout 4 or 76 aren't good games, it's just I've not been able to play them, yet. Last year a dear friend actually purchased Fallout 76 for me, but thanks to Bethesda's "What Bug?" policy, it locked me out of playing the game indefinitely. I've not been able to catch Fallout 4 on sale, so I think that's the only Fallout game I don't actually own. Throughout the past few years all off the others, with the exception of 4 and 76, have been given away by Epic Games, which is nice of them. This has given me a chance to reconnect with Fallout 3, which I originally played on the PS3.

Last year I tried a failed attempt at finally getting into Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I generally like Bethesda's open world games, but Oblivion just didn't play that well, and Morrowind's "Whoops, you didn't hit them this time, try again!", even though I smashed them in the face with my weapon, policy completely turned me off. These are all simply me problems, but Fallout 3 feels like a pretty decent game with its own bugs, but it's rare that I encounter them. The slow grind of getting started, getting established and finally getting things done was a bit of a hassle, but once I was there I started to have a pretty good time, again.

Now, here is the real meat and potatoes of this entry. When I was a child my class went to on a field trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. There were a lot of fun things to see and explore and learn, but one thing haunts me to this day. The fucking Woolly Mammoth! They have a life size Woolly Mammoth inside the museum, and when I went it was in a dimly lit corner. Imagine young me walking into a new room, filled with wonderment and happiness, only to be stopped in my tracks instantly when faced with a gigantic Woolly Mammoth recreation. It ruined the rest of my field trip, and like I said still haunts me to this day.

Those of you who have played Fallout 3 have already put the puzzle together and are probably laughing to themselves, while others are still wondering what I'm talking about. In Fallout 3 there is the Museum of History, and everything is fine as you enter through the lobby. Things change as soon as you move past the lobby and into the first display room where the skeletal remains of a T-Rex have come crashing to the floor, but on the other side of the room is a full size, upright Woolly Mammoth! Even in video game form it freaks me the hell out! Instantly I recall the feeling of my younger self and try to face my fear, but it still freaks me the hell out and I just leave the room.

Aside from past trauma, I can finally visit the Lincoln Memorial. This one doesn't freak me out because it's not like a 30 foot tall Abe Lincoln is going to try and make me his lunch! Well, a stuffed Woolly Mammoth wouldn't either, but I'm pretty sure my DNA is still at least 50% Neanderthal, so it makes sense to me. For some reason in my first playthrough I didn't get to this part of D.C. and I don't remember why. I explored a great deal of the wasteland, but for some reason never reached this part. Now that I'm established, roaming the wastelands freely and enjoying my time there, I think I'll go off and do some DLC stuff to mix it up. Fallout 3 is a great game, and I appreciate that Epic Games has given it away, at least a few different times, so that I could get back out there and relive the experience I enjoyed so much the first time around.

A Touch of OCD - Version 3 That Is

Way back in 2021 I built a Danelectro Cool Cat Drive clone, which itself is supposedly a clone of the Fulltone OCD. I actually really like the Cool Cat Drive clone that I built, but there was always a nagging inside about what an OCD clone would be like. Well, thanks to the folks at Tagboard Effects I decided to find out. The V3 seemed to be the most popular, so that's what I went with. I gathered all the parts and waiting for another sunny day. That day came, so I got outside and soldered it up.

The day actually started out with me finishing the Mockman. Yeah, yeah, I know. I only put it into the enclosure, but I didn't bother wiring it up when I wrote the entry a little while ago. Sorry if you feel like I fibbed to you, but if you've read any of these entries you'll know I hate wiring. Anyway, I finished up the Mockman, put together the OCD V3 and it was time to test them. As with every pedal I was worried it wouldn't work, but the OCD fired up immediately. I put a little gain into it and it sounded really good. I dimed the gain and it sounded even better! Fiddled with the tone control to make sure it works, and I flipped the switch to make sure it worked, which they both do. What a great circuit! How does it compare to the Danelectro clone? I'll test that later.

Now it was time to test the Mockman. Everything worked as expected with it too, thankfully. It had been so long since I played this circuit I forgot how much I liked this one too. The mods I made to it are well worth the added functionality, so I'm glad I did. It's all housed up and ready to rock. Which makes me feel bad for the two builds from 2022 that still need enclosures, but they'll get them at some point. As far as the future is concerned, I added a small build to the roster just because. I built a buffer before, but there seems to be a mystique about the Klon Buffer, so since it's such a tiny little build I figure I may as well build one, just to see what it's all about.

With the addition of the Klon buffer that brings the total builds left to seven. Oddly enough that's how many I've already built this year. So, that leaves me with a bit of an issue. I've built 86 circuits, I have seven left to build, that leaves me at a total of 93 builds. We can't have that shit! No no, we need a nice, rounded 100 builds total if we're going to stop building. But how am I going to add seven more builds to the list? I have no clue yet. I know I'm really close to 100 already, if I count all the Bazz Fuss circuits and the blend circuits I've built but not bothered to add to the built list. Regardless, I want to reach 100 circuits for myself, and then maybe I'll start building simple fuzz pedals to help fund putting all my circuits into enclosures. Either way, I know I have to hit 100 total, dated builds. That's my goal!

The Silly Way My Pedal Builds Got Started

As I was pacing this morning, waiting for my lunch to finish microwaving, I looked over at a tin of coffee and started to wonder what pedal I could stuff inside that tin. This reminded me that it was Christmas 2019 and an empty peanut tin that got this whole ball rolling. You know, me building pedal circuits. I had been wanting to build pedals since the mid-2000s. I know I've mentioned this before, but I came across the BYOC website and wanted to try building pedals, but for some reason the video game hobby won out and that's where my money and time were committed.

After Christmas 2019 I took the peanut tin and imagined building a fuzz circuit to fit inside, as the roundness of the tin, in a way, reminded me of a Fuzz Face. I remember drawing out the control placement on the bottom and puncturing it with my x-acto knife, taking extra care to not break the blade or puncture myself in the process. Although not perfect it did the trick, and to me it looked like a little Fuzz Face. I put potentiometers in the holes and knobs on top of them. I was proud of myself, because it felt like I had really done something. I basically just mutilated the bottom of a peanut tin and put potentiometers in it, that's really all I did.

I looked at that tin for a week or so and finally decided to throw together a fuzz circuit to put in it. I searched for the easiest fuzz to build, which turned out to be the Bazz Fuss, and on January 1st 2020 I slapped my very first circuit together. It was a massive learning experience as I used parts I had laying around, only to find out about pinouts! The transistor I originally used wasn't compatible with the layout, so I changed things around and eventually got sound out of it. That's where I learned about biasing, which I didn't do to my first fuzz circuit because I was too excited that it ended up working at all. It's still really poorly biased, but that's the way I'm keeping it.

As of right now I'm 85 circuits deep into this journey, give or take a few, and I'm still learning, but the peanut tin that started it all is long gone. I could replicate it with any old peanut tin, but I would rather its memory live on unsullied as the inspiration that finally pushed me over that edge to actually commit to building circuits. I've learned a lot, I've had a lot of fun, but I'm still not confident enough to build my own circuits from scratch. I've tried to come up with some ideas, but nothing ever felt right. Who knows, just like the peanut tin finally inspired me to build circuits, maybe something else will come along and inspire me to build my own circuit design. It could happen!

Happy Birthday to Myself!

Since today is my birthday, it will be a double feature today. I decided that today was a nice enough day to get outside and solder, so I did. I recently received a restock on some parts from Tayda, so almost every single one of the planned builds have everything they need to be completed. There is one outlier that needs a few parts, but other than that everything else I planned to build is ready to go.

I spent the morning debating what I wanted to build. Should it be the OCD clone? The Plimsoul clone? The Timmy clone? The Way Huge Overrated Special clone? Ah, that's the one! Initially I wanted to build something small, but I decided to knock the Overrated Special off the list because I've really been wanting this circuit done since I saw the layout months ago, and it's one of the bigger builds I have planned. With the decision made I grabbed my stuff and setup outside.

With 13 links to solder in, it felt like this circuit was going to take all day, and possibly more. Once the resistors started to go on everything came together pretty quickly. I really like my order of operation now, because it makes things feel less daunting as they're being put on the board. Once it was all said and done I soldered it in the little test box and tested it. Fucking - awesome! This circuit sounds so good! I believe it's meant to sound like a Dumble, but either way it's so good! The volume pot had a bit of a hiccup at first, but I think I've managed to work that out. Not sure if it's fixed or just waiting to screw up again next time I try to play it. Hey, I'm happy! It's not easy turning 41, but here we are.

Getting Old: A Gift to Myself

Everyone ages. It's a sad reality that sometimes sets in far too late for most of us to do anything about it. Some tend to go through what is called a Midlife Crisis, and to combat their internal struggle they compensate by making major changes in their lives. Whether it be a change in location, shift in life direction, or making a large purchase they would have otherwise never dared, most tend to go big with their life-altering outburst. As we age, most of us, tend to mature and grow. I've found myself looking back wondering where all those years have gone, sadly only to realize just that - those years are gone.

When I turned forty I realized I've been so wrapped up in being me, that I never took the time to get to know myself. While I understand what foods, music, movies, video games, hobbies, etc. that I enjoy, I never really got to meet myself and explore the depths of who I am as a person. Even though many people say forty is the new twenty, there's simply no telling how true that might be. So while I would love to purchase a genuine 1959 Gibson Les Paul, a Marshall stack and parade myself around doing Blues gigs at everyone's backyard party, I can't. That doesn't mean I can't do something for myself though.

Almost ten years ago I thought I was getting married. Although no date was set, the question was asked, the promise was made and dream was living in my consciousness every single day. As I truly believed this was happening I wanted to be the best possible me for her sake, so I tasked myself with reaching out to my ex-girlfriends and asking them what it was I did right, what I did wrong, and why they cared about me. This might sound like asking for trouble, but the answers I received back were quite comforting, and oddly enough they were mostly the same. I realized why someone could love me, what I did right, but also I now knew what I needed to change to be a better me for the woman who I truly hoped would forever be by my side.

Sadly, that choice wasn't up to me, and eventually that dream faded in her mind. I thought I was crushed then, but the process of aging never ceases. As the hopes and dreams continued to live in my head, I had to remind myself that just isn't happening. I'm getting older. I'm losing time. By now I thought all my dreams would have come true, and it would be nothing but happiness. Every day I am acutely aware that my existence is temporary, and I'm nowhere near where I want to be. So again I tasked myself with asking many of my friends who I was when they knew me.

I asked friends I hadn't spoken to in years. I tried to seek out as many as I possible could and asked them: "Who was I when you knew me?". Again I found many of the answers quite comforting, and many answered almost entirely the same. So as I face life each day, I realize one of two things. Either people are completely full of shit, or maybe, just maybe, there is a chance I am a special person to many people around me. The cynical side of me wants to believe people are merely answering in their best interests, saying what they think I want to hear. The other side of me doesn't believe people I've not spoken two in years would even bother to make up such lies, let alone say nearly identical things and express to me some of their favorite memories of us together.

I never knew what my legacy would be, but now, as I face the unknown, I realize I've made truly deep connections with people. I've fostered events throughout my life that have yielded life-long, positive memories for others. Deep down I feel all anyone truly wants is to be remembered. To know that we've done something good with our lives, and made things a bit more positive in our absence. In more recent times I thought perhaps my guitar pedal circuits would serve as a bit of a legacy, but my connections with the people around me are far more important. Again, I would love to own a 59 Les Paul and play every backyard party and blues festival that requires my services, but I can pretend to do that. I could never pretend to have truly made long lasting connections with the people around me. That had to happen for real, and apparently it has.

So maybe if you're feeling confused by life and all the constant shifts against what you feel is your best interests, or best attempts to right the ship, try this. Reach out to people you've not spoken to in years. Ask them who you were when they knew you. Express your favorite memories together and listen to theirs. Maybe even apologize to someone you've wronged and feel guilty about what you've done. Because just like I was promised we would be married by now, nothing would ever tear us apart; nothing is assured. Life has a funny way of making us feel like a singular speck of dust in a universe of dirt. If you ask, I'm sure you've made an indelible mark on someone's life somewhere. Listen, you do you, but it's worth a try.

"Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together." - Red Green

Box'an the Mockman!

I know the title is a bit of a stretch, but work with me here. Anyway, this is just a quick update that the ROG Mockman that I built, and modified finally has its forever enclosure. I really loved this circuit's distortion and I've been so busy working on building more circuits that I've totally neglected the fact there are a ton of builds that need enclosures, and every circuit I build will need an enclosure themselves. Enclosures are going to be the most expensive part of this endeavor, but I knew that going into it. Regardless I still have a few builds to get done this year.

Since this is the distortion section of the Tom Scholz Rockman, I decided to follow the same color scheme with my build. I'm glad this one is finally housed, because this was the last build from 2021 that needed an enclosure. I still have two circuits from 2022, not to mention all the ones I built last year. Out of all the circuits I built last year a few were amps, and a few others were already housed, but the large majority still need enclosures. I do plan to get the Faux Analog Echo housed up, because I like it so much, then I need to focus on getting enclosures for the homeless circuits from 2022.

Nostalgia Is a Hell of a Drug Part 9: Saturday Mornings

Having grown up in the 80's and 90's, there was nothing better than a Saturday morning to my childhood mind. After having to suffer through school for the week, Fridays started off that very special feeling. All I needed to do was come home, play with all my stuff, have dinner, watch some Boy Meets World on TGIF, and go to sleep knowing I could sleep in for a little bit the next day. Of course, that little bit was indeed just a little bit because the cartoons started at 8 or 9am. We never had cable, so all I had were the basic TV channels for Saturday morning cartoons. Regardless, believe me there was no feeling better than waking up on a beautiful sunny Saturday Morning, before anyone else in the house, pouring a bowl of cereal and sitting down in front of the old CRT TV to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Then going back to the kitchen multiple times to add more cereal to my already flavored bowl of milk.

I can still remember waking up in the darkness of my room, and walking from the dimly lit hallway into the brightly lit living room. The windows behind the television were on the east-facing side of the house, so on a sunny day the sun shined directly into those windows. I would adjust the amount of sunlight with the blinds, but usually as long as it didn't interfere with the TV's visibility, I allowed as much in as I could. I remember how soft the couches we had throughout my childhood were, and the TV trays we had sitting in the corner of the living room. Everything added up to an amazing start to many of my Saturdays.

For younger Sam, Saturday mornings weren't just about cartoons, multiple bowls of overly sugary cereal, being off school and not having to worry about it for another day, or the inevitable weekend grocery store run that allowed me to go to game stores. No, Saturday mornings were also about the commercials. Fast-paced advertisements that rotted my brain from the start and left me wanting whatever they were selling by the time it was over. Whether it be the newest video game, or a basketball star selling his sneakers, Saturday morning commercials were all part of the package when it came to the routine of Saturday mornings.

Since I've not been a child for over thirty years, I don't know what today's Saturday mornings are like, but I'm sure there are plenty of nostalgic memories being mentally logged on them, just the same as they were back in my day. Things did shift a bit when I got a bit older. As the cartoons I liked stopped airing, cartoons I didn't quite like took their places. That was when video games became the new Saturday morning ritual. Breakfast stayed the same, and the Saturday outing to video game stores became a bit more important, but they still retained that Saturday morning feeling to me.

The ABCs: Ambitiously Building Circuits

Not since September 12 2021 have I attempted to build more than one circuit in the same day. Heck, even last year, when I built a total of 45 circuits, I avoided doing more than one per week. Those two circuits were a Flapjack Overdrive (Crowther Hotcake clone) and a Danelectro Cool Cat Drive (reportedly based on a Fulltone OCD). Neither of which are tiny builds, but I was really excited to get both of them built, so I did it in the same day. Both circuits turned out to be some of my favorites. So much so that I've decided to build clones of the pedals they were inspired by. I already built the Crowther Hotcake, and I plan to build an OCD clone soon.

This time the circuits are both a bit smaller, being a Univox Uni-comp clone and Subdecay Stupid Box clone. I don't know what it is about compressor pedals, but since I managed to realize the Really Cheap Compressor circuit works I've been wanting to build them all, almost like Pokemon. Anyway, I planned these as backup February circuits, but since that all went pretty well I was left with these to build at some other point. I figured I should do something special with these, and building them both in the same day was the best idea I could come up with.

First I built the Univox Uni-comp, which went pretty well. However, a comment under the layout said that theirs doesn't work, so I went into this understanding this circuit most likely wouldn't work. Which it doesn't. Without even testing the Uni-comp I set straight to work on building the stupid box. This was a much quicker build, and I did test it immediately afterwards. I'm actually really surprised at how such a simple circuit can create such a nice sounding distortion. My only complaint about the Stupid Box is the tone works backwards to how it normally does, but that's ok. The Subdecay Stupid Box gets two thumbs up from me! The Uni-comp gets a big, steaming pile of crap. I knew it wouldn't work, but I wanted to try anyway. I'll do some troubleshooting later. The main thing is, regardless of whether the circuit works or not, the built date for every circuit is the day it was completed.

Nostalgia Is a Hell of a Drug Part 8: Tyco Psycho!

Being a product of the 80s myself, I'm fully aware that both the 80s and 90s were filled to the brim with less than accurate advertising. That being said, I was completely sucked in by every radio controlled car commercial ever made in those days. As a kid my brother had some really cool top tier Tyco RC cars. My RC cars were mostly RadioShack and the type tethered to the controller that only went forward and one singular direction.

This was until I started having my own bit of expendable income from doing odd jobs in my late teenage years. One thing I wanted so badly was the Tyco Speed Wrench, which seemed to be inspired by the newly formed Nascar Truck series. The Speed Wrench came with - shocker - a wrench and two sets of wheels that allowed the owner to change out the wheels in any combination of their choosing. When it came time to go to the local toy stores and find one, I came up empty. Being a late-teen I decided I wasn't going home empty handed, so I bought what I thought was the next best thing. I present to you the Tyco Psycho! 

I also purchased the battery and charger as it suggested, which were absolutely required for this thing to even work. The problem was I was never very good at getting it to do any of the tricks I saw in the commercial. It sounded like it was going to break into a million tiny bits every time it was even barely bumped, so I was super cautious to protect my investment. The major downside to that is, you don't get to enjoy the toy! It operates much like a ZTR mower, albeit a little bit worse as the front wheels only roll forward and backward, while each of the rear wheels can be controlled independently to make it turn.

It didn't take long to dirty the thing up, and I began to worry about the longevity of the RC car. This wasn't anything like the RC cars my brother had, which again seemed pretty professional grade. This thing was more of a one and done type, where if you screwed it up, you had to buy a whole new one. Believe me, this thing wasn't cheap, so I decided to just pack it away and keep it for the memories of the cool stuff I did with it, and as a crowning achievement of finally having bought my own RC car as a budding teenager.

Many years later I decided to finally let it go, by which I mean I sold it on ebay, as I did with much of my own childhood. My parents donated most of my childhood to thrift stores, and ebay made it seem like a good idea for me to sell the other stuff. Shame really, as even though this wasn't the RC car I wanted, nor the best RC car in the Tyco line, it was still fun to play with, and that badge of honor for younger me. Sometimes I wonder where my stuff ended up. I hope not in a landfill, but once it left my hand I can't control that. I would like to believe everything that was a part of my youth is now in the hands of collectors, or better yet someone who actually enjoys playing with my childhood toys. Wherever they are now, I thank them all for the memories. And to the Tyco Psycho, thank you for being a quirky little RC car that gave me some good times while they lasted.

My Rust Driver Clone

At this point it should be quite apparent that I have a problem. I check through pedal layout websites daily and struggle not to add new layouts to my list of builds. Sometimes I simply can't help it. The latest of which is the HAO Rust Driver. I found the layout, I looked up demos of the real thing, it sounded amazing, I added it to my list of circuits to build, I built it. And here we are!

At this point I shouldn't be surprised, but I am, at how such a low component count build produces such an amazing sound. I've built other circuits that replicate a Marshall Plexi, and I like them all, but this little thing surprised me by it's sheer simplicity. You have one potentiometer, unless you use the gain control mod, and a switch to choose between three very usable settings of tone. That's all you need! Plug it in, set it where you want it, and let it roar like a Marshall should. And believe me, this little thing does!

So far this year I've built circuits that weren't originally planned last year. I'm not saying it won't happen again, but I really do have to restrict my builds as I need to focus on finishing the ones I've built, rather than building new ones. That being said, while looking through the numerous scraps of stripboard I have left over from cutting boards, I'm debating creating a simple circuit of my own design and selling a few to finance enclosures for the pedals I've built for myself. I'm not married to the idea, but it is rolling around in my head.

Hail to the King, Baby!

Some of you might remember that in September last year I built myself a King of Tone clone. Since then I've had trouble dialing in a tone that made me happy. I'm glad I built it, I'm overjoyed to have it, but it sounded extremely brittle and harsh no matter how I adjusted the tone control. While searching for good KOT settings I was reminded there are trimmers inside to adjust that sort of thing. Duh! So, I decided tonight I was going to see what I could dial up. When I popped off the back cover I noticed the trimmers were already maxed out, much to my dismay. After a brief pity party I decided to twist them the other way around to see just how brittle this thing got. To my surprise the treble started to disappear. HUZZAH! I'm an idiot!

On the red channel I've set the trimmer completely the opposite way I had it, which gives me a nice usable sweep on the external tone control. It can go from fairly dark to decently bright, offering a bit of treble bite without being ice picky. I also have both dipswitches engaged so it's a nice distortion. On the yellow channel I set the trimmer as close to the middle as possible, because the yellow channel is really just setup to be a basic "Breaker" style tone. Since I decided to fiddle with the guts I'm actually loving this pedal more than I ever have. There are so many options with this circuit. No wonder it's so highly regarded and desired. Sorry Analog Man, I'm still too cheap to afford a real one, and too impatient to wait on the list.

Addendum: I originally had a 4558 in the red side and an LP353 in the yellow side. I purchased some hallowed 4580s to see if it made much of a difference. Final verdict? They're ok. I can't really tell much of a difference. I should have expected this outcome, but sometimes you have to prove it to yourself. I needed opamps, and my supplier had 4580s, so I tried them. I can hear a tiny bit of a difference, but it could just be wishful thinking if anything at all. If nothing else I can say my clone is as close to the original as I could possibly make it.

Super Hard On, Fo-SHO

I originally planned this build for Leap Day, but I decided today was such a nice day that I should go ahead and get it done now. This was such a small circuit I could have done it indoors, if needed, but why pass up a beautiful sunny day and do it indoors on a cruddy one? I know, I know, it won't have that special birthday that I wanted for the circuit, but what's done is done. In any case, I've brought my total February builds up to two.

Now that this is complete I can add it to the 59 Sound I did previously and have a complete 59 Sound pedal clone. I really like the 59 Sound circuit, so I'm glad I can say I now have the complete set. The SHO is completely new to me, but very interesting. I've not had the experience of using a real one, but from what I'm experiencing with my build this is a pure boost pedal. With the control all the way down the signal passes through at about unity, and gets boosted from there. I really like that!

March is upon us at the end of the week, so I'll see what builds I have ready to go and get back out there when days like today arise. I'm sticking to the fewer builds than last year plan, because I simply can't build another 45 circuits in a year. I mean I could, but financial restraints. This year is the wind down year, where I focus more on how to use the circuits I've built than what new ones I want to build. There are currently eight builds planned, and unless something extremely enticing comes along I shouldn't be adding many more builds to the list. Also, some of the builds on the list are simply ideas, and the parts have not been prepared, so maybe not even eight builds this year. I still have a lot of parts left over, so we'll see what happens.

I Would Have Loved An SNES Crystalis Sequel!

Crystalis is one of my all time favorite games, and one of my favorite RPGs on the NES. From its beginning as God Slayer on the Nintendo Famicom, to it's transition to Crystalis, this game is simple yet amazing, and sometimes frustrating. My first introduction was sometime in the later half of the 90s when I finally acquired an NES. I was asking everyone I knew about NES games, and when I asked a kid who worked the local Dairy Queen, he said he would bring some games over for me to test that night. I remember he brought Dragon Warrior and Crystalis. He noted Crystalis was going to be hard to sell because it was his Mom's favorite game, and within the few minutes I played it I totally see why.

Those few moments left such a mark on me that I started checking every FuncoLand I could, since I couldn't afford that copy, waiting impatiently to get my hands on my own copy. Eventually I found a copy, which came with a printout giving an overview of the game, which I still have. I also printed out a walkthrough to help me beat it for the first time. I still have that too, and it's about the size of a book. I've since beat the game a handful of times, and I enjoy every minute of it. On my latest play through I used a guide from a channel on youtube that I'm quite fond of, UCanBeatVideoGames. Currently I use the original cartridge as my "play" cartridge, but I later found a complete in box copy that I only take out to look at, from time to time.

But what if Crystalis had an SNES sequel? For me the SNES is the home of some of the greatest RPGs of all time. That era was just rife with RPG perfection, again and again and again. I'm not sure how popular Crystalis was in its time, nor God Slayer for that matter, but what I do know is a lot of people really love this game. In modern days it isn't unheard of for a game to get a romhack and be completely reskinned, with a new story and all kinds of new elements. That could be nice, but I think Crystalis deserves a 16-bit version. A complete remake would be a bit too much, but if anyone out there is wanting to undertake such a project, I would love to see it!

As I said before, Crystalis was simple, only having 16 max levels. It was also frustrating as you would often need to change out your weapon and it's subitem multiple times in the same cave. I guess that's a part of Nintendo Hard; just something thrown in to add a few extra minutes of gameplay. An SNES sequel with a different story, some of the same gameplay mechanics, but this time caves where all he enemies require the same sword and subitem. The spells in Crystalis were adequate, but maybe a few more would be nice. I love that every weapon and subitem was a story item, so you had to quest to obtain them instead of checking each town's smith. Armor, shields and other items were obtained in each town, as per normal.

There's so much about Crystalis that could have easily transferred into an SNES sequel, and so much that could have been expanded upon. Would it have tarnished the original game's sparkle? Maybe, but maybe not. Regardless, it's highly unlikely to ever happen. I would really like to know more about the Famicom version and its development. If I'm being completely honest, I would love a CIB copy of God Slayer, and the GameBoy Color remake. Just to fill out my collection.

Frigid First February Fabrication

Originally I had planned an SHO clone build for this month, since it's such a small build I could do it indoors whenever I wanted. The more I researched ZVex, the more I was turned on by the 59 Sound. So naturally I started looking for a layout, which was super easy to find thanks to Dirtbox Layouts. Apart from two resistors and the BS170s, I already had everything. To solve the first problem I coupled a few resistors in series to make them the right value, and I used 2N7000s instead of BS170s. I did make one mistake in packing a 10uf instead of a 1uf electrolytic capacitor, which I didn't find out until I was outside soldering.

The day came and the sun was shining bright. The weather apps were all saying today was going to be 62 degrees, so I decided to just go ahead and get it done. I setup my little workstation on the back deck and got to work. The wind was a bit of a nemesis, but the fact I was on the opposite side from where the sun was shining made things a bit worse. I powered through thinking the sun would eventually be shining down upon me, to grace this first February build. Nope. *WOMP WOMP WOMP* After all the links and resistors were installed, just before I stared installing capacitors, the sun ran away and hid behind the clouds. The temps, coupled with the wind, plummeted.

I was this far in, so I continued to power through, until that mistake I made with the electrolytic capacitor reared its ugly head. A simple mistake, but when your fingers are nearly frozen solid it makes removing the part more difficult than it should be. I should have checked the value before installing it, but I was anxious to get this build done and tested. Live and learn! Once all the components were stuck down to the board, it was time to wire up the potentiometers. Over the course of 2023 I actually learned to love this process; I still hate wiring though. When I get to this stage I'm super excited because I know I'm just a few minutes away from a completed circuit and getting to test it out.

Once the potentiometers were installed I put it in the wonky test box, which is really more of a test tin, and quickly disassembled the workstation to get back inside. Normally I wouldn't find these temps this cold, but that wind drives it right into a person, and chills to the bone! I packed all my tools away and sat down to test the circuit. It seems to work exactly as expected. Through the Noisy Cricket it made a hell of a roar, but avid readers will know a circuit isn't done until it's passed the Kali test. That will have to wait a little while though. I'm just glad it worked at all.

Not the prettiest, but my builds usually aren't.

People who are familiar with the 59 Sound might see my pattern. The official 59 Sound is both an SHO and this circuit in one box. Since I already planned to build the SHO, I figured today was warm enough to do a bigger build, thus the 59 Sound took priority and was completed. My plan is to build the SHO clone on the 29th. This way I'll have two February builds in the books, not only that but one done on Leap Day. By the end of the month I should have a complete clone of the 59 Sound. Unless I move to a warmer climate I don't foresee doing any more February builds, but never say never. What matters is this circuit works, sounds good and it is now part of my build history in a big way. My very first February build.

Update: Kali test is complete. Circuit sounds awesome!