(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!
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