A Big One Down, Two to Go!

One guitar pedal I've wanted for a long time, or at least an adequate clone of, is a Boss HM-2. The problem being they stopped making them years before I even knew my first guitar chord. Sure, I could throw money at the problem, but you and I both know that's not what I do. This build has been almost three years in the making, seriously. I researched and researched and even watched almost every video about the HM-2 by Dome on youtube. As well as MANY videos by HM2CULT on youtube.

Most of the HM-2 layouts looked scary because they require three op-amps, which really put me off. Now, I did build four variants of Centaur clones, so you could catch me on a technicality here and say I should be able to build an HM-2, but I really wanted to make sure I was building the right one. The layout world is abounds with layouts for HM-2 clones, and finally I found one that I felt comfortable with. Not to give the game away, but this one only required two op-amps; a singular TL072 and a TL074, both of which I have.

After cutting the board and packing the parts I was excited that my dream was finally coming true, I will finally have an HM-2 clone and I'll be able to chainsaw the living hell out of whatever is left of my eardrums. HA! Too late, I don't have eardrums. No, seriously I was told by a doctor at the at of 15 that I have no eardrums. Protect your hearing kids! On a heavily overcast day I decided to take all my stuff outside and finally give the HM-2 clone a whirl, but I was going to do a few mods to the layout that I felt suited my needs.

Ok, the layout has switches for engaging the hard and/or soft clipping diodes individually, which I decided to replace with two jumpers instead. The layout also has a mids control, which I swapped out for an internal trimpot to keep the option, but not take away from the external HM-2 vibe. After a few frustrating hours of building, mostly due to my overcomplicating the process by wanted to build it my way, the circuit was ready to be tested. Welp, I wired in the volume control backwards. I also wired up the mids trimpot backwards, both of which are easy enough fixes. So, you want to know does it chainsaw!? Eh, well, uhm, not really. I don't know what's going on. It's a REALLY nice heavy metal distortion, and adding some mids with the trimpot makes it a little bit nicer, but it's not chainsawing to my ears.

My circuit seems to step right up to the line of chainsaw and stops as it stares longingly into the black abyss where all the other HM-2 clones are screaming and chainsawing away. I've checked all the gaps for solder bridges, I've made sure everything was where it's supposed to be and it all seems to be right, it just doesn't sound right. Again, it's a really nice heavy metal distortion, but Left Hand Path this is not. I'm sure it will find it's use, but I guess I might just plunk down the cash for the Behringer el cheapo clone since this one didn't work out the way I hoped it would.

All that being said I'm down to two build left; a Soldano SLO 100 emulating preamp and a Lightspeed overdrive clone. Yep! That's all I've got left. That will bring me up to 68 builds, as I believe I said in the last entry, so I need to come up with something spectacular for the 69th build. I just don't know what it could possibly be yet. Nothing planned, it's all up in the air, but believe me you'll know when it's all said and done.

Addendum

---

After fiddling, and doing the official Kali test, this pedal sounds really good. My initial tests are through a Noisy Cricket and a 4" speaker, so that has a lot to do with my original thoughts. Even so this one still doesn't seem to hit the same marks as the original. It's not terrible, it's just slightly different. I do think I'll hold off on buying the Behringer clone and stick with this circuit.

New King on the Block

In my pursuit to build more blues style overdrives I was directed to the King of Tone. After my standard research I quickly decided that I was not going to plunk down all that cash, wait a few years, forget I had ordered one, and it show up randomly in the mail one day. I was going to skip all those middle-men and build my own clone, but the one rule I had was it needed to be an all-in-one layout. There are tons of side A or side B layouts, which is what I based my Prince of Tone clone off of a few months back, but only one layout that offered both sides on the same board. At least this was the only one I could find that offered them both on the same board. I'm not a fan of having to stand components, as this layout required, so I didn't! I squished everything in as well as I could.

Unlike most of the builds I've completed this year I already had the enclosure, knobs and everything else setup for this well before I built the circuit. That means I didn't put it in my test box and test it before wiring it up. Nope, this one waited around a few days until I felt I gave enough of a damn to do wiring, my nemesis! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I HATE WIRING! It's a crucial part of every build, obviously, but it's also the one that gives me the most stress. Sure, I've done it many, many times before, but it's still the gateway that stands between myself and having a completed, new guitar pedal. As such, I hate it.

Once all was said and done I'm glad I used an external presence control on my Prince of Tone. With the internal presence adjusted and the clipping diode switched flipped, I chose to keep the yellow channel as an edge of breakup crunch/boost and the red channel I put on the hard clippers and let it ride. I did swap out the normal gain control on the red channel for a 250k. Whether that's actually how the "high gain mod" works or not, I don't know. It doesn't matter as what's done is done. The red channel gets really heavy distortion, especially when I hit it with the yellow channel.

So now we ask ourselves: Does it sound at all like a real King of Tone? I'm going to finally take a stand and say, no. I highly doubt this thing sounds like a true King of Tone. I know, I ask myself the same question with every single circuit I build, and my extremely unscientific testing usually leads me to believe they're all good enough, and they are. This one however, I just wouldn't say it's got what a King of Tone offers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disappointed by it. There's nothing wrong with the layout, or the circuit, or the build, it's just the fact that this one, while I do like it, doesn't seem to react like a true King of tone.

There are a TON of variables when it comes to this pedal though. Maybe I've not got the presence set like what I'm hearing elsewhere. Maybe they're using different op-amps. Maybe their clipping diode settings are different. Who knows. Maybe it could be dialed in. Regardless, it's another build down and that means only three builds left. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I added another build to the list, in addition to Experiment 64. I always wanted to try a Timmy or Jan Ray, but my parts bin disagreed. As a nice compromise I decided I would build a Lightspeed clone. A good transparent overdrive, without all the fluff that the Timmy or Jan Ray throw in the mix. With that added to the list I will have built a total of 68 projects. I need one more, and it needs to be something special. You know why!

Addendum

---

After fiddling, and doing the official Kali test, this pedal sounds really good. My initial tests are through a Noisy Cricket and a 4" speaker, so that has a lot to do with my original thoughts. However, this one, even with the treble trim pots turned all the way down, sounds pretty bright. Not terrible, but it's just brighter than I would normally like. I'm sure it will find it's place thought.

Pedal Experiment 64

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with a pedal build. Whether it be the number of components, or jumpers that I have to install, I tend to put it off for as long as I can until it can no longer be put off. With only three pedals left to build I did what I always do when I feel overwhelmed, I decided to throw something else together. Completely unplanned and spur of the moment I went through the layout websites and searched high and low until I finally found something I could put together quickly. Sometimes you just need that fresh shot of success juice to give you the confidence to take on that which overwhelms you. 

Since I'm all out of new stripboard I had to rummage through my scraps, but I did find a piece just big enough. All the resistors I had in stock, but when it came to capacitors I did use 150nf instead of the required 100nf, just to experiment. For potentiometers I used some experimental ones I had laying around with parallel resistors to adjust their values to suit the needs of other builds, when I didn't have the required value for those builds. For clipping diodes, well I decided four 1N5817s should do the trick. It only requires three for clipping, the fourth was polarity protection. And then the build required two transistors. Stock requirements are two MPSA 18s, of which I do not have. I went through my parts and found the highest gain little bastards I could find and those just so happened to be some reclaimed C1740s, they'll do!

Even though I already built one of these circuits earlier this year, I used a different layout and a completely different component set this time. I can't currently A/B them so I'm not sure how much of a difference the part selection has made, but I can say that this circuit sounds pretty good. I know I say that about almost everything I build, so take that for what it is. However, this circuit sounds similar to an op-amp overdrive even though it's just two transistors. That might be a clue as to what I built, because I'm pretty sure I said the same thing about the previous one I built. One of my initial concerns was the amount of bass due to the higher cap values, but after running this pedal through Kali (who is VERY sensitive to bass) I feel confident the amount of bass these caps might have added isn't going to overpower the ability for it to be removed somewhere else in the signal chain.

All things considered I'm impressed with the fact I can throw together a random selection of parts and get these results. Granted, this circuit was already known to work and sound good, but with my throwing things together that just felt so completely out of spec with what the original circuit calls for I was braced for complete and utter disaster. Since this is my 64th project build I named it Experiment 64. When I get the chance to A/B it with the stock version I will, but to my recollection I don't remember it being much different. Obviously I'm pretty sure there are going to be differences, and I still expect there to be a touch more bass, but which one sounds best, if they sound much different at all, remains to be seen.

Repeating Myself: Delay Pedal Build

One thing I said earlier this year, perhaps a few times, was that I wanted to step away from drive pedal builds and work on more things like reverb, delay and other styles of effects. While I have worked on other effects: two reverbs, two compressors, one tremolo, a few LM386 based power amps, an envelope filter and two inductorless Wahs, I somehow totally forgot to add a delay pedal to my list of builds for the year. My Disaster Transport Jr. clone has a bit of background noise that I need to address, but I love it. My super cheap ($8) Mugig Echooos delay pedal has been really awesome too, but something echoed (get it!?) in my head that I still need another delay pedal. Maybe more, but for now at least one more.

I still have a ton of resistors, transistors and capacitors, but potentiometers are starting to dry up, especially now that I can't put together quick orders from Tayda Electronics. I love you Tayda, but $20 shipping for $5 worth of parts just doesn't make sense. I know it's not your fault, I forgive you, I just hope one day soon I can order from you again. All that being said I need to check my potentiometer stock before I add anything to the build list, most of which gets kicked off due to the lack of one singular potentiometer. Oh, I know I can adjust the value of a potentiometer, but I prefer not to, because it doesn't always yield the correct results. This paragraph was a long way around in saying potentiometers are limiting my options for delay circuit builds.

Then it happened! I saw the layout for the Wampler Faux Analog Echo, and it was glorious! There was a problem though. I didn't have the 50k linear pots for the delay and level. Sooooooooo, I used 100k instead! What happened? It seems I might have a bit more delay time, and the level seems to get a bit cripsy on the very top end, so just don't crank the level all the way and that won't be an issue. Once it was built I tried to adjust the settings to the ones suggested in the manual for the real pedal and I wasn't far off. All the things the original pedal can do are in here, it just takes a little adjusting to find them. No problem.

With the Faux Analog Echo finished that makes my sixty-third completed build, twenty-ninth of the year and that leaves four projects left to build. I'm not saying I won't add more, it's just that's all I've got currently. Sadly I've procrastinated on some builds because they seem complex and I'm not wanting to screw them up, so I figured I better screw them up last, you know? Hopefully that's not the case, but trust me, you'll know if I do. Or will you? Maybe, maybe not. Let's just all agree that the remaining builds will go well, and everything will be fine by the end of the build year. That's the spirit!

Making some hotcakes!

Someone very important to me frequently confessed her desire for hotcakes. She also said that she loved when I made her waffles for breakfast. I know there is a difference between hotcakes and waffles, but when I built a Crowther Hot Cake pedal clone called the FlapJack I named it Pao's Waffles, in her honor. I really like that pedal, but when I heard the Bluesberry mode on an actual Hot Cake, I decided it was time to build an actual Hot Cake clone, since I could never afford a real one (Sorry Paul!). The only issue was trying to find a layout that included the Bluesberry mod, which I eventually did. With the board cut, the parts packed and the soldering iron hot, it was time to bake some hotcakes.

The layout in question also included the option for the extra low frequency, which I simply omitted to save a capacitor and switch. All I wanted was a straight forward Hot Cake clone with Bluesberry mode. Initially my build had very low gain and some oscillation, but I knifed the cracks between the traces to make sure there weren't any solder bridges and that seems to have taken care of everything. Once everything was said and done I said what I always say about every pedal I build; I don't know how true this is to the original, but it sounds pretty good. Listening to youtube demos through headphones and comparing it to the circuit I just built by setting them the same isn't completely without faults, but it's gotten me close enough in almost every build so far.

I originally wanted to buy and build a Madbean Fritter/Short Stack because it's tiny enough to fit into a 1590a. This of course would be a joke about height at the expensive of said important person, for whom I would have built the pedal and gifted it to. At some point I'll compare Pao's Waffles with the Hot Cake clone and see which one I like best. Heck, they might actually be far enough apart that I like them both, and they might sound great stacked. More testing must be done, but later of course.

As we find ourselves almost in September I find myself with only a handful of projects left to do. Hopefully September's weather facilitates the ability to finish these builds, and leaves a little bit of time for me to work on a few of the pedals that didn't quite work out as I had hoped. If I accomplish all the projects I have ready to go I will have done thirty-three builds this year alone. That means hopefully I can focus on buying and building enclosures for all these circuits in 2024. We'll just have to see how that all works out.

Buy or Build?

The Behringer pedal line has intrigued me since I saw the NAMM 05 rundown. Back then their pedals looked exactly like Boss pedals, except in plastic enclosures, even down to the same color scheme. For obvious reasons things changed, and the (then) price point of $19.99 was amazing for any pedal, all things considered. So, recently I'm watching an Anderton's video and I saw them using a Behringer TO800, which we all know is a tube screamer derivative. I can not tell you how badly I wanted one of those pedals since I first saw it, but for one reason or another I never got around to actually purchasing one.

As it does, time passed and passed quickly, until we reached the year 2020, when I first started building pedals. My brother had just bought a Mooer Black Truck and wanted me to test it, which had its own version of a tube screamer built in. I really liked the Mooer Black Truck because it had pretty much all I needed in one little package, however it wasn't mine and I knew I couldn't keep it. Now we're in August of 2020, when my Dad gives me an old radio he had in the garage to tear apart. Inside I found an NEC 4558 and searched the internet to make sure that was essentially the same as the JRC4558 to build a tube screamer, which it is.

Now that I had the NEC 4558 the deal was sealed, I would build my own tube screamer clone. So I did, and it was pretty simple. Once it was all said and done I A/B'd it with the Mooer Black Truck and it was fairly close, if not a little bit warmer. For the longest time I was so proud of myself for building my own tube screamer, which was more complicated than a Bazz Fuss, but still not as complicated as the four Centaur clones I built. With my homemade tube screamer I didn't need the Behringer TS800, but I did buy the EQ700 and the digital reverb, which are fine pedals. Nothing to write home about, but they're not useless.

So now I look at wanting a pedal as a challenge to buy or build. Something like an EQ700, or Boss GE-7 might be difficult to build, although not impossible, but I would probably prefer to just go ahead and buy one. But, as my growing collection of built pedal circuits will show, when it comes to just about any other pedal out there that I want, if I can build it I most likely will. My collection is very drive heavy, but there are a few delays and reverbs in there, and up to now they're all pretty good. Even though I don't need a Behringer TS800, it's still such a good pedal.

Ideas, a Plan, Action and Results.

I know I've mentioned that one of the reasons why I started building pedals was to have pedals that help me sound like the guitarists I greatly enjoy. Such as my DOD 250 clone for Yngwie, Distortion Plus clone for Randy Rhoads, my Guv'nor clone for Gary Moore, and also a Bad Monkey clone for -- Gary Moore again. It's been widely known for a long time Gary used a Guv'nor for dirt through a Marshall Bluesbreaker, but that's only one aspect of his catalog of tone. For years I searched for photos of his pedalboard and only found tiny, 3 pixel images of someone's pedalboard, whether it was really his or not could never be verified. But that all changed recently.

Sadly, as most of you already know, Gary Moore passed away in February of 2011, and recently his estate started listing some of his gear for sale. Now, I couldn't even dream of being able to compete in those auctions, so I decided to collect the information and build clones of the pedals he used. One of the main things I noticed was Gary used a Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive. Thanks to the JHS Bad Monkey debacle earlier this year layouts for Bad Monkey circuits popped up everywhere. And so, it was simply a matter of putting the parts together, cutting the stripboard to shape, cutting the strips where needed and soldering everything up. Once all was said and done I now have a Bad Monkey clone, I've dubbed Mono Malo. To me it sounds like your run of the mill tube screamer derivative, but that's not a bad thing. It may not ever become my favorite overdrive, but it has its place in my collection.

With the Mono Malo out of the way I turned to my to do list and realized I'm almost out of projects to build this year, and it's only August! Admittedly I've been pushing back the projects I think will be the most problematic, or ruin my faith in building circuits, but that's the majority of what's left to build. I also noticed that the Bad Monkey clone was build number 59, meaning the next build would be my 60th, and it better be something special. With six project kits left to build, and a handful of ideas I want to put together but still haven't decided which I feel best suits me, I did some deep thinking. What project did I want to put together for the big 60? What project would I benefit most from putting together? Well, the answer to that is a modified Noisy Cricket circuit. I know, pretty bland for the 60th build, but it had to be built.

After building Buddy, my first Noisy Cricket MKII, I hatched a plan to build either a Ruby Tuby or some form of a Ruby amp to combine with an amp simulating preamp. The preamp really wouldn't do me much good if I built it first, although it wouldn't be useless, so I did a lot of research into what would be the best option as the power amp for my project. I've read through so many forums and Reddit posts that I became jaded by the whole idea. Nothing seemed to be what I needed, until my brain took control and decided to modify the Noisy Cricket MKII circuit. I eliminated the grit switch, gain control and chose which capacitor I wanted to add to the circuit, thus eliminating the bass switch. The only control I left was the volume, and that's where the problem seems to be. I fully understand the Noisy Cricket isn't going to be a Marshall Plexi full stack cranked to 11, not even close, but for some reason this new build is lacking volume compared to Buddy. It functions as I wanted, it's pure clean power all the way to 100% on the volume, it's just not putting out as much volume as I wish it would.

All that being said, I'm twenty-six builds in for this year, with five kits still left to built (two of which still need some parts but otherwise ready) and two projects that might end up blending into the same one, I'm not sure yet. I've always wanted a Boss HM-2 clone but I'm having a hard time deciding which layout gets me where I want to be. So, much like the power amp I could never find a satisfactory solution for, I might just have to throw things together and see how it does or doesn't work out. The Bad Monkey is a good overdrive and I'm glad I built it. The modified Noisy Cricket works, it's just not as loud as I wish it was. Now I have no more excuses to put off building the preamp and putting them together to troubleshoot any issues that may arise from there.

More Progress

Progress, progress, progress, that's what's been going on lately, if you asked. The pedal building season has hit a high point in that I've finally built the Melter clone. It's been planned and ready to go, including the enclosure, since before the 2023 season started. I decided to go with a 125B sized enclosure on this one and since it's the only 125B enclosure I have I've been using it to decide what enclosure to buy for a couple of other projects as I built them. I knew if I completed the Melter clone the enclosure wouldn't be available for me to use as a guide anymore, so I put it off until I couldn't put it off any more, and I'm fucking stoked that it's finally built.

I've chosen to refer to mine as the Bleep Bleep Melter, but it is based on the Pussy Melter pedal which was formerly promoted by Satchel from Steel Panther. Then it was changed to the Butthole Burner, which also seemingly dropped off the map, and from there I'm not sure if it went anywhere under a different name or not. In keeping with the original motif of the pedal this is a clone of I chose pink on pink with a bright pink LED. The enclosure was a much lighter pink on the website I ordered it from, but once I had it I couldn't use it for anything else. To be perfectly honest I love it!

It's really a damn good distortion that's smooth and harmonically rich. This circuit actually urges me to play faster because notes sound so good at a higher speed. Admittedly I've lost my dexterity over the years but even so playing at higher speed sounds so good through this distortion. Pinch harmonics and just squeals in general sound really good through this distortion too! It's also another one of my favorite circuits in the fact that it allows you to take all the distortion away and just it as a clean boost. You have control of the Distortion, Volume, Bass, Treble and there is even a switch in the middle that allows for added distortion, which really isn't needed but it's there anyway.

All season I've built circuits, dropped them into test boxes and once they've passed the Kali test I pack them away to await their enclosures at a later date. Since the Bleep Bleep Melter was all ready to go, this meant it was the first pedal this season I had to wire up completely. I had forgotten how frustrating wiring up an entire enclosure was, but I'm glad I suffered through and made it happen. In a way all the frustration was paid off with the confidence boost of having done it right, and the fact I have a really awesome 80's distortion pedal. As the building season still has at least a few months left in it I find myself running out of projects to build. I currently only have five kits that I've put together and four that I've yet to put kits together for. I'm really excited about a single project that puts combines two of those kits together. Hopefully soon I'll be able to reveal whether that was a success or failure.

Determination

In my previous entry I mentioned starting my July builds late, July 25th to be exact. My plan for the year was to only build a few pedals, but ideas kept coming to me and thus I kept building pedals. That caused the plan to change to one build per week, which was going great until weather stopped permitting me to get outside and solder. Here we are on the first of August and I did manage to shoehorn four builds into the final days of July. I don't like build dates being so close together, especially building one pedal per day back to back, but I made it happen.

On the 25th I built the Landgraff Dynamic overdrive clone, on the 28th I built the Engineer's Thumb compressor, which I'll get more into in just a moment, on the 30th I built a Krank Distortus Maximus clone and on the 31st I built an Ibanez MT10 Mostortion clone. I know, I said a long time ago I didn't need more drive/distortion pedals, and here I am building three within a week. The only circuit I'm disappointed in is the Engineer's Thumb. Ideally my desires were to build a Keeley Compressor Plus analog, because I'll never be able to afford the real pedal, but only after I built the Engineer's Thumb did I realize this circuit wasn't going to even come close.

I've done enough troubleshooting and Googling on the Engineer's Thumb that I can officially say I'll most likely never use this circuit. I searched many of the issues I'm having and found many forum posts from others having the same issues. Most of the replies simply stated "Yep! That's how it works! Like it or don't!", and I am here to tell you I don't. I've had to rebuild pedals from the ground up, I still have pedals from last year that don't even work, but I've never felt like I've been utterly and royally fucked by any circuit I've built aside from the Engineer's Thumb. Again, most of that is due to the fact I could research what any given pedal sounded like before I chose to collect the parts and cut the stripboard for the build.

Now, as far as the successful builds, they're awesome. The Krank Distortus Maximus is a really good distortion with a lot more range than I thought. I assumed it would be balls to the wall distortion all day long, and while it is, it can also be dialed back to a really nice overdriven tone as well. The Landgraff Dynamic overdrive is pretty much the exact same, with less gain on tap. The Ibanez MT10 is also pretty much the same, but with maybe a slight bit less gain on tap than the Krank clone.

So I guess it can be said that three out of four isn't bad. I just hate to feel like I wasted the parts building the Engineer's Thumb, but I really do feel like I wasted the parts building the Engineer's thumb. My Orange Squeezer clone sounds great, the Really Cheap Compressor sounds great, but the Engineer's Thumb has such a limited use on the Ratio and Threshold controls and if they're both in the wrong position it's distortion city, but no matter what I simply don't hear compression at all. Maybe I'll keep the circuit around as a warning to my future self.

A Small Pitfall of Pedal Building and Assorted Bullshit

It's been a month since my last entry, mainly because of uncooperative weather. June 25th we had (another) series of tornados, which isn't as fun as the Discovery Channel makes it out to be. Since then July has been a month of confused and confusing weather. What might start off as a nice day quickly turns into a potential thunderstorm, or vice versa. Needless to say my once a week pedal build schedule was utterly and royally screwed. So I've decided to cram three builds into the final week of July, just to get some July builds done.

The first build of July was a circuit I tacked on to the already massive list of builds, which is a Landgraff Dynamic overdrive clone. I was unfamiliar with it until I came across the layout, so I decided to throw it together. Turns out, it's actually really good. It's a pretty wide range overdrive with a lot of hidden tones inside. The second build, well that was one I was super excited about that turned into a bit of a pile of shit, at least for now.

The second build of July is an Engineer's Thumb compressor. I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, but the site this particular layout came from is frustrating because the creator likes components to be soldered in standing up to save board space rather than laying them down like every other layout site. I've used quite a few of their layouts, so I can't complain it's just frustrating to make things fit the way I like them to fit is all.

This second build, aside from being frustrating to construct, has made it dawn on me just how frustrating even a completely accurate build can be assessed once it's complete. With the Landgraff Dynamic overdrive I have plenty of internet videos to refer back to and see if my pedal reacts similarly to the video demonstration. However, something like the Engineer's thumb compressor doesn't have quite as much exposure, so a few things that initially made me think the build was completely wrong, are actually supposed to be that way.

For example, there is a ratio control which acts as a blend for the clean and compressed signal. With the ratio control at 0 I believe it's pure clean signal, and unless the volume output control is nearly maxed the volume is nowhere near unity with the pedal being turned off. Once you begin to add in the compressed signal the volume gradually gets quite a bit louder. I would have never known this, unless I found a singular video demonstration of the circuit where the person in question had to have the volume maxed to be unity with the affect being off.

Now, that's not to say I haven't made any mistakes, because I did. I originally had the input cap one spot too high and there was no sound coming through at all. Once that was fixed I continued troubleshooting, but as I previously said I have no guide on how this pedal should react so I'm going purely on what I expect from the pedal, which only makes troubleshooting more frustrating than needed. This is no one's fault, it's just a collective lack of knowledge on any given circuit and its characteristics makes troubleshooting more work.

All that said I'm still not sure this Engineer's Thumb build is living its full potential, but I've seen enough confirmations that this layout works, so I take full responsibility for it not working correctly, if it doesn't. For now I'm going to be putting it into the pile of circuits that need to be looked over and maybe even completely rebuilt, and move on to the third and final build of the month, which if weather cooperates will be put together on one of the final days of July. Then August's builds will start!