Geez... AND you used full sized electrolytics! Zen master you are.

FAVORITE.

I've gotta get my Lunar Module working...

KILLER idea putting the inverter board on the 3PDT board...

Those Bare Box builds look great!!

My my my... this is awesome. And an effect I think I'd actually USE.... ooo the possibilities...

Bean, I know you're out of the cloning game, but are there any chances you might make a board for this?

 

This is one of those reports that makes me want to build a pedal that, prior to seeing it, I had no interest in building. Excellent work!

My favorite thing about this pedal is how good the control layout is. I had difficulty getting only 9 controls to work on an enclosure half again as big as this, and somehow this STILL looks like it's easier to twist the knobs without knocking something else out.

The ironic part is that the only real logic that I employed while arranging the controls was trying to make sure the artwork still showed through adequately 

Dammit thats shiny! Is the top envirotex? Looks great!

ok, I mistook the grey part in the corners for glare. Beautiful build nonetheless. Also "balsiness" is a very important charicteristic of good tone.

Haha, I do believe that is indeed glare, but I haven't graduated to envirotex yet. I use this stuff with pretty good results:

Did you use a Road Rage for the 18v?  I think your control layout is one of the best dual pedal layouts I've seen. Flows seemlessly between the two, I really like the looks of it.
-Josh

I did! The RR boards are quite convenient. Thanks for the kind words... the Prince Albert is pretty much already arranged due to the board mounted pots, so I just tried to mirror that with the Grapevine side.

Every time I look at the gut shot, I can't help but chuckle at how clean the wiring is on the PA side (board mounted pots, no switches, no charge pump) compared to the GV side (the opposite on all counts).

After having these two fine circuits sit on my bench for considerably longer than they deserve, I finally found time to rig them up the way I'd always wanted. This is a dual drive consisting of the MadBean Grapevine in the first stage and Raulduke's wonderful Prince Albert circuit in the second. The Grapevine is rigged with an optional 18v switch, which I highly recommend with that circuit - you get a considerable gain in headroom and overall ballsiness. (Yes, "ballsiness" is a tone term. It should also be noted that the spell correct did not flag it as "not a word") I did not add an 18v option to the PA side, as headroom isn't really an issue there.

Hooked up with my Strat, I was able to dial in some pretty neat sounds with the PA side - it adds a good deal of warmth and bottom end to the sound... nice, chunky midrange in that thing. The EQ controls are interesting... the bass and mid controls, at least to my ears, are more dramatic than the treble, which was subtle at best. I tested through a Chieftain and a Super Reverb with similar results.

This morning I decided to plug in my Les Paul. Holy mother. Yep, that's where this thing shines. I'm a Strat guy at heart and no stranger to dialing in single coils, but this thing just flat out works magic with 'buckers. I was able to nail the Jimmy Page thing (as you would expect), but also managed to push it into high gain territory and get some stellar results.

Final note: the Grapevine side of this was my first Madbean build EVER. It didn't work for over a year because I had D1 in backwards. By the time I figured that out, I had ravaged the board for parts and wasn't sure if it would even function anymore. Nevertheless, I built it back up and it fired on the first try. So... my first build is finally done!    This build was, in part, inspired by midwayfair's "Build-a-versary" thread a month or two ago.

Where can i get one of those board? Layout is nice.

Give Chi_Boy a shout and see if he has any spares. He posted on this thread a little while ago.

Still time to enter that one I think.

Didn't even think about that. If I have time to bang out a video today I will. Easter weekend is a tad hectic for us church players... 

I gotta do it....

Now THERE'S some potential pedal artwork....

Thanks for the kind words friends! It was downright therapeutic to find a little time to build after a rather stressful month...

That is absolutely perfect, well almost... you should have used PIO caps or at least tropical fish ones, oh yeah and carbon comp resistors, and...  

Those aren't normal 1N5158s. They're special diodes made from silicon mined from the asthenosphere layer of the earth's crust, which has a mineral density that is the best for guitar tone. The leads on the diodes are actually titanium, which conducts .00002% better than copper, but requires a very expensive pair of snips to cut. Only I can get these diodes, by the way. 

I hear those fairy dust diodes are expensive

That's where the mojo is Jimi, in the unicorn tear diodes.

^ these guys know what I'm talking about.

Howdy friends!

Sorry for the two month hiatus. Life has been nutty, and pedal building has had to take a back seat lately. Nevertheless, I found some time this week to bang together this little beauty.

Hats off to Chi_Boy for the absolutely fantastic pcb. I built it to spec (socketed the diodes in case I get adventurous later) and I'm really quite impressed. The Bass knob is pretty crucial to tailoring the drive to whatever amp you happen to be using, and the clipping switching is nice. I find myself on the "Fairy Dust" setting more often than not. Sounded great through my Super Reverb, and absolutely killer through my Chieftain... I always liked the ZenDrive through the Chieftain, so I'm not surprised.

I was feeling particularly snarky the day I was putting the artwork together. It's sort of my own little tribute to TGP. 

Your supply will be just fine!

The only difference in this case is the way the cable is constructed.