Topics

Welcome friends, in this week's journey to the Roland laboratories we are taking a detour from the main attractions that are modulation, delay and distortion and visiting the confusing, overlooked and often hated land of compression. I'm going to be honest, having heard people say years ago that the boss compressors suck, and the CS-3 inferior to the CS-2, I dismissed it and never gave it a chance. I simply never even bothered to plug into one...until now.
Compression pedals are often touted as noisy. Incorrect, they are doing their job by raising the noise floor in your shitty rig and making you self aware of the noise, static and emf that lives in your walls, your gear and the air around your pickups. The CS-3 is not any noisier than any other comp pedal. So what sets this one apart from other pedals? It's VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) and one of only a few diy VCA based comps. Most people are used to one of three types of comp pedals: the ota based (dyna, Ross), jfet (orange squeezer) or optical (diamond, EQD warden). Unlike many of these, this is a hard knee compressor and is very even in response. It's like the best vanilla pudding you have ever had.
I was surprised by this because everyone says it's noisy, and I did not experience this, but then this project uses quieter opamps and tighter spec lower noise passive components so I guess that helps too. The VCA chip give a nice even response when playing, and while a hard knee gives more of a limiting response the attack knob will preserve the initial transient response. Unlike a lot of other compressors I can get real sustain on a clean tone, and the addition of the tone knob is a feature I wish more comps had. Like any comp it's more about feel than sound. With the four knobs I can really get whatever sound/feel I'm looking for from subtle to full squash.
I went with a matte white tayda enclosure and UV print. For the Oracle name I went with Elizabeth Braddock aka Psylocke for her precognition powers. Overall, a great build that's low cost(I used the coolaudio vca) and low parts count and gave me a pedal I wish I would have tried years ago. If you like comp pedals and wanna try something different than the standard diy fare then I highly recommend this project.

Yeah, I know...I can hear the collective moan as eyes roll in the back of their heads, Chris is posting another build reports of a stupid pedal that no one cares about with another stupid marvel character and a long boring write up. Happy New Year everyone 😂.

This is my second blueshift build. I took what I learned from the last one I did nearly 3 years ago and tried to do it it better. I put more time and effort into getting this one cleaner and with better attention to detail. If you are going to build this then take your time, check every part before soldering and please follow the build doc. I would not want to have to troubleshoot this. I didn't do my standard all white wiring because there are way to many wires for that here. I tried to keep everything as clean with regards to the wiring as possible. By color coding everything the way I did, I made it easier for future Chris should he need to replace the footswitch or make repairs in the future.

It's not the cheapest build. It's probably gonna be around 100 bucks to build. Still cheaper than a used unit. It's also a fully stereo analog chorus, which is really rare in diy. The stereo spread in this is something special. What makes this different from other analog chorus pedals? The build doc breaks it down great. "The DC-2 is different from other choruses in that there are actually two clock+BBD pairs, each powered by either the inverted or non-inverted output of a single LFO. These BBDs then modulate the dry signal so that signal "A" reaches its maximum delay time when signal "B" reaches its minimum and vice versa as they criss-cross back and forth. The average remains constant between the two signals and only the space between the two signals is modulated. The DC-2's effect is often referred to as motionless because it doesn't have the signature "warble" or unsteadiness of a traditional chorus with a single BBD."

Unlike the original that had just 4 radio buttons, using 3 switches, we now have 7 possible presets instead of 4. How's it sound? AMAZING! It's the often described as the chorus for people who don't like chorus. It's hard to describe it without being cliche. You really have to be in front of it to appreciate how great it sounds, especially in stereo. If you like stereo chorus then you should definitely build this. With only 7 sounds possible, none of the sounds are bad, just less or more of a great thing. Calibration is easy with a scope or just by setting setting the voltage of the test points for each BBD to 3.4v.

You may notice I don't have the mounting screw on the front. I went a different route to free up the enclosure face for my graphics. Instead of the screw thru the face, I used a jb weld stick to attach the hex standoff to the enclosure. I didn't get a picture because after it cured I didn't take it apart and decided to start wiring everything. I really wanted a light violet color box but tayda has been out of that color for a long time and I went with violet. For the graphics I went with America Chavez, the dimension hopping hero who punches star shaped portals. If you're still here then I hope you enjoyed the write up and pictures. It's a great project for many reasons and a really inspiring effect.

On this installment of Boss's blasts from the past, we have the ubiquitous yellow overdrive...the other tube screamer, the SD-1. The SD-1 is IMO the superior tube screamer, especially with humbuckers.

Unlike the TS, the SD-1 has Asymmetrical clipping like a tube amp. The smooth symmetrical clipping is part of the reason I dislike a stock TS, it sounds and responds so unnatural. The Asymmetrical clipping gives the texture of the drive more character, openness and more dynamics. The SD-1 has a broader range of gain available, more volume on tap to be used as a clean boost, and the added high end presence makes it less dull sounding and better suited to darker voiced guitars and amps. It has to my ears more bass response as well.

For the enclosure I went with a yellow tayda enclosure and UV printing. For the horde howler name, I went with Jack Russell aka the werewolf by night. While I know it's not as cool to play this circuit when everyone wants the new boutique clones with more clipping options and a more full frequency response, but those are more for low volume bedroom players. If you play a blackface amp, play live at high volumes or want to simply tighten up a high gain amp I highly recommend the SD-1, it's a classic for a reason.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

In this week's installment of the Boss blasts from the past, we stroll down memory lane to revisit the DM-2. If there were a Mount Rushmore of analog delay pedals, you can pretty much guarantee that the DM-2 would have it's mug on it. I've built a couple of these and sold them because I either wanted to build something else and got a good price for it, or I was disillusioned that there was something better I should build. So here I am building my last stock DM-2 and keeping this one.

The DM-2 is darker than the EHX DMM, but that's not a bad thing. The DMM is great for certain types of delay with it's brighter and cleaner repeats, but the DM-2 has this unique ability to not compete with the original signal like brighter delays. The DM-2 has a way of sitting just below the note and being darker melds with driven tones in a way that is very warm and unintrusive. This is a great delay for slapback to medium length delays. For lead lines it adds a wonderful thickness to fill out solos and add spatial dimension. And no pedal does the runaway spaceship oscillating like the DM-2. Nobody.

This build was a byproduct of some wonderful help from the pedal building community, shout-out to destro and zombie rock123. What started out as a feeler for some mn3101s ended up with this board that was partially populated. I removed the handful of components and started fresh. It's an uncomplicated build with really minimal calibration. Simply set the clock frequency and bias the BBD for no clipping.

I went with a Viola pink tayda enclosure with UV printing. For artwork I used Triton of the inhumans. I reused my graphic from the low tide I sold long ago. I really like that image and felt it was really fitting here. All in all a quick easy build that would be a great intro and confidence booster for someone looking to dip a toe in BBD delays. Now to catch a ride on this spaceship off this dumpster fire of a planet😤.

I want to preface and say that I apologize if you find my build reports as of late to be wordy, it's not my intent to ramble but I don't find one sentence very helpful. I also do not want to pretend I write for a food blog and describe a pedal as delicious or tasty, also not very helpful.

This pedal was one that I was always on the fence about building. It wasn't really on my radar as I felt it was a one trick pony. I don't play swedish death metal and every demo that you hear is THAT sound. It never really sounded good in demos, especially in isolation. There are two main reasons I built this pedal. One is @Harry Klippton , the master of the HM-2 has built a couple of these and has two originals and his praise was enough for me to give it a try. Two, I don't see a lot of build reports for this. It sells, I see troubleshooting threads, but not many build reports. So, I had to build one to assess for myself.

Pedalpcb was I believe at the time this project was originally released, the only other person besides byoc to offer a board for this project. Now Aion does as well but this is a much better layout. Props for using modern easily accessible components as well, unlike byoc who makes you look for hard to find expensive and inferior sip opamps. Also, this was possible thanks to Will coming in clutch with the 1.5uf cap😘. As usual with a ppcb project, the build was simple and smooth, so nothing new there. So how does it sound?

It's decedent 🤣. This is not the one trick pony I hear in every video on YT. It's far more versatile than I imagined. The gain range, while not having the widest range, is fine for a distortion that is made for metal. It can do some excellent med gain type sounds as well, but no one is building this for classic rock. As Will said, it's ragged but cuts. This is spot on. It's heavy and chugs in the bottom end but it's not blown out, and the mids are very cutting giving it a very pronounced EQ to sit in a mix. The gyrator EQ section is brilliant in execution, whoever designed this knew what they were doing. If I had to describe it I would say it's like a DS-2 with balls. Credit to @Paradox916 for his Photoshop skills.


For my enclosure I went with a matte black tayda enclosure with UV printing. My color scheme is based on the classic HM-2 palette. My inspiration for the artwork is a play off the promethium name. @peccary and I were discussing our love of ancient Greek, Roman and Norse mythology and riffing on the the tales of Promethium, the god of fire. I chose the skull of Surtur, a fire god in Norse mythology and the bringer of Ragnarok in the third Thor movie. I used the Thor Ragnarok font as well to tie it all together. Overall I'm really happy with the end result and see lots of use out of this pedal. The quick sound clip is from the pedal's POV and shows one of my favorite settings. Also in the clip is a future build report that I was testing with the pedal. For reference, the pedal is going into my blackface set clean with my HB SG.

TL DR, this pedals Fux and you should build it.

On this week's edition of my Boss Pedals journey I take a trip down memory lane and revisit my old friend the CE-2. About 25 years ago (now I feel old AF) I got my first legit CE-2. A beat up used mid 80s find in a mom and pop store (Joe's Music) that was cheap as these were plentiful and often discarded to newer toys. Like many treasures of the past I succumbed to temptation and sold it to fund an amp. Over the years I've built a many chorus pedals and a handful of them were CE-2s. The last one being a Cesar chorus which I ultimately set to sound like a stock CE-2.
So, I set out to build a bone stock clone, and this will be my last one. A simple and clean build, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. How does it sound? Like a CE-2  . The circuit has been synonymous with chorus and the 80s guitar sound. It's a middle of the road chorus that never gets extreme. Compared to it's contemporary the Small Clone, it doesn't get that deep wobbly out of tune sound with exaggerated speeds. Unlike EHX, Boss pedals usually color inside the lines.
For the enclosure I used a matte light blue tayda enclosure with UV printing. Standard Boss style knobs. for the artwork I used the new and lesser known character Wave, who is also one of the first Filipino heros. Simple all black design because I like to go minimal or all out, no in-between. If you want a chorus but don't want crazy or know where to start then build a CE-2, you can't go wrong.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

While working on all these boss pedals I put together an sd-1 and began to ponder every decision I've ever made...why the hell did I use the TS over the sd-1 all these years??? I haven't played an sd-1 since the 90s and I wish I could go back and tell past Chris to get rid of the TS.
       The Hawkeye drive started when I asked @storyboardist why he did have a combo Rat/TS board. like millennials do, he memed my ass and after some good lulz we whipped up a custom drill template and the fun began. The builds were simple enough with low parts counts and I used all generic non mojo parts to prove it sounds exactly the same. OP07 opamp, generic 4148 diodes and 5088 transistors. I have TH jfets but am using smd jfets if the board has the footprint for them. Props to David for always making great layouts that are super flexible tone wise. So how's it sound? It rips. Classic tones, all killer no filler.
     I had the idea of doing a Hawkeye theme and having the SD-1 side as Barton and the Rat side being Ronin but thought about it and decided to change the SD-1 to Bishop and reworked my whole design. My buddy Nick said he likes the 60s Bond look of the silhouette and I knew it was a winner if he approved. Matte violet tayda 1590BB2 and UV print. Don't sleep on the SD-1, the Rat or this combo.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

This week's build reports in my boss collection comes by way of Aion and is the emerald phaser and is a clone of the ph1-r phaser. The ph1-r is in a lot of ways the evolution of the phase 90 4 stage jfet phaser. I have been using ota phasers for years and I revisited the phase 90 earlier this year and built one with many of the features that this circuit features. I like 4 stage phasers. 2 is too subtle for me, more an on/off switch. 6 or more stages is too synthy for my taste, so this one works well for me.
I like having the depth to control the width of the phasing and the resonance knob can add the feedback of the output back into the input and can make it more dramatic or subdued depending on the the mood you want to set. The range of the speed knob is broader than a phase90 but not as extreme as a small stone. A very versatile phaser. One common complaint of the ph1-r like the phase90, is the perceived volume jump caused by the mixing of the dry and wet signals at the output stage This is made more apparent with higher resonance settings, as the higher peaks will drive the output more. This is handled with the volume knob. Full CW is the stock setting and rolling back will attenuate the volume to unity depending on what settings you have.
The build itself was simple and straightforward. I decided to order the matched set of jfets because I did not want to go thru all my smd jfets. Word of advise to anyone who builds this, watch the mounting of jfet adapter boards to the main board as there is a 100n cap under them. I like things neat and clean so I addressed this with headers and angled pins to clear the cap and keep everything lined up. This is also the cleanest wiring I have done on an Aion build and will do it this way from here on out. I went with a lawn green tayda enclosure and UV print. Instead of doing the typical green characters I went down the road less traveled and used Dr. Theodore "Ted" Sallis aka the Man-Thing.
If you're looking for a smooth versatile jfet phaser that has more options and tones than the typical phase90 then this is a great project you should check out.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Here is this week's build reports, albeit a few days early in honor of the American holiday of Thanksgiving where we lie to ourselves about the pilgrims and native Americans playing nice in the sandbox after landing on fragle rock . So here is my next entry in the BOSS tribute.
I gotta give props to ppcb for his implementation of the momentary ramp feature. Having built the byoc version, like the original boss pedal, it is not intuitive to have to choose between ramp and normal operation. This is smooth as silk and elevates the pedal to something that can be a mainstay on a pedalboard and not just an occasionally used effect.
The build is simple enough to put together as the boards require no low profile electros or special components, again fantastic design choice. Calibration was easy. I set the clock frequency to 120khz. If using a metal bezel like I did then ream out the plastic led holder to accommodate the common cathode red/green led. I went with a blue tayda enclosure with Daisy Johnson aka quake. I used some tricks I learned from Nick aka SYLV9ST9R for stacking and merging images to make it look like she's walking over the VIIB text. Sounds fantastic and gives a lovey movement to clean playing when used subtly and the ramp is great for faux vibrato bar wiggle. Highly recommended.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

The past couple months have been tough. A death in the family, lots of health problems with family, a personal crisis and work related pain. To battle seasonal, holiday and clinical depression I decided to embark on a side quest and start a new personal build collection.
I'll preface this by saying that long before I fell in love with vintage EHX circuits, I was a BOSS fanboy. Like many of us many of my first pedals were boss pedals because the were cheap, indestructible and everywhere. This collection will contain pedals I've have previously owned, could not find or became too expensive to try. The first up is the fraud hacker
The fraudhacker is a BF-2 flanger. I have a soft spot for this pedal as it's the first flanger I got back in 93. Like an idiot I sold my original early 90s pedal around 2002 when the boutique phase hit and BOSS wasn't cool anymore to the masses (thanks TGP). Sonically I would describe it as the middle ground between the DEM and MXR flanger. A very versatile flanger that can do warm, metallic, chorus and jet plane tones.
The build and biasing itself was very straightforward and simple. I got the nos 3207/3102 from @blackhatboojum in a trade at the beginning of the year and was saving them for the right project. The literal fraud and hacker Mysterio, UV printed on a matte Violette enclosure. Sorry for the long post. TLDR it's a great sounding flanger and if you are in the market to build one you can't go wrong with a BF-2. Thanks for another fantastic project Brian!

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Once again, the Madbean forum has proved it has the best people on the net. The most helpful, giving and friendliest group and I'm glad to be a part of it. That is all, carry on.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I'm getting back into recording and want to upgrade from my old presonus 3.5" monitors to something better and bigger. I've always heard KRK rokit 5s. the newer G4 series has a lot of nice features and the rokits have always had a reputation for good sound and bang for the buck. Any suggestions, or anyone use rokits? My budget will be between 150 and 200 per monitor.

Wish this was available again so others could build it. This is THE diy tremolo pedal IMO. Just so many great sounds. Perfectly match the jfets and LEDs. The harmonic is fantastic but I usually just use it in standard mode.
   The enclosure is a red UV printed tayda. I tried to do a stylized minimalist design that was different from my normal designs, and I think it turned out ok. If you ever see a board pop up used or it gets reissued jump on it.


Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

No this is not a LOTR themed pedal, although as a massive Tolkien fan since I was about 10 years old, middle earth themed pedals was my back up to Marvel. After a conversation with @benny_profane this became a necessity and headed to my board.
We all know what the DMM is and what it does. THE analog delay, the king of BBD. No mods, 24v center positive, all killer no filler. I measured 8 different 100kb pots to get a 100.8k resistance for the maximum delay time with minimal noise. Got it dialed in and it's sounding lush and super quiet on long repeats. It's a tight build with not a lot of room to work with. I went with true bypass wiring instead of the stock wiring because I didn't want the preamp active at all times.
I managed to fit it in a tayda 1590BB2 by adjusting the drill template for the jacks. UV print on matte black with my boi Loki the wielder of the mind stone. I have one more build in the queue so hopefully soon I can get to that as well.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Around a year ago I asked Dan Schumacher to make me. Board with the 3 drive pedals that live on my board. I play mainly fender single coil guitars into a blackface amp on the edge of breakup so these are my favorites for getting the best drive sounds with lush cleans. The Kline is the boost, the rat is the distortion and the TS (based on the dunes with just the mid hump setting fixed) to push the rat.
I finally got around to boxing it up and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It sounds like you would imagine, everything from light.drive to face melting liquid sex lol. I originally titled it the big three as I had plans of using Iron Man, Thor and Cap as the graphics but could never settle on something. I tossed around lots of ideas and came up with the idea of Moon knight, because having three personalities I could assigning each circuit to the personality with the matching aggression. The Rat also has a Russian military equivalent of the LM308 I got from my buddy Drew at Daddy daughter pedal works. A very clean and minimalist UV print on a matte white enclosure.




Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 Two good people who are both really cool people that are supportive, generous and genuine dudes as well as great builders had holes in their pedal collection. I'm the type of person who likes to make people pedals just because. @Paradox916 has never played an OTA phaser, so made him my favorite one. @blackhatboojum doesn't have a big muff so I had to make him the best version of one. I hope they enjoy them and see lots of use because no one is more deserving of it than these two fine individuals. No mods, stock circuits, UV prints from tayda and lots of love

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I'm not one to rest on my laurels. Ever have builds you loved to play but you felt you could do better, you didn't want to settle for less, settle for mediocrity and strip them down, rewire, reimagine and fall in love with them all over again? I'm that guy. Here is a fresh new set of rebuilds.

No demos again. Lot of stuff going on, it's not really conducive with everything going on. So I have 3 builds here. First up is a V1 small stone phaser. I've now built all 3 versions from lectric-fx. Version 2 and 3 are closer in tone to each other imo. V1 has a different LFO and the shape of the phasing is much different sounding to me. Ben Grimm on matte orange enclosure.


Next is the Bassballs dual filter. This is a wild sounding filter. Some cool sounds if you want to experiment with a different type of filter. Although billed as a bass effect it also sounds cool on guitar. Mashup of original graphics with cannonball symbol on yellow tayda enclosure.


Last up is the Doctor Q envelope filter. A bare bones filter with just a sensitivity knob. The bass switch is kinda pointless except on low sens. settings on bass. Internal range trimmer for set and forget. I decided to bypass the input buffer and diode mods and go straight vintage spec, hence the missing components. Board is called doctor quack so I had to do Howard the duck on matte dark grey enclosure.

Don't like 1590a builds? Me neither. Like simple boosts? Yeah, I do too. The power boost is a simple lpb-1 based on the Madbean donut. I wanted to build one but I had a really hard time finding an lpb-1 in a 125b format and I didn't want to do Vero, and I was chatting with my guy David of effectslayouts and he said say no more fam. He made this layout for me to fab boards. It was a nice surprise and a lovely gesture, one of many reasons I love the diy community. I based my design on a lesser seen version of the original unit. The colors came out great on this tayda UV print. Power Man aka Luke Cage is the power booster lol. No demo because it's a boost people, it makes things louder or more compressed. Also Im getting over covid so loud noise makes my head hurt worse. The members of the illuminati and a select group of others will be getting one of these boards to build.

First off, let me say this is a fantastic project. Kudos to Brian for a fantastic layout and build doc and Benny profane for his help in the calibration write up. Top notch all the way. This went together fast and without a hitch...well just one. I opted to use the optional speed pot instead of the switch. I had an LFO tick and it turns out the wires to the speed pot were too long and amplifying the signal elsewhere, I made them as short as possible and problem solved. Calibration was fast and pretty much down the middle  for each trimmer. The sound...classic DMM in a 125b. What's not to love here. For the enclosure I tried the new metallic silver that tayda is offering and I really like it, it's got a nice semi-gloss sheen that's not too reflective. Kang the conqueror is a man of space and time and perfect for this build. Obligatory glamour shots and video clip showing one of my favorite ways to use the memory man. I plan on doing the negative ground edition as well and running them side by side for a shorter and longer setting. Jump on this people, it's legit and it f*cks.