For no apparent reasons, it turns out that i'm whoarding on EHX pedals, especially the BigBoxes and Vintage ones...
Truth be told, i've never been a huge fan of that company, it's probably the DIY that have made me love them or want to get into them more. Same goes for the BMP circuit, for many people it's the greatest dirt ever and i can understand that because i really dig that one especially since the whole Ultra workout... where i've come to know the circuit pretty well.
But main reason why i never been that much into dirt pedals is probably because of my background, coming from the extreme metal scene and have been playing in those type of bands for many years before, i never used stompboxes to create my distorted but rather high gain tube heads. Since i've started to build pedals my whole optic of that have changed a lot and i now crave for dirt pedals... probably because i'm not worried anymore of needing to have a sound than can effectively track 240bpm alternate picking...lulz.
So this week i've received 3 EHXs so i thought i'd took a group shot of what i have so far, mainly because i'll take a little break of purchasing EHX pedals for a little time, got plenty of them to work on DIY projects now :)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1966941_10152704117716944_1395672425229181009_n.jpg?oh=ca9a5dd02eeade42f8532d70f2430bab&oe=54927822&__gda__=1422719517_02620544714eb809c47464bf09f68a97)
Good score! It's a little ironic but back in the EHX peak (mid 70's) the common perception was they were cool cuz they were cheap but were not really gig ready unless you had two of them. I worked in a music store after high-school and can remember having cases of Small Stones and the failure rate was about 50% in the first month. We pretty much got used to replacing about 1/3 of the pedals we sold and banked on the other percentage trying to fight it out with EH. The construction was really a joke and by DIY standards would be "sub-noob".
Quote from: gordo on September 20, 2014, 08:22:22 PM
Good score! It's a little ironic but back in the EHX peak (mid 70's) the common perception was they were cool cuz they were cheap but were not really gig ready unless you had two of them. I worked in a music store after high-school and can remember having cases of Small Stones and the failure rate was about 50% in the first month. We pretty much got used to replacing about 1/3 of the pedals we sold and banked on the other percentage trying to fight it out with EH. The construction was really a joke and by DIY standards would be "sub-noob".
Yeah, this looks pretty bad: http://s1224.photobucket.com/user/jellyman5264/media/badstone-2.jpg.html
How did they make those PCBs? Old MXr boards look similar. The curvy lines look very unprofessional, but cool. But the line width seems too consistent to be done with a sharpie.
That looks about right. Funny how things have changed. Like what prompted them to do the lazy curves and weird placement back then?
Is it lazy or just a stylistic choice? MXR boards did the same thing, I think it looks cool. But the nasty globs of flux and messy wiring just look like all around lack of competence.
Quote from: gordo on September 20, 2014, 09:52:49 PM
That looks about right. Funny how things have changed. Like what prompted them to do the lazy curves and weird placement back then?
Speculation... etch resist may have been narrow tape and dry transfer pads, lazy curves would be determined by the bending limits of the tape. I have narrow tapes that are 15mil, 45mil & 1/16" wide, can only lay down lazy curves.
Love those harmonix boxes!
I have two from 77, bass balls and the small stone and would die for the memory man blue box, juat that one and I can be at peace
Quote from: mremic01 on September 20, 2014, 10:30:38 PM
Is it lazy or just a stylistic choice?
From what I've read, it's a stylistic choice. Those traces are hand-drawn, so the artists used a bit of flair. Also, right angles are generally "bad" in PCBs, so having curves removes the chance of it.
I think they look cool. Eagle actually lets you do curved traces, but I find it kinda hard to control.
Search for tektronix video of PCB manufacture. I posted this in open discussion a few days ago. They used to enlarge the PCB 4 times and use a grid over light box to lay down tape.
I took an imported an ExpressPCB layout into Inkscape and used that to give the layout some extreme curves. The actual pcb etch is much more conservative but the top is true to the functioning circuit.
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc305/davent/IMG_6562_zps46aaa287.jpg)
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc305/davent/IMG_6571_zps767c1744.jpg)
Quote from: culturejam on September 21, 2014, 12:14:20 AM
From what I've read, it's a stylistic choice. Those traces are hand-drawn, so the artists used a bit of flair. Also, right angles are generally "bad" in PCBs, so having curves removes the chance of it.
It bugs the OCD in me when I spot an unnecessary 90 degree turn in a track on one of my boards. "Crap... why didn't I miter that one?"
We need to combine forces Rej. Its addicting for sure.
Here is my group shot.
(http://music.codydeschenes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/camu_1.jpg)
Cody
^^ What is that Muff on the bottom right? Whoa.
Quote from: culturejam on September 21, 2014, 02:42:49 AM
^^ What is that Muff on the bottom right? Whoa.
Haha I always get asked that. It was a newer big muff I night from a dude that put a concert white stripes sticker on it. He cut the sticker to make it match. I just love how it looks factory. I call it the White Stripes Edition BMP. Lol
Cody
Quote from: gordo on September 20, 2014, 08:22:22 PM
Good score! It's a little ironic but back in the EHX peak (mid 70's) the common perception was they were cool cuz they were cheap but were not really gig ready unless you had two of them. I worked in a music store after high-school and can remember having cases of Small Stones and the failure rate was about 50% in the first month. We pretty much got used to replacing about 1/3 of the pedals we sold and banked on the other percentage trying to fight it out with EH. The construction was really a joke and by DIY standards would be "sub-noob".
A week ago I was modding a 2001-ish NYC Big Muff to take a regular sized DC jack, and I was marveling at how poorly constructed it was on the inside. The wiring was really sloppy, and the soldering wasn't great either. I'm not the best at clean wiring, but even my builds are neater than that!
Hopefully they've cleaned up their act a bit in the past 13 years.
I've got a Holy Grail and a Holy Grail Plus that I should probably poke around inside. The regular HG could use a 2.1mm DC jack, and the HG Plus never turns on the first time the switch is stomped. These would be great pedals, but EHX seems to miss the mark somewhere on almost every model.
I need to get out in the open air more. I caught myself thinking just now that the curved traces on the PCB look cute!
i have always been drawn to the ehx stuff .....and i cant explain it
mostly all that was available was boss or ehx.....
As many know... I find EHX addictive and am well versed in, I think there's 3 reasons for that. First the designers (Julia Truchess, Howard Davis are both fantastic, in fact I think Julia doesn't get enough credit, let alone the lesser known guys) they put out some incredible products. Second, the innovation, it continues to this day, but back then, damn... the attack decay!? It's not a great pedal but to do that all analog, and the guitar and micro synth (look in to the rack mount EHX guitar synth if you don't know it, i've heard one demo and seen the schematic... holy shit) the polyphase's envelope phasing, plus the basics and third, I admire in two ways the small box one switch/one pots like small clones and stones to medium boxes like the big muff and electric mistress to the big boxes like the deluxe memory man, design wise keeping the amount of controls restrained but still allowing those controls to reach some weird ass, even noisy (without caring that some wouldn't want those unrestricted) sounds.
I'll give them one more, build quality may not have always been 100% but a lot of those pedals are still going 40 years strong and they offer a bang for buck I don't think any of the other big guys matched.
Quote from: Scruffie on September 22, 2014, 12:16:54 AM
As many know... I find EHX addictive and am well versed in, I think there's 3 reasons for that. First the designers (Julia Truchess, Howard Davis are both fantastic, in fact I think Julia doesn't get enough credit, let alone the lesser known guys) they put out some incredible products. Second, the innovation, it continues to this day, but back then, damn... the attack decay!? It's not a great pedal but to do that all analog, and the guitar and micro synth (look in to the rack mount EHX guitar synth if you don't know it, i've heard one demo and seen the schematic... holy shit) the polyphase's envelope phasing, plus the basics and third, I admire in two ways the small box one switch/one pots like small clones and stones to medium boxes like the big muff and electric mistress to the big boxes like the deluxe memory man, design wise keeping the amount of controls restrained but still allowing those controls to reach some weird ass, even noisy (without caring that some wouldn't want those unrestricted) sounds.
I'll give them one more, build quality may not have always been 100% but a lot of those pedals are still going 40 years strong and they offer a bang for buck I don't think any of the other big guys matched.
That's pretty much dead on what i think, i mean.. other than the build quality and all that... i don't give a damn about that because i can fix it, even if one trick ponys sometime... the trick they do will be unique to them and that's what i dig the most i believe.
Here's a CrapClip of the YTriggered i've just done, that sound when control is dialed in UpSweep with the depth switch on... is something i have'nt heard any other envellope do, well there's maybe one out there but i have'nt played it yet.
Quote from: Scruffie on September 22, 2014, 12:16:54 AM
As many know... I find EHX addictive and am well versed in, I think there's 3 reasons for that. First the designers (Julia Truchess, Howard Davis are both fantastic, in fact I think Julia doesn't get enough credit, let alone the lesser known guys) they put out some incredible products. Second, the innovation, it continues to this day, but back then, damn... the attack decay!? It's not a great pedal but to do that all analog, and the guitar and micro synth (look in to the rack mount EHX guitar synth if you don't know it, i've heard one demo and seen the schematic... holy shit) the polyphase's envelope phasing, plus the basics and third, I admire in two ways the small box one switch/one pots like small clones and stones to medium boxes like the big muff and electric mistress to the big boxes like the deluxe memory man, design wise keeping the amount of controls restrained but still allowing those controls to reach some weird ass, even noisy (without caring that some wouldn't want those unrestricted) sounds.
I'll give them one more, build quality may not have always been 100% but a lot of those pedals are still going 40 years strong and they offer a bang for buck I don't think any of the other big guys matched.
I love EH too. I was just surprised by the build quality, that's all.
Quote from: lincolnic on September 22, 2014, 03:21:19 AM
Quote from: Scruffie on September 22, 2014, 12:16:54 AM
As many know... I find EHX addictive and am well versed in, I think there's 3 reasons for that. First the designers (Julia Truchess, Howard Davis are both fantastic, in fact I think Julia doesn't get enough credit, let alone the lesser known guys) they put out some incredible products. Second, the innovation, it continues to this day, but back then, damn... the attack decay!? It's not a great pedal but to do that all analog, and the guitar and micro synth (look in to the rack mount EHX guitar synth if you don't know it, i've heard one demo and seen the schematic... holy shit) the polyphase's envelope phasing, plus the basics and third, I admire in two ways the small box one switch/one pots like small clones and stones to medium boxes like the big muff and electric mistress to the big boxes like the deluxe memory man, design wise keeping the amount of controls restrained but still allowing those controls to reach some weird ass, even noisy (without caring that some wouldn't want those unrestricted) sounds.
I'll give them one more, build quality may not have always been 100% but a lot of those pedals are still going 40 years strong and they offer a bang for buck I don't think any of the other big guys matched.
I love EH too. I was just surprised by the build quality, that's all.
Sorry I missed your post, it wasn't in reply to it haha.
No the build can be shoddy, but it lasts... sometimes.
My favourite EHX repair was a DMM that came to me, traces cut for no reason, parts pulled, all wiring (including the transformer gone) I honestly felt like Dr Frankenstein when I got it back running.
Quote from: Scruffie on September 22, 2014, 03:32:21 AM
My favourite EHX repair was a DMM that came to me, traces cut for no reason, parts pulled, all wiring (including the transformer gone) I honestly felt like Dr Frankenstein when I got it back running.
I think it only counts as a Frankenstein act if you pulled the repair parts out of dead pedals. ;D