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I've already talked at great length about the mighty saguaro cactus before so, I'll spare everyone that long winded story.  What I will talk about, is how this particular build came to be.  The truth is... I'm out of steam when it comes to this hobby.  I've built over 50 pedals and successfully built some of the most complicated circuits available in the diy effects community.  Having nothing left that I wanted to build or add to my collection, the only thing I could think of to push myself further was design and have a pcb made.  That's exactly what I've done with this build.  Not knowing a damn thing about this sort of thing, I decided to start small and chose a simple circuit that I would actually use to teach myself pcb design software.  A wah circuit is simple enough and because our fearless leader makes his EAGLE library available for download, that was the direction I went.  I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of myself for pulling off a working pcb having never messed with anything like this before.  I say that but also, all credit really goes to Brian.   I used his component library and essentially his Weener Wah layout in my pcb design.  Yes, there are some differences but, it's pretty obvious where I drew inspiration from.  I even messaged him about this project idea because I didn't feel right having the pcbs made without Brian's blessing.  Having received the go ahead, I had a handful of pcbs made and I'm quite pleased with the results.  It's nothing special or groundbreaking but, hot damn... I did a thing.  As far as what the saguaro wah actually is... well, it's just a hybrid of vox and Dunlop branded wah circuits.  It has certain values of resistor and capacitors in certain places, that sound best to me for my amp and pedal board setup. 

Question... How many BF-2 flangers does a person need?
Answer... All of them!

If you don't know me by now, I'll let you in on a little secret... I love me some Boss flanger.  In total, I've built 5 of them.  4 of them have been on the Fraudhacker PCB and 3 of those have been of the BF-2 variety.  What makes this one different than those other BF-2's you may be wondering?  Well, I used a NTE1641 BBD for this one.  I wanted to know if there is a sonic difference between a MN3207 and a MN3007 in the same style of circuit and if I'm going to be honest... I'll also use any excuse to add another BF-2 to my collection.  Have I mentioned that I love Boss flangers yet ?  In all seriousness though, I spent about 40 minutes contrasting and comparing this build with my OG Baron of Arizona flanger.  I can honestly say, there's little to no difference between the sound of my MN3207 BF-2 and this one.  This latest build has a slightly lower overall noise floor and flange wasn't quite as deep with the depth knob maxed but, that was the only difference I could hear.  Those two things could easily be chalked up to part tolerances so I'm not reading too much into it.  Both sound exactly like a Boss BF-2 and I can dial them in to sound exactly the same.  Outside of that, there's not much else I can say.  Same color enclosure, same artwork, and I used white knobs instead of black for this one.  That's pretty much it.

As @Thewintersoldier put it in his epic build report, "Let's hack a Fraudhacker, shall we?" Yeah, that's right... Be jealous because the other half of the BBD Brothers for Life assembled the elusive HF-2 flanger as well. As Chris has already mentioned, this build came into fruition thanks to a lengthy discussion and deep dive into the circuit between him and I. Both of us were in agreement that a Boss HF-2 build was doable and a much needed flanger in our lives. When he sent me a message saying "I have a source for some MN3204s. You in?" My response was an emphatic "Hell yes!!" I seriously can't thank Chris enough for hooking me up with this unobtanium BBD. You rock man!

It's already been pointed out that the HF-2 is like the lite version of the BF-2 and yeah... I 100% agree with that analogy. It's more subtle, not quite as harsh, slightly sweeter, and not as boxy sounding. When used in front of distortion, the BF-2 is fat and sinister whereas the HF-2 feels and sounds less aggressive with some of the fat trimmed off. With a cleaner tone, the BF-2 is slightly fatter than the HF-2 and the latter has a more shimmery/pretty sound. The BF-2 has been the king of modulation for me for over 2 decades but, the HF-2 is now sharing the crown.

For the enclosure on this one, I went with a legend, jack of all trades, certified bad ass, and Arizona hero. William Owen (Buckey) O'Neill. O'Neill was born on February 2 1860 in St. Louis Missouri. Not much is known about his early life but, we do know that him and his family ended up Washington D.C. This is where O'Neill attended and graduated from law school. In the early part of 1879, O'Neill decided to move out west and arrived in the Arizona Territory in September of the same year. He was hired as a printer for the Phoenix Herald but, by late 1880, he wanted to experience the "Real West" and moved to Tombstone. He took a job working for the Tombstone Epitaph and as many did during this time, took up gambling in the common card game called Faro. This is where he got the nickname Buckey because he loved to play against the odds or "buck the tiger" as it was commonly referred to. Buckey bounced around for awhile but, eventually ended up in Prescott AZ in the spring of 1882. He became a court reporter, editor of the Arizona Miner weekly newspaper, and founded his own paper called the Hoof and Horn. In 1886 he became the captain of the local Arizona Militia unit called the Prescott Grays and later was serving as Yavapai County, AZ judge. In 1888 he was elected as Yavapai County sheriff and while serving as sheriff, captured four bandits who robbed an Atlantic and Pacific passenger train in Diablo Canyon. After his term of sheriff was up, he got into mining and was quite prosperous with several onyx mines for the next several years. He continued to write, producing pamphlets promoting the Arizona Territory and even wrote some short stories that were published in several newspapers and magazines. With politics not out of his system yet, Buckey ran for, and was unanimously elected, mayor of Prescott in 1897. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, O'Neill mounted the first volunteer force of men from the Arizona Territory. He was made captain of Company A, 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, which would later be known as Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. On June 25, 1898, the Rough Riders saw their first action when O'Neill led his men at the front of the line in the Battle of Las Guasimas, capturing the Spanish flank. Him and his men would then move onto the Battle of San Juan Hill where unfortunately, a bullet would strike O'Neill in the head, ending his life at just 38 years of age.

Here's something different from my typical builds.  A fuzz pedal.  Because I prefer my distortion tone from my amp, I rarely build or mess with dirt boxes.  However, when Brian hooks you up with a free board... you gotta build it.  That being said, I really enjoyed putting this one together and playing around with it.  This fuzz is essentially a silicon fuzz face with an extra control that squashes the shit out of the fuzz tone.  The more you turn up the squish, the more gated and kind of velcro ripping sounds emerge.  Kinda cool if you're into that sort of thing.  Personally, I prefer leaving the squish knob dumped all the way.  It's just a classic fuzz face tone at that setting.  I used a Tayda 1590b cream enclosure, no mods, stock values for everything, and a pair of 2N3904 transistors.  Since it's called the Business Card Fuzz, I went with some basic business card artwork I found on google.  That's pretty much all I have to say on this one.  See you on the next build  .

Ah yes.  The trusty Maxon AD-900 analog delay.  Little did I know that when I built my first Man O' War in April of 2022, it would turn into the holy grail analog delay for me.  When I first threw this font of my amp and dialed it in, the heavens opened and the angels begin to sing.  Ok... it wasn't that extreme but, it was definitely a "Hot damn!  That's what I've been looking for" moment.  Since then, It has been the golden standard and what I compare every other delay I've built to.  It's only 3 knobs, no modulation, and no space ship/runaway feedback noise with this circuit.  It doesn't have the percussive edge like a DM-2 and it doesn't have the bright crispiness like the Memory Man.  It's not dark and soupy like an MXR but, it's also not a clean and pristine delay either.  Just straight up warm, natural, and ear pleasing analog repeats.  On top of that, there is absolutely no hiss or white noise when you click this baby on.  That is almost unheard of with an analog circuit.  All of this combined, is what made me fall in love with this delay.  It's my bread and butter, and the most used pedal I've built to date.  The only problem, is the first one I built didn't match my Old West aesthetic that I've adapted.  Sure, I could have redone my enclosure but, what's the fun in that?  Having two of something good is always better than just one anyway.

For my enclosure look, I stepped away from my Arizona thing a little bit but, still pertains to the Old West.  Let me paint the scenario...  The sun is at it's highest point in the sky, the street is dusty, and two figures are just outside the local saloon.  Our hero and anti-hero are squared off, about 25 ft apart, facing each other with their hands hovering above their pistols.  The anti-hero is doing his best to look tough but, you can see some fear in his eyes.  The hero is unphased, unafraid, and his steely gaze could cut a hole in your soul like a knife...  Suddenly, both figures draw their six shooters.  BLAM! BLAM!  Two shots ring out at almost the exact same time.  As the smoke clears, you can see the hero still standing, smoking pistol in hand, unharmed, with that gaze still trained on his enemy.  The anti-hero grabs his chest, staggers a few steps, and then drops in the dusty street.  Our hero emerges victorious and the anti-hero is now dead.

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about the classic duel at High Noon.  A cliche that has filled books, television, and movies for well over a century.  Given how popular this cliche is, have you ever wondered how true it is?  Well, guess what?  It's BS.  It never happened.  There are very few recorded instances of one-on-one pistol duels that even happened.  Let alone occurring at exactly 12:00 pm.  I can't tell you where the "high noon" idea  came from but, I can tell you where the one-on-one pistol quick-draw duel in public place, thing came from.  The Hickok-Tutt shootout. 

The Hickok-Tutt shootout was a gunfight that occurred on July 21, 1865, in the town square of Springfield, Missouri between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt.  The story goes that Davis and Tutt, both gamblers, were actually friends at one point.  However, they eventually had a falling out over women.  Wild Bill supposedly had an illegitimate child with Tutt's sister, and Tutt was supposedly paying too much attention to Hickok's lover.  Whatever the truth is, Wild Bill refused to play in any card game that included Tutt and Tutt retaliated by helping other card players with advice and money in order to bankrupt Hickok.  This ongoing conflict eventually came to a head during a game of poker at the Lyon House Hotel.  As Hickok played against several local gamblers, Tutt was loaning out money and coaching them on how to beat Wild Bill.  Despite Tutt's efforts, Hickok was winning.  Annoyed, Tutt reminded Hickok that he was owed $40 from a past horse trade.  Hickok shrugged and paid Tutt the $40.  Tutt then claimed that Hickok owed him an additional $35 from a past poker game to which Hickok replied, "I think you're wrong Dave.  It's only $25."  Having a large following at the Lyon House and several armed associates, Tutt decided to humiliate Hickok.  He grabbed Wild Bill's prized gold pocket watch off of the table and announced he was keeping the watch as collateral until Hickok paid the $35.  Hickok quietly demanded that Tutt put his watch back but, Tutt replied only with an ugly grin and walked out with the watch.  Hickok was livid.  Not only was he publicly humiliated, the taking of the watch as collateral, implied that Hickok couldn't pay his debts which was also an insult to a professional gambler.  To make matters worse, Hickok endured several days of Tutt's friends and associates mocking Hickok.  On the final days of mocking Hickok, they announced that Tutt was planning on wearing the watch in the middle of town square the next day.  Hickok warned them, "He shouldn't come across that square unless dead men can walk." 

The next morning, Tutt was seen with Hickok's watch openly hanging from his waist pocket.  Within an hour, Hickok heard of Tutt's actions and met up with him in the town square.  It was reported that they discussed the settling of the debt and watch's return but, couldn't to an agreement.  They parted ways after a drink and Tutt returned to the town square, still wearing the watch.  A few minutes before 6:00 pm, Hickok was seen calmly approaching the square with his Colt Navy in hand.  Seeing the armed Hickok, caused the crowd to scatter and left Tutt alone in the northwestern corner of the square.  At a distance of about 75 yards, Hickok stopped, facing Tutt, and called out, "Dave I'm here."  He then cocked his pistol, holstered it on his hip, and gave one last warning.  "Don't you come across here with that watch."  Tutt said nothing.  He just stood there with his hand on his pistol.  After a brief delay, both men faced each other in the dueling position.  Tutt reached for his pistol, Hickok then drew his and steadied it on his opposite forearm.  Both man fired a single shot at almost the same time.  Tutt's shot missed but, Hickok's bullet struck Tutt in the chest.  Tutt cried out, "Boys, I'm killed," ran onto the porch of the courthouse, stumbled back out into the street, and then collapsed and died.

Two days later, Hickok was arrested for murder.  His initial charge was later reduced to manslaughter based on the circumstances.  He stood trial on August 3 1865 and three days later he was acquitted.  11 years later, Wild Bill Hickok sadly lost his life while playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood South Dakota.  Before Wild Bill's untimely death though, The Hickok-Tutt shootout would make Wild Bill Hickok a household name and folk hero for years to come.  It's also the basis for almost every high noon shootout story that you've seen in popular culture.

Gather round kids, it's story time...  Just kidding .  I've already talked at great length about this circuit and my graphic inspiration in a previous build report.  Therefore, I'm keeping this one pretty short.  This is my second BF-2 build on the Fraudhacker pcb and like the first one, I love it.  I used a Tayda matte violet enclosure on this build and the better quality foot switch Tayda offers.  That's pretty much the only difference between this build and my first one.  Set this one up just like my first build using the Boss service notes and playing them side by side, both builds sound exactly the same.  Well... that's pretty much it.  Time for me to go play with my flanger collection  .

You ever build a pedal with certain expectations, and then discover that it doesn't live up?  Well, that's what happened to me with this build.  Because of this, I've been back and forth on whether to even post a build report about it because I was so disappointed.  Now that my grieving period is over, I should at least talk about this circuit a little bit because, it did turn into a cool looking build after all and, someone may find what I have to say useful.

I want to start by saying that my disappointment has nothing to do with the pcb, the build documentation, or anything of the like.  I'm just not a fan of how this pedal sounds through my rig.  I've mentioned this before but, just as a reminder, I run all of my effects into the front of a Ceriatone 2202.  Which is essentially a 20 watt Marshall JCM 800 clone.  The Boss DM-2 as you all probably know, is known for its percussive repeats.  To my ears... that type of repeat just doesn't play well in front of high gain.  People seem to love the DM-2 and probably for good reason but for me, I'm not a fan.

What i do love about this pedal is how it looks.  Keeping with my Arizona history theme, I called it the 1882 Bucket Brigade in honor of the rich history that is the Tucson Fire Department.  Established in June of 1881, TFD started out as the Tucson Fire Association.  22 Tucsonians, 22 rubber buckets, 6 axes, 6 picks, and 9 shovels is all that was keeping the yet incorporated town of Tucson from being devastated by fire.  This rag tag group of people would later call themselves the Tucson Hook and Ladder Company.  This would not last however.  Thanks to lack of funds and volunteers, the Tucson H & L was all but disbanded.  It wasn't until May 24 1882, that a fire broke out at the Goldschmidt's Furniture Store.  An estimated $40,000 of damage would result from this fire.  Back in the late 1800's, this was a whole hell of a lot of money.  It was then that the townsfolk of Tucson realized that a proper fire brigade and equipment were needed.  Almost a year to the date of Tucson Hook and Ladder Co was established, the Tucson Volunteer Fire Association was formed on June 4 1882.  It was from this point forward, that funds and resources were allocated to maintain a proper fire service in the town of Tucson.  Two hose carts were purchased in 1883 and a hook and ladder wagon, like you see in my pedal graphic, would arrive in December of 1886.  As the city grew, so did the fire department.  Eventually becoming what TFD is today.  22 stations, with the best modern equipment, and protecting 550,000 citizens.

Gather around kids because I want to introduce you to a gem of a flanger.  The Effects Layouts Pocket Comb.  A heavily inspired by the Ibanez FL9 style flanger, offered to us lucky folks by storyboardist.  I first have to preface this build report by saying, I have never played through an original FL9.  Out of all the commercially available flangers I've played and flangers I've built, the FL9 has never ended up on my pedalboard until now.  The only thing I can really compare it to is the Boss BF-2.  A flanger circuit that, if you read my Fraudhacker build report, I'm very passionate about.  Speaking of the BF-2, this flanger has a lot of similarities.  It utilizes the same 3207/3102 bbd and clock combo, has the same number of controls, and the clock speed should be set exactly the same as the BF-2, according to the original Ibanez service notes.   Unlike a BF-2 though, this flanger is softer and warmer.  The BF-2 is more harsh and seems to accentuate high and upper mid frequencies whereas this flanger sounds flatter.  Not flat in a bad way but, just an even, more subtle, flanger feel.  Although, it will give you some heavy, metallic, sproing if rack the regen knob way up.  Even at that type of setting though, it sounds more subdued than the Boss designed counterpart.  Rather than continuing to try and explain all the differences, I'm just going to sum it by saying this a softer, warmer, and more subtle BF-2 to my ears.  For this flanger loving nut that's not a bad thing at all.  In fact, sticking this baby after my Madbean Man O' War to modulate those repeats is where this thing shines.  I love using a flanger to modulate delay repeats and this one is my absolute favorite for that purpose.  They pair so well together.  Like a nice cabernet to go with that juicy steak.

Build wise, it was once again pretty straight forward.  No issues, fired right up, and it dialed in perfectly using the original Ibanez FL9 service notes.  I will say though, that the bottom of the enclosure is pretty tight around the footswitch and pcb so, if you readers of this post want to build it, You'll want to make sure your drill holes are laid out properly.  I went with a yellow enclosure as a tribute to the original pedal and the artwork is just a simple representation of what the pcb is called.  Nothing fancy about any of that.  What is fancy is the aluminum knobs.  Those are courtesy of @peccary who so graciously made them for me.  Joe gave this flanger some special SoCal mojo with those babies.  Outside of that, there's only one critique I have about this build and it's not even really a critique.  More of a word of advice.  If you decide to build this pedal, I highly recommend socketing cap C25.  It's a bipolar cap that determines the minimum speed of the lfo.  This is mentioned in the build docs as well but, I just went ahead with the stock value of 2.2uF.  I didn't realize how fast the speed would be and I should've tried larger cap values to slow it down a bit.  On my BF-2 I have my rate knob around 12:00 but, with this flanger I have to dump the rate knob to minimum to achieve the same speed of the sweep.  I might go back and change this at a later date but for now It's working for me.  Well, enough of my blabbering and on to some pics.

Edit:  No audio or video demo for this build.  I'm an idiot and posted in the wrong build report section  .

For this build report, I don't have an epic story like I did with my last flanger build.  Like the Boss BF-2 though, the phase 90 is another boomerang effect for me.  It just keeps coming back around and ending up on my pedalboard.  This one is actually my 4th phaser build and the 3rd of the phase 90 variety.  Out of all 3 phase 90 clones I've assembled, this one is my favorite.  The noise floor is much lower, especially when engaging the feedback switch.  My other 2 introduce some pretty gnarly hiss and white noise in front of a distorted amp with feedback engaged.  I don't have much else to say other than it was a pretty straightforward and easy build.  Instead of 2N5457s I used a matched quad of 2N5952s for the JFETs (Special shout out to @thewintersoldier for hooking me up with those) and some JRC 4558s instead of TL072s for the op amps.  Everything else is to the build docs with no modifications.  Being a phase 90, I had to go with the classic orange enclosure and with a pcb named Nom Nom... I had to go with something goofy for the graphics.  The weird little guy on my enclose is from a .gif that @Paradox916 likes to post in a group chat I'm a part of.  That shit makes me laugh every time I see it so, I had to use it.

Gather around kids.  It's story time.

I'm going to start with what this pcb is based off of.  The Boss BF-2.  This is the circuit that started my flanger obsession.  Back when I was in my late teens around 1998, I picked up a Boss BF-2 from my local guitar shop.  At the time, I didn't know anything about effects, how circuits worked, or even how to play guitar really.  All I knew is I loved the sounds I could get out of this pedal.  For the next couple of decades, the BF-2 became my boomerang pedal.  I sold off my original, moved onto other stuff, bought another one again, sold that one, several years later, buy another one... You see the pattern here.  No matter what, I was always coming back to the trusty BF-2.  At one point, I actually owned four of them.  2 of them I bought broken, was able to fix them, and then flipped them for some cash.  One I kept bone stock and another I modded the hell out of.  Those 3 BF-2s that I poked around in with a soldering iron, is actually what led me to building my own effects.  As you can see, I owe a lot to that purple box of swoosh.   I've studied this circuit, I've modded this circuit, I've got years of playing through this circuit, and this is the second time I've done a DIY of this circuit.  This purple bitch and I are pretty intimate at this point.  All that being said, our man Brian crushed it with this thing.  It is without a doubt, a Boss BF-2 through and through.  This thing is like an old pair of boots for me.  Yeah, I have nicer footwear but, that old pair of Redwings just fit and feel great.  Same can be said with this pedal.  It just fits and feels right to me. 

Build wise, this thing was a breeze.  Absolutely no issues at all putting it together and setting it up.  I actually boxed it before I rocked it.  Not the smartest thing to do but, I was confident as hell going into this one.  So confident that I didn't even look at the calibration instructions in the build docs.  I just went off of the boss service notes that I have memorized at this point.  Again, probably not the smartest thing to do but, it worked out perfectly for me.  Aesthetically, I went with a Tayda viola pink enclosure.  The color reminds of the last OG BF-2 I used to own.  It was no longer that byzantine purple and it had faded to pink.  Hence the color choice.  You're all probably wondering about the mutton chop fella and the name I picked out for this build.  Well... fear not because here comes the 2nd part of my story.

The man pictured on my enclosure is James Addison Reavis, aka The Baron of Arizona.  A fraudster and forger that almost ended up owning 18,600 square miles of land in the central Arizona Territory and Western New Mexico Territory.

Reavis was born in Henry County, Missouri in 1843.  When the Civil War broke he joined a Confederate unit, but soon got homesick.  He began writing his own military passes and forging his commanding officer's signature. Soon he was on leave more than he was on duty.  Finally he forged discharge papers and went home for good.

After the war he found work in a real estate office in St. Louis where he used his skill in forgery to earn money on some dubious land deals.  Honing his skills in forgery, Reavis was soon ready for the big time. 

Reavis invented a family lineage that began with a Don Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Cordoba.  The fictitious Peralta was given the title of Baron de los Colorados by Kind Ferdinand VI in 1748, along with a huge grant of land.  To explain how he came into possession of the grant, Reavis claimed he acquired title from a George Willing, a mine developer, who'd come to Arizona and purchased it from Miguel Peralta, a poverty-stricken descendant of the Baron. Willing had recorded the deed in Prescott, in March, 1874, and died the next day.  Miguel Peralta was also a figment of Reavis' fertile imagination.

The land Reavis claimed was nearly twelve million acres, running through the heart of Arizona.  It extended from today's Sun City across to Silver City, New Mexico.  It included rich mining properties and the tall, rangy Missourian with the muttonchops beard had an incredible gift of gab, and was a natural born salesman and wheeler-dealer.  He was able to convince the owners of the Southern Pacific Railroad and several large mine owners his land grant claim was legitimate.

Reavis needed another connection to the Peralta family and he found her in the person of a sixteen-year-old Mexican orphan.  He convinced the youngster she was descended from the Peralta family, educated, and then married her.  To a master forger it was a simple task to alter church records and make her the last surviving member of the illustrious but fictional Peraltas. He traveled to Mexico City and Guadalajara, spending hours in museums and archives.  He experimented with various inks and paper, learning to match the ancient documents.  He even bought some anonymous old portraits in a Spanish flea market and designated them as various members of the Peralta lineage.

Reavis didn't plan to evict the occupants from his barony.  All he wanted to do was extort enough in fees for rent and quit claim deeds to support him and his wife in a courtly manner. The railroad gave him $50,000 and the Silver King mine paid $25,000. The large mine owners and Southern Pacific Railroad nabobs decided it was cheaper to pay the baron his fees rather than fight him and risk losing their valuable properties. It was the small landowners who took umbrage and caused his undoing.  At first they wanted to lynch the smooth-talking baron.  The federal government at one point considered paying him millions to settle the claim.

Everything was going well for the baron but the wheels of justice were slowly turning to expose the fraud.  Investigator Royal Johnson released his report in 1889 disclosing forgeries and historical inaccuracies.  It was also claimed that a water mark from a mill in Wisconsin was found on one of the historical documents.  Another said the calligraphy used in the documents was a recent design.   Some parts of the documents were written in quill, while others were in steel pen. The steel pen didn't come into use until the 1800s.   After some encouragement from "friends in high places", Reavis overplayed his hand by suing the U.S. Government for eleven million dollars.  Not taking kindly to being sued, the US government went on the offensive and begin to investigate Reavis.

The evidence against Reavis was overwhelming and he lost the case. The moment he left the courthouse U.S. Marshal's placed him under arrest, charging him with fraud. His friends in high places evaporated overnight.

In 1895 Reavis was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to only two years in the penitentiary in Santa Fe and fined $5,000.

So, there you have it.  My inspiration for the Fraudhacker being called the Baron of Arizona.

If it's not apparent by now, I'll let you fellow pedal nuts in on a little secret... Analog flanger is my all time favorite effect.  That being said though, I was trying to talk myself out of building this one.  I was more than satisfied with the 3 builds I already have in my inventory but, you good folks kept posting build reports on this circuit and kept drawing me back in  .  I'm so glad I said, "Screw it", and gave this flanger a chance.  It's absolutely glorious and my favorite build so far.  I'm a "all effects in front of a JCM 800" kinda guy and this is the perfect match to my amp.  Low noise floor and sounds phenomenal in front of distortion.  After seeing other build reports, I decided to install sockets in the C23 position and audition various caps.  I'm glad I did because it makes a big difference on your clock range.  I ended up using a 33pf with my final numbers being 35khz on the low end to 1.2mhz on the high end.  That's what sounded best to me.  Aesthetically, I went the cheap and easy route and just copied MXRs style.  I wanted to come up with something better but, due to work kicking my ass and barely anytime to work on personal projects, I just couldn't get inspired.  I just wanted to finish the circuit and spend time playing the damn thing, so I could forget about work life.  Anywho, enough of my personal B.S. and onto the pictures.

Like my last post, I'm gonna show some appreciation to another friend I've made through the world of DIY effects building.  This time it's Will, aka @harryklippton.  Not only has this guy very graciously designed a brand logo for me but, he also sent me a Weener Wah pcb recently.  Dude has been another of those builders that I noticed early on, and instantly became a fan of.  Next thing I know, He's complimenting my work, we start chatting, we send each other stuff, and boom!  We're where we are today.  Now that I'm done kissing ass, let's talk about this wah.  Man...  this was a fun one.  As a lot of you already know, wah pedals are simple circuits but perfect for modifications.  I had a blast auditioning various component to voice this wah to my liking.  In the end, I didn't stray too far from the original schematic.  True bypass switching with an LED.  A high gain 2N5088 for the first transistor.  A red Fasel inductor and a 10nf frequency cap.  No switches for different cap values and no Q adjustment pots.  Just straight up, "This is how it's voiced, now play that shit!"  This is what sounded good to me and this is now my wah pedal. 

Aesthetically, I'm still doing my "embrace the Southwest thing" and called it the Saguaro wah.  There are a lot of things that people think of when they think of the old west.  Wyatt Earp, Tombstone, Doc Holliday, and the O.K. Corral shootout for example.  Arguably though, the most iconic thing is actually the mighty Saguaro cactus (pronounced suh-waa-row).   When you think of the old west and cactus, I can almost guarantee that the Saguaro is what you picture in your mind.  Native only to the Sonoran desert, the Saguaro is the largest cactus in the United States.  They can live to be 150 to 200 years old, can grow between 40 to 60 feet tall, and when fully hydrated from the summer monsoons, weigh between 3,200 to 4,800 pounds.  As big and mighty as the Saguaro can get, it's slow growing.  A 10 year old cactus may only have a height of 1.5 inches tall.  It could also take 75 years before a Saguaro grows its first arm.  Despite it's slow growing nature, the Saguaro has been the life blood of the Sonoran desert.  Animals and humans have depended on it for thousands of years.  It has been a source of food, shelter, and building materials in area where these things are scarce.  The Saguaro is such an important piece to us folks here in the Sonoran desert, that it's actually a protected species.  Harming, defacing, or vandalizing the mighty Saguaro could get you a class 4 felony charge here in Tucson.  Drink, smoke weed, openly carry guns... we don't care.  Deface our cactus though and we're putting your ass and jail.

To keep with the Saguaro cactus theme on this build, I painted my enclosure to match another important piece of plant life here in the desert... The Palo Verde tree.  Like the Saguaro, the Palo Verde is an iconic figure here in the Southwest.  It's actually a nursing tree that helps protect and help the mighty Saguaro grow.  But... that's a story for another build.  I'll stop boring you with stories about my local plant life and show you some pictures.

You've already seen the build report so, this is more of a build appreciation / ass kissing thread lol.  My man Chris, aka @thewintersoldier, sent me this badass Russian Big Muff!  When I first started building effects pedals, I kept seeing these build reports by this person "thewintersoldier".  I had no idea who this person was but, I instantly became a fan.  The circuits were things I wanted to own and build.  The quality and attention to detail were top notch.  The aesthetics and themes of these builds were awesome.  I thought to myself, "Someday I want to build some shit like that!".  Fast forward many, many months later and I build a Man O' War.  Next thing I know, I'm getting complimented about my build from this guy.  "Holy crap!  This is friggin awesome!" I think to myself.  From there, things just began to snowball.  We start chatting through pm's.  We start trading parts.  etc... etc... until the point we're at now, where I consider Chris a friend.  The guy has helped me so much, that I have pedal board of effects that he built for me or, supplied the major parts for.  I can't thank him enough for his generosity, taking me under his wing, and showing me ways to be a better effects builder.  On top of that, he builds and sends me my favorite fuzz pedal of all time.  Thank you so much Chris!

Special shout out and thanks to @thewintersoldier for hooking me up with this pcb.  Chris has been a huge inspiration to me as a pedal builder and his generosity has helped facilitate some of the best pedal builds I've ever built.  That being said, I present the Guardians of the Analog Power Boost. Essentially, an Electro Harmonix LPB-1 but, designed to fit a 125b enclosure. There's not much to say other than there's no fancy stuff going on with this circuit. It's just a simple, one transistor, make it more loud pedal. That's all it does but, it does it so well. Keeping with the Old West flare I've adapted, I used the best power representing thing I could think of for my art. A steam locomotive.

The locomotive on my enclosure is the Virginia and Truckee No. 11. Also know as the Reno. Built in 1872, she spent a big part of her life hauling passengers from Virginia City to Carson City and Reno. In 1937 she was retired from active service to become a movie star. From 1937 to 1969 the Reno was used in several movies and TV commercials. In 1970 she was sold to Old Tucson studios where she continued her life in television and movies. In 1995 she was damaged by a massive fire which ended her running life. She was later cosmetically restored in 1997 and used in the film Wild Wild West. Since then, she's been on display here at Old Tucson studios. In August of last year, Virginia and Truckee Railroad reacquired the Reno to restore her to operational condition.

So, how about that? Come to look at a build report on a boost pedal and you get some education on a steam locomotive.

So, Where do I begin with this gem?  I guess I'll start by saying...  I ran into a couple of issues with this one.  First issue was on the output of the first bbd.  When audio probing, I had a nice clean signal to pin 7 but, just clock noise on pins 3&4.  I flipped the board over to investigate my solder joints and Hey!  A slight solder bridge between pins 3&4.  Cleaned that up and then rest of the calibration procedure went off without a hitch.  I couldn't wait to box this baby up, throw in front of main amp, and run it through its paces.  That leads me to the next issue... the enclosure.  The enclosure I had initially was not tall enough.  A little advice to anyone wanting to build this pedal... A tayda 1590bb2 enclosure is not tall enough to accommodate everything.  You're best bet is to use a 1590bbs enclosure.  In my haste to box it up and play it, I decided to order a 1590C from amazon because I could get it in a day thanks to my prime membership.  There is more than enough room now.  In fact, the circuit is swimming in that thing lol.  At first I was like, "Jesus Christ, this thing is a brick now" but, I actually kinda dig how tall it is.  It's the biggest, most complicated build I've ever attempted so, the biggest enclosure I've ever used... is kinda fitting.  Now that I've addressed the issues I had with this build, I guess it's on to the good shit.  All I really have to say is this thing is awesome!  I've never played through a Memory Man until now but, I totally get the hype and love for this circuit.  It's totally its own thing.  There are no other analog delays that I've played that sound like this.  It's brighter than most, it's got this crispy white noise thing on the repeats, and the modulation can give you some wacky yet musical sounds.  I'm really digging this delay and I'm even happier that I pulled off this build.  I included another no so great demo.  It's mainly to show that the pedal actually works lol.





https://vimeo.com/718070964

What do you do, when a fellow forum member sends you a MN3007?  You build a chorus in their honor of course .  What can I say about this other than it's an EHX Small Clone.  We all know what the small clone sounds like and well... That's what this sounds like.  Back in the 90's, this was the go to pedal to get all those chorusy sounds you kept hearing on rock radio.  Cue the Come As You Are intro lol.  Being a teenager during that time period, it's safe to say that yeah... The Small Clone is my favorite chorus pedal.  Not much else to say really.  It was a pretty straight forward build.  No issues and she fired right up first try.  Biased it by ear at first but, then threw the o-scope on it just to check.  It was pretty much spot on.  To match my last 2 EHX style builds I went with the same, "make it look like the original", aesthetic.  Special thanks to @thewintersoldier for hooking me up.




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Thanks to @jjjimi84 awesome demo post and my recent chats with @thewintersoldier, I decided to give this classic phaser a go, even though I wasn't a fan of it in the past.  I gotta say that Lectric FX knocked it out of the park with this circuit design. I dunno how you pcb designers are doing it but, keep up the great work. This is the second EHX style build I've done that captures the classic sound but, doesn't add the typical EHX noise. That's always been my biggest beef with EHX. The effects sound killer... until you put them in front of a high distortion amp. The recent renditions of the electric mistress and small stone from EHX have not worked for me at all.  They introduce so much hiss and white noise in front of my amp that I won't use them.  That has not been the case with the last 2 diy circuits I've built though. 

I'm actually really relieved that I like this phaser so much because this build totally kicked my ass. I ordered the wrong parts, didn't order parts I needed, and I could not get my water slide to apply right. It took me 8 tries to get something that looked halfway decent aesthetically. On top of that, I put the wrong value resistors in 3 places when I populated the board. Fortunately I caught it early and corrected the issue before I powered it up. My last 2 builds went so great that I guess it was time for me to make a bunch of mistakes.

Despite all of my incompetence, it come out pretty well and sounds even better. I have to give @Harry Klippton a special thanks and shout-out on this one as well. Will, took it upon himself to design me a logo for my builds and I'm going to proudly display it from here on out.

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Much like the Man O' War I recently built, the Current Lover was one of those "I'm gonna build that some day" builds for me.  I'm happy to report that I pulled it off without issue.  I'm even happier to report that, I'm currently in love with the Current Lover!  It's sweet, it's rich, it's lush, and what's most shocking... it's quiet.  Seriously, I can't believe how relatively low the noise floor is on this thing.  Analog flangers are just inherently noisy.  They all introduce some hiss and white noise.  Especially in front of distortion. Now,  Don't get me wrong, it still has some sweeping white noise but, compared to all the other flangers I have and owned... this one is quiet.  This was a surprise bonus to an already great sounding effect.  Like my Man O' War, I'm pretty proud of myself with this build.  Just a year ago, my wiring looked like a bowl of spaghetti and my box caps looked like Harvey Dent's face.  Not so much anymore. 

Included in this post is a brief and not so great demo video.  I have no fancy camera or recording gear so, what you're getting is an iPhone video.  It does capture the essence of my favorite way to run a flanger.  After delay.  There's something about flanging delay repeats that makes me really happy.

Special thanks and shout out to Chris aka @thewintersoldier.  He graciously did some parts trading with me and help make this build possible.






https://vimeo.com/705915164

I have been hiding in the shadows, admiring the Madbean pcbs that have been available.  It was about a year ago, when I first starting building my own pedals that I thought, "Some day... I'll have enough skills to actually build some Madbean stuff."  That day has finally come. 

This... is my holy grail delay pedal. Everything about it... is what I've been looking for... for years. I wanted a delay that sounded good in front of a distorted amp, without adding noise and hiss, and had natural, degrading, and organic sounding repeats. I finally found it with this beast. It was expensive to build. It was a challenge to build, and it was a challenge to set up. I used an audio probe, 2 multimeters, a signal generator, and an oscilloscope to dial her in just right. I really tried to bring my "A" game with this build and push my skills to the limit. There are a few things I could have done better aesthetically but, overall... I think it's probably my best work to date.

Hello everyone.  My name is Clinton and I've been a regular on another forum.  I see a lot of familiar names from said forum and those names have posted several madbean builds over there.  All of which were very impressive.  Since I'm relatively new to pedal building, the madbean circuits that I was interested in were always intimidating as hell.  Now that I've been building for about a year, and have a dozen or so successful builds, I'm confident enough to take them on.  There is a lot of great builds and information on here and I'm just soaking it all up like a sponge.  Also, some cool shit in development that I'm super stoked for.  Anway, I'm happy to finally be a part of this forum and thanks for having me.