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That is one awesome parade Gray. Of all these pedals, which one is your favorite dirt sound right now?  And you are right, your wiring got much better.

Steve.

Out of this bunch? Probably the SHOD. It's got really nice dynamics and stays defined even with the gain all the way up. The Glasshammer would probably be next, although I still mainly use the Son of CJOD for sentimental reasons. And yes, zip ties can camouflage a mess pretty well. :-D

Hi Folks,
Here are a few dirt pedals I've put together recently. The builds themselves are my usual messiness but I thought I would put them up in case someone might be interested in how they sound.

Rullywow Glasshammer - I built a Son of Clay Jones overdrive several years ago and it's been one of my favorites Screamer flavors ever since. I did not realize that this is pretty much the same circuit until I already had it finished, still that much of a noob I guess. But the sound is still so great, and the clipping switch is a nice addition.  Maybe they sound slightly different? Placebo effect? 



Aion Fractal (Pearl OD-05) - Another Screamer-derived circuit. The parametric tone control can get an extremely wide range of sounds, all of which are pretty great. The sparkle paint went on a lot darker than I expected making the decals illegible to my aged eyeballs. :-/



Aion Corona (Boss OD-1) - I really like my Dist+ build so I gave this a go as well. They sound similar but I think the OD-1 is more balanced overall, I can hear more mids with it anyway. I set mine up with stock 1N914 clipping and also Fulldrive2-style mosfet clipping, and the diode lift setting sounds pretty close the my Dist+.



Nucleon Jubilee JFET drive - This one sounds very similar to my Boneyard 2, which I like quite a lot so it's nice to have a similar yet different sound. The Nucleon has a tighter low end and a lot more midrange and overall gain (my Boneyard2 build was not super high gain).



these last two are new-ish builds that went into old enclosures from previous builds. I left them messy. I dunno, they work fine as-is, and they're not exactly all-new builds anyway. The first is a BJFE Little Green Wonder that replaced an SS-2, which replaced a Kingslayer. Sonically, it gets into Screamer territory but without as much midrange. I like it quite a lot and I don't think I will be switching it out any time soon. The brown enclosure had one of my very first builds, a Yellow Shark, that I liked but I wished it had more clarity. So I put in a Bearfoot Sweet Honey, which is exactly what I was looking for. I'm thinking of putting the SHOD and HBOD in a 2-in-1 at some point. For now this still has the remnants of my old wiring on the switch. I kind of shocked myself when I opened it up after so long and saw how bad my wiring was back then. Forgot to add: vero layouts are from Guitar FX site.

New Orleans to Chicago would be a great BBQ tour, and from what I hear going up the West Coast is a great craft beer tour. Either route would be a lot of driving though, if you're OK with that and not in a hurry. And both of those routes have very different scenery. You could easily spend a week in Chicago, it's a beautiful city with a lot to see and do.

what gauge wire are you using? It looks massive in that enclosure, like udon noodles or something.    Very cool build!!

that is a super cool little amp!

they both came out really nice, I especially like the Superfuzz etch. I wonder what they look like on the inside?

I'm calling it now: Build of the Year!!! 

Thanks Ben! The flux pens look useful too, I'll check them out. Thanks again!

Hey guys, sorry for the necro-bump. Thanks for the sourcing tips. I'm going to put in an order for some solder and since it's going to be a 1lb. size I want to make sure I'm not getting something I will regret. I'm looking at either a regular Rosin Core Activated solder or a no-clean rosin core type, both are 63/37. Is there a major difference between the two I should be aware of?  Thanks!

http://www.techni-tool.com/488SO633
http://www.techni-tool.com/488SO158

Spud knows tone! Awesome project, Ben!!

the guitar I got from Sweetwater was set up much better than the one I bought from GC, so if the prices are similar that might be something to consider.

thanks for the info! My build is pretty loud but I noticed when the Output volume goes down it seems like it gets a little thin sounding, maybe a A100K would help with that.

I love it!! The worn edges make it look totally Vintage. What do the mods on yours do, & going with the LM833?

+1 on the Superjudge for midrange attitude, it has a truckload. Another build I put together recently is a KOT-style setup (2 Bluesbreakers) using a Morning Glory and a Nucleon Atomic Blue OD. Both of those have a decent amount of midrange by themselves and together it's very pronounced. 2 switchable gain controls also make it flexible and easy to get the amount of dirt you want. I'll bet 2 8balls and/or a Grindcustoms Goat combo would sound amazing. I've been meaning to set one of those up myself actually.

that is a super-cool idea, really looking forward to these. Kinda reminds me of these short vans that were popular back in the day.