Messages

SPST is fine.

Wow, a lot of judgment here -- didn't realize how many geniuses and big business moguls resided here.  All you self-made pedal-building millionaires, please raise your hands . . .

It tends to be a polarizing subject, for whatever reason. I'm most definitely neither of those things, and neither is Bill I suspect. Here's something positive about the way he used to "market" the Klon: talking with each and every new buyer about their gear and expectations before making a purchase. That is exceptional to me. PaulC is the only other guy I know who does that kind of thing.

Your supply voltage is quite low at 7.8v. Are you using a regulated 9v supply or fresh battery? If so, something is sinking your voltage...perhaps D1 is faulty.

As far as the tracks, have you tried a continuity tester to be sure? Specifically, I would look at making sure there is no continuity between the R4 pads and the ground plane, plus C3 and its adjacent tracks.

I've calmed down a bit. I'm glad we are having this conversation here, because I've made my points, and I've agreed with many other things people are saying here; things I don't feel comfortable saying the bazillion Klon threads on TGP (and are wasteful there anyway). I know people here have a more unique perspective (and most likely a bit more informed) in regards to our viewpoints on the pedal business, building, etc.

In any case, I have a lot of respect for what he's accomplished. Hopefully I did not put too many bad vibes in this thread!

At what point in that does everyone think it's reasonable for the guy to just go do something else without everyone saying nasty things about them? Or is it just that he gave his opinion in an interview?

I think you make good points, Jon. And, I know there is another side to it...his side. But, on your point above: the problem is that he isn't doing something else....he is in eternal limbo of almost producing a product. That's been going on for four years now. To come out and say "well I don't know if I should bother because people have maligned me" is a very fool-hardy way to operate a business. I don't think anyone is being particularly nasty to him on a personal level. They are criticizing his statements as a professional in the pedal business. Very different, IMO.

I dunno why but this got me pretty riled up. The guy invents a great product, it's a cash cow and was produced in secrecy for about as long as a patent would last, and now he is a victim? Just as an analogy: pharmaceutical companies spend millions on R&D, and then have a window of what, 10-15 years on a patented product before it goes generic? Does GlaxoSmithKline go out of business after they create and produce a successful drug? No. They build on that success. They make better products, or new ones at least. Or even closer to home: how many billions of Muff clones are there? I hear EHX is doing pretty well.

He has all the advantages before him: the name, the product, the desire on the part of the consumer. The guy is clearly his own worst enemy. If he can't find someone to fab his circuit for him, unlike the rest of the world of electronics, then go back to through hole production. Hire a couple talented builders to stuff the boards, he does the final assembly, done. He doesn't even need a distributor. Direct sales on a $450 pedal means a whole lot of profit. Dang, I would design him a 1590BB though-hole Klon PCB gratis, NDA and everything, if he would just SOGOTP (edit: okay maybe I'm going too far, haha).

Okay...now I'm spent. I got a bit of KDS. Klon Derangement Syndrome. I honestly want the guy to succeed. He deserves it. But really....I mean...c'mon man!

He started making the Klon in 94 and produced it for almost 15 years before the first clone showed up. And, the plethora of clones out there now are a direct consequence to the absence of the Klon from the pedal market for most of the last 4 years now. Not because it was reverse engineered. The KTR was in production for what...6 months? If anything, the demand for clones shows that the KTR would continue to be successful if he would just get his act together. Or, if he went back to making the original Klon he would make a killing. Charge $450 for a new run of gold horsies. People will buy it. Get over yourself and GBTW.

Not that I have strong feelings about it.

Learned a little more about the history of the Klon than I knew, so that's cool. But seriously...the last couple of paragraphs 

Really nice looking. What's going on with the toggle there? No nut attachment to the body?

Here's a simple light probe idea (that can probably be made a lot better) that I came across on the breadboard today. Kinda unpredictable. Try it out, modify it to your desires, etc. It's fun for a couple minutes entertainment anyway.

So much bromance going on in here.

Astronomy Brian!?  Do you have a scope?

It would go to waste where I live (too much light pollution). Sadly, I've only ever seen the Milky Way in its full glory 3 or 4 times. Mostly I was interested in physics and cosmology. I really wanted to become a professor and research large scale galactic structures or do something interdisciplinary, but not nearly as much as I wanted to be a professional musician, haha.

Everything you need to know for pedal design could be satisfied with one or two introductory courses in EE, most likely.

If you pursue EE, that's pretty much all you are going to do for the next four to five years. The first year or so is the toughest because they try to weed out a lot of students. At least, that was the case at UT Austin. My dorm was exclusively science/engineering guys and let me tell you: the engineering students worked harder and studied more than anyone. Plus, you'll end up taking nearly as much math as a Math major, so make sure you like lots of math like Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability, and so on. And computer programming.

Anyway, I don't have an EE degree, although I would probably get one if I did college all over. Or, not go to college at all and spent that money starting my own business. I'm not trying to discourage you in any way. If you want to build pedals for a living, then you should build pedals. If you want a career that might not involve pedal making, then EE is solid. Or, it could serve as a incredible foundation for designing audio electronics. It's just a lot different now for students than 15-20 years ago. Unless you are well off, or have scholarships, then you are looking at starting your working life with $40k or more in debt when you graduate. It's so out of control.

I will say this: nothing in my life has challenged me as much as my Bachelors (Math, Astronomy minor). There were a lot of intellectual highs and lows. Sometimes I would leave class with my brain just BUZZING....like an endorphin kick or something. That brain training has paid me back tenfold of the course of my life.

Same thing with the chorus on the ADA MP1. Turn it on but keep the depth to zero....fattens up the sound. I kinda miss my MP1 too. Ahh, the 90's.

If you ever decide to relive that era, I've got a pair of ADA vertical 2x12 cabs for you.  Stereo FTW.  :-)

OMG the memories. Not, I ran mine through Bandit 112. So there!

Speaking of the Bandit 112,....(sorry I am hijacking)

The entire envelope section goes from the Filter pot to R20, so that is where you should focus your debugging efforts (assuming it is working in sample/hold mode). R21 and everything else on the right side of the schem is the Sample/Hold area.

I'm not aware that Q2 needs to be withing a certain Vgs spec, but it won't hurt to swap in a J201 from a different batch if you have one.

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I just noticed a difference in the Tonepad and GGG versions: C6 pulls to +9v in the GGG and ground in the Tonepad. The Sharkfin has it going to ground which is what I prototyped without issue. It is probably more ideal to have a non-polarized cap with it going to ground.

If you can desolder easily, try removing C6 then temporarily run a wire from the round pad to your breadboard. Then connect a 4u7 polarized cap with the negative end to the wire and the positive end to +9v to see if it corrects your problem. I can try this on my build too to see if there is any difference (I may have already done this when I prototyped it but I honestly don't remember) but probably not until tomorrow.