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Damn, you never disappoint John. That's not clean for Vero, that's clean period!

Dave @szukalski and I are on a roll bringing back forgotten favorites and hidden jems from the dead. Next up is a compressor of mythical status. A true titan in the world of country and Gilmour fans, but being neither of those things I wanted to build this because I've never had one before. The sheepylove squish is a faithful reproduction (95%) of the classic Boss CS-2 compression sustainer. When researching I found a pdf by someone who made a schematic and pcb for the cs-2 but they were not reachable. They made a subtle change in the power section to make it easier to build and used modern components so we worked off that schematic.

After the success of the TR-2 there was a momentum and a what's next? moment. I was at the time looking at the CS-2 and looking for the long out of production BA662 IC. This was the heart and soul of the pedal. The chip was produced until the mid 80s and was used by Roland in synthesizers and a couple pedals, namely the CS-2. The chip is like an improved CA3080 OTA, but with lower noise floor. When the chip was EOL boss did a redesign of the compressor circuit and the CS-3 was born. In recent years the 662 was reintroduced as a dual IC in smd format and as a SIP smd work a like by open labs. The SMD IC we ran into a snag but will be fixed by Dave in a new revised board. The open labs chip works flawlessly.

So what is the CS-2 like? If you look at the schematic it's pretty much just a Dyna/Ross. The pedal to me has a lower noise floor than a dyna Ross with a greater dynamic range that doesn't pump either. The attack pot on the circuit is something implemented by Keeley in his compressors to help preserve the initial transient and have a more natural onset of the compression. Compared to the CS-3 this is much more smooth and natural sounding. The CS-3 is more of a hard limiter with a real all or nothing quality and this has a much softer knee and more organic than the CS-3. I didn't think I could like a comp this much without a blend knob but it's a fantastic pedal. The way it gives such clarity and evenness to chords and heft to single notes, I may never turn it off, just adjust the attack and sustain to what I'm playing. Oh yeah, it's good on bass too.

For the enclosure I went with a blue tayda enclosure and UV print. I decided to go with a color palette that matched the original and used Mr. Fantastic for the artwork since no one squishes like Reed Richards. All in all Dave did a fantastic job with a great layout and made it all fit wonderfully in a 125b. Can't wait to get this one out in the wild and see other people building it. For the demo, it's hard to showcase a compressor because so much of it is about feel, but I tried anyways. Chords and single notes to show the squash. To me it has less squeeze than the ROSS but more than an optical.

This is one is my fave of your DS-1 flavored series.  Killer 

Did you ever build a Silver-Screw?

I actually have the board for an aion with the original inline preamp opamp. Ironically, it sounds like any other DS-1. Maybe one day I'll rehouse it.

Yeah, that's the one with the TA7136AP.  I like it best, seems more open to my ears. But I'd admit, I could be listening with my eyes 

The noise floor is a little higher with the chip and yeah, I can get a slightly different vibe from that pedal if I listen with my eyes and wallet lol. But, once you layer guitars or add other instruments all that is lost, atleast imo

This is one is my fave of your DS-1 flavored series.  Killer 

Did you ever build a Silver-Screw?

I actually have the board for an aion with the original inline preamp opamp. Ironically, it sounds like any other DS-1. Maybe one day I'll rehouse it.

This one caught me off guard. @dan.schumaker had mentioned to me before he was working on a DS-2 but it wasn't quite right. Then he emailed me and said I had one headed my way to test. I was ecstatic to say the least! It came in the mail and that day I built it up and tested it. I've been waiting for this day for a LONG time 😂

If you've seen or built one of Dan's boards you know he's a mad scientist. He can make any size circuit fit into any enclosure. This is a Big circuit with some pretty complex switching involving lots of fets for the two modes. Dan used CMOS switching via a SPDT and the results are flawless. The fact that he got all this into a 125b with onboard relay bypass is pretty remarkable. I'm used to 1/8watt resistors so the build itself was a breeze.

So how does it sound? I put it side by side to my production DS-2 and it sounds the same. Only difference is, I used a logarithmic pot for distortion instead of the D taper the stock uses. Close enough for rock n roll. Other than that I used all common parts and smd j201s for the jfets.

For the enclosure I used a matte orange tayda box and UV print. This pedal will always be synonymous with Kurt Cobain and my love of In Utero. As a tribute to the man who imo is one of the greatest stage destroyers I went with Hobie Brown aka spider punk who embodies the sound and spirit of this build. What a fantastic build and sound it makes. The video clip is from my testing rig before I boxed it, as I just got back from vacation and the day before I left my hot water heater died and leaked, so my music room is filled with stuff from the storage side still and no filming right now.

OS-2 was my first dirt pedal probabably like 25 years ago
I actually own two Boss originals cos I sometimes have a fly board and its such a part of "me" as a sound - I always come back to that as my filth setting irrespective of whatever other multitude of dirt pedals I have around (which is a couple dozen probably).

Really cool builds.



PS: Sorry to hear you arent feeling stellar.
Ill add to the pile at the risk of this becoming "sad pedal builders anonymous" that this year has felt particularly challening for me. While I wouldnt say I am clinically depressed I have felt a struggle. Not sure if its cos I turn 40 (tommorrow.... ) and am aware of mortality (parents declining health and repeat oncology surgeries) or the fact my cat has been on the watch list for at least 3 years now and thats coming to a head...or other stuff that I probably dont want to write here regards my closest family. But hey, Ive started collecting and modding cheap guitars and thats been nice. I dont build many pedals at all these days which I do miss and maybe adds to the sads a bit.

First, Happy Birthday! Welcome to your 40s where everything hurts 😂 I don't know, I felt at 40 like I was finally starting to figure things out a little bit. I think we are all going thru a struggle and it's important to be understanding and not feel ashamed to admit it. I appreciate your honesty and hope things work out for you.

I wanted to build another guitar and was looking at bodies recently but since I just replaced my hot water tank I'll put that on hold for now.  But I did just build a pedal that has completely blown my mind and changed how I'm playing so maybe you should build a pedal too. I have lots of suggestions lol. And if you ever want to talk or just have someone listen don't hesitate to pm me.

I like the many-awesome-builds-in-one-post threads.  Really hits the spot 

Sorry to hear about the loss and other stuff.  I've been building a lot less but I get the itch and get one in here and there.  Overall, pretty lucky to have stumbled into this hobby, it's held my attention for at least 6 years now.  Only music has that beat.  With music, I've had year long spans where I didn't feel like playing, figure this stuff is similar. I took guitar and piano lessons for awhile a few years back, it was fun and re-lit my interest in music.  Maybe something similar in the EE space would do the trick?

I've been having so much fun going through the Boss back catalog and some super cool stuff is coming up but I'm pretty much out of analog stuff. I have been working with people much more qualified at pcb design to make these long lost circuits come back to life and that has been super satisfying.

Good to see you again, Chris! Super work, (bet you're tired of that one ) I particularly like the Proletarian

I hear you on the mental health part. The brain loves to go off on its own sometimes. A bit there myself right now  Hang in there.

Thanks. I like to build to sort of work through what's in my head and sort of shake the etch a sketch. The hobby in general has had a real lack of non yats, muff or blues breaker builds and I'm trying to build stuff that is not those things. I have a few new things up my sleeve but I think I just need to play more.

I haven't been active in some time and have been feeling kinda discouraged by the hobby lately for various reasons. Also been battling some personal loss, depression/anxiety and family stuff. But I wanted to share some builds that I haven't shared yet. No detailed write ups 🫤
First up is my DS-1:



Next is the OS-2



And the GE-7B

My weekly build report, the one time a week I post anything that could be considered remotely close to constructive and worthwhile. This week I'm sharing my oddity build. The Oddity is a clone of the Boss OD-1. But Chris, didn't you already build on OD-1? I did, I built the odd one out which is the first issue version of the OD-1 which used a quad opamp and the input/output buffers are opamp based. The oddity is based on the second version of the OD-1 which uses a dual opamp and transistor based buffers. The OD-1 was bosses first compact overdrive pedal and one of the architects of the the tube screamer and SD-1.

Rumor has it the change in design of the OD-1 circuit was do to boss engineers claiming that the American made quad opamps used in the pedal were inconsistent. I would bet that the change came about when the 4558 was widely available and Japanese manufacturing meant that it was cheaper to use and thus higher profit margins could be had. The changes in the circuit make for a definitive audio difference. Many people seem to prefer the quad opamp version and analogman would have you believe that the second iteration is hot trash. So what are the differences?

The quad opamp version is voiced a little deeper, has less compression and more grit, more balanced sounding and slightly less gain and volume. The dual opamp has a brighter more cutting tone, slightly more volume and tighter aggressive gain. To me, the first version is slightly more lofi sounding and the dual opamp version is more refined and in line with the modern overdrives that followed it. I can use words all I want so I put them head to head in a video so you can hear the difference. The pedals are set with the gain each at 9 o'clock and the volume set to be as close as possible. I used my looper so I can keep it consistent and switch between pedals with both hands. Different yet very close and either version you go with can be set up similar and i would be happy to use either version.

The build was simple, low parts count which means with only 2 knobs and minimal components everything part had an impact on the overall sound. Typical ppcb, fast and painless with no hiccups and a clean layout. Blue tayda enclosure with UV print and for graphics went the the GOAT Stephen Strange. I highly recommend this build as it is a solid overdrive and the sound is greater than the sum of its parts. The cost to reward ratio is outstanding for the project.

That turned out fantastic John and I'm so glad I could be an accomplice in this build!

Do you have a 2068 in your CS9 build? 

Update on my Fraudhacker:  Used it yesterday for some band action for ~3h.  Ran like a champ and sounds amazing.  Brian is a wizard recently with low noise.  Both the new Collosalus and this one are dead quiet, which for flanger fans is a feat.

I'm glad you got the flanger working. How awesome is that mn3204 in the fraudhacker??!!

I don't know if anyone actually reads these or finds them helpful but hopefully someone does. I'm going thru the backlog of finished projects and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So here is the PW-2 power driver. I consider this as Boss's response to the DOD grunge, even down to the silly EQ labels. Ironically Boss felt the need for a "grunge" pedal when they already had the market dominated with the OG grunge pedals-the DS-1 and DS-2. The only board available at this time is by DEFX and I ordered one and was reminded why I hate their boards, so I asked @dan.schumaker to make me one. Hence the P.O.W. was born.

It's been mentioned by a YouTube channel that this is the Boss Big Muff. While I do see some similarities in tone I wouldn't call it a big muff, it's way more versatile imo. It has a gyrator control like the HM-2, and unlike a BM, it has plenty of mids. Plenty of volume and gain on tap I can use this for lots of tones and not just those really saturated ones. In the sound clip I showed off a kind of muff sound for context.

Grey Tayda enclosure and UV print. Went with Bucky on this one, TWS was the reason I wanted to call it the P.O.W. and it looks as mean as it sounds. Clean layout from Dan. Another rare hidden gem, build one if you can.

There aren't as many options for bass overdrive pedals made specifically for bass. I see even less build reports for these projects. I am in the process of making a dedicated bass pedalboard so I wanted an overdrive that gave me more tonal options than the DAM Ezekiel clone I've been using the past couple years. Being on a boss kick (fanboi here) I decided to try the God City Instruments N.E.W bass overdrive that is a clone of the dunwich bass overdrive, and that is a feature rich expanded clone of the polarizing Boss ODB-3 bass overdrive.

I've watched a lot of videos on the ODB-3 and I agree with many of the complaints of the pedal. One, it's too boxy sounding, and the blend knob isn't the best. The LED clipping gives it more of a crunchy fuzzy drive versus overdrive. This pedal has many additional tone shaping knobs and switches. I like having a seperate level for clean and drive level sperate from the blend knob. This along with the silicon clipping option creates so many shades of dirt. The added mids tone controls make the pedal truly bass friendly. I opted to eliminate the center tone bypass switch as I didn't feel it was worth including. Not all mods are as impactful as others.

The build made me truly appreciate the work of Brian, Robert and David as the layout was kind of a 🥴. The drill template was less than ideal, the lack of documentation about what switches were used and the off board wiring pads were in the least ideal spots. I ended up using a on-on switch for the mids because I didn't learn until after the fact the it's an on-off-on and I had it boxed already. In spite of all this it is still a worth while build that sounds great.

For the enclosure I used the a matte black tayda box and UV print. I wanted to have a kind of 80s vibe to the look and went with a color scheme that matched that. I went with rocket and his 89P13 designation from the GOTG vol3 film because one, its badass and two, because I wanted something that had the odb-3 vibe name wise . For the demo I looped something simple and turned the knobs to give a sense of the wide range of sounds available, and let's be real...I'm a guitar player pretending to play bass 😂. If you want a good bass drive then I can recommend this one. 4 out of 5 stars for the drill template, off board wiring and build documentation short comings.