I originally cloned the Sansamp Classic for a Nirvana-loving friend of mine a few years ago from a schematic I found over on the DIYStompbox forums, and while it turned out nicely enough it was my first attempt at PCB design and as such left a lot to be desired layout-wise. After I got a few more projects under my belt I decided to try again with a version optimized for top-mounted jacks (I never liked the side-mounted jacks on the originals, especially the DC jack) and otherwise changed up to allow easier wiring, with the idea of possibly making a low-volume run to sell on Reverb since the originals were scarce and expensive at the time. As it so happened, shortly after I finally got around to ordering the revised boards Tech 21 announced that they were reissuing the Sansamp Classic so I ended up shelving the whole idea. That is, until a fellow who had seen my original build contacted me on Reddit asking if I could put one together for him as well. He was in the process of attempting to digitally model the effect and despite having an original on hand wanted another reference copy to verify voltages and waveforms since the board on the originals is encased in some sort of plastic or ceramic. I didn't really have a reason to refuse him since I already had the boards and most of the parts on hand and was kind of looking for a reason to throw one together anyway, so here we are!
The enclosure is a powdercoated 1590BB2 from Tayda. I decided to give their drilling service a try in order to avoid the hassle of hand drilling and was pleasantly surprised by how well it came out. It was quick and easy to use, accurate (except for the LED hole being higher than planned but that was user error) overall and well worth the additional $4.50. As nice as having predrilled holes is though it didn't save me from having to use a Dremel and a file to make the rectangular hole for the DIP-8 switch, which was by far the hardest (or at least most tedious) part of this build.
Another, non-glamour shot view of the front. The graphics are nothing special, just a waterslide decal sealed on with epoxy resin. Getting the hardened resin out of the rectangular hole after the fact was NOT fun and left a rather rough edge.
And of course, the guts. Going for a layout with top-mounted jacks rather than side-mounted like the original and reissue meant ditching the battery, but in this day and age it's pretty much a non-issue. I also had to move the voicing switch on the side down a bit which I admit looks a bit wonkier than the original. Other than that, though, everything fit rather nicely!
And finally, here's a quick demo of me badly playing a bit of "Serve the Servants" by Nirvana:
