Voltron.

This fuckin’ thing!!

This was made on request by my buddy Johnny Pockets.  Its a five-up multi effect unit.  The goal seemed to be rooted in ridiculousness, and by god I like that.  The effects in this are (from right to left):

Fuzz Face:  a bog standard silicon transistor fuzz face.  universally awesome fuzz.

Boosters:  two (count-em) two ZVEX super hard-ons, with the trick being that one is always on, and one is switchable.  I have built that booster for a few people that immediately ask for another because they want to leave one on all the time, and switch the other one in as needed. 

Effects loop:  An effects loop in an effect pedal?  YEP.  Sometimes you need to throw some other boxes into your pedal chain, and sometimes you want em in the middle.  So I threw one in here after the dirt section but before the modulation section.  I dont know what you’d want to put in here, necessarily, but I thought a wah went damn well.

Delay:  analog delay based on the Madbean Aquaboy.  RAD sounding delay which can also do some slapback reverb if you really crank down the delay time.  Slapback reverb is kickass.

Tremolo:  using the modified EA tremolo.  a super-solid sounding trem that has the bonus of a whipass boost in it as well!  If you need a THIRD boost (who doesnt, really?) then you can crank down the trem depth and use this as a straight boost.

Phase:  bog-standard clone of the MXR Phase 45, my personal favorite phaser.

Mayor McSpaceFuzz.

I told you more delays were coming!  This one is for the esteemed Mayor of Greenpoint Brooklyn, Mr. Rich Hall.  Rich asked me for a one-box space machine that would satisfy his fuzz and delay needs, and the one restriction was that it needed to be sparkly orange.  I like those kind of orders!

The front end of this guy is the basic fuzz.  Its just such a perfect fuzz-tone and its small, one-knob, and hassle-free.  Perfect for a combo pedal like this.  The left switch and left-most knob control the fuzz.  That feeds a standard analog delay circuit which is controlled by the right switch and the right-most three knobs (delay, blend and feedback).  You can use the effects independently and they’re great as-is or use em together to blast off to planet facemelter!

Season in the abyss.

I have no idea what’s going on right now but people want delays!  Maybe its the cold weather?  All I know is that i’ve got requests for 4 delays right now, and another one in limbo that I havent committed to yet. DELAY SEASON. 

This particular analog delay is an old build from when I was testing prototype boards for a fellow builder before they went into production.  Its based off of the old Way Huge Aqua Puss. Its a great sounding delay but they also get a lot more stupid with addition of some mods, and man do I like stupid.

The unit in question here is a pretty standard analog delay topography with control for delay length, blend between wet and dry signals, and feedback (how much the delayed signal feeds back into the circuit for repeating, decaying, delays).  When the feedback is turned down you get just one delay, but as you turn it up you get multiples like you’re yelling “echo” into the grand canyon.  Turn it up even more and the circuit starts to freak out because its becoming a closed loop that just wants to repeat upon itself infinitely….and thats where it gets FUN.  But its also totally not fun needing to kneel down while you’re rocking out to turn the feedback knob.  Solution?  A footswitch.  One switch is the standard on-off switch and the other is a momentary switch which dimes the feedback when youre pressing it down, and sends the thing into oscillation heaven.  KICK.  ASS. 

More mods to come on future builds….