Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I bought two Codtone Codpiece boards from Guitarmageddon and Captain Peyote. This is the the first one. I think it came out great! Thanks to those guys for putting together a nice pcb. The stock configuration comes with a Volume knob and a Fat switch. I left those as per spec. There is also a clipper switch in the standard config, which calls for LED's on one side, and 1n4001's on the other, with a on-off-on switch, you get no clippers in the middle spot. I felt the 1n4001's didnt sound too far off from using no clippers. So changed them to Germs, which gave the pedal a crazier fizzy fuzz distortion sound... with a little less output than the other two modes. No-clipping mode sounds like a heavy overdrive already so the 4001's really didnt help. The LED's add a bit more punch and clarity, just like it does in the rat clones. So now I have three really nice options. I did the Gain Knob mod, which works really well. And I also added the famed Peyote switch, which reverses the Q2 tranny to create a more fuzzy tone, with a slight octave thrown in. Cool pedal. I am digging it. My stamping came out okay this time. I went a little low to the bottom of the enclosure, but I am happy with it. And I tried to keep my wiring as neat as posible, but with two knobs and three switches, there are just a lot of wires in there. Here is some pron...

Totally Awesome.
Fully optioned and I really dig that control layout too.

Looks great man!

I have 3 of these pcb coming in for the fantastic world of Oz, i may do all 3 in different versions..just for the fun of it

Looking good Brad. Nothing like more toggles than pots.

happy alien codpiece FTW!

nice work, Brad. Sounds like your build behaves a little differently than mine... glad you played around and got it sorted out the way you like it. Experimentation is the name of the game! And this circuit lends itself well to messing around. enjoy

and for you other curious folks... still have some boards available! see this thread for ordering info: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=37648

Yeah man. Mine is so hot without clippers that I began to suspect the switch was bad. So I tried yanking all the clippers and it still sounded the same. But I got it to sound different with the Germs. And the LED's certainly light up in the LED mode. So I know its working right. Maybe the trannies I used were a little hotter. I used the stock tranny in both Q1 and Q2. Or maybe some thing is touching on my Peyote switch and I'm getting both Q2 trannies at the same time? But I doubt it, because I hear a difference between Peyote mode and non-Peyote mode. So I think the results would be bad if something were shorted on the Peyote switch. I think it sounds good. Its just really hot, which is not a bad thing, and which is why the Pre-Gain mod works so well. If I take down the gain on the Germanium mode to half, it gets all sputtery too, which is cool... like a fuzz with a dying battery. It really is a diverse pedal.

in my builds, I find with no clipping selected that unity gain (i.e. same volume with pedal on or off) is around 8 or 9 o'clock. with LED's i get unity around 11 o'clock, and with silicon clippers it's around 1 o'clock. so yeah, you might say it's a bit hot. lots o' boost available. In my experience, the distortion is the lowest (but still high) with no clipping, a bit higher with LED's, and full-out fuzz territory with the silicons. I would guess even more so with germaniums. But yes, if you like being able to set the gain below "medium-high", then the pre-gain mod is a good one for sure. Probably not needed if you're one of those guitar volume knob guys... but I hardly ever touch the knobs on my guitars, so the pre-gain mod was a must for me to have the most versatility.

glad you like it!

I ride my volume knob on my guitar quite a bit. But the pre-gain knob makes the pedal all the more useful because it gives me the option to use this pedal for less heavy music where a more mild overdrive is required. For a simple bleed-to-ground control, it works much more interactively than I would have thought. It really does scrub off gain without infecting the overall volume or the punchy tone of the pedal much. Its a good mod, but I can definately agree that its purely optional if one's intention was to run the pedal in heavy distortion mode all the time.

I must admit I'm a bit surprised that a guy who rocks a bad-ass green flying V is interested in "mild overdrive"

I do have my sensitive side.

Nice!

Wow, shiny latex pron ribbon cable, for her pleasure of course