A Galaxie Far Far Away? Modding the Boss BD-2

A few months ago I posted my first build of the Aion Sapphire clone of the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver overdrive pedal. At the time I mentioned that the board supported the Galaxie modification by Machine Head Pedals, and I planned to complete a second build of that version. It took a bit longer than expected (as I was working on other projects), but here it is, and from what I can tell so far, it is amazing!

If you compare the PCB above to the stock blues driver, you'll notice a lot of differences right off the bat. The most obvious change is that all of the diodes are eliminated, many of the resistors are switched out for capacitors (and vice versa), and many of the values are changed. The transistor layout remains the same, however, and like my previous build I used genuine through-hole 2SK184-GR transistors rather than the SMD conversions you can get from AionFX. The rest of the buuild is using almost all modern components, though I did sneak one Panasonic film capacitor into the mix. 

Wiring follows the normal AionFX arrangement with a daughter board and four of the six wires between the main PCB and daughter board populated. I'm still using ribbon cable for these as it seems the easiest route and the hookup wire for the jacks. Once again I'm using the AionFX recommended star ground. Like most of the other Boss clones, this one is 9V DC adaptor only as there's not a lot of room for a battery in the enclosure. 

As this is a Boss clone, it follows my general trend for these in terms of the enclosure art. This is my "new version" of the art with the black field at the bottom to mimic the rubber pad on most Boss pedals and the "Steggo Craft" instead of "Waza Craft". Since this was the "Galaxie" mod, I decided to have some fun and use a "Galaxy Class" inspired name for the pedal. Honestly the sound is great, and I may like it even a little better than the original. I have one more version of this pedal to build - the only change is the artwork. I'd intended to make it as an original, but I think I'm now going to set it up as the Galaxie mod instead!