A Fun Custom MXR Distortion+ (Modded) Clone

The MXR Distortion+ is one of the classic distortion effects pedals. I'd built one using the AionFX Aphelion board last year, and it also forms the basis of my home-brew Dimetrodon Distortion pedal (which I swear is really coming soon - I'm just waiting for the last of the beta test feedback!). One of the cool things about the AionFX board, is that it has three clipping and treble options which can be selected with a couple of toggle switches on the front of the enclosure. The clipping switch lets you choose between germanium diodes (as used in the Distortion+), silicon diodes (as used in the DOD 250), or LEDs (more like a turbo Rat). The treble switch changes the high frequency cut characteristics of the effect tone. I have a friend who recently took up the guitar and wanted a Distortion+ pedal, and the cool thing about this particular configuration is it gives you effectively three distortion pedals in one, with three treble options on each!

A Very Groovy Steggo - Cloning the Uni-Vibe

The Shin-ei Uni-Vibe is a very early chorus / vibrato pedal first sold in the 1960's. It has been used by many legendary guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, and David Gilmour. It was marketed as "Vibra-Chorus" the Uni-Vibe uses a series of phasing filters connected to light dependent resistors (LDRs). The LDRs themselves are modulated by a small light bulb whose intensity and rate of pulsation are controllable using the knobs on the effect itself. I'd wanted to do a Uni-Vibe clone for ages, and the PedalPCB board looked very approachable, so I took the plunge!

Cloning the Cornish P-2 - For Real This Time!

Pete Cornish's effects and pedalboards have been used by a wide array of guitar luminaires including David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Paul McCartney, and Mark Knopfler. While some of his designs are completely original, like the CC-1 Overdrive and OC-1 Compressor, other designs are based on existing circuits, like the SS-3 (loosely based on the MXR Distortion+) and the G-2 and P-2 (both based on the Big Muff Pi circuit using germanium and silicon diodes respectively). AionFX offers many Cornish boards, and as a fan of Cornish pedals, I've built many of them including the OC-1 compressor, the SS-3, and the G-2 (both in non-dino and dino versions!). Unfortunately AionFX did not offer a board for the P-2 and after hunting around, there were no commercial boards available. The only board I could find was the Effects Layouts version, which had the "probably" disclaimer and appears to have been based some speculative circuit diagrams on the net. I'd built a few pedals using hand-etched boards, both with and without the effects layouts Cornish buffer, and had really loved the sound. I still wanted to have a faithful clone of the original, though, and with a little gentle dino-sized nudging, PedalPCB has recently released the Polonium-2 board based on a trace of the actual P-2 pedal itself.

For a Pachycephalosaurus this counts as a "gentle nudge"

Steggo Studios End of Q1 and Secret Lab Update!

It's been roughly three months since my last Studio status (and Steggo's Secret Lab) update, so I figured it was time for a quarterly check-in. The first three months of 2023 have been busy, with a heavier than normal focus on modulation pedals - largely because I'd had several friends request them. Modulation pedals tend to be more complex than overdrive, distortion, or fuzz pedals (in general - anything that's a Boss clone is complex by its very nature!), so several of the builds have taken a bit longer than normal cutting my overall output, but I've been really pleased with how several of the pedals have come out!

Updated Geisha Drive Clone!

About a year ago, I posted a build using a hand-etched board cloning the out of production Way Huge Geisha drive. It was a really fun build, but recently I've been having trouble with my photoresist which has made creating hand-etched boards very difficult. I have an alternative in the works, but it's not ready to go yet, so watch the blog for more info there! In the meantime, South Obolon FX had laid out a version of the Geisha, and was kind enough to create a Steggo version of the board.

Finally a Dino Themed G-2 Clone... No Really!

I've been threaten... errr... promising to get around to finishing up my dinosaur themed G-2 clones for a while now, but they kept getting put on the back burner for other projects. This past weekend I decided it was high time to get them finished up! For more details on the pedal itself and some of the challenges one encountered making a reasonable clone of it, please refer to my original build from last May.

Under the Sea! Cloning the Quirky EQD Sea Machine

I've been on a bit of a modulation pedal kick lately because I'd gotten some requests from friends, including this build, a clone of the Earthquaker Devices Sea Machine. Touted as a "super chorus" pedal, as with most EQD modulation pedals, this one isn't a one-trick pony and has several very unusual controls that provide a very wide tonal palette. While it is still in production, the "real thing" runs around $199 brand new, so it isn't exactly a cheap pedal - making it a decent candidate for cloning.

It's BMP Time Again!!! A '73 Gilmour Ram's Head Build for Steggo's Personal Board

I've definitely built more Big Muff Pi pedals than any other type, and in more variants. The circuit goes together well, and with all of the modifications over the years, there are a ton of options that can make subtle (and in some cases not so subtle) differences in the sound of the effect. Last November I finally came up with a suitably "Steggo" name for the venerable BMP, the Big Muttaburrasaurus Phi, or the "Big Mutt Phi" if you prefer. The enclosures I'd used were a modified version of an earlier take of roughly the same art that I'd intended on using with the AionFX Halo PCB that I've used on many successful builds. Since I had one of the enclosures for the Halo PCB available, I decided to go ahead and use it for a personal build - with only a few ulterior motives.