Cloning the Famous EQD Monarch

The EQD Monarch is an out of production FET based overdrive pedal that gained a lot of popularity as a dirty boost without a lot of extra distortion or compression. It was also available as a DIY kit for many years through StewMac (and others), but while StewMac still offers many DIY effects pedal kits, the Monarch is no longer among them. I had a friend who wanted a Monarch clone - largely to allow a bandmate to leave his original unit in the studio and gig with a more easily replaceable copy - so I started doing some investigation on boards and kits available. As it turns out, the pedal is more than a bit finicky, and there were some flaws in the original design which likely led to a fair amount of frustration for both the users and the DIY community. Chuck Bones (of the PedalPCB Boneyard) did a great analysis of the circuit, suggested some modest improvements, and then took that a few steps further ultimately creating the Viceroy - a six-knob, two footswitch Monarch on steroids. Down the road, I plan to build the Viceroy, but for now I was more interested in getting a good direct clone of the Monarch working well - and across its full range.

Another Combo Pedal - Well, Sort Of! Cloning the ThorpyFx Heavy Water

The boost pedal market has exploded over the years. I believe part of the reason for the proliferation is some pedals tend to work better with specific amps, many pedals tends to work better with specific guitars, or more importantly specific pick-ups on those guitars. With many guitarists chasing specific or unique sounds, all of these subtle variations come into play. If you've watched any of the Anderton's guitar store videos on YouTube, you've likely encountered Danish Pete - a session guitarist and manager of their YouTube channel. He has a signature pedal called "The Dane" from ThorpyFx that combines a boost and distortion circuit (which would be a good future project...). There had been calls to produce the boost section as a standalone pedal, so ThorpyFx did just that, but took it one better. Instead of just having a single circuit, they created a dual effect pedal, the Heavy Water, which has the clean boost on the right, and a modified "grittier/dirtier" boost on the left. They also created a custom version with dual input/output jacks for people who wanted to create effects loops. I figured this would be a fun one to try since I already knew how to wire up a dual I/O jack pedal where it would function normally just using the input one and output two jacks (my recent Duo-Phase build). So in the final analysis, this is sort of a combo pedal as there are two circuits that can be accessed independently, it's marketed and sold as a single pedal normally.

On Target! Cloning the EQD Arrows

The Earthquaker devices Arrows is a simple tone sculpting pre-amp booster. It stacks well with other pedals, taking the mud out of heavy fuzz pedals or brightening light boost pedals. It can also be used on its own to really make your signal stand out – especially on neck pickups. This project is the last of the first three pedals in Kyle the Ankylosaurus' "one knob" collection, and as with some previous Earthquaker Devices builds, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I was going to.

The New "One Knob Collection"

I tend to build a lot of either vintage pedals or complex pedals, but there are a lot of really good pedals with only one knob. In fact, the first actual build I posted on the blog was a clone of the one-knob Acapulco Gold pedal, even though that wasn't the first pedal I'd built. I've recently been experimenting with some boards I've been able to order direct, which makes it cost-effective to offer some simpler pedals for sale through the studio. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce the first three pedals in the "One Knob Collection," but in typical Steggo fashion, there has to be a fun story to go with it!