A Truly Dino Bluesbreaker Clone!

The Marshall Bluesbreaker is one of the all-time classic pedals which sought to re-create the sound of the legendary Marshall Bluesbreaker amplifier from 1962. Original units have gone out of production and command a fairly high price, and there are some recent re-issues that aren't terribly expensive, but aren't terribly cheap either. I'd previously built an AionFX version of the Bluesbreaker, the Cerulean, which adds some different clipping modes to the circuit, but I'd never built a "stock" Bluesbreaker clone. My friend at South Obolon FX was kind enough to make a Steggo version of his board, so I started from there for an awesome dinosaur version.

Custom Built Brutalist Jr. - With Steggo!

Kurt Ballou at God City instruments had the brilliant idea to create a distortion pedal, the Brutalist Jr.,  and use the PCB as a business card. I'm not sure whether or not he still gives these out as business cards, but the PCB is still available on his DIY PCB website. I'd previously built clones of the Brutalist Jr. using both hand-etched and commercially produced PCBs which would fit in a 125B enclosure, as the original business card version requires a slightly larger enclosure. However, a local friend had one of the original PCBs lying around and asked if I would build it up. Since I'd never built one of the "real things" - I jumped at the chance!

Second Son of Ben??? Steggo's Personal Preamp

A few weeks ago I finished up a Benson Preamp clone for a friend. He has an original unit, but wanted something smaller for his gigging board, so using the PedalPCB Son of Ben board I made him something that fits in a standard 125B enclosure size. His board has a lot of purple pedals on it, so I made his from a purple metallic enclosure with matching knobs using my laser etcher. I wanted to try something a little different on my copy - though it falls very much in the same theme.

A New K-T Event Fuzz - With a Fun New Board!

I've built a few versions of the Black Ash Fuzz at this point, mostly on the South Obolon FX board. The first one was a straight modern build with all modern components, well apart from the somewhat unique transistors. It sounded great, but part of the schtick of the original pedal was the fact that it used a lot of vintage and/or unusual components in the build. I did a second version of the pedal where I took a step closer to the original - carbon film rather than metal film resistors, higher voltage film caps in place of the low voltage film caps (which were used in lieu of the paper in oil caps). I'd posted that build on the PedalPCB forum, and another forum member posted their amazing version of the circuit - that lets you go really old school - and they were nice enough to make me a version of the board!

Updating an Old Favorite - A Cornish-Inspired Silicon Big Muff

Before the release of the PedalPCB Polonium 2 distortion board (which I've built up as the Protoceratops 2, and which now has taken up permanent residence on my pedalboard), there was a loose consensus on the internet as to what the Cornish P-2 looked like from a schematic standpoint. I'd previously built up several hand-etched versions using the Effects Layouts PCB, and really enjoyed them. In hindsight with a clone in hand, there are several differences, and the Effects Layouts design always included the "probably" disclaimer anyway. It's therefore likely more proper to call this an "Cornish-inspired" variant, as it really is kind of its own thing.

A New Violet Ram's Head 2 Big Mutt

So since it's been several months since I built a Big Muff clone (granted, the combo pedal I just finished includes a Big Muff, but it is more than just a Muff clone), I figured it was time to go ahead and test out some alternate configurations of the Loud Cancer board - and try out some different potentiometer orientations as well. One of my favorite variants of the BMP is the Violet Ram's Head 2, so I decided to give it a whirl!

The Dark Side of the Steggo??? A New Gilmour Inspired Combo Pedal!

 Combination pedals are a great way to get multiple amazing circuits in one box. I've built a few pedals that are either physical combinations of two separate PCB's, or clones of pedals that involved multiple PCBs in the past. However, all of these combinations were essentially clones of existing pedals that were combination pedals in their own right, including the Steggo versions of the Cheese Source, Hoof Reaper, and Heavy Water. However, I wanted to do something that was a combo of two different pedals to help create a specific sound, so I went back to the pedal board of one of my favorite guitarists, David Gilmour, for inspiration.