What a Difference a Valve Makes

Got a Mullard ECC83 off Mr. Foxen to try in the Blackstar HT-DistX he traded me. It doesn't "completely open up the EQ" as I've seen claimed on the interwebz about replacing the valves in the HT pedals (a pox on over exaggeration), but it does make the gain sound nicer which is a big plus.

Now follows some gutshots and notes.


Fuck your warranties.

The immediately obvious thing when taking the boards out of the HT-DistX is that they're generic. Theoretically this means the pedal is very, very moddable. In practice it appears no bugger has even bothered and schematics are pretty much hen's teeth, so that's something to ponder for another time.




As on the other board there is a lot of space other components, including two more switches. Shown is the stock Sovtek valve




I had wanted to get the pot values as they would be the most immediately useful mod I could potentially make, but there are no values visible. I doubt these are particularly great pots, which makes it even more of a pain. L-R: Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, 'Infinite* Shaping Feature**', Level.

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*Not actually infinite.
**Possibly as in 'it's not a bug, it's a...' as I haven't found the point where it does anything awesome.

Woolly Mammoth Clone

Got myself a 'clone' of the Z-Vex Woolly Mammoth bass fuzz pedal. I know some would regard such a thing as depriving V-Vex of money and even try to claim some none-existent copyright infringment, but frankly when the original costs £250 and the clone cost £45 there's no contest really.

Rather pleased with it really, it means that I can now have the nasty buzzsaw type fuzz that I always felt my Bass Big Muff lacks. The EQ, admittedly, doesn't do an awful lot as far as I can tell and the fuzz control only makes a difference in the last 10% of its turn but I still like it.

Quickie - Danelectro Fabtone

My first ever pedal was a Danelectro Fabtone, and I still have it. When I was 19 it was the best thing ever. At 30 it was a horrible hissy gain monster I never used. I took out the diodes D4 & D5 and capacitor C2 and the gain became a bit more controllable but the pedal was still very noisy.

Recently though I found this video which suggests putting an LED in the place of the D5. I've just done this and the extraneous noise is all gone!

B.Y.O.C Confidence Booster

Well, I've completed the first part of this build; all the components that go directly on the PCB have been installed. I'm rather proud of my work here, the solder joints aren't perfect, but they're pretty neat... so yeah, the "Confidence" part has certainly lived up to it's name. I feel really good about what I've accomplished with this tonight.

Homebuilt Effects and Bass Cabinets.

So... I have orded myself a Build Your Own Clone Confidence Booster kit (from Vibe-O-Tronic). Basically this is a simple circuit which provides a boost in the signal path between guitar and amp. It doesn't come with an enclosure or anything which gives me an excuse to put it in something entirely random just for kicks. Looking foward to getting it so I can start learning more about electronics and effects building.

I've also arranged to get a bass cab, just a little'un with a single 15" speaker. I have no idea what the impedance is but luckily the Firebass head is variable there... also it has Elvis stickers all over the front which means I can claim it as trve necro or something on account of Elvis being dead.