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Thanks for the love friends. Seriously... I wouldn't have had the courage to pursue this without the encouragement of countless friends near and far. It's funny how other people can see things in you that you can't.

Again... I posted this thread for anyone considering taking a leap of faith in life. I hope someone out there finds this encouraging in some way.

That looks fun

It didn't suck. 

For anyone who happens to remember my initial post, I wanted to write an update to the story... particularly for anyone who's considering making a similar leap of faith in life or career. When I started this thread, I had just moved to Nashville and landed my first regular gig here.

Tonight, many gigs later, I played Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Atlanta on the first of many tour dates opening for Miranda Lambert.



Moral of the story: If there's anything you never want to look back on and think "What if I'd tried?", don't wait another day to do it. I believe we have dreams in our hearts for reasons bigger than we can imagine.

For those who don't care about story morals: some DIY builds made it on stage as well    Specifically, an Aion Refractor, a JMK Moon Lander, and a MBP Aristocrat.

Another vote for the Moon Lander here. It's currently the lone fuzz pedal on my gigging board. Just fantastic.

Mine's built with one of Jacob's pcbs and came out great.

or a Dishonorable Bean.

That thing looks great! This is an interesting build to consider; I'm looking for another phaser option. As far as the ticking, I did notice your input jack is directly above and close to your LFO op-amp (IC1). In another build that had no ticking, they happened to mount the jacks in a completely different location, far away from the LFO (everything else was the same as yours). Maybe try removing the jack from that spot and temporarily support it away from the pcb. Probably just a dumb idea, but worth a try.

Yes! You should definitely consider it. It's fantastic. I did mess with the proximity a bit regarding the jack and it didn't really improve anything. Wonder if I could insert some sort of shield in between...

That is a very cool build. I've also had the idea of using iron man on the cover and let his "battery" light up when engaged. So, are the LEDs in his hands the LFO indicators? everything in light blue?
Too bad you got some ticking in there, I hope you'll figure it out eventually.

Yep! LEDs synced to LFO, light blue of course Looks badass lit up. I'll try to post a video sooner or later.

This one's been sitting on the bench quite a while, and I finally got around to boxing it up a couple months ago. Just now getting around to photographing it and writing a report. This was built on one of the 1.4 Low Profile Doppelganger boards from alanp.

I boxed it into a 1590BB Tall so that I could use top mounted jacks, and used shielded wiring throughout after reading about ticking problems with others. Despite my best efforts, I ended up with ticking in this build. I tried swapping opamps, messing with lead dress, etc. and it was persistent on all but the highest speed settings while in Dual LFO mode. Single LFO mode is fine and actually sounds fantastic. Despite the ticking issue, this thing has kicked my Stage Fright off the board for the time being. It's such a great sound - deep, wobbly, vibey... so good. I did use a 2kb pot on one of the Span controls - the low, I think - for deeper response.

TL;DR version: If you're a fan of phasers, you need a Doppelganger in your arsenal. This thing is a blast.

In case you guys haven't read it yet, the Ovni Labs review on this thing goes into the sonic (if not the technical) differences between the units rather thoroughly: http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/cali76.shtml

NES and Famicon. Kudos sir! 

Not pictured: N64, Wii, PS3, and Atari 2600. I'm a gearhead in every sense of the word 

I actually picked up one of these things a few months ago. I really didn't want to like it - particularly because of its size and the amount of board real estate required - but it really is that good. One of those pedals where you'd blissfully forget that it was even on until you turned it off and realized just how much it was improving things. I'm really bad at describing it other than that everything is simply more pleasing to the ear when it's on.

Try it on acoustic as well. It's killer.

It's earned a spot on at least one of the boards I'm putting together for an upcoming tour:

I think my jaw just fell through the floor and bonked my landlord on the head.

I used to work in student affairs at a college doing the entertainment booking for the students. If that counts. I also play for quite a few different artists, some of whom have great EPKs and some of whom have terrifying ones. I'd be happy to have a look 

Try subbing IC2 for a TL062 -- slightly lower current draw, perhaps? Solder a 100n cap across the power pins for the opamps?

Yeah, tried the TL062. Marginal improvement, if any. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Juansolo and I tried everything really

The tick is there at the fastest rate you just can't hear it cos it's so fast...

I'd save ur parts for the 2.1 and live happy

Yes, I've read through all of the past threads with you guys. Seems you tried every trick in the book. I figured the tick was still there at max rate, but it's inaudible through my rig so I'm happy leaving that knob there.

I may dive into the 2.1 someday, as I really am in love with the effect. Right now I can still use this thing in single LFO mode (with HF rate maxed) so it's not a complete wash. This is probably my favorite phaser that I've ever used - or at least tied with the Empress that I had for a while.

It just baffles me that some guys got ticking and others didn't, all using the same pcbs.

Ok... FINALLY got around to populating this board. I know that the rest of you guys are on version 2.8 or something like that now.... but I just couldn't let this thing sit around unbuilt.

As I feared, I'm getting the dreaded ticking problem. Just curious if anyone out there figured out a workaround for it. Some pertinent information:

- Used shielded wiring on ins/outs and to/from board.
- No part subs to begin with.
- I swapped IC3 from a TL074 to an LM324 and this actually decreased the volume of the ticking slightly.
- The ticking seems directly linked to the "Rate" control on the HF band. When the rate is set to max, there is no tick... only from 0-99%.
- I used waterclear LEDs for the rate indicators, not diffused, if this matters at all.
- I used green diffused LEDs and the SmallBear LDR's (same as alanp used) for the LED/LDR combos.
- My board is purple, which leads me to believe it was an early run. Not sure if this matters.
- Running after a buffered pedal made no difference.

Thoughts from the guys who've built this thing?

Why the double stick on the back of the pots?

Before I attached them to the pcb, I erroneously assumed that they'd all be oriented downward (toward the pcb) so I added the double stick on there to cushion between the pots and board. I'll use that stuff whenever I happen to run out of pot condoms!

Yep! I have one of those built into a dual pedal with a DLS on the other side. Basically Jimmy Page in a box.

I like the RAH, but it doesn't seem to play well with all amps. I like it with my Fenders, less so with my Matchless, jury's out with my Naylor. I haven't played it in a while, but I seem to remember liking it considerably more with humbuckers than I did with single coils. I think it was definitely made to be played with a Les Paul