The Apollo: A Frankenbean monster

[jubal81]

This started out as a Sunking build (hence the name) and just kept evolving.

After days of tweaking and testing, it ended up being a SK running into a Rump Roast powered at 18 volts by a Road Rage. Whew!

When I first powered up the Sk, it was a little harsh for my tastes. I've never been a huge fan of diode-to-ground clipping. So I added some series resistance (3rd knob from left) and a 2n2 cap across the diodes.

The Sk controls are trimpots and I control the gain, tone and volume with knobs from the Rump Roast half. It took a long time to dial in the sweet spot on the Sk, but it really does what I want it to do and sounds fantastic from very light OD to the heavy stuff.

I also ended up using component choices based on a lot of the work I've seen in other build reports here, namely using TLE2072 opamps and LM313 diodes. I tested a lot of other configurations, but ended up settling on those anyway. Also, there was mention of possibly using a BZ385-1.2 in place of the (very expensive) LM313s. I tried it out and the difference was absolutely razor thin, so I fully recommend giving them a try.

This was also my first etched enclosure job and might be my last. My shoulder is still sore from all that sanding. I screwed up three transfers before I got a good image and had to sand em off to try and try again.

Anyway, here's the pics, including my typical rat's nest wiring style:

[rullywowr]

Nice job!  I love the "diode clipping station board" where you have a dip socket ready for a'swappin!  Can you give more details on the BZ385-1.2 diodes?  Never heard of them.  I am about to order some 313H (for about 3.50 a piece) but if these work good that would be great!

[nzCdog]

YOWSAH!  Love it... Interesting to read about your diode experiments... I must try the cap and series resistance tricks sometime.  Wiring is epic!  Nice work!

[Haberdasher]

Holy cow, noiice!  That's a great job, there.

[jubal81]

Nice job!  I love the "diode clipping station board" where you have a dip socket ready for a'swappin!  Can you give more details on the BZ385-1.2 diodes?  Never heard of them.  I am about to order some 313H (for about 3.50 a piece) but if these work good that would be great!

http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=2OtswVQKCOEGEvC6B0QNZA%3D%3D

Sorry, it's LM385BZ-1.2. 67 cents each at mouser. They seemed just a hair rougher than the 313s, but with a cheap, tiny ceramic cap across them I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to tell them apart if I were blindfolded.

Honestly, the diodes didn't make as much of a difference on tone as I expected. Pedal sounded great regardless.

[raulduke]

Jesus!

Thats beautifull work and design there mate.

Top Gun Etching!

[stecykmi]

very cool build. great info about the LM385's too.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Holy cow you fit so much in there! I really like the etch, you worked hard for it!
Interested how you set it up, it's cool you got it how you wanted it in the end. I put that circuit away for a rainy day...

[jubal81]

Thanks for the nice words, guys. Worked pretty hard on this one.