MadBean Touch Stone

[dawson]

My first chorus pedal was a big box EHX Small Clone that I was deep in love with until it had an unspeakably unfortunate incident with a station wagon (R.I.P.)

I've always missed the Small Clone but I've filled the chorus void with other placeholders over the years, most-recently I've been using my SCHMORG-ready MBP Florist which is about as good as I've ever heard a '2399 sound, but I kept finding myself yearning more and more for some good ol' high head-room, low knob-count chorus goodness, which the Touch Stone delivers big-time.

Here it is:




I designed the pattern in Photoshop after briefly researching how Dolly the sheep was cloned, then etched the aluminum plate with ferric chloride.

Because there are only 2 potentiometers to support the PCB, I doubled up the wires by twisting with my electric screwdriver:



It's a tight layout designed to fit in a 1590B enclosure and there are a couple less-than-common capacitor values in the circuit so I employed the ol' upside-down trick to make everything fit:



In conclusion- the Touch Stone does a fantastic job at the Small Stone sound. Brian's improvements are solid: I enjoy the 'DEPTH' controlled by a knob rather than a switch and am glad to be rid of that cursed power adapter the EHX model needed.

If you're wondering WTF is wrong with this guy who thinks it's okay to build upside-down pedals with no pants on, this thread may answer a question or two:
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=32053.0

Really happy to get this circuit back in the chain.
Thanks for reading!

[jessenator]

I finally went to go check out your ply board contraption of amazement, and this is all killer!

I love all of the mod work (e.g. making pot stems) and doing it all so cleanly. Nice work!

[jimilee]

Soldering with no pants on... good luck sir. Pedals are stellar as always:


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[dawson]

I finally went to go check out your ply board contraption of amazement, and this is all killer!

I love all of the mod work (e.g. making pot stems) and doing it all so cleanly. Nice work!

Hey, thanks for looking-
Glad you found the bottom half of my builds!

Soldering with no pants on... good luck sir. Pedals are stellar as always:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!
The high-risk situation keeps me on my toes.

[Thewintersoldier]

We all know I love me some EHX and the small clone is the shit, and this build is no exception, it fucks😤🥵🤘

[gordo]

Damn that's clean.  I'd do etches if I could get it that clean.  I agree too, that the Florist and the PT based stuff is good.  But at the end of the day it sounds very "effecty" where as the SC and the Boss CE's tend to nail the subtle end of the chorus spectrum.  That cross shot with the switch in the foreground is pure pedal porno.  It looks fake it's so perfect.

That's what she said, never...

[dawson]

We all know I love me some EHX and the small clone is the shit, and this build is no exception, it fucks😤🥵🤘

Thanks, Chris!
Small Clone is indeed the shit!

Damn that's clean.  I'd do etches if I could get it that clean.  I agree too, that the Florist and the PT based stuff is good.  But at the end of the day it sounds very "effecty" where as the SC and the Boss CE's tend to nail the subtle end of the chorus spectrum.  That cross shot with the switch in the foreground is pure pedal porno.  It looks fake it's so perfect.

That's what she said, never...

Hey thanks, Gordo!
Building on the faceplate allows me to get right in there for close-ups of them nethers.

[blackhatboojum]

That etch is clean as hell, and who doesn't love a small clone.  Nice work!

[jjjimi84]

Wow! This is really cool, I love that ground wire set up you got going there and the pots, mind blowingly cool!

[LaceSensor]

the presumably 3D printed mounting points, especially for the Ftsw and LED inc dimmer knob have me intrigued. Very cool

[peAk]

Very cool, love the etch

[Bio77]

I'm with Gordo, that sideways shot is screensaver material    Super cool build.