More vintage EHX to consider - Hot Tubes

[lars]

It would be great if somebody made a PCB for the original Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes. I just watched the video for the new reissue version, and it sounded good. Only problem is that just like every new EHX pedal, it's been turned into a shrunken-down SMD version of something that used to be special. I've had no success with SMD-based pedals, they are always noisy and hissy. Plus they are just about impossible to work on if something goes wrong. Electro Harmonix should take a clue from the fact that their best designer, Howard Davis, won't even touch the new SMD-based stuff for mods.

[Scruffie]

Umm... I wont start an argument here but... no... SMD is not the issue... and Howard Davis' reluctance to touch the items has little to do with the pedals themselves. I don't like working with it personally as i'm lazy but many are fine with it, but there is nothing wrong with it and it may well produce less noise and I don't want them to go back to through hole.

However, if you search, somewhere, I did make a 1590B layout for that pedal.

[culturejam]

It would be great if somebody made a PCB for the original Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes.

I'm sure one of the many talented PCB guys around here will do one if there is enough interest.

I've had no success with SMD-based pedals, they are always noisy and hissy.

If this is true, it's not because the parts are small.

Plus they are just about impossible to work on if something goes wrong.

Uh, no. SMD is not all that hard to work with. It's just *different* from through-hole, so everybody freaks out over it. The process is a bit different and requires some different tools. It feels very different at first, but the goals and end results are the same (electronically). You just have to get your head around it.

Electro Harmonix should take a clue from the fact that their best designer, Howard Davis, won't even touch the new SMD-based stuff for mods.

I suspect this has more to do with him being used to working with through hole for many, many decades than it does any sort of qualitative judgement.

A similar thing happened in the news / print publishing industry when the process switched from "paste down" layouts and film-to-plate printing to the computer-to-plate process. All of a sudden, these guys with decades of expertise were obsolete because the process on the front end radically changed. Some of them worked hard and made the transition from glue and xacto knives to computer layouts...and the rest went out like Howard Davis. 

[lars]

Thanks for the info Scruffie. I'll try to find that layout...