Sharkfin [some mods, demo included]

[Cortexturizer]

I finally finished the Sharkfin, it's a bit of an honor to tell you the truth, not just that I've done it on the first Madbean board ever, but it's the first fabricated board [I kid you not!] I've ever worked with and in addition to that, I got it as a prize from the competition [thank you guys for voting really].
It's insanely easy working with fabricated boards, I couldn't believe the speed I've completed this with, and considering that I don't have much time currently for building, the ease of doing it really felt good.

Brian was kind enough to sell me two CA3080s, since I couldn't get em anywhere, not even Banzai Music carries em, and it just so happens that it was the exact two pieces that he used to develop this project, so that makes it even a bigger honor.

I put a 100K resistor as R15 and it made the pedal so much nicer for humbuckers. Now the pedal has just perfect performance. The controls are now much more interactive cause the Filter knob is very responsive across the whole dial. Attack knob that I had to keep on minimum now can go even full tilt. Great.

Pretty embarrased to have used that crappy chinese X wing dpdt switch but that's the only one I had lying around. I need about 5 of those 1776 boards, either the new relay stuff or the opto-trons, I need em asap. This one will get one, my Marble Dilemma will get three and ...oh god I'm gonna need more than 5!
The two sattelite circuits on veroboards made for a somewhat messy wiring, not my best, but it's okay I think.

The sample and hold side showed to be tricky to dial to my taste, I once dialed it just the way I like it, and of course I had to tinker with it again, only to lose the best setting I have found up to that moment, never to dial it again since. I constantly tweak the trimmers.
I love the sample and hold sound, but I was thinking it could be even more useful with some clean blended, so I added ta Blend knob, now I can do those out of this world slow chord passages with the pleasant SH throb in the background, awesome. It appeared that an added pot for the clean volume level gave even more possibilities of dialing just the right amount of clean and effected signal, but I added it mainly so I don't have a volume drop when engaging the pedal. Of course the volume drop that I had was there only when blending, on full wet the sample and hold is even stronger than unity. But when blended, although I could hear both the dry and wet signals in some ratio, there was a feeling of a volume drop cause I had my clean at 100% [pedal off] and then when engaged let's say dry 50% and wet 50% and that [because I could hear the dry signal which was the whole purpose of blending right..] gave me an impression of a massive volume drop. So I added the LPB-1 at the output of the blend mixer for the clean, that sorted everything up.
Plus, when put to 100% dry and the clean volume [lpb-1] crancked now I have a crazy ass loud boost. Given that this sort of pedals go to the start of the pedal chain usually, I will benefit from that cause I like to fatten the drive pedals that come after.
"Lots of planets have a north!" is a Doctor Who reference haha. I just got into Doctor Who, been aware of it for a very long time, and since the 50th anniversary I did a little browsing and searching at how should one start watching, a bunch of people seem to agree that one might as well start from the 2005 series so I did. Loving it so far.

Here's a demo song I made last night, I tried to do it in the vein of Mike Hermann, who does demos for musictoyznetwork and now Prymaxe Vintage, but he is a much better player haha. I even had some crappy bass lying in the room so I used that as well. Not really satisfied with the demo but it's not that bad.

I'll do a fast clean blended sample and hold demo later this evening or tomorrow.







and the sounds

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/kuato-design-stompboxes/maestro-fsh-1-jam[/soundcloud]


Hope you will like it!

[pryde]

WOW are you kidding me?

Coolest demo ever 

Awesome job my friend.

[brejna]

Awesome 

[brejna]

BTW what size is that enclosure, and where did get it?

[Cortexturizer]

Thanks guys! Pryde I'm glad you like the demo.
Brejna the size is the good old 1590BB, I got it from Banzai Music DE.

[brejna]

  I tought it was bigger

[Cortexturizer]

Hehe nope, the only thing that's bigger than it had to be is the REZ pot, Banzai doesn't carry 16mm 2M pots so I felt extremely lucky to have found that value in 24mm pots....All in all, I struggled a bit to put everything in there, if it wasn't for the Bean's AWESOME board I would have never succeeded.

[micromegas]

It sounds awesome and now I want one, just like when I take a look at Mike's demos.. Good performance + good looking pedal makes you an excellent seller!

[brejna]

Hehe nope, the only thing that's bigger than it had to be is the REZ pot, Banzai doesn't carry 16mm 2M pots so I felt extremely lucky to have found that value in 24mm pots....All in all, I struggled a bit to put everything in there, if it wasn't for the Bean's AWESOME board I would have never succeeded.

I believe that it took you bit more time, but sometimes it is a challenge to stuck with something
Is this millenium bypass or?

[Cortexturizer]

thanks micromegas!

Brejna, no, it's just a good old input grounded dpdt true bypass. The LED is for the sample and hold side and the LFO tempo. Really, that switch has a terrible feel, but I had to put in something

I promise a nice sample and hold only demo in a couple of hours.

[brejna]

aaaa I tought it was Millenium, 'cause these days I am try to find best switching option  ( starting to hate 3pdt switches )

[Cortexturizer]

yeah, sooner or later everybody does. I'd say relay is the way to go [Jeorge Tripps and Jack Deville are not mad ]

[midwayfair]

Awesome, awesome demo.

[madbean]

Great demo! That's exactly how that pedal should be used...you nailed it 

[jkokura]

Yeah man, I'll just echo everyone else - the demo rocks, and the pedal looks spectacular. Great job.

Jacob