Sunking Vs. Klon Report

[Marcelo]

Hi There,
Yesterday I had the opportunity to get my hands on a real Klon (Gold Version) for a few hours. I heard many different opinions about how the sunking compares to the real thing...well, I was able to do my own comparison. I run the test with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender American Standard, thru 4 different 100W heads: Fuchs, Marshall Silver Jubilee, Diaz and a Soldano with cabinets loaded with Celestions V30. I compared any king of combo you can think of, both clean and dirty channels on the amps and tweaking the knobs on the pedals.
After a few hours of comparing and trying to find a difference between the pedals, I concluded that the Sunking is dead on. You cannot tell the difference between the two pedals at all, at least on my build.
Thank you Brian for bringing this project to us! No point at all for spending big bucks!
Hope this help you guys!
m

[glowsheep]

I've been thinking of building the sunking for a while due to all the hype of the Klon. I'm sure at some point I'll build one, good to know that the sunking compares spot on.

[TNblueshawk]

Great news since I have that board on my bench right now with stuff spread out 

[Marcelo]

Make sure you use good quality components. I used panas caps, 1% resistors, etc. I have tons of brand pedals (yes, I have GAS), some high ends, vintages, and tons of DIY. If your sound is fat, bottom end type (Warren Haynes-mule), this is by far the best pedal you can build. You will not be disappointed!

[TNblueshawk]

Thanks for the info. I have a bunch of places to socket and plan to beef it up based on some suggestions here. I do have a Gibson but it has Blues 90's in it, but I'll get some fatness out of it with both PUPs engaged. Can't wait to get after this.

If I could pick just one note like Mr. Haynes, I'd set that guitar down and just retire it as it couldn't get any better than that !

[juansolo]

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

[nzCdog]

Very interesting...

[TNblueshawk]

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

Good to know. I love Barry's builds and plan to do many more.

Juan, don't have it in front of me but are you referring to the cap that most recommend raising to 6.8n? I plan to bump it to 8.2n for just a little more balls. Can't think of the cap number off hand....C15 was it? Anyhoo, Bean had in a thread on the tech pages awhile back to raise C6, 7 and another one, again notes not in front of me. I plan to socket those 3 and see what I think stock and then raise them if need be.

Nothing but fun fun fun...

[G.G.]

Marcelo, what diodes did you end up going with?

[juansolo]

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

Good to know. I love Barry's builds and plan to do many more.

Juan, don't have it in front of me but are you referring to the cap that most recommend raising to 6.8n? I plan to bump it to 8.2n for just a little more balls. Can't think of the cap number off hand....C15 was it? Anyhoo, Bean had in a thread on the tech pages awhile back to raise C6, 7 and another one, again notes not in front of me. I plan to socket those 3 and see what I think stock and then raise them if need be.

Nothing but fun fun fun...

Off the top of my head it's C15 and we put it up to 8N2. Threw loads at it until the 3 of us in the room couldn't tell which one was on or not. Tried it at several settings to be sure. It was all we changed.

EDIT: Thread is here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=1259.0

[Marcelo]

Marcelo, what diodes did you end up going with?

Bat 41s for D1 & D2. No other changes on any components listed in the original build. The only mod I introduced is true bypass.

[Jamiroking]

This is great to hear though I love the sound of mine so much I don't really care if it sounded the same or not.

[marauder]

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

It is identical, but we subbed all resistors and caps for the values used in the Sunking.

[juansolo]

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

It is identical, but we subbed all resistors and caps for the values used in the Sunking.

Ah indeed, I was talking about the sunking there not the MK1C.

[TNblueshawk]

Marcelo, what diodes did you end up going with?

What's up G?   I plan to go bat41's for D1&2 and go stock on the others, but I do plan to socket them all.

Have you built one yet?