Fruadhacker

[Thewintersoldier]

The past couple months have been tough. A death in the family, lots of health problems with family, a personal crisis and work related pain. To battle seasonal, holiday and clinical depression I decided to embark on a side quest and start a new personal build collection.
I'll preface this by saying that long before I fell in love with vintage EHX circuits, I was a BOSS fanboy. Like many of us many of my first pedals were boss pedals because the were cheap, indestructible and everywhere. This collection will contain pedals I've have previously owned, could not find or became too expensive to try. The first up is the fraud hacker
The fraudhacker is a BF-2 flanger. I have a soft spot for this pedal as it's the first flanger I got back in 93. Like an idiot I sold my original early 90s pedal around 2002 when the boutique phase hit and BOSS wasn't cool anymore to the masses (thanks TGP). Sonically I would describe it as the middle ground between the DEM and MXR flanger. A very versatile flanger that can do warm, metallic, chorus and jet plane tones.
The build and biasing itself was very straightforward and simple. I got the nos 3207/3102 from @blackhatboojum in a trade at the beginning of the year and was saving them for the right project. The literal fraud and hacker Mysterio, UV printed on a matte Violette enclosure. Sorry for the long post. TLDR it's a great sounding flanger and if you are in the market to build one you can't go wrong with a BF-2. Thanks for another fantastic project Brian!

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[jimilee]

Oh man, that's freakin awesome! As for your mental health, sounds like you had a few decent gut punches on top of everything else.

I too suffer with depression, like a lot. Building helps me clear my head and work some things out. I sometimes have a hard time getting off the couch to start building, but for me, it's very therapeutic. Take care of you, and build a bitchin collection.


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[gordo]

Hope it turns around for you Chris, hate to see you go thru tough times. Stellar build as always, and as Jimi mentioned I appreciate bench time for the brain drain.

[madbean]

Chris, great work as always. And, I appreciate you sharing with your own struggles.  Shoot, right now pretty much all my childhood family is old and either near passing or just a few years from it. It's kind of terrifying.

At the very least we are at the holidays now. And, that can be sad but the great thing about it is this can also be a time of renewal. It's a special time of year where life slows down just a bit and we can reflect on good memories and hope for good things to come! Just a funny antecdote: I told my wife last night all I want to do next week is make our usual veggie Thanksgiving and for all of us to watch those stupid British Holiday Baking shows, haha. It's the little things sometimes.

[blackhatboojum]

Hot damn this is a killer build!!!  I've already done a long and drawn out build report about this pedal and my love for this circuit so, I'll spare everyone my long ass story.  I'll just say that you've done my all time favorite flanger circuit justice with this build and knocked it right out of the friggin park!  As far as the personal and mental health stuff goes...  I feel you brother.  We've spoken privately about a lot of this so, I'll just say this publicly... Hang in there my man.  You know I'm pulling for you. 

[jwin615]

Beautiful build man.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that depression is like a weather pattern. The storm will pass. Some days will be cloudy. But rejoice in the bright and sunny moments when they happen.

[Thewintersoldier]

I wanna thank everyone for the kind words. What I've been going through is something all of us go through at one time or another. I have been bipolar my whole life and have struggled with having balance. This time of year can be hard for everyone for various reasons, regardless of whether or not you have mental health issues. If anyone ever needs to vent or needs an open ear don't hesitate to hit me up. We all need someone to talk to who's unbiased and not involved.

[Bio77]

Gorgeous build, Chris! I saw your stack of enclosures on IG, looking forward to watching this Boss collection come alive

Sorry to hear about your tough times. Glad to see you can get some bench time in.  This hobby and people on this forum have been a sanctuary for me.  Hit me up if you need anything.

[BryGuy]

Great build as always Chris. Nice to see you back at it, your builds really inspire me.

Times are tough for sure and mental health is no joke. This current economy sucks. Hope for brighter days for all.

[zombie_rock123]

Love the build, that colour looks amazing with the print on it. Look forward to seeing some more of these beasts!

I echo the other's sentiments on reaching out if anyone ever wants to shoot the shit, it's helped me in the past just having random conversations with some awesome people on here about personal projects, how to do XYZ.

[Bret608]

I know what you mean Chris; I wish I had not sold so many of my old pedals out of boutique envy! Sorry to hear you've had a rough patch lately, and I know building will help you refocus (it often does that for me). DEM meets MXR sounds like a winner to me.