Effects Layouts Pocket Comb Flanger (Ibanez FL9)

[blackhatboojum]

Gather around kids because I want to introduce you to a gem of a flanger.  The Effects Layouts Pocket Comb.  A heavily inspired by the Ibanez FL9 style flanger, offered to us lucky folks by storyboardist.  I first have to preface this build report by saying, I have never played through an original FL9.  Out of all the commercially available flangers I've played and flangers I've built, the FL9 has never ended up on my pedalboard until now.  The only thing I can really compare it to is the Boss BF-2.  A flanger circuit that, if you read my Fraudhacker build report, I'm very passionate about.  Speaking of the BF-2, this flanger has a lot of similarities.  It utilizes the same 3207/3102 bbd and clock combo, has the same number of controls, and the clock speed should be set exactly the same as the BF-2, according to the original Ibanez service notes.   Unlike a BF-2 though, this flanger is softer and warmer.  The BF-2 is more harsh and seems to accentuate high and upper mid frequencies whereas this flanger sounds flatter.  Not flat in a bad way but, just an even, more subtle, flanger feel.  Although, it will give you some heavy, metallic, sproing if rack the regen knob way up.  Even at that type of setting though, it sounds more subdued than the Boss designed counterpart.  Rather than continuing to try and explain all the differences, I'm just going to sum it by saying this a softer, warmer, and more subtle BF-2 to my ears.  For this flanger loving nut that's not a bad thing at all.  In fact, sticking this baby after my Madbean Man O' War to modulate those repeats is where this thing shines.  I love using a flanger to modulate delay repeats and this one is my absolute favorite for that purpose.  They pair so well together.  Like a nice cabernet to go with that juicy steak.

Build wise, it was once again pretty straight forward.  No issues, fired right up, and it dialed in perfectly using the original Ibanez FL9 service notes.  I will say though, that the bottom of the enclosure is pretty tight around the footswitch and pcb so, if you readers of this post want to build it, You'll want to make sure your drill holes are laid out properly.  I went with a yellow enclosure as a tribute to the original pedal and the artwork is just a simple representation of what the pcb is called.  Nothing fancy about any of that.  What is fancy is the aluminum knobs.  Those are courtesy of @peccary who so graciously made them for me.  Joe gave this flanger some special SoCal mojo with those babies.  Outside of that, there's only one critique I have about this build and it's not even really a critique.  More of a word of advice.  If you decide to build this pedal, I highly recommend socketing cap C25.  It's a bipolar cap that determines the minimum speed of the lfo.  This is mentioned in the build docs as well but, I just went ahead with the stock value of 2.2uF.  I didn't realize how fast the speed would be and I should've tried larger cap values to slow it down a bit.  On my BF-2 I have my rate knob around 12:00 but, with this flanger I have to dump the rate knob to minimum to achieve the same speed of the sweep.  I might go back and change this at a later date but for now It's working for me.  Well, enough of my blabbering and on to some pics.

[Bio77]

Bad-asa-tude! 

[jimilee]

Very very cool. Have you built any of the Lectric-FX flangers?


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[blackhatboojum]

Bad-asa-tude! 

Thanks!

Very very cool. Have you built any of the Lectric-FX flangers?


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Thanks!  Yeah, I've built the Old Chap from Lectric-FX which is also a great flanger.  I considered tackling the Flintlock but, having played through the A/DA reissue... I'm not really a fan of the A/DA circuit. 

[jimilee]

Bad-asa-tude! 

Thanks!

Very very cool. Have you built any of the Lectric-FX flangers?


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Thanks!  Yeah, I've built the Old Chap from Lectric-FX which is also a great flanger.  I considered tackling the Flintlock but, having played through the A/DA reissue... I'm not really a fan of the A/DA circuit.

Gotcha. I built the Dandy Horse, only flanger I've built as best I can remember.


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[Thewintersoldier]

Another killer build from my flanger Eskimo brother.

[blackhatboojum]

Another killer build from my flanger Eskimo brother.

Thanks brother!

[storyboardist]

Pristine build, man! Glad you're diggin' it. High praise from the Flanger King.

[jjjimi84]

This looks great! Putting this in the cart.

[blackhatboojum]

Pristine build, man! Glad you're diggin' it. High praise from the Flanger King.

Wow! Huge thanks!  This is high praise from the genius behind the pcb design!

This looks great! Putting this in the cart.

Thanks!  Hell yeah. Snatch one of these up  .