My 'Mostly Madbean' board

[Gary_W]

Hello all,

Very rare I post here - apologies for that

Anyway, a big thanks to Brian for all the boards / schematics here - I've loved building all of these and, for the moment, I'm done.  Not sure how long that statement will last.  I had a little lapse earlier when I swapped a couple of caps in the King of Tone clone

Anyway.....  I know it's customary to show individual pedals but as most of these are home made and all bar one from here then it makes sense to show the finished article.



Bottom right is the Sunking - a friend of mine etched me the board.  I love it, and it's the only buffer I use.  Boost is great on it too.  I never have the gain above minimum.  Other pedals do that bit!

The bright-eyed ape is the Aristocrat (it's a Kong of Tone )  Bought the board from Brian direct.  Didn't care for it till earlier tonight when I swapped the input caps....

The Hulk is a Snack Shack (the D*A*M Meathead clone).  I've added the 'dark' mod and it's on a switch.  Again, I bought the board from Brian.

The pearl shell is the Lowrider - again, bought the board here.  I was rather proud when it worked first time as I'd have been at a bit of a loss faultfinding this beast.  Really like it - does what it says on the tin!

Top right I have a Joyo compressor.  Will probably do a home-made effort at some point but, for the price and the rare occasions I use it, it's hard not to love!

The Serendipity was another Madbean board that a friend etched.  I love what it does but it's got a particular character that doesn't fit with most of the stuff I do live (cover band with lots of cleans / mild overdrives)

Next is the Hendrix-faced Grapevine (DLS clone).  I love this thing.  Only gets used on the lower-gain 'Rock' mode but it's fab.  It was (IIRC) the first board I bought from here!  This is the third box it's been in!  Loves a fuzz up it's front end (so to speak!)

Next is the Pink Floyd fronted Muffintop (WIIO clone in the members section).  Yes, I know it's supposed to be more of a Who pedal but Gilmour used Hiwatts too and I prefer Pink Floyd.  And it's my pedal so there!    Etched at this end.  I really like this.  The DLS into this thing is a great classic rock tone. 

Keith Richards is a clone of the Formula No.5 that I found over at Freestompboxes.  Does what it claims to - great little pedal.....

Then we have the rest of the commercial stuff - I only discovered Strymon a few months back - I wanted a reverb pedal.  Got the Flint and discovered that I wasn't so anti-digital after all.....  It's rather good!

I have a couple more builds that haven't made it onto here - a Zombii (it's great but I prefer the Snackshack) and a Smoothie phaser (turned out really well but the Mobius callously kicked it off the board).  I have a half-built Egodriver that I can't bring myself to finish as I like what's on here already.....  Ultimately, anything I build has got to outdo what's here already.  And it's going to have a hard job.  But suggestions taken of course!

Next DIY projects will probably be Faultline and Sabretooth for the occasions when I (attempt to) play bass.  I suck at bass.  Fuzz will kill or cure, and I helped a friend build the Faultline for a decent bassist who loves the thing.  I think Catalinbread are fantastic (as you can see!).

Thanks again, Brian, for all the cool stuff here.  I am over the moon with my board.....  I play through a 7w single channel amp and mic it up for live - it's a loud little thing!!!  It's own overdrive is great but, on stage, the pedals make life a lot easier.

[soldersqueeze]

Kudos, sir. That's a really nice looking board- with 'bean covering the dirt and Strymon covering everything else it'll be hard to improve upon
I think you're right that the compressor is the last "replaceable" pedal on there, there are quite a few interesting looking DIY compressors out there (don't use a compressor personally, so no good advice from me!).

[spaceboss]

Cool board. But don't kid yourself. You'll be back.

Just to build one more.......................

and then another.