Maxon CS-9

Picked up a Maxon CS-9 pedal for 5000 jpy. The owner thought is was not working after testing with a battery. He said the LED did not even light up. I took a chance thinking that he tested with a faulty battery under 9v. When the unit arrive, I hooked it up and what-do-you-know, it works. Below is a photo of the unit.

I also picked up a Maxon D&S and D&S II for 3000 jpy each. The owner had the similar condition thinking the unit did not work, however it worked just fine when I got it into my hands.

Now I own 5 Maxon pedals.

High Dollar Clones

I am trying to prioritize my next projects and thinking of finishing my dirt pedal builds by making the highly famous, high priced pedals. Below is a list partly limited to easily attainable parts. I guess the High Dollar can be defined as over $300.

• Cornish SS-2
• Cornish G-2
• Klon Centaur
• Okko Dominator
• Okko Diablo
• Wampler Triple Wreck

I have already made a few High Dollar clone pedals.

• Analagman KOT
• Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive

Some Medium Dollar clone pedals I made are below. Medium Dollar can be defined as over $100.

• Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay
• Mad Professor Snow White AutoWah
• Xotic RC Booster
• Xotic AC Booster
• Xotic EP Booster
• Hermida Zendrive
• Hermida Mosferatu
• Paul Cochrane Timmy
• Lovepedal Kalamazoo
• Lovepedal Eternity Burst
• DAM Meathead
• DAM Sonic Titan
• Menatone Red Snapper
• Zvex Super Hard On
• MI Audio Crunch Box
• Clark Gainster
• Colorsound Tremolo
• Suhr Riot

I also want to add a few others to the list to round of the OD/Distortion builds off.

• Mad Professor Sweet Honey OD.
• Wampler Ecstasy
• Catalinbread RAH
• Fairfield Barbershop

After that, move to non-dirt builds such as tremolo, delay and boosters.

• MXR Line Driver
• MXR Micro Amp (with tone control)
• BJFE Pink Booster
• Heartthrob Tremolo
• Colorsound Phazex
• Colorsound Tremolo

Kind of going off on a tangent, but here is a list of 386 builds to be scheduled.

• ①     LovePedalPurplePlexi
• ②     DamSonicTitan
• ③     NickGreerSuckerPunch
• ④     HeadBangerHeadphoneAmp
• ⑤     Fuzzhugger Phantom Octave
• ⑥     Penny Pedals Fingerprint
• ⑦     EA ParallelUniverse
• ⑧     TufnelDistortion
• ⑨     Runoffgroove Grace Overdrive (8rows)
• Frantone Peachfuzz

HeadPhone Amp

I made an MXR Headphone Amp Clone from http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.jp/2013/01/mxr-headphone-amp.html. However not satisfied because at high gain settings the sound starts to breakup.

Looking into making a version like this ⇒　http://www.minidisc.org/headbanger.html

After reading this, I want to try to make one with the LM386 chip because I have a few in my stock of parts.

Another headphone amp using a single IC.

http://wiringstages.blogspot.jp/2013/12/portable-9v-headphone-amplifier.html


Paul In The Lab lists 2 headphone amp projects.
This one uses the tda2822 audio amp.
http://www.paulinthelab.com/2013/12/mp3-headphone-amplifier-tda2822m.html

... and this one uses pt2308
http://www.paulinthelab.com/2012/05/headphone-amplifier-veroboard.html

JohnK's Top Dirt

from http://www.talkbass.com/, these are some comments from John Kallas.

John, do you have a list of your top OD pedals that you've tried? I occasionally see you mention one as "one of your favorites" on your site's OD page, but I've never seen a list of your top pedals (to date). Do you have one?

I've built so many now that it's hard to keep track of them.
here's some favorites that come to mind:

Fairfield Circuitry Barbershop
Creation Audio labs Holy fire
runoffgroove Ginger
Cochrane Timmy
My Orange bass preamp
Okko Diablo (modded for bass)
Cornish SS-2 (modded for bass version)
Thobak Overdrive Boost
just about any BJFE/Bearfoot design
just about any Barber pedal
almost any Roger Mayer design
... and a bunch that i'm probably forgetting.........

as far a fuzzes go, the Yardbox, Univox Superfuzz, Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround, Shin Ei FY-2, various ToneBenders, Mosrite Fuzzrite and the Maestro FZ-1 are the first ones that come to mind for me.

really digging the Fairfield Barbershop, Catalinbread RAH, Cochrane Timmy, Barber LTD Silver, Dam Ezekiel that i built from vero's on this site. i built an OCD V1 yesyerday, and IMO, it's okay but it's quite a bit brighter than i expected it to be. i'd also like to build wampler's black '65 so if you get a chance and can post that one, i'd really appreciate it.

Lotus THD+N and Snowjob Clones

After a series of failed builds I Built these clones for a confidence builder. Ended up I did not like the results, so put them on Yahoo Auction and sold for 7890 jpy for both.

Xotic RC Booster

Just picked up this pedal from Yahoo Auction. I have been lurking trying to pick up one for a low price and found this one for 5750 JPY, 600 shipping, total 6350 JPY. It did not have any knobs and a missing nut on the output side.

When it arrived, I fired it up and it worked like a charm. I got 4 knobs for 440 yen to finish it off, so grand total of 6790 JPY.

Later I will upload my clone to compare.

Transistor Pinout Notes

Often substitute transistors are required because of the limit of supply.







2N5952 ↓