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Cool. Will this be the first time you've heard a klon/klone in person? I have an ARC Effects klone. Great clean boost but I have two others I prefer. (Tim and Draconis)

 

Yeah, Tim, this will be my first Klon experience. Will be interesting. I use boosters a whole lot, but I use my own. Interested in the Klon mostly because quite a few players I like use them and I needed a project. Paints drying now, so I oughta be able to wire it up soon.

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I owned a silver Klon for a long time, and sold it(stupidly about a month before Bill quit making them). I've built a few Klones since then and A/B'd the last one with an original gold Horsey Klon. The only difference we found was the volume on the Klone needed to be up one number to match the volume of the original. With the volumes matched we couldn't tell a difference!

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Been too busy to work on this, but I finally got around to putting together the enclosure. It was originally blue (something I had lying around already) so I stripped it, sprayed it a silver but left it kind rough - not too shiny. I left the bottom blue.

 

IMG_5864.jpg

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Sweet!! Somebody's been shopping at smallbear. The knobs and footswitch washer :P

 

Yeah, nobody else has either of those. I used to get the washers at Mammoth, but they never seem to have them anymore, and I couldn't find those Klon knobs anywhere but Small Bear. I didn't want to order just a few knobs, so I ordered the washers too and some purple Davies knobs for my modded TS9 pedals.

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Yeah, nobody else has either of those. I used to get the washers at Mammoth, but they never seem to have them anymore, and I couldn't find those Klon knobs anywhere but Small Bear. I didn't want to order just a few knobs, so I ordered the washers too and some purple Davies knobs for my modded TS9 pedals.

Smallbear had to custom order those from Davies. Before they had them, I got a quote from Davies on getting a batch of those made for me but the minimum order quantity was $500+ for the custom color.

 

If you're looking for the smaller outer diameter washers PPP usually has those

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Well, it's done! Bit of a rat's nest - there are a lot of wires in there with that double gang pot!

 

The good news is, it worked first time, didn't have to track down any problems which is nice. Since I've not played a real Klon, I have no idea what it should sound like. It's certainly subtle - but I knew it wasn't going to have a lot of gain. I can see how it could be one of those "leave it on all the time" kinda effects because of the juicy sparkly boost it adds. Glad I didn't pay $2k for it though! :rolleyes:

 

I'll try to record a little clip tomorrow if time allows.

 

IMG_5865.jpg

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Nice job! The first one I made took a few tries before it worked.

 

Well, I seemed to have jumped the gun a little bit! The reason it's so subtle is because the gain knob is hardly working. Level and tone controls are working fine, but there is a lot less gain than in the YouTube vids I watched. There is hardly any change in gain as the gain pot moves. Looks like right now I have a Klon buffer and booster! :rolleyes: Have to spend some time figuring out what's wrong. I figured it to be my connections on the dual-gang gain pot, but I've checked and rechecked them. [cursing]

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Well, I seemed to have jumped the gun a little bit! The reason it's so subtle is because the gain knob is hardly working. Level and tone controls are working fine, but there is a lot less gain than in the YouTube vids I watched. There is hardly any change in gain as the gain pot moves. Looks like right now I have a Klon buffer and booster! :rolleyes: Have to spend some time figuring out what's wrong. I figured it to be my connections on the dual-gang gain pot, but I've checked and rechecked them. [cursing]

I did think your comment on the subtlety was odd, since it should have plenty of gain on tap.

 

Can you take the board off of the standoffs or is it stuck in there? I find it much easier to debug outside of the box

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I did think your comment on the subtlety was odd, since it should have plenty of gain on tap.

 

Can you take the board off of the standoffs or is it stuck in there? I find it much easier to debug outside of the box

 

Oh, yeah I've been through every connection. Reflowed many just to make sure. Swapped out ICs. Nothin changed.

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I know the feeling! Did you make the link on the dual gang?

 

I did - and that was the first thing I suspected. So I rechecked it and then de-soldered the jumper wire and soldered in a new one just to make sure. I still think the problem must be in that area of the circuit. Unless something is labeled wrong on the layout or the board (which match) I have everything in the right place. I need to email them - perhaps this is something others have encountered with this board/kit.

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I did - and that was the first thing I suspected. So I rechecked it and then de-soldered the jumper wire and soldered in a new one just to make sure. I still think the problem must be in that area of the circuit. Unless something is labeled wrong on the layout or the board (which match) I have everything in the right place. I need to email them - perhaps this is something others have encountered with this board/kit.

Have you checked that the dual pot is working?

 

It's pretty unusual that the problem is something other than a build error if you're working from a verified schem/layout. It always helps me to take a break and come back to the project with fresh eyes.

 

I would also double check the resistor values using a calculator like this one to eliminate guesswork

http://www.electronics2000.co.uk/calc/resistor-code-calculator.php

 

Type in the numerical value of the resistor first and let it show you the correct color code, then check if the color code matches what you have on the board. I know you said you checked them already, but there's obviously a problem somewhere so it won't hurt to check!

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Another thing just occurred to me. If the bypass switch wiring is donked up somehow it could have this result

 

Indeed. It definitely uses a different scheme than I normally use, but I believe I followed it spot on. I'll take another look at it after work tonight. I've let it rest for a couple days.

 

If you don't mind, I'll PM you a link to their layout and a pic of mine. Maybe you'll spot something.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, thanks to the excellent eye of our resident FX wizard, Dub-T-123, this mythical beast is finally unleashed.

 

Turns out I had swapped a 390pf and a 390nf cap. #-o Made all the difference in the world as far as the gain of this thing! Now I can start comparing it to my other dirt boxes. Maybe a shootout is in order.

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Well, thanks to the excellent eye of our resident FX wizard, Dub-T-123, this mythical beast is finally unleashed.

 

Turns out I had swapped a 390pf and a 390nf cap. #-o Made all the difference in the world as far as the gain of this thing! Now I can start comparing it to my other dirt boxes. Maybe a shootout is in order.

 

[thumbup][thumbup][thumbup]

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