# Kings Hand Drive (Or the 50% Duellist...)



## MichaelW (May 4, 2022)

Man, so many awesome build reports this week of some epic builds. 

This is the latest of my building spree this past week. Seems like I had a lot of builds ready to go and just waiting for a this or that part.
I think I've cleared them all out and now waiting for the next order of components to come in. I actually only have 2 in queue right now that I know I'm building. 
There hasn't been a dud in any of my last 5 or 6 builds, they've all sounded AWESOME (even with my backwards Ge diode adventure hahah)

I was not very familiar with the KingTone Duellist until I started getting interested in the King of Tone pedal and it was often reviewed as an alternative. 

I ordered this board with a bunch of other stuff during the last sale and kinda have been ambivalent about building "another Bluesbreaker" variant. (This is the problem with ordering crap from my iPad lying in bed half asleep......"why did I order this again?") I don't really care much for the actual Bluesbreaker I built. (AionFx Cerulean). Just too fizzy and splatty and weak for me. 

There's no schematic for the Kings Hand yet from PedalPCB so I really wasn't sure what it was all about but when I scored a bunch of (probably the last bunch) of cheap BA282's from Small Bear I decided to build this out.

MAN am I glad I did, what an AWESOME sounding overdrive pedal! I would not categorize this as a "better BluesBreaker" as I think the tonal options go way beyond what even a modded BB can offer. I would characterize it as a better Analogman "Prince of Tone". It's got more balls, more girth, more meaty thick rich and chewy overdrive sounds yet it's still only a "medium gain" pedal. It actually shares some external resemblance to the Pauper/POT.

So not really knowing what to expect, I built it stock initially. Then when I started futzing around with the internal dip switches I decided that there's enough useful sounds that I would want easier access to so I installed an external toggle. The one already existing external toggle (Stock-Fat-Glass) that is common across the KingTone pedal line has some pretty significant EQ shifts and and I think would be useful in switching between HB to single coil guitars. The internal dip switch turns on/off Asym/Sym clipping modes and also a hard clipping mode. The Asym/Sym was not super significant difference to me so I decided to put the DIP on a single DPDT On-Off-On toggle. Plus I did the 2 mini-toggles on my Pauper build and it was a biotch getting it all to fit and I didn't want to do that again!

As is my preference since it was a small board I put it in a 1590B but I had to tilt board a little bit for the electrolytic caps to clear. I hadn't considered that before soldering them in, (always learning something new to watch out for with every build!) I'm also still trying to come up with a common template for top jack drilling but it seems like I'm just going to need to measure each 125B -> 1590B conversion as they've all had some different little considerations to account for. 

Super glad I built this pedal. If you like the Paragon/Paragon Mini/Pauper family of overdrives you will really love this pedal. It's like Chai Tea Latte (Paragon) vs Chocolate Milkshake (Kings Hand). Both are great! Oh and it does the Low Gain thing very well too. Covers the same ground as the Paragon. I'd still love to see the schematic for this circuit to see what makes it tick.

I have the "other side" of the Duellist in queue. It's supposed to be a better TS variant and I actually got the board to build for my brother. I recently sent him a Greengage/EQD Plumes (which is the best sounding TS variant I've come across yet). If the "Lone King" is as good as the "Kings Hand" I may wind up keeping it.






It was a lot neater the first time I built it before taking it apart to install the toggle.....


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## fig (May 4, 2022)

You are knocking it out of the park Michael. Very nice!


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## harmaes (Jun 26, 2022)

I think it’s fairly easy to add an external switch to mimic the compressed, open and stock switch of the heavy hand by directly soldering the BA282 clipping diodes on a switch and running wires to the area of the PCB where normally the clipping diodes are installed? Like 2 and 4 on both sides of the switch with a diode lift in the middle? See: https://aionfx.com/project/xiphos-amp-overdrive/


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## MichaelW (Jun 26, 2022)

harmaes said:


> I think it’s fairly easy to add an external switch to mimic the compressed, open and stock switch of the heavy hand by directly soldering the BA282 clipping diodes on a switch and running wires to the area of the PCB where normally the clipping diodes are installed? Like 2 and 4 on both sides of the switch with a diode lift in the middle? See: https://aionfx.com/project/xiphos-amp-overdrive/


Not sure if this was a question but assuming it is, temporarily wiring it up and testing that idea would be fairly easy with some alligator clip leads. I'm not sure if would give you the same result as the Heavy Hand or not but it would be easy to find out before committing to installing the toggle. There is no schematic for this circuit posted yet so I'm not totally sure what's going with the diodes. 

Still one of my favorite overdrives. I just got a second Kings Hand board to put into a combo build for my brother.


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## harmaes (Jun 27, 2022)

The Aion Fx link contains a schematic for the Heavy Hand. I see that it switches between the BA282 diodes but there are also 2 resistors involved. Not really sure how to exactly pinpoint which combination is stook and which is comp? That would help to be able to wire that directly on a switch. Thanks!


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## harmaes (Jun 27, 2022)

I noticed that in the PedalPCB King's Hand the 220k and 5k6 resistors are also in the parts list.
If I interpret the information correctly the diodes D1 to D4 are the ones I need to omit of the King's Hand PCB and use two wires to an additional 2pdt with middle lift? I can have a look when I receive the PCB how it's all connected.

Do I read this schematic correctly that the CLIPPING switch works between selecting 2x BA282 and 4x BA282?
What happens to the D2 diode when it's switched on with the dip-switch? You get 3 and 5 diodes right?

@PedalPCB: Can you give a hint on how to get a stock - open - comp switch working?


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## harmaes (Jun 28, 2022)

harmaes said:


> View attachment 27823
> 
> I noticed that in the PedalPCB King's Hand the 220k and 5k6 resistors are also in the parts list.
> If I interpret the information correctly the diodes D1 to D4 are the ones I need to omit of the King's Hand PCB and use two wires to an additional 2pdt with middle lift? I can have a look when I receive the PCB how it's all connected.
> ...


It would be great if someone can confirm this? I will try to find out which pads I need to solder the wires to for the D1 to D4 diodes.


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## MichaelW (Jun 28, 2022)

harmaes said:


> It would be great if someone can confirm this? I will try to find out which pads I need to solder the wires to for the D1 to D4 diodes.


I'm not able to "confirm" this by looking at the Aion schematic but it sounds right and like it should work. (Need someone smarter than me to chime in) Just keeping in mind that the Aion circuit is an amalgamation of the Heavy Hand + BB side of the Duellist whereas as the PedalPCB board is just 1/2 the Duellist. As mentioned earlier, you could test this configuration without committing to solder with some test leads or a breadboard. 

By the way, I just saw your demo of the Velvet Fuzz. Awesome demo and playing man!


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## Robert (Jun 28, 2022)

harmaes said:


> @PedalPCB: Can you give a hint on how to get a stock - open - comp switch working?



Well... the easiest way would be to use V2 of the Kings Hand PCB.   No modifications needed.   

They're sitting on my bench right now waiting to be verified.


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## MichaelW (Jun 28, 2022)

Robert said:


> Well... the easiest way would be to use V2 of the Kings Hand PCB.   No modifications needed.
> 
> They're sitting on my bench right now waiting to be verified.


You’re just doing this to mess with me right? About to build my second Kings Hand and now wondering if I should wait for V2……biastard….


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## Robert (Jun 28, 2022)

I'll send you one and you can decide for yourself.


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## szukalski (Jun 28, 2022)

You're such a bad influence on my wishlist @MichaelW ! And a good reminder that I have a backlog of builds to post.
Every time I see one of you BB builds, I pull out my KoT clone and go "man, this is one of my favourite pedals" and then it ends up off the pedalboard again for some reason.


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## harmaes (Jun 28, 2022)

Robert said:


> Well... the easiest way would be to use V2 of the Kings Hand PCB.   No modifications needed.
> 
> They're sitting on my bench right now waiting to be verified.


Ouch, I already ordered a V1 kit from MusikDing. Do you also have a Body knob on the V2 version?
But is the clipping switch alternating between 2, 0 and 4 diodes? Which pads on the V1 PCB should I wire this up?


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## MichaelW (Jun 28, 2022)

szukalski said:


> You're such a bad influence on my wishlist @MichaelW ! And a good reminder that I have a backlog of builds to post.
> Every time I see one of you BB builds, I pull out my KoT clone and go "man, this is one of my favourite pedals" and then it ends up off the pedalboard again for some reason.


I think the problem is too many dang good pedals to choose from. I've forgone the notion of building a "pedalboard" since I really don't need one. I just pull out a couple pedals from the shelf and play them until something else catches my attention Speaking of  bad influence, I've got 4 fuzz pedals and 3 more yet to build....I think I'm laying those squarely at your feet


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## szukalski (Jun 28, 2022)

Happy to be that bad influence, can I recommend a Tater Tot ?  I built one with some D9 Ge diodes and was really disappointed with it (it was nice but kinda dark) via the JTM45, but I was playing with it via my Prince 5F2-A and it absolutely rips. I need to swap the diodes for some OA172s I have which I thought were even darker (but rip with an octave I built).

I keep toying with getting rid of some pedals, but across a range of guitars and amps they all seem to have their places for magical sounds.


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## harmaes (Jun 29, 2022)

Robert said:


> I'll send you one and you can decide for yourself.


I'm in the Netherlands and would love to try the V2 version. I can wait for it and keep the V1 PCB.


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## Jazzwolf (Jun 29, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Man, so many awesome build reports this week of some epic builds.
> 
> This is the latest of my building spree this past week. Seems like I had a lot of builds ready to go and just waiting for a this or that part.
> I think I've cleared them all out and now waiting for the next order of components to come in. I actually only have 2 in queue right now that I know I'm building.
> ...


Great build! Love the connector for the power. Such a great idea if you have to take the board out for troubleshooting.

Ryan


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## MichaelW (Jun 29, 2022)

I was doing that earlier in my nascent pedal building career because I was taking the board out a lot But I've stopped doing it on recent builds as my builds are getting better and more consistently fire up the first time.


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## MichaelW (Jul 2, 2022)

@harmaes just received the V2 board from @PedalPCB (Thank you sir, you are too kind!) 

Looks like it should do what you're looking to do with no mods. I will probably still expose the hard clipper dip switch in a toggle like I did with my original build in this thread. The Asym/Sym is not worth exposing as it's a very subtle change.


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## harmaes (Jul 2, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> @harmaes just received the V2 board from @PedalPCB (Thank you sir, you are too kind!)
> 
> Looks like it should do what you're looking to do with no mods. I will probably still expose the hard clipper dip switch in a toggle like I did with my original build in this thread. The Asym/Sym is not worth exposing as it's a very subtle change.
> 
> View attachment 28091


Very cool! I will receive the v1 next Monday and will experiment with that with a switch for the clipping diodes. I’m not a fan of asym and I’ll probably leave the hard clipping on. I already built the Soloist and Blues Power which both are nice pedals using PedalPCB PCBs.

The King’s hand v1 is basically the one in the Duellist pedal which has a fat option and no body knob. Can’t tell if this v2 has a body knob?

Id love to order a v2 but I’m not sure how long the shipping will take currently to EU across the drink?

Can you take a picture from the other side? That would be cool to see if it helps me to see how the clipping switch is wired.


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## MichaelW (Jul 2, 2022)

harmaes said:


> Very cool! I will receive the v1 next Monday and will experiment with that with a switch for the clipping diodes. I’m not a fan of asym and I’ll probably leave the hard clipping on. I already built the Soloist and Blues Power which both are nice pedals using PedalPCB PCBs.
> 
> The King’s hand v1 is basically the one in the Duellist pedal which has a fat option and no body knob. Can’t tell if this v2 has a body knob?
> 
> ...


There's 4 pots as opposed to 3 in the V1, I'm assuming the 4th corresponds to the Heavy Hand "body" control.
Can you verify @PedalPCB?


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## Robert (Jul 2, 2022)

That's correct.


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## harmaes (Jul 2, 2022)

Robert said:


> That's correct.


When will it become available for ordering @PedalPCB ?


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## szukalski (Jul 3, 2022)

+1 on the ordering. I have it in the cart but would be keen on a v2 if possible.


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