# Aion fx Deimos



## Username123 (Apr 24, 2022)

Just finished up this Aion Fx Deimos last night. Its my second pedal i have built.
It's a tone bender mark II with a switch that removes the first transistor stage, turning it into a fuzz face. Haven't played with it much because my hands have been sore. I Still got to get it biased. Before I did this pedal I  didn't solder for months, so I practiced a bit and completed this in a few hours with no issues.


----------



## joelorigo (Apr 24, 2022)

Looks great. I built the Aion Quantum as a kit. They have great kits!


----------



## Username123 (Apr 24, 2022)

joelorigo said:


> Looks great. I built the Aion Quantum as a kit. They have great kits!


Thanks! Yeah they are pretty good kits. You can have a very professional looking pedal without a ton of work.


----------



## jwyles90 (Apr 25, 2022)

I built one of these recently as well, and had a lot of fun with it. How do you find the 1.5 setting? I feel like mine is a little muddy sounding, but that could also just be the nature of the way that circuit sound.


----------



## Big Monk (Apr 25, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> I built one of these recently as well, and had a lot of fun with it. How do you find the 1.5 setting? I feel like mine is a little muddy sounding, but that could also just be the nature of the way that circuit sound.



That's because the Aion kit doesn't change the input capacitor on the 1.5 side of the switch. Basically the switch makes it a Fuzz Face with a HUGE (relatively speaking) 4.7 uf input cap. 

The original MK 1.5 units would have had a much smaller (15 nF) input cap and much smaller (4.7 nF) output cap. Changing C4 to something in the 10-47 nf range should give a punchier (and brighter) tone for the 1.5 side.


----------



## jwyles90 (Apr 25, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> That's because the Aion kit doesn't change the input capacitor on the 1.5 side of the switch. Basically the switch makes it a Fuzz Face with a HUGE (relatively speaking) 4.7 uf input cap.
> 
> The original MK 1.5 units would have had a much smaller (15 nF) input cap and much smaller (4.7 nF) output cap. Changing C4 to something in the 10-47 nf range should give a punchier (and brighter) tone for the 1.5 side.


Oh interesting, that's good to know (and I wish I would've known about that prior to putting it all together haha. Seems strange that that wouldn't be the go-to value for that cap anyways on the build docs


----------



## temol (Apr 25, 2022)

Just out of curiosity... part of the text looks a bit weird (DEIMOS, mode, 9V). Photoshop?


----------



## Big Monk (Apr 25, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> Oh interesting, that's good to know (and I wish I would've known about that prior to putting it all together haha. Seems strange that that wouldn't be the go-to value for that cap anyways on the build docs



I was a bit surprised as well. 

Let's assume to assume that the 1.5 is just a Fuzz Face. A Fuzz Face with a 4.7 uf input cap would be pretty wooly.


----------



## Username123 (Apr 25, 2022)

temol said:


> Just out of curiosity... part of the text looks a bit weird (DEIMOS, mode, 9V). Photoshop?


I actually did do some color correction, but I looked at the un-edited photo and it had the same blur. Not sure if the blur is the camera not focusing right in that spot or if it's something else.


----------



## benny_profane (Apr 25, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> The original MK 1.5 units would have had a much smaller (15 nF) input cap and much smaller (4.7 nF) output cap. Changing C4 to something in the 10-47 nf range should give a punchier (and brighter) tone for the 1.5 side.


What schematic are you referencing? The Vox Tonebender uses a smaller input cap, but the Sola Sound Mk 1.5 has a 5uF input cap.


----------



## Big Monk (Apr 25, 2022)

benny_profane said:


> What schematic are you referencing? The Vox Tonebender uses a smaller input cap, but the Sola Sound Mk 1.5 has a 5uF input cap.



I was thinking the Vox. I should have clarified that. I think most people think of the Vox when thinking of the MK 1.5. 

I go back to thinking about a Fuzz Face with such a big input cap. The Sola had the big 25 uF emitter cap as well. Even with higher bias voltage and naturally brighter tone of the OC75, that’d be awefully wooly!

You are 100% correct though and I was not clear about which one I was discussing. 

I would say that if the Deimos is a bit too bassy/wooly in 1.5 mode, changing that input cap will help greatly.


----------



## Feral Feline (Apr 27, 2022)

Too much treble in the world as it is, so don't you dare touch that input cap, and just keep it all warm and woolly.


Bass, the final frontier...


----------



## Username123 (Apr 27, 2022)

Feral Feline said:


> Too much treble in the world as it is, so don't you dare touch that input cap, and just keep it all warm and woolly.
> 
> 
> Bass, the final frontier...


Lol. I agree with the too much treble thing. And I will definitely keep it stock for now.


----------



## jwyles90 (Apr 27, 2022)

Username123 said:


> Lol. I agree with the too much treble thing. And I will definitely keep it stock for now. The tonebender side is so good that I don't really want to change anything in the circuit. Don't want to risk losing that sound.


I agree with you there, the II setting sounds so gnarly I love it. And the 1.5 version isn't bad by any means, just a little muddier/flubbier than I was expecting it to be.


----------



## G.G. (Apr 27, 2022)

Great looking build! What transistors did you go with? I got a Flying Dutchman set from Small Bear and thought the sound was excellent but needed a touch more low end so I added a bit larger output cap on the back of the board.


----------



## Big Monk (Apr 27, 2022)

Username123 said:


> Lol. I agree with the too much treble thing. And I will definitely keep it stock for now. The tonebender side is so good that I don't really want to change anything in the circuit. Don't want to risk losing that sound.



You can change the input cap on the 1.5 side with zero effect on the MK II side.


----------



## Username123 (Apr 27, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> You can change the input cap on the 1.5 side with zero effect on the MK II side.


Thanks for the info.  I edited the original comment.


----------

