# Compressors I built in 2021



## almondcity (Dec 31, 2021)

I have a problem.  Listed below in chronological order with my thoughts.

1) PedalPCB Delegate (Boneyard) [magenta] - Smooth optical compressor.  Not much else for me to say, I soon learned that it was not an optical compressor I was looking for.
2) PedalPCB Creamery Compressor [white] - I like this one, it's got a chewy kind of compression, but it does seem to very slightly muddy my tone and it's fairly "hissy" at higher compression levels.  Not unusable by any means but you don't really want to use the compression knob above about 1 o'clock.  I'd place this as my 3rd favorite.
3) Aion Meridian [light green] - This is probably my favorite on the list.  I believe it's basically a Dynacomp with tone control and exciter circuit.  Really lets you sculpt the tone and the compression is fairly nice sounding although I used a C taper pot and so mine basically lives at about 10 o'clock.  Going too hard on the sustain might not sound too great.
4) madbean Cupcake [purple] - Orange squeezer, I put the volume knob as a trim pot inside so it has no knobs.  I like this one too but mine seems to cut a little more highs than I like.  Go for this if you don't want to fiddle with those pesky knobs.
5) Jack Orman Q&D compressor [dark green] - This one is a bit nuts.  It apparently has a compressor, limiter, and noise gate in one low parts count package.  The compression on this is VERY nice, doesn't seem to change my tone at all.  Some settings provide some sick overdrive tones.  The reason this is a love/hate pedal for me is the noise gate.  I socketed a bunch of stuff as I read about this issue, so I ended up changing a few values from the schematic to get the gate how I wanted it.  But it is still kind of a distracting effect, not unusable but I would use this only if I had some heavy dirt later because you can use this to keep your signal 100% quiet when not playing.  The amount of "juice" on tap is quite ridiculous.  Pretty cool pedal overall, I recommend.
6) Lectric FX Rubber Band [dark gray] - This is a compressor plus parametric eq and noise gate.  I will say the noise gate on this one is a little less intrusive than the Orman pedal, it's very nice.  The eq is nice as well.  I like this pedal but I just feel like it didn't have the best compression sound relative to my other builds so I don't really see myself using this one much.  Pretty high parts count as well.
7) Pellucid compressor [black] - I just finished this and I love it.  It was designed by jonny reckless over at DIYStompboxes forums and he said I bought the last PCB from him but I believe there are gerber files there if you want to build it.  The compression is very nice on this and it is very quiet, as was the design challenge for this.  Pretty low parts count.  I think this is probably my 2nd favorite right now.

I think I may try to build one more optical compressor in 2022, I was thinking madbean Flatline.  Anyone have a favorite optical compressor?

Thanks for reading, have a great 2022!


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## peccary (Dec 31, 2021)

I built the Meridian to bass specs and was completely underwhelmed with it on bass. I then tried it with guitar and it sings. It also plays with fuzz pedals in interesting ways. 

Good looking builds and a nice collection, but you've gotta get some gut shots up as well!


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Dec 31, 2021)

I do appreciate a person who builds 7 comps and then immediately asks themselves "what comp could I build?"  You're like me with octavers.


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## almondcity (Dec 31, 2021)

peccary said:


> I built the Meridian to bass specs and was completely underwhelmed with it on bass. I then tried it with guitar and it sings. It also plays with fuzz pedals in interesting ways.
> 
> Good looking builds and a nice collection, but you've gotta get some gut shots up as well!


If you want to see guts of the PedalPCB boards I think I posted them when I made them.  Some of the others are hot messes inside.  The PPCB layout and off-board wiring is simply the best imo.


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## peccary (Dec 31, 2021)

almondcity said:


> If you want to see guts of the PedalPCB boards I think I posted them when I made them.  Some of the others are hot messes inside.  The PPCB layout and off-board wiring is simply the best imo.


I agree with offboard wiring and all that with PPCB. He's really got a mind for design and ease of use, making even dummies like me look like they know what they're doing. I also like the pad size on the PCBs. I like the Aion and MB build docs the most, however. I find myself reading through them just for fun, same with Dead End.


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## TheSin (Jan 1, 2022)

Constrictor is my favorite.


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## xefned (Jan 2, 2022)

I guess you need to try the Philosopher's Tone next, eh?
Or the Engineer's Thumb?

Please keep us posted when you have an "all-time favorite."


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## almondcity (Jan 2, 2022)

Planning on a madbean Flatline build early next year

I have to say, the Orman Q&D compressor is very very good the more I get used to it.  The noise gate issue is fine once I swapped one capacitor around.  One other small issue is that it doesn't really have a "volume" knob, just the gain control which I believe is before the compression so unity volume is hard to achieve.  Not a dealbreaker for me.  This is a very exciting compressor to play.  I'd highly recommend this one.  Very low parts count; the 2166 chip is relatively expensive ($8) from smallbear but it's worth


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## Boba7 (Jan 3, 2022)

almondcity said:


> Planning on a madbean Flatline build early next year
> 
> I have to say, the Orman Q&D compressor is very very good the more I get used to it.  The noise gate issue is fine once I swapped one capacitor around.  One other small issue is that it doesn't really have a "volume" knob, just the gain control which I believe is before the compression so unity volume is hard to achieve.  Not a dealbreaker for me.  This is a very exciting compressor to play.  I'd highly recommend this one.  Very low parts count; the 2166 chip is relatively expensive ($8) from smallbear but it's worth



Try the Madbean 4:1, it's a Flatline with added dry volume in parallel with the compressed volume. It's my favorite compressor by far, I use it with acoustic, electric or bass with great results!


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## eh là bas ma (Jan 3, 2022)

I use two compressors : Meridian and a Walrus deep six. The meridian is the one I use the most, and the one i find the most interesting when connected to other circuits. I think that "sustain" on Meridian can increase the string attack sound, but not as much as on the Deep six though.

I am not sure something better than Meridian even exists... yet...

Edit : I built the Engineer's thumb, it's really fine but so subtle, so transparent. It feels like it's not even there and some players might be looking for that...


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## tcpoint (Jan 3, 2022)

I can recommend four optical drives:  PedalPCB General Tso's Compressor (ThorpyFX General),  Madbean Rough Cut (Modified Diamond Compressor), AionFX Convex (Dinosaural OTC-201) and the AionFX Oceanid (Cornish OC-1).  These are all quite a bit different than the Delegate.  I'll have to build the Meridian - I have the pcb so I guess I don't have an excuse.


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## almondcity (Jan 3, 2022)

tcpoint said:


> I can recommend four optical drives:  PedalPCB General Tso's Compressor (ThorpyFX General),  Madbean Rough Cut (Modified Diamond Compressor), AionFX Convex (Dinosaural OTC-201) and the AionFX Oceanid (Cornish OC-1).  These are all quite a bit different than the Delegate.  I'll have to build the Meridian - I have the pcb so I guess I don't have an excuse.


I'm definitely interested in the Aion Convex, does it get squishy or is it more subtle?


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## tcpoint (Jan 3, 2022)

It's subtle.  Definitely, not a squishy compressor.  The Cornish, as I recall, is even more subtle.  The Diamond Comp is somewhere in between a boost and a compressor.  I just played them all.  I prefer the Convex and the General Tso's Compressor.  They are very similar.


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## almondcity (Jan 29, 2022)

Well I did build a madbean Afterlife. Pretty easy build. I do like this pedal but it confirms my initial thought that I don't tend to prefer the optical compressor style. I'll have to spend some more time with this but it probably won't be a mainstay on my board


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## Feral Feline (Feb 5, 2022)

Pity optical isn’t your thing, as the Diamond would’ve been my recommendation.

Thanks for the extensive list of summaries.

I’ve got the chip for the Orman Q&D but haven’t ordered the PCB yet, your review has reignited that fire.


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## almondcity (Feb 5, 2022)

Feral Feline said:


> Pity optical isn’t your thing, as the Diamond would’ve been my recommendation.
> 
> Thanks for the extensive list of summaries.
> 
> I’ve got the chip for the Orman Q&D but haven’t ordered the PCB yet, your review has reignited that fire.


The Orman is really good. You'll definitely want to do some research on it and socket some stuff. I ended up changing the one cap from like 4.7uF to something under 1uF to get the noise gate to shut really quickly. YMMV

I have gotten to play the Flatline more and I am enjoying it more. I prefer it to my Delegate but don't like it as much as some others yet


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## szukalski (May 9, 2022)

This thread got me into a compressor buzz! Here are my experiences so far:

General Tso - great but colours the top end, nice for low gain single coil stuff. 
Deep Six - nice for anything with gain. i feel like it colours the sound without sounding like it’s colored if that makes sense. 
Constrictor - my favourite thus far. Transparent and simple. No colouring, really nice. 
Pale Green clone - lovely top end but can struggle with attack. Great with single coils.


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## MichaelW (May 9, 2022)

szukalski said:


> This thread got me into a compressor buzz! Here are my experiences so far:
> 
> General Tso - great but colours the top end, nice for low gain single coil stuff.
> Deep Six - nice for anything with gain. i feel like it colours the sound without sounding like it’s colored if that makes sense.
> ...


What did you use for the vactrol on the Constrictor? This sounds my type of compressor based on the video's I've seen.

Edit: I just ordered some XVive VTL5C10's from FleavilBay. Hope they're legit......


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## szukalski (May 9, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> What did you use for the vactrol on the Constrictor? This sounds my type of compressor based on the video's I've seen.
> 
> Edit: I just ordered from XVive VTL5C10's from FleavilBay. Hope they're legit......


I used VTL5C10 from Aliexpress:









						1.71US $ 5% OFF|5pcs Vtl5c Vtl5c1 Vtl5c2 Vtl5c3 Vtl5c4 Vtl5c5 Vtl5c6 Vtl5c7 Vtl5c8 Vtl5c10 High-end Audio Amplifier Linear Optical Couple Dip-4 - Accessories - AliExpress
					

Smarter Shopping, Better Living!  Aliexpress.com




					a.aliexpress.com
				




They also worked well in my good vibes build.


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## tcpoint (May 9, 2022)

I built the Guyatone PS-021 Guitar Exciter / Compressor (AionFX Meridian Exciter / Compressor).  I have to say that I really like this exciter / compressor.  Madbean is coming out with a Boss CS-3 board, this month.  My two favorites, right now, are the OTC-201 and the Guyatone.  I'm not a big compressor guy.  I just use a little compression at the start of my chain.  I find it just sounds a little bit better.


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## almondcity (May 9, 2022)

tcpoint said:


> I built the Guyatone PS-021 Guitar Exciter / Compressor (AionFX Meridian Exciter / Compressor).  I have to say that I really like this exciter / compressor.  Madbean is coming out with a Boss CS-3 board, this month.  My two favorites, right now, are the OTC-201 and the Guyatone.  I'm not a big compressor guy.  I just use a little compression at the start of my chain.  I find it just sounds a little bit better.


That one is still my favorite.  I don't crank it but just enough to notice when it's off


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## spi (May 9, 2022)

Are you using the compressors with bass or guitar?


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## tcpoint (May 9, 2022)

spi said:


> Are you using the compressors with bass or guitar?


Guitar


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## Feral Feline (May 9, 2022)

almondcity said:


> That one is still my favorite.  I don't crank it but just enough to notice when it's off


Just curious, but which one? TCPoint mentioned three different ones in the post you quoted, and I'm unfamiliar with the OTC-201...

I'm glad your thread came up again, to remind me I still haven't ordered the Orman PCB. Gotta get that before he stops offering it.


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## almondcity (May 9, 2022)

Feral Feline said:


> Just curious, but which one? TCPoint mentioned three different ones in the post you quoted, and I'm unfamiliar with the OTC-201...
> 
> I'm glad your thread came up again, to remind me I still haven't ordered the Orman PCB. Gotta get that before he stops offering it.


The Meridian.  I'm on guitar if not obvious.  The Orman is good but finicky.  His website said he was working on an update for it


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## Coda (May 9, 2022)

You need a Byrdhouse…


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## almondcity (May 9, 2022)

Coda said:


> You need a Byrdhouse…


funny I never considered this one, probably due to the chip inside, but I may add it to my next order


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## almondcity (Jun 9, 2022)

Coming back to this thread. The Creamery has taken over top duties again for now. I find I have to crank the Hi-Ex knob to get the high end where I want it, but the Meridian cuts a bit too much low end for me right now and that can't be fixed with the turn of a knob

I think in a band situation with a bassist the Meridian would still be the goat


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## Matopotato (Jun 19, 2022)

I plan to get the Meridian kit from Das Musikding + i think 27k and C500k mod. It seems everyone says the bass build (PS-020?) is better for guitar than the actual guitar version. Any thoughts on what differs? Eould be nice if it didn't cut lows so much.
I will probably breadboard it first so I can try both. Or add 2 3PDT toggles swiches to flip between bass and guitar but that could get messy.
Anyone compare the stock B1M sustain with C500k + 27k?
Cheers


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## almondcity (Jun 19, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> I plan to get the Meridian kit from Das Musikding + i think 27k and C500k mod. It seems everyone says the bass build (PS-020?) is better for guitar than the actual guitar version. Any thoughts on what differs? Eould be nice if it didn't cut lows so much.
> I will probably breadboard it first so I can try both. Or add 2 3PDT toggles swiches to flip between bass and guitar but that could get messy.
> Anyone compare the stock B1M sustain with C500k + 27k?
> Cheers


It would be cool to compare the bass version. I did the c500k mod and my sustain knob lives at around 9 or 10 0 clock


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## Matopotato (Jun 19, 2022)

almondcity said:


> It would be cool to compare the bass version. I did the c500k mod and my sustain knob lives at around 9 or 10 0 clock


But not much outside that interval?


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## almondcity (Jun 20, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> But not much outside that interval?


It gets too squashed for me at higher settings


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## Dan0h (Jun 20, 2022)

Huge fan of the Genral Tso. I never liked compersor pedals until I built that one. And I love General Tso's for lunch or dinner so maybe there is a connection.


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## Matopotato (Jun 20, 2022)

Dan0h said:


> Huge fan of the Genral Tso. I never liked compersor pedals until I built that one. And I love General Tso's for lunch or dinner so maybe there is a connection.


What did you compare with, and what made you like General Tso more,  if I may ask?

EDIT: I notice it is Opto type. I already built Zirconia that I like. Attempted Thumb Sucker, but my kit distorts too much, so now I am considering Pumpernickel and Meridian to try out.


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## MichaelW (Jun 21, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> What did you compare with, and what made you like General Tso more,  if I may ask?
> 
> EDIT: I notice it is Opto type. I already built Zirconia that I like. Attempted Thumb Sucker, but my kit distorts too much, so now I am considering Pumpernickel and Meridian to try out.


I haven't built the Tso's but just wanted to chime in and say not all Opto compressors are the same. The 3 I've built are all different.


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## Matopotato (Jun 21, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> I haven't built the Tso's but just wanted to chime in and say not all Opto compressors are the same. The 3 I've built are all different.


Thanks. Good to know. I was trying with an OTA (LM13700) as well, but got stuck for now, so will try other designs. I like the Zirconia quite a bit, so might be more optos in the future. Which 3 did you build? Any favourite (and why)?


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## Dan0h (Jun 21, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> What did you compare with, and what made you like General Tso more,  if I may ask?
> 
> EDIT: I notice it is Opto type. I already built Zirconia that I like. Attempted Thumb Sucker, but my kit distorts too much, so now I am considering Pumpernickel and Meridian to try out.


I don’t have much to compare with. Just the dyna comp. What I like about the General Tso is you can blend in the comp and it sounds very natural when you want it and squishy if you want it.


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## MichaelW (Jun 21, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> Thanks. Good to know. I was trying with an OTA (LM13700) as well, but got stuck for now, so will try other designs. I like the Zirconia quite a bit, so might be more optos in the future. Which 3 did you build? Any favourite (and why)?


So far I've built the AionFX Oceanid (Cornish OC-1) mainly because I'd never drop the coin for a real Cornish pedal, and I wanted to check it out. 
That was my first optical compressor I found that I liked it better than the VCA type compressors I was using before. (Keeley and Wampler Ego)

Then I built the Constrictor (Demeter Compulator) mainly because @szukalski built it..........and it's generally touted as a very transparent compressor. I LOVE IT, very transparent but effective. 

Then I recently built the Delegate Boneyard Edition (EQD Warden) because it was a Boneyard edition with Chuck's circuit improvements.

They all sound a little different. The Delegate has the most tonal coloration I would say. My least favorite of the 3. 

It's a toss up between the OC-1 and the Compulator which I like better. I really really like them both. The Cornish has more compression available on tap and can get squishier than the Constrictor but they both are pretty transparent. In general, I prefer a more subtle compression and tend to use a compressor in a way that it's "barely there" and you don't know it's on until you turn it off. I'm not after a super obviously compressed sound. I use a compressor mainly to even out the chords recording rhythm guitar parts, and also for adding sustain to overdrive without adding more gain. I also tend to play at low volumes whether its through my monitors or my amp. A compressor can give some of the natural compression that a cranked amp gives you but at lower volumes.  

On deck I just got the boards for the "RoughCut" and "Oracle" from MadBeanPedals. The Roughcut is a modified Diamond Compressor (optical) and the "Oracle" is his version of the venerable Boss CS-3 (VCA). I have no idea if I'll like them or not but I'll find out


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## Matopotato (Jun 21, 2022)

Thanks a lot for the detailed report and your thoughts! Will assimilate this for sure.


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## almondcity (Jun 21, 2022)

I was thinking of getting the madbean CS-3 board too.  I really like the PPCB Creamery but it does add quite a bit of hiss if you add a dirt pedal after it


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## szukalski (Oct 5, 2022)

Bumping this thread because it made me build a Meridian which I just finished.

Really impressed with the Meridian, the exciter circuit is really flexible and it immediately pushed itself into top spot along with my Pale Green.

Would recommend.

My experience so far in order of satisfaction:

Meridian - exciter makes it really useful, compression is nice as well.
Pale Green - hard to push this off the board, the more I use it, the more I like it. Very natural sounding.
General Tso - very nice but can't push off the Pale Green.
Constrictor - transparent and simple. If I only this one, I would still be happy.
Deep Six - it's ok but I was ultimately disappointed. Running at 12/18v is better, but it feels a little flat. Maybe it's me, maybe it's PCBGuitarMania.


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## Matopotato (Oct 5, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Bumping this thread because it made me build a Meridian which I just finished.
> 
> Really impressed with the Meridian, the exciter circuit is really flexible and it immediately pushed itself into top spot along with my Pale Green.
> 
> ...


Which version did you build, guitar or bass? And did you try out to compare them first before soldering?


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## almondcity (Oct 5, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Bumping this thread because it made me build a Meridian which I just finished.
> 
> Really impressed with the Meridian, the exciter circuit is really flexible and it immediately pushed itself into top spot along with my Pale Green.
> 
> ...


Where'd you get the board for the Pale Green?

Glad you like the Meridian as much as I do. Lately I've been using the PPCB Creamery though


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## szukalski (Oct 5, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> Which version did you build, guitar or bass? And did you try out to compare them first before soldering?


I just did the guitar one out of the box, vanilla build per the docs.



almondcity said:


> Where'd you get the board for the Pale Green?
> 
> Glad you like the Meridian as much as I do. Lately I've been using the PPCB Creamery though



I had a Pale Green clone before I started building. I am going to build the Pale Green and Forest Green on vero soon though (unless my wishlist gets fulfilled). I would love a Creamery, but there's that one component which is hard to find in the EU.. I thought about buying an old Behringer unit and ripping out the THAT chips, but it's €40 for a bunch of chips which I may never use again.


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## Matopotato (Oct 5, 2022)

There is a mod for sustain, 27k + C500k. Did you consider it, or you feel that stock is good?
I managed to get a Pumpernickel kit with another THAT (4301), and they also seem hard to find/are costly. Price went up quite a bit before I got it.


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## Matopotato (Dec 4, 2022)

szukalski said:


> I just did the guitar one out of the box, vanilla build per the docs.
> 
> 
> 
> I had a Pale Green clone before I started building. I am going to build the Pale Green and Forest Green on vero soon though (unless my wishlist gets fulfilled). I would love a Creamery, but there's that one component which is hard to find in the EU.. I thought about buying an old Behringer unit and ripping out the THAT chips, but it's €40 for a bunch of chips which I may never use again.


Just finished. Tested both guitar and bass and will go with guitar. Also the Sustain mod felt good.
I noticed that the Exciter pot cut the sound in the extremes. I am not able to say how it affects the sound in the remaining interval , say 9:30 - 2:30 (ish). Is that normal?


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## almondcity (Dec 5, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> Just finished. Tested both guitar and bass and will go with guitar. Also the Sustain mod felt good.
> I noticed that the Exciter pot cut the sound in the extremes. I am not able to say how it affects the sound in the remaining interval , say 9:30 - 2:30 (ish). Is that normal?


My exciter pot has a normal sweep to it, sounds like you may have an issue there


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## Matopotato (Dec 5, 2022)

almondcity said:


> My exciter pot has a normal sweep to it, sounds like you may have an issue there


Thanks, will dig deeper


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## Matopotato (Dec 7, 2022)

After soldering all up, I thought I could swap around the ICs in case on close to the Exciter pot was bad in some way, and turned out I had not pushed IC3 in enough, so I could swap them all back to first locations and still works now.
I am not sure however what the Exciter should have as effect. I can hear it does something, but feels a bit subtle?


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## almondcity (Dec 7, 2022)

Matopotato said:


> After soldering all up, I thought I could swap around the ICs in case on close to the Exciter pot was bad in some way, and turned out I had not pushed IC3 in enough, so I could swap them all back to first locations and still works now.
> I am not sure however what the Exciter should have as effect. I can hear it does something, but feels a bit subtle?


I'm not sure how to describe it. I think Aion describes it as even vs odd harmonics. I think it sounds best between noon and 2 o clock or so. It makes it more exciting as you turn ClockWise, for lack of a better word. A full turn of the knob is not a subtle change for me it makes quite a difference at the extremes


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## Matopotato (Dec 7, 2022)

Thanks, yes I managed to find a few videos on Guyatone P-021 that it is based on as far as I know, and that showed the effect so I know what to listen for and try.


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