# Paragon



## Pedal2222

I have completed my paragon build, sounds really great. It's just a backup for my analogman k.o.t. v4. I've compared it to my original one and can't hear any difference ... I can't believe it!


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## Pedal2222




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## music6000

It list you as a New Member but this is obviously not your first entry into building a pedal.
Pro Look, Pro Build!
Well Done!


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## Barry

Excellent!


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## Pedal2222

Thank you! Yes, I've already built some pedals, but this is my first build from PedalPCB. I changed the power supply (9V instead 18V) and the design to analogman k.o.t. specification.


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## music6000

Pedal2222 said:


> Thank you! Yes, I have already built some pedals. But this is my first build from PedalPCB. I changed the circuit (9V instead 18V) and the design to analogman k.o.t. specification.


Yep,That's what I was referring too also!


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## Pedal2222

yes, the arrangement of the leds, pots, footswitches and the change of the power supply (jumpers), no big deal..


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## caiofilipini

Looks great!

What size are those larger knobs, @Pedal2222?


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## Pedal2222

Thanks! Bottom 24 mm, Top 18 mm


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## chongmagic

Great job, looks awesome!


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## TheSin

That is some clean looking work! 
What kind of resistors are those, I’ve never seem them?? I’ve built 2, but w pcbs from Rullywow. I got one comin from PPCB. I’m gonna try it at 9V.


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## Pedal2222

Thanks! The resistors are Vishay Dale CMF55 (metal film). These are high quality resistors,  1% tolerance only. They sound a bit more like carbon resistors, but without any hiss. I also have the Rullywow PCB here, but the arrangement of the pots are
not to my taste. In my opinion at 9v the pedal feels better under the fingers, not so static an hard..


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## Pedal2222

chongmagic said:


> Great job, looks awesome!


Many thanks!


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## Pedal2222

Barry said:


> Excellent!


thank you!


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## Chuck D. Bones

Very clean build!  What made you decide to leave out the charge pump?


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## Pedal2222

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Very clean build!  What made you decide to leave out the charge pump?


Thanks! In my opinion the pedal feel's bad under the fingers at 18v. It sounds static and hard to my ears. Anyway, If I need, I still can run the pedal at 18v without a fixed charge pump.


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## ddavis20341

Curious if you could elaborate on leaving out the charge pump and the k.o.t specifications! I saw someone else omitted C21,22 , increased C10, and jumpered C14 to C15 (and didn't jumper IC pins - I was looking at this). I'm interested in what the best way to do it is since I like the sound of the Paragon Mini at 9v.


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## Pedal2222

I've used the original analogman k.o.t. v4 schematic and changed the paragon power supply with four jumpers. I soldered a 1N5817 diode directly to the power socket +9V (D7, D14, D15 are jumpered). Just like analogman I've used two electrolytic capacitors 100uF/50V for the power supply. C21/100uF is for the main power supply including the led's. The jumper on IC pins 2+3 connect C21 to ground. C11/100uF (stock) is for the voltage devider. I wouldn't change anything here, but there are other ways to jumper it to get the same result.


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## ddavis20341

That was a great answer. Thank you!


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## Moltenmetalburn

Pedal2222 said:


> View attachment 5357View attachment 5358View attachment 5471


Late to party but GORGEOUS.


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## Pedal2222

Moltenmetalburn said:


> Late to party but GORGEOUS.


Thanks!


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## Nrgaposok

Would you mind sharing those really neat LEDs and LED bezels? They are the icing on this beautiful pedal-cake.


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## giovanni

Ugh. Now I have to build one too!  awesome build!


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## Pedal2222

Nrgaposok said:


> Would you mind sharing those really neat LEDs and LED bezels? They are the icing on this beautiful pedal-cake.


Thank you! I bought the leds and the reflectors at ebay.


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## Raspymcnasty

Pedal2222 said:


> I've used the original analogman k.o.t. v4 schematic and changed the paragon power supply with four jumpers. I soldered a 1N5817 diode directly to the power socket +9V (D7, D14, D15 are jumpered). Just like analogman I've used two electrolytic capacitors 100uF/50V for the power supply. C21/100uF is for the main power supply including the led's. The jumper on IC pins 2+3 connect C21 to ground. C11/100uF (stock) is for the voltage devider. I wouldn't change anything here, but there are other ways to jumper it to get the same result.


Amazing build.

I’m curious about a couple of things as i want to build this same build.

1. Why are some resistors socketed?
2. What’s did you mean by you soldered a diode direct to the power socket? I’m not sure i understand where the 1n5817 is located


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## Pedal2222

Raspymcnasty said:


> Amazing build.
> 
> I’m curious about a couple of things as i want to build this same build.
> 
> 1. Why are some resistors socketed?
> 2. What’s did you mean by you soldered a diode direct to the power socket? I’m not sure i understand where the 1n5817 is located


Thank's!

1. I've socketed them to test the sound difference to carbon resistors in this position.
2. That means, I soldered the diode directly to the DC jack, not to the pcb.


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## Chuck D. Bones

You know if you left D7 on the board, you would not have to mount it outboard on the power jack.  When you say you used the Analogman v4 schematic, what parts did you change from the PedalPCB build docs?  C1, C12, R3, R17, anything else?


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## Pedal2222

Chuck D. Bones said:


> You know if you left D7 on the board, you would not have to mount it outboard on the power jack.  When you say you used the Analogman v4 schematic, what parts did you change from the PedalPCB build docs?  C1, C12, R3, R17, anything else?


yes, but I wanted it that way. It could of course have been solved differently. I've already described the omission of the charge pump, the rest corresponds to Analogmans k.o.t. v4 schematic.


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## Chuck D. Bones

What values did you use for C1, C12, R3 & R17?  According to this (alleged v4) schematic, those are all different from the Paragon's BOM.  I'm not criticizing, just asking.


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## Pedal2222

Chuck D. Bones said:


> What values did you use for C1, C12, R3 & R17?  According to this (alleged v4) schematic, those are all different from the Paragon's BOM.  I'm not criticizing, just asking.
> 
> Yes, possible. I have to open my original k.o.t for that. I've adopted the values from there. It can take a while..


C1, C12 = 10n
R3, R17 = 10K


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## clarisso11

Love this build, thanks also for providing all that information on the modifications you've made.

I was hoping you could help with two questions:
1. When you turn up gain and tone on both sides (both sides engaged), does your build squeal or oscillate? Any difference with or without a buffered pedal before in the signal chain?
2. You mentioned that you have an original KoT, any oscillation/squealing on that with the controls dimed?

The squealing issue seems to be present with many KoT clones (don't think on the original, but haven't been able to confirm), including the paragon (here and here). Very curious to hear if your modifications fixed this problem!


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## Pedal2222

clarisso11 said:


> Love this build, thanks also for providing all that information on the modifications you've made.
> 
> I was hoping you could help with two questions:
> 1. When you turn up gain and tone on both sides (both sides engaged), does your build squeal or oscillate? Any difference with or without a buffered pedal before in the signal chain?
> 2. You mentioned that you have an original KoT, any oscillation/squealing on that with the controls dimed?
> 
> The squealing issue seems to be present with many KoT clones (don't think on the original, but haven't been able to confirm), including the paragon (here and here). Very curious to hear if your modifications fixed this problem!


Hi!
No, I have no oscillation/squealing problems at all. Do you have build the paragon with or without the charge pump? I tryed a buffered booster pedal in front of my paragon and original KoT also, the amount of hiss was a bit different, that's all.


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## clarisso11

Pedal2222 said:


> Hi!
> No, I have no oscillation/squealing problems at all. Do you have build the paragon with or without the charge pump? I tryed a buffered booster pedal in front of my paragon and original KoT also, the amont of hiss was a bit different, that's all.


Hi, 
that's really cool, thanks for testing! I actually had this issue with a slightly different KoT build (Fuzzdog Emperor), even with the charge pump removed. Trying to find out if the Paragon has the same issue, I came across some forum posts that suggested it has the same oscillation problem.

Thanks also for confirming that the original doesn't suffer from this problem, I always assumed that, but could never confirm.

Just ordered a Paragon PCB plus a bunch of those Dale resistors, love the way your PCB looks!


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## Pedal2222

clarisso11 said:


> Hi,
> that's really cool, thanks for testing! I actually had this issue with a slightly different KoT build (Fuzzdog Emperor), even with the charge pump removed. Trying to find out if the Paragon has the same issue, I came across some forum posts that suggested it has the same oscillation problem.
> 
> Thanks also for confirming that the original doesn't suffer from this problem, I always assumed that, but could never confirm.
> 
> Just ordered a Paragon PCB plus a bunch of those Dale resistors, love the way your PCB looks!


Thank you, you're welcome.


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## timewaster1700

What a fantastic and beautiful build thanks for sharing! Very helpful too as I want to build one of these and bypass the charge pump so thank you for sharing that.
What type of film caps did you use? They look like panasonic but do you know are they the polyester or are they like polypropylene or something like that? Thanks


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## Pedal2222

timewaster1700 said:


> What a fantastic and beautiful build thanks for sharing! Very helpful too as I want to build one of these and bypass the charge pump so thank you for sharing that.
> What type of film caps did you use? They look like panasonic but do you know are they the polyester or are they like polypropylene or something like that? Thanks


Thank you! I have used panasonic smf caps.


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## timewaster1700

Pedal2222 said:


> Thank you! I have used panasonic smf caps.


Thanks so much for the response! These must be no longer be produced because I'm having a tough time finding them anywhere. Any ideas?


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## giovanni

Mouser and Digikey have those I believe. Tayda has other Panasonic series. You can find other vendors on Google I think.


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## Kroars

Pedal2222 said:


> View attachment 5357View attachment 5358View attachment 5471


Gorgeously clean work! I’ve yet to build a Paragon, but I’ve got a couple on the way.  Very excited for it.


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## timewaster1700

Pedal2222 said:


> Thank you! I have used panasonic smf caps.





giovanni said:


> Mouser and Digikey have those I believe. Tayda has other Panasonic series. You can find other vendors on Google I think.


They carry Panasonic film caps yes but the SMF seems to be out of production along with the ECQ-V. Wondering what the best replacement is since these are hard to find now


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## giovanni

timewaster1700 said:


> They carry Panasonic film caps yes but the SMF seems to be out of production along with the ECQ-V. Wondering what the best replacement is since these are hard to find now


I’ve been getting Nichicon or Panasonic from Tayda. They are a bit more expensive than their other generic brands but they should last longer.


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## chongmagic

You can't go wrong with Nichicon.


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## Harry Klippton

chongmagic said:


> You can't go wrong with Nichicon.


If that's not their corporate slogan, they're fucking up


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## timewaster1700

Pedal2222 said:


> C1, C12 = 10n
> R3, R17 = 10K


Where these values the same as your real King of Tone. Trying my best to copy the real KOT for this build. Thanks for your help!


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