# [PedalPCB] Chicken Lover



## szukalski (Jul 24, 2022)

So, I built myself a Chickenhead but didn’t box it up because I wanted to do a UV print enclosure. It sounded great and I really like how it stacks. 

Around the same time, I built an Aphrodite because I liked the demos. It’s supposed to be based on a Klon but I don’t hear it. I had an issue with some fake TL072s but worked it out in the end. I also enjoyed this pedal, especially in stacks (it goes well with either blue or green side of the Pro-10 Dual). 

I tried it with the Chickenhead and really liked it so wanted to build a 2-in-1 and I had a 1590BB spare to part with. I wanted independent sides, so went with dual input/output like the KoT option. If you only connect the first and last sockets then it goes Chickenhead into Aphrodite, but you can run a patch cable to go the other way, or just run one side. 

Sound wise, you get the nice TL072 crunch, driven by the Germanium booster. For a really flexible setup, I run Chickenhead > Pro-10 > Aphrodite and have six really usable but unique tones. 

Knobs were just what I had on hand, they’ll get replaced in the next Tayda order, but they work for now..





Build rating is 4. The boards were straight forward, but the wiring and enclosure was fiddly.


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## MichaelW (Jul 24, 2022)

We need a demo


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Jul 25, 2022)




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## szukalski (Jul 25, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> We need a demo


One day..


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## HamishR (Jul 26, 2022)

The Chickenhead is a fantastic simple boost, isn't it? I really like the Dark Esbat but there's no way I could fit one in a 1590BB with an OD as well. It's a shame because the Dark Esbat kinda takes over from where the Chickenhead leaves off, and is a lot quieter too.

You can see the Broadcast as a "better" Chickenhead too, and I have managed to fit one of those and an OD into a 1590BB! But not with a PCB (or the transformer).  But you can't beat the Chickenhead for simplicity and sound. Cool build!


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## Pauleo1214 (Jul 27, 2022)

Mentaltossflycoon said:


> View attachment 29791


Let's not make this about that sordid time Gonzo got chicken head.  I assume he asked her to blow his nose but....


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## szukalski (Jul 27, 2022)

Pauleo1214 said:


> Let's not make this about that sordid time Gonzo got chicken head.  I assume he asked her to blow his nose but....


I wanted to call it the rooster lover, but my wife shut that down quickly..


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## szukalski (Jul 27, 2022)

HamishR said:


> The Chickenhead is a fantastic simple boost, isn't it? I really like the Dark Esbat but there's no way I could fit one in a 1590BB with an OD as well. It's a shame because the Dark Esbat kinda takes over from where the Chickenhead leaves off, and is a lot quieter too.
> 
> You can see the Broadcast as a "better" Chickenhead too, and I have managed to fit one of those and an OD into a 1590BB! But not with a PCB (or the transformer).  But you can't beat the Chickenhead for simplicity and sound. Cool build!


Thanks! It really is a great circuit . I keep looking at the Dark Esbat, but the backlog..! A quieter Chickenhead with ability to control the high end would be nice. 

Didn’t think about the Broadcast, it’s  obvious once you think about the high end presence..


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## HamishR (Jul 27, 2022)

And the bass roll-off... I turned one of mine into an Ariel Posen version by swapping out the Ge transistor for a 2N4033 silicon. Then added a small cap across the base and collector of that transistor and now I don't get an instantly brighter tone when I step on the pedal.

I didn't "get" the Broadcast at first but it makes one of the best boosters I've heard.


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## szukalski (Jul 27, 2022)

Agree with that. Once I started using it as a boost instead of standalone, I was much more satisfied.


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## mybud (Jul 27, 2022)

szukalski said:


> I wanted to call it the rooster lover, but my wife shut that down quickly..


The rooster booster?
Little red booster that could?
Ok, I’ll show myself out …


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## szukalski (Jul 27, 2022)

mybud said:


> The rooster booster?
> Little red booster that could?
> Ok, I’ll show myself out …


Coq d’Amour.


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## Feral Feline (Jul 27, 2022)

Paired with either a clone of the Caline CP-60 Wine Cellar, or clone of the Reuss Wine and Roses Steve Wynn signature pedal, it could be:


"Coq au Vin"


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## mybud (Jul 27, 2022)

Coq d’Ivoire?


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## Pauleo1214 (Jul 27, 2022)

szukalski said:


> I wanted to call it the rooster lover, but my wife shut that down quickly..


If you paired it with a compressor instead of an overdrive, you could have called it chicken choker.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 28, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> We need a demo


And Build Docs!  Where are the Build Docs?


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## szukalski (Jul 28, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> And Build Docs!  Where are the Build Docs?


Haha, there's nothing special there, maybe an extra wiring diagram which can go onto the PedalPCB wiki..


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 28, 2022)

I meant Build Docs for the Aphrodite.


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## szukalski (Jul 28, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I meant Build Docs for the Aphrodite.


That was too obvious! There is a BOM in the missing build docs thread, I subbed an ICL7660 for the ICL7662 and tested the diodes by ear.
I was grateful to not need the schematic (fingers crossed).


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

What does the SAVAGE knob do?  I've studied the schematic and run some sims, but I want to know what you think of the SAVAGE knob.

I'm trusting that the trace is 100% accurate.


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## szukalski (Jul 31, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> What does the SAVAGE knob do?  I've studied the schematic and run some sims, but I want to know what you think of the SAVAGE knob.


It feels like a bass boost during a gain stage. It adds bass but doesn’t feel like it does it at the end of the signal chain. 

I’m not experienced with circuit design to talk with any authority, so can only talk about my gut feeling. (Ask me again in ten years of studying circuits for a semi qualified opinion 😅). Some pedals feel like the eq section is at the end, and you could replace it with an eq pedal for the same effect. The treble pot feels this way. The savage feels more integrated into the signal chain. 

Hope that makes sense? I don’t put savage up past 11:00 most days, but that’s just my tonal preference.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

Thanks for the feedback.  The SAVAGE control is indeed in the middle of the signal chain and it does some weird stuff.  It doesn't vary the bass much, and in fact if you go past noon it starts to cut the overall bass, particularly the amount of bass going into the dirty channel.

Now how about that TREBLE control, what do you think of that?  It is indeed at the end of the chain.  Does it do what you want?

This circuit is "Klon-based," but only in the loosest sense.  They did stuff that a pro like Finnegan would never do.  Stuff that would get them laughed out of a design review.


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## Robert (Jul 31, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> They did stuff that a pro like Finnegan would never do.  Stuff that would get them laughed out of a design review.



Like sell them for a reasonable price and not BS about "magic" diodes?


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## szukalski (Jul 31, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Thanks for the feedback.  The SAVAGE control is indeed in the middle of the signal chain and it does some weird stuff.  It doesn't vary the bass much, and in fact if you go past noon it starts to cut the overall bass, particularly the amount of bass going into the dirty channel.
> 
> Now how about that TREBLE control, what do you think of that?  It is indeed at the end of the chain.  Does it do what you want?
> 
> This circuit is "Klon-based," but only in the loosest sense.  They did stuff that a pro like Finnegan would never do.  Stuff that would get them laughed out of a design review.


I'll have to play around with SAVAGE a bit more, I will let you know.

TREBLE doesn't get much use, maybe a slight tweak to compensate for humbuckers, but I tend to use my tone controls on the guitar instead.

It wouldn't surprise me that it has some less-than-pro internals (my build quality withstanding), it doesn't have the hi-fi feel like the Pro-10, but there is something that works well and I really enjoy it.


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## Robert (Jul 31, 2022)

The Savage control appears to be basically the same thing as the Bottom control of the VFE Merman, minus a limiting resistor.

I actually liked this one better than the Merman, personally.

My understanding though, is that the ProAnalog guy is even worse at running a business than he is at designing circuits.


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## szukalski (Jul 31, 2022)

Just spent some time with it. My observations:

GAIN does almost nothing to affect the sound. You notice it interaction with the TREBLE so it is doing something, but it’s not like DRIVE where it’s glaringly obvious. 

SAVAGE seems (subjectively) to add bottom end whilst increasing gain, until 14:00 where the bass starts to drop and it gets the feeling of a cranked Klon as it gets hotter. There is an area just before this where it almost gets muffled, like you have your tone control in a bad place, though this is dependent on where DRIVE is at. 

TREBLE is actually useful once you get SAVAGE cranked, to roll off the high you get.

I’ve been mainly using this as a medium overdrive and stacking it, but it’s actually capable of getting nice gain sounds and there is a lot of flexibility in the interactions between the 4 controls.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

Szukalski, I think you have the GAIN & DRIVE controls mixed up.  The DRIVE control has very little leverage; the GAIN control has a huge range.

What you're describing about the SAVAGE control operation lines up with what I see in simulation.

The SAVAGE control *SHOULD *have a limiting resistor because without it, diming SAVAGE connects a 1uF cap from directly across the - and + inputs of the mixer.  This is something you should NEVER DO unless you're trying to build an oscillator or a radio receiver.  Anyone who understands how opamps work would not do this.  That limiting resistor is the key because the other thing it does is it keeps the mixer from loading the bass bleed and dirty channel paths.  When SAVAGE is dimed it's no longer a bass bleed, it's an everything bleed because the loading from the mixer breaks the bass bleed's low-pass filter.  It also shunts some of the low freq signal away from the input of the dirty channel.  If the Merman's BOTTOM control is not aggressive enough for you, there are better ways to increase the bass bleed.

The other thing "ProAnalog" does is they allow the mixer and final stage to saturate at high GAIN settings.  When you saturate the opamp in an active filter (a Baxandall tone control is an active filter), you don't have a filter anymore.  Hard to know if this was deliberate or an unintended consequence of modifying the Klon's +18V -9V power supply.

Tell me if you like the tone when GAIN is dimed.

Except for the DRIVE control, one could easily configure a Merman to do what the Aphrodite does, minus the BS.  Given that the Merman has a clean bleed (WARM) control, it can do a pretty good job mimicking the DRIVE control as well.

I think TREBLE should be B-taper, like the Klon.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

Robert said:


> My understanding though, is that the ProAnalog guy is even worse at running a business than he is at designing circuits.


Hard to imagine.



Robert said:


> Like sell them for a reasonable price and not BS about "magic" diodes?



The market drives the price.  You can get into a bidding war for a KTR on eBay or you can buy a new Wampler Tumnus for $150 from Sweetwater. 

I don't doubt that Finnegan could hear the difference with the original Ge diodes he was using, he's spent enough time listening to them.  Probably takes a very specific setup to highlight the differences in the various Ge diodes.  He'll also tell you that you don't need those diodes because he can't get 'em anymore and has had to tweak the circuit to make the KTR sound like the original using other diodes.


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## fig (Jul 31, 2022)

Magic diodes….I haven’t run across _that_ chapter yet. Must be advanced stuff.


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## szukalski (Jul 31, 2022)

I’ll need to put the Merman on the backlog now..

I took the GAIN and DRIVE positions from the PCB pic on the shopfront. I could well have them mixed up, goes exactly with what you’re saying. 

Both SAVAGE and GAIN don’t sound spectacular maxed out, definitely unrefined.  In general, I don’t like to dime anything on my chain (my guitar vol and tone are usually on 7-8) so I hadn’t gone there beyond build testing. 

I must admit, I looked into the designer when I built the pedal because I enjoyed the sound. I don’t know if I would have gone with it if I’d have done that upfront. Got a bit of a hack vibe..

Really interested in seeing what can be done with a Merman vs this..


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## Robert (Jul 31, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> and has had to tweak the circuit to make the KTR sound like the original using other diodes.



Does changing the diodes count as "tweaking the circuit"?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Really interested in seeing what can be done with a Merman vs this..


If you're interested in breadboarding it I can offer some guidance.  Out of scope for this thread.


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## sopapo (Aug 28, 2022)

Hello to all,  I am new here, and I would like to order a PCB of the aphrodite, the reason is that I like very much the demos i heard on yt.
To me its sound like a klon but with more gain and bite, I am right?? 
This is what i liked, the more muscular and agressive sound..
Szukalski, does your build sound like the usual demos you hear online??
What diodes did you use??

Thanks for all


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## szukalski (Aug 28, 2022)

sopapo said:


> Hello to all,  I am new here, and I would like to order a PCB of the aphrodite, the reason is that I like very much the demos i heard on yt.
> To me its sound like a klon but with more gain and bite, I am right??
> This is what i liked, the more muscular and agressive sound..
> Szukalski, does your build sound like the usual demos you hear online??
> ...


It does sound like the demos. I would say that it’s more like a Klon with an additional overdrive than just a souped up Klon. I find a Klon a bit thin so this does it for me. Lots of combinations to get out of this.


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## szukalski (Aug 28, 2022)

@sopapo The diodes we’re some Russian D9-something. Whatever the orange stripe ones are. I tried out a bunch and they were the best for my ears but yours may like something different. I have a bunch of D9 which I test with.


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## sopapo (Aug 28, 2022)

Ok, thanks for your answers. Which voltages the diodes are?
 I am afraid that I only have access to the usual Silicon and germanium diodes...1n914, 4148, 1N0001, 1n34, 1n270, 1n60, 5817, bat41... Is this a dealbreaker?? 
Which do you think that of this diodes is the more similar??
Thanks for your time


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## szukalski (Aug 28, 2022)

sopapo said:


> Ok, thanks for your answers. Which voltages the diodes are?
> I am afraid that I only have access to the usual Silicon and germanium diodes...1n914, 4148, 1N0001, 1n34, 1n270, 1n60, 5817, bat41... Is this a dealbreaker??
> Which do you think that of this diodes is the more similar??
> Thanks for your time


I think the build doc said 1N4148. I’m on holiday so not close to my pedal build repo to check, but I typically try Germanium diodes for a smoother sound at the expense of volume and gain. It’s more my preferred playing style but I also like 1N4148.

If you want, you can socket the diodes and then you have the flexibility to test or swap things out at a later stage.


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## sopapo (Aug 29, 2022)

Thanks!! There arent build docs in the page of the aphrodite, but I found a txt with the bom in the missing docs thread, only says for the diodes 0'6 v.


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## szukalski (Aug 29, 2022)

sopapo said:


> Thanks!! There arent build docs in the page of the aphrodite, but I found a txt with the bom in the missing docs thread, only says for the diodes 0'6 v.


There are component details on the PCB. I can’t remember what they were off hand.


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## sopapo (Aug 29, 2022)

In the bom says S1V 0'62v... I dont know what  s1v is.
1n4148 is 0'68 vf, It looks that even closer It would be the 1n414 that has a vf of 0'62, but i dont know if this tolerances are relevant


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## szukalski (Aug 29, 2022)

I’ll be honest in saying that I didn’t measure anything except my happiness with the diodes I was testing. It sounded good to me so I ran with it.


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