# Fraudhacker



## Guardians of the analog (Nov 18, 2022)

The past couple months have been tough. A death in the family, lots of health problems with family, a personal crisis and work related pain. To battle seasonal, holiday and clinical depression I decided to embark on a side quest and start a new personal build collection.
     I'll preface this by saying that long before I fell in love with vintage EHX circuits, I was a BOSS fanboy. Like many of us many of my first pedals were boss pedals because the were cheap, indestructible and everywhere. This collection will contain pedals I've have previously owned, could not find or became too expensive to try. The first up is the fraud hacker
   The fraudhacker is a BF-2 flanger. I have a soft spot for this pedal as it's the first flanger I got back in 93.  Like an idiot I sold my original early 90s pedal around 2002 when the boutique phase hit and BOSS wasn't cool anymore to the masses (thanks TGP🙄). Sonically I would describe it as the middle ground between the DEM and MXR flanger. A very versatile flanger that can do warm, metallic, chorus and jet plane tones.
    The build and biasing itself was very straightforward and simple. I got the nos 3207/3102 from @blackhatboojum in a trade at the beginning of the year and was saving them for the right project. The literal fraud and hacker Mysterio, UV printed on a matte Violette enclosure. Sorry for the long post. TLDR it's a great sounding flanger and if you are in the market to build one you can't go wrong with a BF-2.


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## BuddytheReow (Nov 18, 2022)

Great looking build as always. Good to hear from you. Having "me" time is more important than we'd like to believe.


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Nov 18, 2022)

As much as I like this build I'm more focused on how excellent it is to see that little cassette tape again. Hoping the days ahead are calmer.


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## cwsquared (Nov 18, 2022)

Sorry to hear about your tough couple of months.  It is good to see you back at it though.  Great build, and I don't mind longer posts, especially when we get the origin story.


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## Laundryroom David (Nov 18, 2022)

Damn good build.


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## Paradox916 (Nov 18, 2022)




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## Big Monk (Nov 18, 2022)

He’s back!


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## SillyOctpuss (Nov 19, 2022)

Fantastic build and your post really resonated with me as I'm also on a journey back from a shit time in my life. 

It's really good to see you back and good luck with your own journey.


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## SillyOctpuss (Nov 19, 2022)

Paradox916 said:


> View attachment 36336


Best gif I've seen in a LONG time.


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## Paradox916 (Nov 19, 2022)

SillyOctpuss said:


> Best gif I've seen in a LONG time.


I like to use this ones for special occasions🤣


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## szukalski (Nov 19, 2022)

Return of the king!

Looks great. Posts like this make rearrange my backlog. 

What font are you using there?


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## peccary (Nov 19, 2022)




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## Guardians of the analog (Nov 19, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Return of the king!
> 
> Looks great. Posts like this make rearrange my backlog.
> 
> What font are you using there?


That's one is the MCU Spiderman font. I like to use fonts that match characters if possible. You will see this in some upcoming projects. My default has always been the guardians of the galaxy font.


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## Guardians of the analog (Nov 19, 2022)

I wanna thank everyone for the kind words. What I've been going through is something all of us go through at one time or another. I have been bipolar my whole life and have struggled  with having balance. This time of year can be hard for everyone for various reasons, regardless of whether or not you have mental health issues. If anyone ever needs to vent or needs an open ear don't hesitate to hit me up. We all need someone to talk to who's unbiased and not involved.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 19, 2022)

View attachment 36371


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 19, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Return of the king!
> 
> Looks great. Posts like this make rearrange my backlog.
> 
> What font are you using there?


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## fig (Nov 20, 2022)

Stunning as always.


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## cdwillis (Nov 20, 2022)

Very nice build. When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about Pedalhacker not filling orders :|

I had a BF-2 when I was searching for a flanger. I ended up with an MXR flanger in the end for the wooshing flange in the end, but I liked that the BF-2 could do the Police sort of sound like an Electric Mistress.


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## Guardians of the analog (Nov 21, 2022)

cdwillis said:


> Very nice build. When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about Pedalhacker not filling orders :|
> 
> I had a BF-2 when I was searching for a flanger. I ended up with an MXR flanger in the end for the wooshing flange in the end, but I liked that the BF-2 could do the Police sort of sound like an Electric Mistress.


The mistress is definitely more chorus and can't really do the really swooshy sound. The mxr is really metallic and great for the exaggerated jet plane swoosh but doesn't do the chorus type stuff too well. The bf-2 can do both, not to the strengths of the others but If I needed the most amount of sounds out of a flanger, I would choose the bf-2


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## Bricksnbeatles (Nov 21, 2022)

The BF-2 is the de facto new wave flanger imo. Byrne, Marr, Robert Smith, Steve Bartek, Mike Score… great sounding flanger


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## Feral Feline (Nov 22, 2022)

Condolences on your loss and best wishes for good health (physical & mental) to you and your family.

As for the latest build...

















IMPRESSIVE, AS ALWAYS!​


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## HamishR (Nov 24, 2022)

You are definitely not alone, Mr Guardian. For me building stuff like these pedals is what keeps me, well, easier to live with is one way of putting it! Making things is what keeps me sane, frankly. We have a relatively small house so there's only so much furniture I can make. I run out of money and space building amps. And it's true that I may also be running out of space building pedals... 

It's not only the making of something, it's also discovering sounds which you can use which improve your playing, or make a friend happy. In some ways it's weird how making something to make pleasing sounds makes us so happy. But I am so glad that it does.

Anyway, my first pedal was a Boss DM2. Back then they were superseded by the digital stuff so I sold the DM2 and got an Ibanez rack delay. Then a Boss half-rack delay, then an Ibanez PDM1 (which I still have), then something else...  Ended up buying a Boss DM-2W last year because I love the sound, even if I rarely use it. If only their buffers didn't kill my sound I would use more Boss stuff because they can really sound very good.


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## Guardians of the analog (Nov 24, 2022)

HamishR said:


> You are definitely not alone, Mr Guardian. For me building stuff like these pedals is what keeps me, well, easier to live with is one way of putting it! Making things is what keeps me sane, frankly. We have a relatively small house so there's only so much furniture I can make. I run out of money and space building amps. And it's true that I may also be running out of space building pedals...
> 
> It's not only the making of something, it's also discovering sounds which you can use which improve your playing, or make a friend happy. In some ways it's weird how making something to make pleasing sounds makes us so happy. But I am so glad that it does.
> 
> Anyway, my first pedal was a Boss DM2. Back then they were superseded by the digital stuff so I sold the DM2 and got an Ibanez rack delay. Then a Boss half-rack delay, then an Ibanez PDM1 (which I still have), then something else...  Ended up buying a Boss DM-2W last year because I love the sound, even if I rarely use it. If only their buffers didn't kill my sound I would use more Boss stuff because they can really sound very good.


You say if only the boss pedal's buffer didn't kill your sound...well I know a couple sites where you can buy PCBs and make yourself some without buffers 😂. I'm running out of ideas on what to build. I built a lot of stuff and this current run was a spur of the moment epiphany I had while musing about old pedals. If you like the DM-2 I have some stuff coming up that you might think is kinda cool.


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