TRIPLE Overdrive / Boost Pedal – Bluesbreaker / Zendrive / SHO

[Anonymous]

Here is one that I built for myself. 25+ years of gigging and I have ALWAYS hated that the typical “order” of multi-drive pedals usually have the lead/solo boost on the left side of the pedal. I am right footed, and, especially when singing, I’ve always felt awkward crossing over to the left side of the pedal or the pedal board to initiate a lead boost.

So I built this one out of three different PCBs from three different makers……..

“DUSTY”… is a Marshall Bluesbreaker circuit, using the “L’il Breaker” pcb from BYOC and it’s one that’s designed for a mini (1590A) enclosure. I rearranged which pot is where for each placement inside this crowded enclosure

“DIRTY” … is a Zendrive Circuit. It’s the Mahayana PCB from PedalPCB (sounds friggin’ fantastic, btw!). This was built as-is with board mounted pots… I knew this one would be included, and kinda built the pedal and chose the other two circuits based on this as the centerpiece (literally and Figuratively).

“LOUD” … is a Zvex SHO circuit using the SHO-Nuff from GuitarPCB – also designed for a 1590A, and this includes a mod to add a Master Volume knob in place of a fixed resistor on the original Zvex version. This allows more of that awesome grind from the SHO without having it WAY too loud. Turn up the “Boost” back off on the “Master” and it’s a great solo boost… back down on the Boost and turn up the Master and it’s a perfect clean boost for clean solos.

All-in-all, this sounds even better than I expected.. the BB is wonderful and crispy/compressed light drive…. the Zen sounds huge, and even bigger when stacked with the BB (but retains the crispiness and tightness from the BB!). And the SHO is just an extremely useable and flexible boost – especially when modded with the MV.
Also, I ordered Green / Blue / Red knobs to complete the color scheme – these are just temps.

Short YouTube Demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmA6hFXBjsE .

 

[Billy]

Very nice build Geno looks great inside and out, it’s well laid out I particularly like the way you’ve got the 3PDTs flush with the enclosure wall! very precise drilling

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Billy!  That was a challenge, but required by the layout of the BYOC L’il Breaker.  It is suppose to go in a 1590A, and, as such, has no room for error.. so I just lined the other two switch up to match with it.  You can also see by the purple sharpie marks inside the enclosure (in the gutshot pic above) that I did EXTENSIVE measuring and marking before I finally figured out where all those holed need to be!  It was worth capturing a pic at that stage!

 

[Billy]

Yeah I had a chuckle about that I’m a sharpie marker too

[Barry W Davis]

Great looking build!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barry!

[Anonymous]

I wanted to update this with the “Final” version after the colored knobs came in.  Since this post, I’ve actually built a second one for a friend.

[Playsforfun]

Extraordinary! Exceptionally well done all around. Perfect color match on the knobs and label. Nice wiring. Can’t say enough. I’m sure your friend is quite pleased.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!  Much appreciated!

 

[Anonymous]

Bravo!  I love the color coordination too!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Wilkie!

 

[Cybercow]

Nicely done!

[Anonymous]

Thanks! Cybercow!

[Author]

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