Frustrated with myself on pedal kit

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Speaking of Klon clones, the TC Zeus that I received recently from Sweetwater is just what I was hoping it would be. It provides a very subtle overdrive until you really push the drive beyond about 2 o'clock, and it sounds really good in front of my old Fender Blues DeVille 410. At $69 it was inexpensive and yet it doesn't sound cheap at all. It has minimal noise until you max out the drive knob and the quality of the tones are, at least for me, really wonderful.

My understanding is that the circuitry for the TC Zeus is essentially that of a Klon.

- Glenn

That pedal sounds like quite the good deal. I got my "Klone" (E-H Soul Food) for roughly the same price used -- and TiffanyGuitar I've heard good things about the Archer too. The Klon circuit is really something when the knobs are set modestly. Retains touch sensitivity and guitar volume knob interaction.

[Al Acuff]

Originally Posted by TiffanyGuitar

I am very impressed that you built two in one weekend. I did so poorly on it that I think the board is damaged. If stewmac would finish it for me, I think they would have to start over. I threw it away. It is now on its way to the landfill. It isn’t worth spending any more money or time on. And I really don’t use pedals that much. I did it because I thought it would be fun to assemble it. Totally get why it would be fun for people but it turned out not to be fun for me.

Sorry to hear that your first electronics experience was so disappointing. Working with tiny components on small printed circuit boards is tricky and it takes some practice. When I was getting started building I joined an electronics club. The more experienced members helped the newbies and kept us from getting accidentally electrocuted.

For what it's worth if a friend asked me to recommend a good first electronics project I would probably recommend building a 5F1 tweed Fender Champ amplifier. There are many Champ kits and plenty of documentation available.

[Teleplucker]

I built the same kit a couple of weeks ago. My only problem was one of our cats decided to rearrange the parts pile for me, I never could find one capacitor. I emailed StewMac and they sent me a replacement for free.
I owned an original Klon that I bought when they first came out. I used it for a long time but I finally sold it when prices got to a certain level. I replaced it with the KTR, to my ears they sound the same. I still have the KTR and I notice those are going way up in price. I did an A/B with the Ghost pedal and the KTR and again the sound is remarkably similar.
Klons are going for $8-10K now. Ghost pedals are on sale for $99. That's not a hard choice for me to make.
It's not a simple kit to build, the multimeter will definitely help on resistor identification. I have an assembly station with a magnifying glass that really comes in handy for my aging eyes.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by Teleplucker

I built the same kit a couple of weeks ago. My only problem was one of our cats decided to rearrange the parts pile for me, I never could find one capacitor. I emailed StewMac and they sent me a replacement for free.
I owned an original Klon that I bought when they first came out. I used it for a long time but I finally sold it when prices got to a certain level. I replaced it with the KTR, to my ears they sound the same. I still have the KTR and I notice those are going way up in price. I did an A/B with the Ghost pedal and the KTR and again the sound is remarkably similar.
Klons are going for $8-10K now. Ghost pedals are on sale for $99. That's not a hard choice for me to make.
It's not a simple kit to build, the multimeter will definitely help on resistor identification. I have an assembly station with a magnifying glass that really comes in handy for my aging eyes.

Thank for that post—lots of good info there. (Yeah-I thought Id be clever and jump on a KTR…….STUPID ME!!)

I have a buddy who gigs with an original Klon, and he is as excited as I am to A/B the klon and ghost drive.

Just as a fun curiosity…did you epoxy the circuit board?