Saving Jekyll & Hyde

Quite some time ago, a friend of mine gave me a broken Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde overdrive/distortion pedal.  At the time, I thought I’d gut it and put two other effects in there.  Never got around to it, though.  Which, in the long run, has turned out to be a good thing.

Since getting a Ceriatone JTM 45, I’ve come to rely on dirt pedals for overdrive rather than fuzz.  Lately, I’ve been trying as many overdrive pedals as I can get my hands on.  I started thinking about building an Ibanez Tube Screamer clone and messing with the circuit, which got me thinking about IC chips, which reminded me about that busted Jekyll & Hyde pedal gathering dust in a drawer.  I opened it up, looked at all the many, many IC chips, figured I’d get some sockets…

Then I thought, “What would it take to fix this thing?”  I mean, the Jekyll & Hyde is a somewhat famed pedal these days.  It’s a cool TS808 Tube Screamer type overdrive with a handy bass boost switch as well as a tough distortion.  The two effects can be used separately or together.  It has a pretty significant footprint on a pedal board but that’s a lot of versatility in one stomp box.

That's a big stomp box!

I opened the thing up and immediately noticed evidence of repairs.  There was a wire connecting one of the switch lugs to a trace, jumpers from pot lugs to traces, etc.

The reason these repairs were necessary comes to down to the design.  The pots and foot switches are PCB (Printed Circuit Board) mounted, which creates a potential for stress to the solder joint (and PCB) when the pots are turned or the switches are stomped.  The result, over time, is a broken solder joint, which means a broken pedal.  This isn't what could happen, it's what will happen.

Notice the potentiometer on the far right broken completely loose from solder pads.

A lot of pedal manufacturers use board mount components in their pedals.  The practice has its benefits, mainly in that it’s generally cheaper and you can fit the whole mess into a smaller enclosure.

In my humble opinion, however, it’s a questionable practice at best.  I just don’t like it.  With pots, jacks, switches, etc. mounted to the enclosure rather than the board, there’s significantly less chance of a solder joint breaking.  And if your pedal stops working, it makes it a lot easier to figure out and fix the problem.

Having said that, Visual Sound does take the time to drill holes for the anchors on the pots, which is going to more or less eliminate the chance of the pot rotating very much if the nut comes loose.  That’s an effective, simple solution for board mounted pots.  But there’s plenty of room in this enclosure for the foot switches to have been wired in rather than board mounted.  The rocker switches controlling the bass boost on the overdrive and the sharp/blunt control on the distortion aren’t attached to the board, so why the foot switches?

I started looking at what it would take to fix the broken traces on the pot and foot switch, both of which were completely broken loose from the solder pads.  It occurred to me that all of the solder joints on the pots and foot switches were ultimately in danger of cracking.  So, what if I jumpered/wired all of those lugs directly to the components/traces?

It seemed like a lot of work so I decided to think about it for a while.  Where lugs connected to traces, I could scrape the board and solder a jumper.  Where lugs connected to resistors and capacitors, I figured I could run a wire directly from the appropriate leg of the component to the lug.  In spite of the labor and the potential for it to get messy, I knew it could work.  I decided to go for it.

Hey, whaddayaknow?  It worked!  Best of all, it worked right away.  A little prep and planning went a long way with this project.

As you can see, the wires are pretty freakin' ridiculous.  I could have made them quite a bit shorter and kept the job neater, but there’s plenty of room for the wires with the bottom on.  I also tightened downed the pots and foot switches really well before soldering the board to them in an effort to eliminate as much stress to the solder joints as possible.

I’m happy I decided to fix this thing because I like the way it sounds.  The bass boost on the overdrive is a killer option.  It’s definitely something I would consider building into a TS808 clone.  The distortion is pretty rich and you have a lot of control over the EQ and amount of gain.  Like I said, that’s a ton of options in one stomp box.  It makes a great pedal for practicing at home.  It’s not what I’m looking for to use live but I like having it in my arsenal.

Hallelujah, let's rock!

The title of this blog comes from the song “Green Trumpet” by Seattle, Washington’s infamous U-Men.  Vocalist John Bigley utters the phrase before guitarist Tom Price begins his creepy, descending guitar lick, leading drummer Charlie Ryan and bassist Jim Tillman into the outer rings of hell.  The U-Men.  One of the greatest bands, ever.  I’ll talk more about The U-Men another time, you can count on it.

Guess who?

Music is universal, all encompassing, existing in all cultures and societies.  You’ve heard it all before but it’s no less true.  It unites us, comforts us, lifts us up, gives us strength, enriches our lives and makes us want to shake our butts.  Songs act as place markers in our history and the soundtrack to our lives.  As Frank Zappa said:

“Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is THE BEST.”

Music is THE BEST.

Music really is THE BEST.  And the phrase, “Hallelujah, let’s rock” resonates with me because, like Ozzy says, rock ‘n’ roll is my religion and my law.  I love music and rock music in particular, and this blog is no more than a chance for me to write about something I love.  It’s that simple.

Where am I going with this thing?  Everywhere.  Anywhere I want.  Bands, songs, guitarists, drummers, bassists, guitars, stomp boxes, amps, producers, engineers, studios… in short, anything about music.

So… hallelujah, let’s rock!