Compare to

Earthquaker Devices™ Grand Orbiter

Build Resources

PCB: PedalPCB Circulator
Docs: BUILD DOC

Mike Fabulosa

I’m a wee bit out of my mind. Been blasting Diary of a Madman and Crazy Train into my skull since the early ’80s. Been finding ways to deal with Bi-Polar Disorder and ADHD all my life. The pandemic introduced new challenges. That is what lead me to start building pedals. A way to immerse myself into so many different creative activities. This is where I share my creations and the stories, successes, failures and what I have learned with others. Feel free to browse around. Let me know what I got wrong or where I might improve. Most of all I just hope you enjoy what I have created and can maybe gain some new insights.

Got some help from the PedalPCB forum to add an indicator light for the LFO rate. I really like this mod and this pedal. I have a Grand Orbiter and have done a quick comparison (They are almost identical to my ear). I need to get the videos online but everything will happen in time. Full story will have more details of my troubles with this paint job.

Demo

Build Report

Art Attempt

I did the art on this pedal several time. I even baked it more than once. This is when I learned that the red pigment will sink if I bake the pedal too long or at too high a heat. After the third image I taped off the area I wanted to be in white and used a primer for the white background. It was able to cover the mistakes I had made with the acrylic paint pens.

The second picture shows the modification that I made. Chuck D. Bones on the PedalPCB forum showed me how to install a LFO LED. It was as easy as installing an LED from pin 8 on IC3. I am thankful for all the help and knowledge I receive from the people there.

placeholder image 0 placeholder image 1 placeholder image 2

Good Enough

I finally decided to just do the labels in sharpie and epoxy over them. I think if I were to build this pedal again I would try to create more original artwork. I am still torn about making things that look close to the original. It really is just me being lazy and wanting to use the pedal before I can think of some art. In the future I think I will just box them and rock them without art if I am unsure what I want to do.

placeholder image 3 placeholder image 4 placeholder image 5

Assembly

This is one of the first that I tried to epoxy a side. Not sure how I like it. It is also one of the last that I added the labels near the jacks. I had origninally finished this the same way as the Pharoah. I did not like the satin finish. I had the brilliant (i.e. terrible) idea that I could bake it off. That is what you see running down the inside in picture 2 below. Thankfully it all worked out in the end.

placeholder image 6 placeholder image 7 placeholder image 8

Complete

Here it is all shined up and working. If is a remarkable copy of the real thing. It was the first PedalPCB pedal that I put together because I did not want to wait for my order from Earthquaker Devices to come in. Once it did I played them side by side and was very satisfied. I will put up a demo one day with a comparison.

placeholder image 9 placeholder image 10 placeholder image 11

Controls

  • Sweep: Controls the frequency peak of the sweep. Higher peak clockwise, lower peak counter clockwise.
  • **Rate 1 2 3**: Changes the range of the speed control. Rate 1 is slow mode, Rate 2 is LFO kill to use the Orbiter as a fixed resonant filter, Rate 3 is fast mode.
  • Rate: Controls the speed of the LFO. Faster clockwise, slower counterclockwise.
  • Depth: Controls the amount of phase effect mixed with dry signal. Clockwise for more intense phasing, counterclockwise for less. In “Vibrato” mode, this acts as a volume control.
  • Phase/Vibrato: Cuts the dry signal to create a vibe/vibrato effect depending on the setting of the other controls. Vibrato is created by turning the resonance down low.
  • Resonance: Controls the regeneration of the phased signal. More resonant clockwise, more subtle counterclockwise.

Updated:

You May Also Enjoy