When I first got this done it sounded terrible. I got sound but it was weak and disappointing. Then I looked into it a but more and it was a problem with one of the transistors. This uses a single BC184. The build doc does not specify which on ebut it should be the C variant. What Tayda has is the L vairant and they have different pinouts. And it’s not like you can just put it in backwards and everything is OK. This caused me hours of confusion but in the end everything worked out great.
Thoughts
These are some of the best boards, but sometimes the docs could be a little clearer. PedalPCB does have one of the best boards with super helpful people. As long as you know how to search.
Controls
From the Catalinbread manual:
- Range: This knob affects the treble booster front-end of the Sabbra. The design of this part of the circuit stems from our Naga Viper, a circuit that contains three knobs: Boost, Heat and Range. In the Sabbra, the Boost and Heat controls are set to the maximum, giving you control over the Range, or input frequency selector. Treble boosters set the frequency by forcing the signal through a tiny input cap which shears off the low end. The Range control pans between two input capacitors—one small, one large— to give the drive side of the Sabbra the right frequencies with which to work.
- Gain: Think of this as an analog to the Supergroup’s Gain control. Keep it low for some crunchy British-style chunk or crank it to get those tube-melting tones that Mr. Iommi is known for. Setting this above 3 o’clock definitely gets you into Dehumanizer territory.
- Presence: Just like the Supergroup, the Sabbra Cadabra features a Presence control that dumps a varying amount of frequencies to ground. The result is a full-bodied master tone control that helps you sit in the mix right where you like.
- Vol. 4: LOUD. This thing gets LOUD. Did I say LOUD?
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