Swell Drive Build
Building the Swell Drive kit
So, once again I find myself building a re-creation of an obscure classic. And even more so than previous, such as
and
this is a re-creation of a pedal I had never heard of
Unboxing
PCB build
Fit into the enclosure
Also, Spares? What Spares?
The Build
This is a smaller circuit boards with fewer parts, so I felt more comfortable. There appeared to be giant quantities of resistor and capacitors, and for me and my work steup it saves time to check the resistors with a multi-meter, so that takes a little time for each stage. It worked first time, like all the previous kits and feels like a solid build, though 9V input is loose due to the thread not gripping the nut, so I added a dab of glue.
Results
It works, so either those pieces I failed to place on the circuit board didn’t really matter or they were indeed surplus.
Sonically, it mainly makes a “meep, meep” type noise as its primary claim to fame.
More subtly, it can take the attack off from notes of chords, which can have a subtle but significant effect in a mix.
The adjustable trim pot — pretty much as Stewmac:
This is a very small potentiometer that fine-tunes the pedal’s effect on the signal, especially the attack. Use a screwdriver to set the trim pot to the midpoint of its range. Near this midpoint is where we get the best results, but feel free to experiment with different settings.
The issue with any kind of swell effect going before the compression devices or compression-like — distortion is that the range between audible and inaudible is already incredibly fine tuned. Hence an impactful effect needs to transition the signal slowly through the most import range. Too little — can’t hear the note. Too much — can’t hear the swell — Catch 22!
This is hard to judge even when done manually. It’s quite impressive that the effect isn’t a one trick pony, given how much the attack and sustain vary across the strings of a guitar.
Hear the results
The trick to get a “reversed tape” effect is to damp the previous note — the gain will quickly release, allowing the next note to volume up. By the same token, if you just play continuously, then it’s just a normal guitar signal.
