Saturday 28 October 2017

EarthQuaker Devices Palisades

Original info:
"The Palisades is something we said we would never do… an overdrive based on the legendary TS808! Gasp! The horror! Another tubes creamer?? In 2014?? Really?? After loads of requests we finally buckled. We ran tests with every popular clone on the market as well as several vintage originals, compared, contrasted and took loads of notes. It was exhausting but informative. In the end, we threw it all away, used our ears and came up with what we feel is the most versatile relative of the 808 available today.
With 6 different clipping voices, 5 bandwidth settings and 2 gain channels you will be hard-pressed to not find a setting that will wipe every mid-boosting overdrive off your board. The clipping voices determine how transparent and open or tight and crunchy the distortion is. They will vary drastically depending on where the gain is set, what channel is active and how much bandwidth is being used. The bandwidth sets the frequency response of the distortion and goes from thin, light and clean through fat heavy and crunchy. It may very well be the single most important control the palisades has and what really sets it apart.
Gain A is a lower gain channel with a wider range of grit that is great for strumming open chords. Gain B is a higher gain channel with a tighter range that is great for palm muting and/or shredding solos. The Palisades also has a foot switchable volume boost with adjustable level to take it over the top when you want to throw your foot up on the monitor and rip your sweet leads… or maybe just push the front end of you amp a little harder. Not enough? How about a normal/bright switch to mix and match the overall tone to different amps and guitars. Still not enough? OK then, how about a buffer on/off switch to tighten up the tone and make it sparkle when set to “ON” or warm it up and make it sag when set to “OFF”."
Original FSB thread and schematic (still unverified) available here.


26 comments:

  1. Nice one! Another masterpiece by Alex. Might build tomorrow.

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  2. Is there a switch missing? I count seven with the "Activate" switch.

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    1. I think thats your standard 3pdt bypass switch.

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  3. I think there is a missing ground on the line 19, where 1K from the capacitor switch come.

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    1. "Activate" is the bypass switch.
      The 1K resistor goes to Vref not ground.

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  4. Is it possible that the leftmost MPSA18 is put in wrong? shouldn't 9V go to the collector?

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    1. That looks strange but apparently it's correct.
      It's explained on the FSB forum.

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    2. Thanks.
      One more thing: According to the schematic on FSB, D4-6 are 1n4148 and D7-D8 are 1n916. You've got it the other way around.

      Thanks for the layout!

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    3. The way it's drawn is correct. Kmmoe made a mistake in his first schematic.

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  5. would the rotary switches be Break-before-make or make-before-break?

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  6. Verified! I'm not a tube screamer fan but this is good. Good volume, nice tone. Need to swap out D4-6 as used 1N914s by mistake and don't have no 1N916s. Might have to mess with some others. Thanks as always Alex and all the dudes on FSB!

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    1. Oh, Definiteley diffused 3mm red LED for D1, anything else just didn't sound right, but feel free to adjust to your own taste.

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  7. Yesssssssss! Months, years, decades, centuries waiting for the DIY project of this pedal. Thank you veeeeeeeery much.

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  8. Sorry folks, I may have verified this too soon. I think i have wired this up wrongly, my Gain footswitch shuts off the other two LEDs on the Activate and Boost footswitches and gives a nasty squeal in certain settings. The Boost and Activate switches work fine if the gain switch is off. Was i correct to use true bypass as in offboard wiring for the Activate footswitch? I noticed the use of a bi-colour LED on Effects Layouts new post would that make a difference?
    Also, someone has come forward from EQD mentioning that its not quite correct.
    In the mean time i'll check my wiring.

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  9. I am having sone trouble with this build.I have slight sound when pedal is unplugged and pulsing hum when plugged in. I suspected it may have been a faulty footswitch but I think I may have wired it incorrectly. What are the signals 3-2 and 3-3? I also get a buzz when touching guitar strings now.

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    1. Symptoms point to you having voltage on the input. One should really try the circuit out before boxing it up. If there's anything wrong, it's way easier to fix without having to take the outboard wiring in to account.

      Measure the input for DC voltage and figure out where the voltage comes if there is some.
      +m

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  10. The pedal seems to work except the boost section of it. The boost volume goes from zero volume to almost unity. The rest of my build seems to be good. Anyone else have this issue?

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    1. i'm having the same problem. everything works well save for the boost. anyone else built this?

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  11. Not yet. Maybe someone could build the boost circuit seperately and see how it behaves on it's own. Maybe the boost section could be replaced with another like SHO.

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  12. Nobody solve the booster issues?

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  13. Took my attempt own attempt at this. The pedal works fine (for the most part). For some reason my bandwidth switch doesn't work in the first position - max volume is unity, neither gain works, the tone knob works tho.

    Also (as per the other comments) the boost didn't work at all - went with an Off-board LPB1.

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  14. I have built this according to the layout, well almost, need to add the 1N916 clipping and the 68nF, to the bandwidth and bright switch and did not have a MPSA13 so used an MPSA14 for the boost. All seems to be woking as expected the boost goes from just above unity to screaming high volume, this could be that I am using the MPSA14. Will have the missing components next week including some MPSA13's so will let you know how that effects the boots. I see from FSB there have been a couple of correction posted to the circuit diagram, theses are for the Buffer the 1K resister should be before the bypass split and the 100nF cap. The Boost input should have a 100pF cap to earth after the 1M to earth.

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    1. Ok my missing components have now arrived, switch to using the MPS13 in the boost and works , volume for unity to screaming loud. Every thing else is woking and I would say you could tick this a verified. This is the most complex off board wiring I think I have ever seen, and took me a long time to understand some of it especially the boot switch. But if wired up as above all works for me.

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