Shaka variations ?

pedro · Post by **pedro** » 01 May 2008, 19:55

Hi,
fresh from my successful Zen clone I'm fired up to build pedals again !

some few years ago I built a Shaka V but didnt use it much as it seemed very harsh in the distortion unless I rolled the tone right off.

I'm sure it was down to me and my component choices as everyone else ( where Ive seen comments ) seemed to rate it very highly.

Has anyone got good experience of the various Shaka's, and if so which ones with what mods/ IC's / diodes etc for me to try again

I still have the Shaka 5 pcb and everything i need to build any variation I guess

Any thoughts ?
Pedro

georgeb4 · Post by **georgeb4** » 02 May 2008, 16:03

I'm about halfway into my Shaka 5 build but am waiting on some parts from Futurlec. Will keep you posted on what I find...

georgeb4 · Post by **georgeb4** » 17 May 2008, 22:53

I finally got those parts from Futurlec today and finished it up. I used all of the recommended parts: TL072, J201, IRF520, 1N34a... As you can see I have the trim pot maxed out since it says to turn the drive all the way down and adjust the trimpot "...for a fairly clean sound." What I found was that with the drive all the way down, even if you have the trim and volume pots maxed out the signal is still under unity and has less low end. Once I dialed in a bit of drive it seemed to bring the volume and low end back to where they need to be. I'll try a few of the experimentation points suggested on this and other Shaka variations, starting with increasing C6. I found the tone knob usable but touchy. I start with it all the way off and then turn it up just a bit. It seems to have a really wide sweep and gets really nasty in the upper mids if you turn it up too much.

https://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj1 ... G_0189.jpg
https://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj1 ... G_0191.jpg
https://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj1 ... G_0192.jpg
https://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj1 ... G_0193.jpg