This is the second version of of my XO pedal. The only difference is that it's in a larger and slightly deeper 1590XX enclosure to make room for the extra 4 jacks for the ins & outs for the crossover section. The jacks are normalized so that when nothing is plugged into them they automatically return to the high and low level controls. This one allows you to patch any effects pedal into the high and/or low bands. The built in distortion circuit along with its footswitch still works on the high band and is before the high out jack so that you can, for example, run it into a filter or flanger to enhance the effect.
First, I designed a Linkwitz-Riley crossover circuit with a variable crossover point from 100hz to 1khz. Next, the crossover goes into a two channel mixer with separate low and high volume controls. With the distortion switched off and both of the high and low controls set at the same level, you can rotate the frequency control from 100hz to 1Khz and the tone remains flat, as if the crossover isn't even there. If you set the high and low volumes at different levels, you can use it as a tone control for for either cutting highs or lows, or even get reggae or dub bass sounds out of it.
Before the top end goes into the mixer, it first enters a foot-switchable cmos distortion circuit with it's own level and gain controls. The distortion's character sounds very much like a tube amp breaking up .The variable crossover allows you to have a distorted top end with super clean and punchy lows.
Coming out the mixer, both channels go into a gyrator based 4 band graphic eq (using 4 center detent rotary pots) replicating an inductor based equalizer. It took quite a bit of experimentation to decide the optimum frequencies, and how wide of a slope the boost & cut should be. With the eq pots in their center detent position, it's running flat.
Finally, the circuit exits to a master volume control.
Another cool feature is that if you bypass the distortion circuit (via the right stomp switch) you can use it as a clean preamp with separate levels for your lows and highs and a 4 band equalizer to sculpt your tone, or even run it flat and use it as a clean boost.
I designed each circuit individually, and it has 5 separate PCB's in it: the crossover, the mixer, the distortion, the eq and a charge pump to create a bipolar +9 & -9 volt supply for the opamp circuits from a standard 9 volt power supply. Since it contains an internal charge pump, this pedal should ONLY be run at 9 volts, and the pedal's total current draw is 52ma.
The XO comes in a polished and etched 1590XX, with 10 machined black anodized knobs, with all top jacks, with the DC jack near the top on the right side, a true bypass and a distortion bypass switch. My pedals are completely hand-made and I make them in very limited quantities. I prep & polish the enclosures, acid etch them, etch my own PCBs, tin plate them, mount & hand solder all of the components and wire and test them before they ship, making them a truly hand-made boutique pedal. Nothing is farmed out.
Since this pedal is such a time consuming build, I originally only offered 3 of them for sale, plus now a forth one that I just added on today (3/6/20).
Please allow an approximate 2-3 week build time.
