Thanks.
I do have a Felix so you're not missing anything. I basically made this because I love building effect pedals. Over the years I've made tube amplifiers, boost pedals, fuzz, mind bending super synth distortion, octaves, delays, compressors, MIDI... but I really don't use effects that much so I give them away to my friends. They're fun to make and I like figuring out how they work.
I didn't need to build out this phase/preamp pedal, but I wanted to see if I could. I really love taking an idea from drawing out the schematic to the final step of using it on a gig. The more I messed with this one, the more I liked it. It's tiny, battery powered, and almost fits in my pocket. The Felix is an amazing tool, but it's mounted in my gig box with everything else. With my trio, that gig box is an essential tool because I'm almost always doubling with that setup and it has everything I need in a box on wheels. When I think of "my sound" I think of that box and the Felix is the backbone of that box.
However, sometimes we're doing small, intimate corporate wallpaper type gigs where we should be heard and not seen... and one might even argue the "hear" bit. Those gigs always seem to involve terrible parking, a long walk, possibly small elevators, and a tiny footprint for the trio to set up. In this instance the double bass, my tiny MAS16 powered cab, and a super tiny preamp that sounds good are right on the money. Everything goes in a single trip without breaking my spine.
The goal (in my weird convoluted brain) was to create something tiny that could closely approximate the double side of my gig box. Something infinitely portable, but useful. Oddly enough, the biggest step in this journey was the purchase of the Yamahiko. It really opened my mind up to just how good of a setup I could create with just a little effort on my part. Version two of the phase box will include a third channel that will accept a microphone.
Weird post script... the Felix was the thing that actually pushed me in this direction. When I use the Yamahiko as a dual pickup, I lose my XLR channel. So I wanted to see if I could build something that let me split the Yamahiko, adjust phase, and have a microphone as well, all while keeping it in a tiny box. Consider it an academic challenge with a potential real world (yet likely unnecessary) application.
Even weirder post post script... when my turn comes around for the Red Eye testing, I'll probably build out one of the boards as just a phase/summing mixer and no preamp or tone stack just to see how it interacts with that Red Eye. That's the one that really intrigues me. A Yamahiko, with the ability to split the pickups, flip the phase, and run it into some weird preamp that everyone is in love with right now? Interesting...
)
) just mic OR Yamahiko
