Red Llama build report

[Hanglow]

Well I built the red llama after reading a number of recommendations on here. I did it on stripboard and used almost all recycled parts from a variety of sources - old car stereo, a vcr,  and a broken tuner. The only thing I used new were the electro caps, the chip and the enclosure. Previously to this, I had just left the enclosures as bare aluminium, this time I thought I'd paint it with some car paint I found in some crusty old cans in the garage. I just decided to use  a brush to paint on to make it a bit ruff looking. The colour was a deep dark blue. I got impatient with the drying after a day and put it on the air vent from my boiler outside to try and speed it up, which it did, unfortunately it bubbled, so it really looks terrible you live and learn eh?

moving swiftly on to the important bit....

To the sound - everyone else's descriptions are entirely accurate. It's certainly a bit different to the other od's/distortions/fuzzes I have built and will certainly have a place on my pedal board. I like it best with the gain lowest, so there's that smooth overdrive present, or full up with the fuzz coming through. There is quite a good volume boost from it as well.

I only have one problem, although it's not to do with the red llama, I used my first millenium bypass for this project and the LED is always on, although the pedal works fine. Can't see what I did wrong at all, could a fried transistor be the cause?

I certainly recommend this project to anyone.

Also, I saw an original go on ebay yesterday, it went for $441. I can understand why they are sought after

[Eated Monkey]

hah first post

i had the same problem i found adding a 2.2k resistor in parallel with the LED fixed this hope this helps

[Hanglow]

cheers 

I'll try that out, although none of the MB layouts have this do they?

[markm]

To the sound - everyone else's descriptions are entirely accurate. It's certainly a bit different to the other od's/distortions/fuzzes I have built and will certainly have a place on my pedal board. I like it best with the gain lowest, so there's that smooth overdrive present, or full up with the fuzz coming through. There is quite a good volume boost from it as well.

I agree!
The Llama makes an excellent lo-gainer for slight break-up. 

[oldrocker]

It's a great sound pedal.  I use it all the time.  It makes my SS setup sound more tubey.