Has anyone built the "Eighteen" from Runoffgroove?

[SDRed]

if so,
are you pleased with it?  I'm looking for my next project and I liked the sound samples on their website.  Thanks!

[MartyMart]

Yes, very pleased with it
As usual, selection of the fets is important and you may need to try a few sets !
MM

[tcobretti]

If you search the archive you will find some reviews.  It is possibly my favorite of their builds, although I love the English Channel and Supreaux as well.

[antojado]

Yes, very pleased with it
As usual, selection of the fets is important and you may need to try a few sets !
MM

It does? I guess I should take a better look at this myself. I built it and have really enjoyed it, especially in front of a TS, but I didn't try different sets of jfets. I just plugged in two J201's and dialed them in. It seems to work fine, but maybe it sounds better if the jfets are matched better?

[MartyMart]

I didn't mean a mached "set" , all jfets vary a LOT so another pair will dial in with different settings and
can sound quite different too - that's the "eternal pain" with fets .... getting a repeatable setup is almost impossible !!
Dont always aim for the "4.5v at drain" rule either, just let your ears find what you like the best, could be 5.5v or 4.0v ....
MM

[bipedal]

I've also been looking at an Eighteen as my next build -- in part because of the Angus connection, but also because I suspect an Eighteen *might* get me close to some of Ian Mackaye's tones on the last couple of Fugazi albums (another SG --> Marshall guy).  The sound of that opening riff on "Cashout" (from The Argument) is a good reference.

Seems to be varying comments out there as to the sound and whether output level can exceed unity by much.  Would like to hear more on this.

I was toying with the idea of building an AMZ MOSFET or a Peppermill booster in with the Eighteen -- all in a single box, booster ahead of the Eighteen circuit to "goose" it, maybe use separate stomps so I can run the circuits independently or together...  Could this be done using only one (shared) 9v battery?

- Jay

[foxfire]

yup, you can run them both on a single battery.

[MikeH]

I've also been looking at an Eighteen as my next build -- in part because of the Angus connection, but also because I suspect an Eighteen *might* get me close to some of Ian Mackaye's tones on the last couple of Fugazi albums (another SG --> Marshall guy).  The sound of that opening riff on "Cashout" (from The Argument) is a good reference.

Seems to be varying comments out there as to the sound and whether output level can exceed unity by much.  Would like to hear more on this.

I was toying with the idea of building an AMZ MOSFET or a Peppermill booster in with the Eighteen -- all in a single box, booster ahead of the Eighteen circuit to "goose" it, maybe use separate stomps so I can run the circuits independently or together...  Could this be done using only one (shared) 9v battery?

- Jay

Anytime anyone asks about building a booster and dist in one box (Or any 2 fx for that matter) my recomendation is to lookup the "Juggler" at geofex.  With a 3pdt toggle (4pdt if you want LED's, but if never found tham necessary when using a toggle switch) you can switch the order of 2 effects, and it changes the characteristics of them completely.  For the price of 1 switch you can get 100% more tonal possibilities.

[tcobretti]

If you put the booster in front of the eighteen, it will mostly just get more distorted.

If you just want a different volume/gain level, you can use a 3pdt to switch between two pots set at different settings.  For example, two gain pots, one set at 5, one set at 10, and you switch back and forth for varying levels of gain.  You could do the same thing with two volume pots.

My eighteen doesn't have a switch (I use it as I preamp when I mess around with it) so I can't comment about how loud it is.

[SDRed]

Thanks for the responses everyone.  My next question, since I'm new to all of this, is is possible to put the eighteen or say the professor tweed in a circuit with a Ruby to have a really cool mini amp?  I've searched the archives for this question and it seems to be answered in a lot of different ways that I don't quite understand yet.  Thanks a lot for whatever help you can give me.

[petemoore]

  Yea, I couldn't get enough diddling out of the way on the 18 and supreaux to really use them.
  They both worked usably to great when in various positions in the chain [particularly alone, with booster pre, with distortion after.
  Jfet stompbox distortion technologies recently exploded..what seems like a short while back, I believe the reason is that they can be made to embody a character many guitar playing humans find quite pleasing.