Sometimes the most elegant solution is the simplest

[doubleg]

This post really doesn't pose any specific questions, it's more of a minor epiphany I had after having a few pedal builds under my belt. As the thread title suggests, simplicity of design seems to be the best way to go. (Considering I'm a CAD designer by day, you'd think i would instinctively know this as it applies to the pedal building hobby i have undertaken.)

One case in point- I built the Clean Octave Boost by Prescription Electronics a few months back. The fact that the parts count was moderately high, 20 resistors or so, 10 caps, 4 transistors, couple of diodes, plus the pots and inputs and whatnot, it was/is my most challenging build to date. That being said, I had a hard time debugging it, took me a few nites after the initial wiring up of said pedal to finally trace my problems to one or two bad solder joints on the board. Since that time i had used it for some gigs, but was finding that it was a bit finicky sometimes, for some reason  the octave circuit wouldnt always engage when i hit the switch.  But i lived with it.  The final straw for me was i decided to mod it by adding the 3pdt with led indication, i also added a 220 uf filter cap to reduce power supply noise. After adding all that the pedal was getting really wonky; it was less reliable. my first though was my mods i added. I spent a few more nites going over everything, finally got to the point where i pulled the board and realized something wasnt right with it. Long story short, I decided to start from scratch.

This weekend i breadboarded and built the Bobtavia. Other than sourcing the Transformer (most of the Rad Shacks around here do not carry it, had to drive out of my way home to procure one), the build and design is much simpler. 1 IC, the transformer, 2 or 3 resistors, a couple of caps, and some diodes. But the performance is what counts, and hands down I am much happier with the Bobtavia. It is a lot more dynamic sensitive, i can get some great sounds out of it that i wasn't able to achieve with the COB. With the lower parts count, it was easier to debug and make sure all my solder joints were tight and clean.

Anyways, that was my Aha! moment and thought i'd share it with you all.