Build Your Own Clone

BYOC's Crown Jewel Multidrive has been reviewed in the press, and BYOC belongs to the wider world of pedal kits, where the same circuits it cloned are also sold as kits by other makers²¹.

The Crown Jewel Multidrive

The Crown Jewel Multidrive is BYOC's multi-mode drive kit, and the one BYOC product with a substantial published review. Writing on Guitar Pedal X in July 2019, Stefan Karlsson described it as²⁴³:

That range is the kit's selling point: rather than choosing one flavor of gain, the builder gets a pedal that covers boost, overdrive, distortion and fuzz in one box. Karlsson's own unit also carried an additional Dry Blend circuit and an LPB Boost Module, mixing untouched clean signal back in alongside the drive³.

The review's context matters for anyone shopping for one today: as of July 2019, Karlsson noted that "there don't seem to be any fully assembled models available anywhere, although there are several Kits still" listed³.

How pedal kits work

A pedal kit typically contains a printed circuit board, the components that mount on it, and build documentation; the buyer supplies the soldering. Kit sellers in this space describe the work plainly. Jed's Peds, a UK kit maker, tells its customers: "You will have to identify components, calculate resistor codes and be able to solder them into place"⁵. In other words, a kit is not a snap-together project; it asks for component identification, reading resistor codes, and soldering.

Most kit sellers soften that in two ways:

• Pre-built options. Several makers, including Jed's Peds, offer to build the kit for you, with a 1 to 4 week build time⁶⁷⁸.
• Drilled enclosures. Some kits come with the enclosure already drilled, so the builder skips the metalwork; Jed's Peds offers this as a "Full Kit & Drilling" option on its Super Klone⁷.
• Free documentation. General Guitar Gadgets makes the schematic and wiring diagram for its Klon Centaur replica kit available "whether you buy the kit or not"⁹.

Difficulty varies by kit. Jed's Peds calls its Super Klone "one of the harder kits we sell, that is based wholly on a high parts count rather than requiring any spec[ialist skill]"⁷, which suggests that a high component count, not exotic technique, is what separates harder kits from easier ones.

BYOC's place in the clone-kit scene

BYOC's name says what the wider scene does: much of the DIY pedal market is built around reproducing famous circuits. The Klon Centaur is the clearest example. General Guitar Gadgets sells a Klon Centaur replica kit⁹; GuitarPCB's MKC v4 lets you "build a stock Klon style circuit"¹⁰, and its build document explains the original's signature trick, a "dual gang" Gain potentiometer, essentially two potentiometers with one controlling the "Dirt" side and the other controlling the "Clean" side simultaneously⁹¹⁰¹¹. Jed's Peds' Biklonik kit "compares to the Klon and Keeley's Oxblood"⁵. BYOC sits in this same tradition of putting celebrated circuits into kit form.

The other circuit that runs through the kit world is the Ampeg Scrambler, a vintage octave fuzz. Fredric Effects' Scrambled Brainz is "a clone of the rare and desirable Ampeg Scrambler"¹²; MAS Effects' Wendigo Scrambler is "an octave fuzz based on the Ampeg Scrambler, but with an added Volume circuit"¹²¹³¹⁴; and General Guitar Gadgets sells the Scrabbler, a Fuzz/Octave kit built from the old Ampeg stompbox's circuit¹⁴. For a player who wants that octave and pitch fuzz sound in kit form, several makers besides BYOC offer a route.

Support and build help

Kit building goes wrong in ways finished pedals do not, so support matters. Across the kit scene, makers handle this with dedicated forums: GuitarPCB, for example, directs builders to "our dedicated Support Forum" for specific build support¹⁵. BYOC has long been associated with its own builder forum in the same way.

Questions