Mod Kits DIY The Persuader Tube Drive Effects Pedal Kit

This pedal rocks! It was fairly easy to build and I had fun doing it, it took about 4 hours. The step by step instructions were very concise and easy to understand complete with several different diagrams at various stages in the build. Some soldering experience is handy because you are working in such a small space but if you pre-read the instructions some sub-assembly can be done before you put everything together inside the enclosure. As for the tube that comes with the kit, don't even bother using it, it is total garbage. I used a tube depot preferred series 7025 that I had sitting around and got amazing results, the gain is so high on the highest setting it really breaks up fast. You could experement with different 12AX7 family tubes like a 12AT7, ECC83, or 7025 as this pedal will work with all of them. Just use brand name tubes like JJ, Tungsol, Mullard, Electroharmonix etc. and you will get great tone. As advertised it has true bypass and (as long as you follow the instructions) has very little or no line noise. You definitely want to use a 9 volt power supply because this thing will kill a 9 volt battery in minutes, especially if you have the gain turned way up! The kit comes with a 9 volt jack but not a power supply. I couldn't stand the hideous purple color so I painted my box flat black before assembly to match my all Marshall rig, it looks really nice with the gold tube cover and black knobs.When I use this pedal in front of my solid state amp (Marshall MG100HDFX) it really warms it up both on the clean and overdrive channels, it almost makes it sound like an all tube head. With the gain set really high it gets a little muddy so you have to dial it back just a little to find that sweet spot (as with any pedal). It works really well with the digital effects and reverb too. I also use this in front of an all tube head (Marshall DSL15H) but only on the clean channel. When I tried it on the overdrive channel it was too much, as in too much gain, tube fuzz, etc. it broke up really fast and sounded muddy. But when used on the clean channel you can play with the gain to get a really nice overdriven sound without getting muddy too quickly. It has given me a virtual third channel on my two channel head.All in all this is a great pedal. Easy and fun to build, high quality components, great tone, versatility, and of course a really low price. I have paid twice as much for pedals that do twice as less. It is now a permanent part of my rig. I am looking forward to build another one of their pedals and maybe an amp.

This was my first attempt on building pedal. Now I'm hooked. It was such a joy putting it all together and quite a learning experience. I cannot emphasize on reading/studying the instructions thoroughly. I would rate the included instructions a 10, a 5 STAR. Very clear and easy for a novice pedal builder to understand and walk through. Very well illustrated as well. Take your time as you can easily overlook soldering connections. The main problem I encountered was a shorting problem. The two soldering terminals along each side of the tube socket were located very close to the tube base socket and volume/gain pots. Follow the instructions by running a wire between the volume and gain pots, as well as the tube socket. Once, I've addressed this problem, it was clear sailing from there.The Persuader is a very versatile tube driven pedal that can be set to a clean, warm, tube boost to a hard driven warm tube fuzz distortion. it is very sensitive to what kind of preamp tube you use. I found using a Russian 12AX7A gave it a warm smooth creamy tube distortion, similar to a 1960s Marshall bluesbreaker combo. Crank the volume and gain to maximum and you have a Marshall Plexi kinda drive tone. Great pedal indeed, and the best part of it all I built it it!!! No PC board used, just point to point connections like to use to be built during 60s.

Let me state this is a nice effect for the price and would have given it 5 stars if some of the components were a bit more upscaled. Had to replace the switch down the road it effected tone and did not work smoothly. The gain pot is scratchy when adjusting (alpha pots are cheap and my least favorite) and I'll most likely replace it. If you are new to soldering and building kits try one of their cheaper (and easier) ones first the components are very close together in this. Instructions are easy to follow and for the price it's fun to build and fun to play with swaping out tubes for variations. Don't expect the quality of a $300 120V tube driven effects preamp and you'll enjoy it.

This kit was fun to assemble. The original is a very nice pedal with many interesting tones but I wanted something a bit more versatile. I have several passive electronic components laying around so I simply turned this model into the deluxe version.

Building wanst very hard if you know how to solder. My problem is that you cant hear the pedal unless you turn the volume all the way up. Id like to put it on my pedal board but this keeps me from doing that.

I loved building this pedal. The directions are very clear and assembly was smooth. I geeked out a bit and was very clean with all the wires - took more time but the finished assembly looked fantastic (too bad you can't see it).Sound quality was excellent (though opinions on this are very subjective - guitar folks are very particular). I've since changed to a different amp and I don't really need the pedal any longer but I've kept it for future use.Great project!

It was missing two capacitors so I had to buy them locally to do it quickly so annoyed but the rest of the kit was good

The pedal is fun to build and sounds great, but the design (terminals instead of a circuit board) is confusing and messy. I recommend reading through the instructions before starting the build and being careful to note which leads go where before soldering anything.