Earthquaker Plumes Teardown! See what's inside!

[@rutger4131]

Pro tip: heat the solder pad and stick a tooth pick through it. Will open them up, no desoldering gun required. Solder doesn't stick to wood.

[@dustystarr2297]

I'm loving your vids! Would have been cool to hear the before and after.

[@markferguson3745]

I've found that LED's are sometimes an acceptable option; what I do generally avoid or replace are the Silicon stages.My first experience with this was way back with the Swollen Pickle, which offered an internal trimpot to choose between LED and Si.Pretty cool circuit, with an arguably nsg sound ( better for bass).

[@rutger4131]

The W taper has an S shape (confusing, I know). Pot value changes slowly at the ~10% beginning and end and quickly / linearly in the middle of the pots turn. It smoothes out the tone circuit, which isn't linear (at least not to our hearing).

[@10100rsn]

Desoldering braid works a lot better with a bit of flux and high heat. You can even clear those holes without a desoldering gun with flux and enough heat.

[@BM-qc9rl]

Excellent series, thanks for putting these together

[@alfredoayala5370]

when a pedal has no surface mount components it is very satisfying to watch

[@james9789]

Very interesting,so glad theres people who understand all this cos I dont have a scooby doo.

[@jesseyasaitis9036]

I'm curious to see how a Horizon Devices Precision Drive is put together.

[@johnnyphoney5669]

Hi, thanks for the video! I would really like to see a teardown of Electro Harmonix “Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi”!

[@marksmalheer9626]

Just disassembled my Plumes yesterday to install a .047 uf capacitor across the volume pot to reduce the brightness, and to my surprise everything is now super tiny surface mounted components. They were so small I could not find the clipping diodes or LED’s. I can only assume this was done to save production costs. The capacitor worked out great. I just wish the other components were able to be tweaked. Bummer 😩

[@ComeInAlone00000]

very cool...was looking for this type of video specifically. subbed!

[@skyviewdesign]

Not silkscreen graphics. That's UV printed in-house at EarthQuaker in Akron. Much more durable than silkscreen.

[@graybenchelec]

Good info thanks!

[@Brodenkirk]

Hey, this was a great video. Could you explain how to add a channel switching 1/4” output to this pedal like the fortin 33 has?

[@LollygaggerFX]

Next time add a lil bit of solder to the via’s and tap out the solder. Works like a charm …. Then use the braid to clean up the holes.

[@graybenchelec]

Good tip thanks!

[@DougMayer]

Had it in my head that Plumes was when they moved to SMD, I stand corrected.

[@graybenchelec]

Oh it has, this pedal was from 2019. It's now SMD.

[@pfg_pedals]

At some point they switched to SMD construction by the time I got one in October of 2023.

[@MatzeMaulwurf]

Makes sense. I am electronics engineer and SMD is so much better in every way. There is no reason not to use it if the components are available as SMD.

[@brettclark8020]

​@@MatzeMaulwurf Yep, SMT works as well or better than TH, except where people cheap out and use high-k MLCC caps instead of film.

[@MatzeMaulwurf]

@@brettclark8020 indeed. Component specs have to fit the application. Good PP-Caps are mostly TH.

[@onewireman]

Try some 9V zener diodes as clippers/ The sound amazing!

[@craighillrich5438]

Replace the momentary switch with a latching to get rid of the goofy flex switch function

[@waynegram8907]

GRAY BENCH, Adding in the Voltage Inverter TC1044 will give more Op amp Headroom using the Op amps at +9vdc and at -9vdc compared to an Ibanez Tube Screamer they use the Op amp at +9vdc and Ground 0 volts for the headroom?

[@vcsuwar6126]

Great segment. I've got a basic question; why would a builder use a TRS input when guitar cables are mostly TS. Wouldn't that add to the cost? Wouldn't they have to jumper the Sleeve and Ring so their customers don't require special TRS cables to make a connection. (told you it was basic, ha)

[@jesseyasaitis9036]

Did the LED's have any attenuation with them to make them the same volume as the other diodes?

[@ajmaxx1793]

What’s the deal with most of these pedal manufacturers always using the red color Panasonic film capacitors? They don’t seem to be in production anymore and no longer available of Mouser, Digikey etc. Is there something about this red Panasonic film capacitors?

[@Mr.Owl9]

Do you have Vid that show your choice of tools? what de soldering gun was that?

[@graybenchelec]

I don’t but it’s on the todo list. The desoldering gun is a hakko fr-301

[@graybenchelec]

@@BlakeC27 for sure. Only time I’d use a desoldering pump is for a really tight area, or for terminal strips/non PCB solder cleaning.

[@fraenkiboii]

How could you not answer the most important question about the mod: how does it sound with the hitachi diodes??? It’s like your favorite show, season finale and it ends with a massive cliffhanger 🙈😂

[@graybenchelec]

Haha maybe you’ll just have to buy a plumes and try it yourself! I did sound test it off camera, I don’t really understand putting Ge diodes in the plumes. The point of the plumes is like a high headroom TS, but you’re going to squash that all down with ge diodes. Just my opinion.