Newbie question on upgrades for Crack

[Rossputin]

Hello all,

I'm new to DIY other than making my own power cables...just ordered Crack/Speedball.

I'm reading about pot upgrades and am wondering what the rating should be for a replacement pot. One posting here suggested 100k ohms, but any specific guidance would be much appreciated.

More generally, what would you experts recommend as the most beneficial upgrades to the Crack?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Ross in Colorado

[Paul Birkeland]

Welcome Ross,

We always recommend building the kit stock first, just so you know that everything is working properly and you can get a baseline idea of how the stock kit sounds.  As far as the pot goes, the general gripe with the stock part is that low level channel balance isn't always adequate.  For this situation, four resistors can be added to the pot to pad it down and remove the channel balance issue.

-PB

[Rossputin]

Thanks, Paul. I'll do as suggested. And where would I look for details on what resistors to use and where to install them for that pot mod?
Thanks again!

[Paul Birkeland]

See #3 in the Crack FAQ.  I wouldn't do this mod until the amp was up and running properly.

-PB

[Rossputin]

Thanks again, Paul.

At this point the only modification I really want to do on first build is to replace the 1/4" headphone jack with 1/8" (so I don't need an adapter with the Sennheisers I'm getting.) I see panel mount jacks and folks talking about drilling a bigger hole for them. I'm wondering how likely I am to be able to drill a bigger hole without just mangling metal. Any thoughts? I do like the look a little better than the "stock" look.

Ross

[Paul Birkeland]

The factory jack has a shorting feature that sure nice to keep. All the 1/8" jacks that I've used mount in a much smaller hole than the one we provide.

[Rossputin]

OK, sorry for the stupid question, then, but what does the "shorting feature" do?

[Paul Birkeland]

The shorting feature eliminates the turn on transient through the Crack. This is more of a convenience than a feature, but there are 1/8" jacks that have the same feature built into them.

[Rossputin]

Any chance you can send me model number of jack that comes with the unit? (I just ordered mine yesterday so I don't have it yet.)

Would that be what's called a "switched" jack?

[Rossputin]

One other quick question and then i'll leave you alone for a while, Paul:

I'm thinking of building my own power cord. Can you give me a rough idea of the amp capacity it should have for the crack w/speedball?

Thanks for taking the time to respond to the new guy!

[Paul Birkeland]

Any chance you can send me model number of jack that comes with the unit? (I just ordered mine yesterday so I don't have it yet.)

Would that be what's called a "switched" jack?

Yes, the jack is referred to as a switching jack.  We wire up the switching functionality to make it a shorting jack.

I'm thinking of building my own power cord. Can you give me a rough idea of the amp capacity it should have for the crack w/speedball?

1A is more than sufficient, but I would recommend building it a bit beefier in case you end up using the cord with something else.