Back in the mists of time the impetus that drove me to learn how to solder was failing guitar cables! It remains probably one of my most valued skills that’s led to all manner of project builds and adventures and saved me guitar cable money! With my basic cable soldering I soon moved to other DIY projects involving music, including a few FX pedal builds. While the through-hole soldering was straightforward, it wasn’t always easy to create a well-packaged and robust enclosure for my DIY stomp boxes. This Stomp Wizard Cosmic ECHO kit solves this problem with a great echo effects pedal circuit that’s supplied with a gorgeous enclosure.
The Cosmic ECHO circuit is based around the PT2399 IC which has been in the DIY effects scene for many years. It’s a great chip that digitally samples the input signal and creates a LoFi echo with the sample rate degrading over the length of the echo timings. It leads to some surprisingly warm and lustrous sounds and people often think it sounds very analogue.
There are 3 potentiometers for adjusting the Feedback, Rate and Mix parameters and there are also a couple of push buttons that enable the “Zone” and “Warp” functions for further sonic experimentation. The case is a rock solid aluminium 125B case which is pre-drilled and painted which really reduces the barriers in terms of getting a great looking and robust pedal built.
Finally, Cosmic ECHO can be powered by a 9V PP3 style battery or a tip-negative 2.1mm barrel jack 9V supply. This means it’s compatible with other pedal power supplies and can sit on your pedal board rig with other sonic exploration tools!
