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GAINLEVELTONE

125B · 3 knobs

PCB Guitar Mania

Bionic Pandora

Based on the Bixonic Expandora· 4 other boards clone it

Category
Distortion· Unique Overdrive / Distortion
Controls
Gain · Level · Tone
Difficulty
Intermediate
Price
€11.90out of stock

Heads up Builders widely report inconsistent quality from PCB Guitar Mania boards, and whether a given board works is a gamble. Read recent forum reports before ordering.

From the vendor

Project overview:

Inspired by the classic Bixonic Expandora, a distortion/fuzz pedal beloved by many guitarists and bands such as Billy Gibbons, Joe Satriani, Megadeth, and Bootsy Collins.

Bionic Pandora sets free a unique but totally useful character of overdrive, crunch, and distortion. The only downside is that we cannot guarantee that this thing won’t become self-aware.

Introduction

A few months ago, I purchased one of the earliest versions of the Bixonic Expandora. They say that some boxes are not meant to be opened, but I couldn’t resist my curiosity and had to take a peek inside that tuna-can-like enclosure. By doing that, I may have released serious sustaining, saturated tones destined to send humankind into sonic oblivion!

Our board is inspired by one of the earliest versions of the Bixonic Expandora, the Expandora II. The original pedal was loved but had its drawbacks, such as having its DIP switches inside. It was also a little thin-sounding.

Our Bionic Pandora, on the contrary, has more tone control and better low-end response due to the change from two internal dip switches for external toggles, making it way easier to dial your favorite settings. It also has an increased low-frequency response that gives the unit added power and depth.

These new features provide the sustaining, saturated tones of the original Expandora without sacrificing the sonic transparency and dynamic responsiveness that made the EXP-2000 famous.

Controls

Potentiometers

• Gain

• Level

• Tone

Switches

• SW1

• SW2

For further analysis on this circuit, take a look at this thread on Free Stomp Boxes and Diystompboxes forums.

For any technical questions regarding this build, don’t forget to check out our Facebook Group and our forum at Free Stomp Boxes.

Bionic Pandora 1v0 – Building Docs

Bionic Pandora – Drilling template

Schematic

The schematic is in the vendor's build document, page 5. Open the build document. No KiCad fragment has been drawn for this circuit yet.

Parts list 52 rows

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RefValueNormalizedTypeNotes
Resistors 23
R12m20.0022
R2100k100k
R3100k100k
R451k51k
R5820k820k
R64k74.7k
R747k47k
R847r47
R94k74.7k
R102m20.0022
R112m20.0022
R1243k43k
R1347r47
R14560r560
R15560r560
R161k11.1k
R171k11.1k
R181k51.5k
R191m1M
R201k11.1k
R214k74.7k
R2210k10k
R2310k10k
Capacitors 16
C233p33p
C3100n100n
C41u1u
C522n22n
C61n1n
C733p33p
C11100n100n
C123n33.3n
C131u1u
C16100p100p
C82u22.2u
C94u74.7u
C104u74.7u
C14100u100u
C15100u100u
C1100n100n
Diodes 4
D01n58171N5817
D11n41481N4148
D31n41481N4148
D41n41481N4148
Transistors 1
Q12N39062N3906
ICs 3
IC2LM308NLM308N
IC3jrc4558JRC4558
IC1LM308NLM308N
Potentiometers 3
GAIN1MBB1MPotentiometer
LEVEL1MBB1MPotentiometer
TONE100KCC100kPotentiometer
Switches 2
SW1SPDTSPDT
SW2SPDTSPDT

Other boards based on the Bixonic Expandora