The Aerolith Analog Flanger is an adaptation of the BOSS BF-2 Flanger, one of the most popular flanger effects ever made. It has been used by a wide spectrum of different musicians, from Johnny Marr and Robert Smith all the way to Prince. It has also been used by Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor of TOOL and Stephen Carpenter of Deftones.
Originally released in 1980, the BF-2 was a compact upgrade to the BF-1 from 1977, which was one of the very first pedals that Roland produced under the BOSS brand name. Internally, the BF-1 used the SAD1024 with a CMOS clock, similar to the EHX Electric Mistress, while the BF-2 uses the MN3207/MN3102 pair. The circuits are otherwise very similar with the same four controls on the outside.
The BF-2 was in production from 1980 up until 2001 when it was replaced by the digital BF-3.
The Aerolith is a direct clone of the BF-2 circuit, converted to true bypass. Due to the size of the circuit, this project utilizes a stacked PCB layout in order to fit in a 125B enclosure. See build documentation for instructions and diagrams for the PCB assembly process.