leadbreath said:
If you find those names please post.
BTW,I built the tea philter and it sounds cool. Cheap, easy build and sounds good. More to come.
DIY Guitar Pedals
- Thread starter dandeurloo
- Start date
Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
If you find those names please post.
BTW,I built the tea philter and it sounds cool. Cheap, easy build and sounds good. More to come.
buildafriend
Well-known member
ive built a few fuzz/overdrive pedals. the only kinds i regret not building thus far are the tube screamer and a nice tube based one. my favorite by far is the color sound 3 knob germanium vox tone bender. sh*t just has the best sound. it's jimmy pages pedal designed by rojer mayor. the fuzz face was hendrix's that was designed by rojer mayor as well.
vox tone bender
ampeg scrambler
fuzz face
green russian big muff
zvex woolley mammoth ( bass fuzz, "synthy" sounding)
vox tone bender
ampeg scrambler
fuzz face
green russian big muff
zvex woolley mammoth ( bass fuzz, "synthy" sounding)
peterc
Well-known member
For a really saturated distortion sound, I built the Sweet 16 (also called the Shaka Braddah IIRC)
Excellent sound for that type of thing.
Excellent sound for that type of thing.
kato
Well-known member
dandeurloo said:
I think he means brutal sounding, why I recommended a softer fuzz. It's fairly low parts count. But like all pedals, stuffing the board is not really the hard part. At least for me, the enclosure and pot wiring can be tedious. And the Mammoth has 4 pots.
I built two Wooly Mammoths - one for a friend - and I noted it has 17 on-board components. And 19 off-board wires.
kato
Well-known member
LesPaul said:
I've never actually tried the Llama on bass. For sure the Llama has way more distortion at the top end of the knob. Maybe at lower distortion settings it might effectively emulate the anderton bass fuzz. I could do a side-by-side if you're interested to see if it lets through enough low end. The bass fuzz is not very versatile in terms of a wide-range of sounds, but it gives one good bass fuzz you could use in a recording, that "toughens up" the bass without detracting from the guitars.
The Llama variant I built was the "tube sound fuzz" layout from Tonepad. Despite the name, mine came out very transistor-y sounding. It reminded me of the distortion built into those Crate 10-watt practice amps - but without the full-spectrum hiss, which in itself was a novel thing. But in fairness, I never boxed it. And I don't trust impressions, not even my own, until the pedal's been run through it's paces at all settings on multiple occasions. I've found most pedals don't really shine until you find the sweet spot that works with your instrument and bass, on the right type of song. It's one of many projects in my "half-finshed" box.
Kingston
Well-known member
It should be mentioned to a beginner stomp builder the circuits found on the net tend to be bad quality, bordering on godawful. There will be wrong transistor connections, bad parts replacements, reversed caps, plain wrong values and far too much missing info.
It's much worse than here where you can just stick on the oscilloscope or RMAA and verify where distortion comes from. In the stomp world there will be circuits that barely pass signal and have non-functioning sections and still you get people swearing it's the best "mojo gadget" in the world and "of course it works like that hendrix thing". Even in one of the kit and pcb selling stores! I wanted some easy knitting work and found all this the hard way.
The very low requirements for picking up a guitar and playing is reflected in this corner of electronics.
It's much worse than here where you can just stick on the oscilloscope or RMAA and verify where distortion comes from. In the stomp world there will be circuits that barely pass signal and have non-functioning sections and still you get people swearing it's the best "mojo gadget" in the world and "of course it works like that hendrix thing". Even in one of the kit and pcb selling stores! I wanted some easy knitting work and found all this the hard way.
The very low requirements for picking up a guitar and playing is reflected in this corner of electronics.
kato
Well-known member
Kingston said:
I echo Kingston's statement. That has largely been the case.
Thankfully, Madbean is a welcome exception to the rule. Though I once found an error in a Madbean layout (the latest version of the FatPants.) Brian fixed it right away. He's very diligent.
Even tonepad.com, the previous gold-standard IMO, has errors that are only revealed in the build reports. Be sure to click "View Build Reports" before you start building a tonepad project. You'll find wrong pot values and schematic errors that never get reflected in the project PDF. This has never bothered me though because we've come such a long way in project info sharing. Every project involves taking a risk that it won't work, or that some crucial information is missing. It's just the nature of DIY-ing from internet sources.
feel free to skip over this giant rant I unexpectedly went on
In many cases, a "clone" has been modified by so many revisionists it becomes "loosely based on" rather than an accurate clone. It starts out well-meaning: "I increased the input cap to give more bass..." and ultimately devolves into wholesale changes based on what an interpreter *thinks* it should look like without even listening to the first reverse-engineered drawing. For example, the Suhr Riot was traced at freestompboxes.org from an original unit. It was shared privately with Madbean who apparently modified the drawing without even listening to the original. The original trace was not made available to the freestompboxes community so we could just build it stock and have it sound good like the original.
This stuff drives me nuts. Mainly because the Riot is already perfect in its unmodded form. I quote:
madbean said:
Well fook your versatility; if it ain't broke, don't break it.
This annoyed me because right before this he says:
The main thing I noticed is that the Riot has more presence and the Uproar is a bit more woofy. Really? Do you think that woofy-ness has anything to do with what seemed more appropriate? It makes total sense to take a great-sounding pedal, modify the input to resemble Boss Metal Zone, then mod it later down the line to more closely match up to the original. Also, change the clipping diodes before trying the originals. Everyone who has compared their Uproar to a Riot admits they do not sound the same. Eventually it led people to extensively mod the madbean mod...
I'm not sure why I'm whining. It did force me to capacitor swap and redesign until I was happy with it, and that was a good learning experience. Really I'm grateful to have been able to build one at all.
So it sounds like the DIY pedal world needs a forum like this one that has guys with skills musically and technically. That is why this forum is great. Maybe we do need a section for legit and great sounding DIY pedals, clones and new ideas.
Anyway, I have a KLON clone from Buildyourowntone.com I need to do, the Karate Shop and a kit from Mammoth to build. That is one I found on ToneFiend.com. I will let you know how those turn out and if they are worth the effort or not.
Anyway, I have a KLON clone from Buildyourowntone.com I need to do, the Karate Shop and a kit from Mammoth to build. That is one I found on ToneFiend.com. I will let you know how those turn out and if they are worth the effort or not.
kato
Well-known member
dandeurloo said:
Since you've already done the Tea Philter, I'm not sure the Karate Shop is different enough to bother with.
dandeurloo said:
There is a forum Diystompboxes. There are a few of us that understand and help people.
You should check out some of my schematics and sims you can find there in the threads,schematic section and the gallery.
Check The beginner project(NPN boost) at Diystomp I designed that it is a little different type boost. Being labeled the beginner project I think people overlook it. The NPN boost VER 2 is funadjustment to the circuit
IMO There is ? information at the effect forums just like at this forum.
kato
Well-known member
Yeah, diystompboxes.com and freestompboxes.org are a fount of many good projects.
But they're swarming with idiot guitarists so they can never have the signal-to-noise ratio we have here.
But they're swarming with idiot guitarists so they can never have the signal-to-noise ratio we have here.
kato
Well-known member
kato said:
Then again, you've probably seen the videos of Zappa Jr. using not one, but 2 Harmonic Energizers in series to make it double plus good. So the Tea Philter + Karate Shop might come in handy if you want to emulate that effect. My only reservation is that boosting a notch with the Karate Shop also boosts the hiss quite a bit.
This got me thinking... both pedals are described as a "stuck wah" effect. Would it sound better to just build a wah in a regular stomp enclosure? Maybe Madbean's "Weiner Wah" for example. I might just give that a try...
deuce42
Well-known member
kato said:
Well f%ck me! I spent far too much time on that project, and for the life of me couldn't work out why such a simple circuit was not working despite every feasible test and measurement/check I could think of. In frustration I simply chucked the project in the bottom of my reject box. I only bought that badbean pcb because I figured tagboarding it from an Echoplex schematic was too time consuming and I just wanted a quick slap together little pedal to try the circuit and figure if I liked the sound.
Wonder what the error was, perhaps I should revisit it....
deuce42
Well-known member
Oh wait - input and output reversed? Perhaps a simple schoolboy error I overlooked before
kato
Well-known member
The input and output was indeed reversed on the latest revision for a brief period of time.
I grabbed the PDF right when he released the 2012 version with the body switch. Etched a board, built the thing. I thought I would be awesome if I built the first one with a body switch so I built in a fury without looking back.
Here's the weird thing. It worked in spaghetti prototype form on my tabletop.
The only possible explanation is that during testing, I mistook the input and output jacks - so of course, it worked and sounded great.
Then I boxed it up and got silence. Bypass worked fine, so I assumed it was a new short that appeared while boxing it. I built a test probe. Following the traces, it became evident what the problem was. But I had already dicked with it for days. Because it had already "worked" I never suspected the in and out were mislabeled on the PDF. It's not so simple to solve when you assume that basic piece of info is correct.
The good news is: your Fat Pants probably works once you dig it out of the reject pile! Just need to plug your guitar in the *other* jack.
I suspect you'll like it. In addition to the volume boost, it's also has a nice presence boost. Brings out a lot of pick attack.
At first it doesn't seem to do much but you miss it when it's turned off.
I grabbed the PDF right when he released the 2012 version with the body switch. Etched a board, built the thing. I thought I would be awesome if I built the first one with a body switch so I built in a fury without looking back.
Here's the weird thing. It worked in spaghetti prototype form on my tabletop.
The only possible explanation is that during testing, I mistook the input and output jacks - so of course, it worked and sounded great.
Then I boxed it up and got silence. Bypass worked fine, so I assumed it was a new short that appeared while boxing it. I built a test probe. Following the traces, it became evident what the problem was. But I had already dicked with it for days. Because it had already "worked" I never suspected the in and out were mislabeled on the PDF. It's not so simple to solve when you assume that basic piece of info is correct.
The good news is: your Fat Pants probably works once you dig it out of the reject pile! Just need to plug your guitar in the *other* jack.
I suspect you'll like it. In addition to the volume boost, it's also has a nice presence boost. Brings out a lot of pick attack.
At first it doesn't seem to do much but you miss it when it's turned off.
so many boxes, so little time!
i remember walking into the Starving Musician, which is basically a pawn shop for music stuff, and seeing all the new and old boxes in the showcase, overwhelming the number of boxes that have been done, and new ones at guitar center every day!
i like the CE-2, the ADA Flanger, the Fulltone Fulldrive 2, the deja Vibe was alright, but 400 bucks and you use it for Bridge of Sighs and that's it, one song, 400 bucks, so i sold it, the sound changed on that darn thing, i was gonna send it to mike for a rework until i sold it,
the Clyde wah was great sounding but i did not like the mechanics of the pedal,
the fulltone 70's fuzz was alright, but the Fulldrive 2 was less radical so i used that more,
i liked the old tonebender that plugged into the guitar jack, good for the Doors stuff,
changing batteries and plugging patch cords gets old after a while, but that wholly mammouth looks like it could be installed inside the cavity of the guitar, that might help out the signal to noise aspect, which is always a pain with boxes,
hard to find the old radio shack non-alkaline batts, they sound the best, don't think they even make those anymore,
i like the automatic wah circuit, where the amount of wah varies with your attack and volume, but i do not know where that circuit went, it also went into the guitar cavity,
had a BC Rich seagull with a built in preamp, the was pretty cool,
roland JC 120 has a real cool chorus sound, but you need 2 speakers for the stereo thing, listen to Hot Blue and Righteous by ZZ Top, sounds like a JC 120,
i remember walking into the Starving Musician, which is basically a pawn shop for music stuff, and seeing all the new and old boxes in the showcase, overwhelming the number of boxes that have been done, and new ones at guitar center every day!
i like the CE-2, the ADA Flanger, the Fulltone Fulldrive 2, the deja Vibe was alright, but 400 bucks and you use it for Bridge of Sighs and that's it, one song, 400 bucks, so i sold it, the sound changed on that darn thing, i was gonna send it to mike for a rework until i sold it,
the Clyde wah was great sounding but i did not like the mechanics of the pedal,
the fulltone 70's fuzz was alright, but the Fulldrive 2 was less radical so i used that more,
i liked the old tonebender that plugged into the guitar jack, good for the Doors stuff,
changing batteries and plugging patch cords gets old after a while, but that wholly mammouth looks like it could be installed inside the cavity of the guitar, that might help out the signal to noise aspect, which is always a pain with boxes,
hard to find the old radio shack non-alkaline batts, they sound the best, don't think they even make those anymore,
i like the automatic wah circuit, where the amount of wah varies with your attack and volume, but i do not know where that circuit went, it also went into the guitar cavity,
had a BC Rich seagull with a built in preamp, the was pretty cool,
roland JC 120 has a real cool chorus sound, but you need 2 speakers for the stereo thing, listen to Hot Blue and Righteous by ZZ Top, sounds like a JC 120,
Kingston
Well-known member
kato said:
LOL! You can't make this up, it's really that bad out there.
Musicians have their version of this. Simple google query example: "[any song name] tab". It's a face palm city.
What is it with guitar players?
