Messages

1

Open Discussion / Re: What do you do?

« on: April 13, 2011, 09:29:01 AM »

My main gig is playing drums I used to do a bunch of projects but now my main gig has pretty much taken over. It was extremely terrifying to depend on a gig for your income because you only really know the next 3 months but lately it's been extremely steady and busy. The past two years I did about 150 gigs and this year it will easily be over 200.

In my freetime I build pedals and do little guitar work. Before I did drums fulltime I worked in the grocery retail business for a decade. I still do some weird freelance vendor work around the holidays.

2

Open Discussion / Re: B500R pots

« on: April 13, 2011, 09:18:38 AM »

They are really good for ruetz mods on four knob rats. I usually put a resistor across a 1k pot to drop it down.

also a low gain fuzz face type with more "sweet spot" replace the 1k fuzz pot with a 500r.

3

Open Discussion / Re: Madbean vs. Bluebeard Fuzz

« on: March 31, 2011, 12:12:29 PM »

I built the GGG "tuned" up using a Gruntbox board (madbeans design, sold by caps n' such culturejam) it sounded really great.

I think you will be happy with the wolfshirt on bass. check out this video of the wolfshirt I built with my bass player playing some geezer riffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXfmeQEjaXY

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Build Reports / DEADPOOL - fuzz mutantes

« on: March 21, 2011, 07:58:09 PM »

I got this like two days before I left for tour so I finally got back and was really excited to build it and hear this thing. It is a really cool fuzz, it definitely sounds unique to anything else I have built.

I really like the sound with fat knob cranked and the body switch on.   It is INSANELY loud and high gain start out with the LOUD control all the way down because unity is about 10'oclock and it gets ridiculously loud after that.

The tone is really fat and I can hear the faint octave down effect going on which is awesome. It handles complex jazz chords surprisingly well for an Si fuzz and it cleans up a bit with the volume knob not like a fuzz face but it goes into a cool garagey distorted tone and then cranked it is just full out huge fuzz.

Its a really fun project and you can really spent alot of time tweaking the controls and finding new sounds. 

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Requests / Re: Opamp Big Muff?

« on: March 15, 2011, 03:55:12 AM »

I built one on vero and it has a very different muff flavor. I think it has less sustain than most other muffs actually. the key is running it into an already distorting high gain amp.

I also found you have to use the right op amps uA 741 for ic1 was neccessary to get the right sound out of it for me. I tried other subs but it didn't sound right until I put the right op amp in. I think I used a jrc4558d for ic2

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Open Discussion / Re: this was about 11 or 12 hours of soldering....

« on: March 03, 2011, 05:38:46 PM »

jk...nice catch.  yeah one of them was out of the pic most likely. 

DUDE!!! your a beast. i need to get ON my shit!!!
+1 on the musicpcb boards. what's your solution to the tap tempo boards needed for the echobase and the tremolo?

I found a diagram for the taptation on perfboard via diystompboxes.  haven't built it yet.  (i wish the ptap was still available!  sucks big time)

the tremolo has built in tap tempo and the pcb comes with the IC. 

Nice!!
What is the clean octave down??

musicpcb.com project based on the Boss OC-2.  I'm going to build it out with the envelope synth mod on a switch (or maybe just a knob)

I built one up and it was okay. it's really glitchy alot like a clean version of a blue box. you can't play more than one note at a time.

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Build Reports / Re: ROAD RAGE

« on: February 22, 2011, 09:13:53 AM »

super cool! I really like your writing on the inside...looks pretty sweet!

sharpie permanent paint markers. I would recommend them but they are kind of a waste of money. some colors like white and yellow only seem to work the first time you use them then they turn really transparent.

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Build Reports / ROAD RAGE

« on: February 22, 2011, 07:40:12 AM »

I built this up to take care of my EGO and my range master. I actually haven't built up the rangemaster yet but the one I have currently I built without a power adapter and I keep running the batteries down forgetting to unplug the input jack, so I am going to do a new build and add a power jack for it.

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Tech Help - Projects Page / Re: What voltage capacitors for snack shack?

« on: February 16, 2011, 01:06:10 PM »

I used sprague 715 series. total overkill but they look mojo riffic. and they fit, you just have to straight out the leads on the orange drops and they fit perfectly.

also I would say don't bother with the BC182L. I could hear no difference between that and a 2n3904 so I took it out. the pinout is different so you have to bend the leads around.

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General Questions / Re: Labelling Your Pedals

« on: February 16, 2011, 12:59:41 PM »

yeah we have rub-on letters here too. I did two pedals with rub on letters but it was a total pain in the ass and very tiring to rub all the letters on, and hard to keep straight.

I use waterslide decals (like the kind you can get from smallbear) I use a brand called lazertran they sell at my local art supply store. It's still $2 a sheet though, but I don't have to pay shipping.

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General Questions / Re: Egodriver Layout & IC question

« on: February 16, 2011, 12:56:16 PM »

you can find tl082's at radio shack. Supposedly tl082's are noisier but some people say the noise is part of the magic (adds harmonics that aren't there).

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Open Discussion / Re: Best sounding overdrive?

« on: February 16, 2011, 12:53:26 PM »

these are the ones I have built. lately I have been playing a strat into a blues jr. and so my favorite od's have been ts808's, and the glitteratti.

EgoDriver - hybrid od/distortion, versatile, loves jcm800's, tons of bass, if I could only bring one pedal it would probably be this.
Faultline - more for bass but sounds great on guitar too, really low noise, thick stonesy "can't you hear me knockin" tone
Glitterrattii - ultimate tubescreamer. the baxandall tone stack rules, very versatile. the tone knobs feel really great (like pulling draw bars on an organ)
Grapevine - another low noise pedal, sounds really good however I didn't like the tone knob on this (sounds like a blanket over the amp unless cranked) and "rawk" mode didn't really do it for me.
Neutrino - you can build this a million ways, if you have an easy break up amp or any kind of fender amp it sounds awesome. strat+neutrino+blues jr. is awesome
Serendipity - I was in love with this pedal for a while, it has a supernatural compression where it doesn't sound squashed but you have more sustain, and it is really versatile if you switch guitars/amps alot.
Silverfox - this pedal is awesome. extremely versatile. I would like to build one with all the trim pots on the outside. basically a tuneable tubescreamer. I love barber and everything they do is amazing.
Snack Shack - this is a Si fuzz face. should be in the fuzz category, but if you roll back you do get a decent overdrive/distortion type sound. I never liked Si fuzz faces until I tried this one. Its the only one with Ge-like clean up.
Snarkdoodle - the red llama was the pedal that got me into building becuase I wanted one cause tom petty had one and they went for way too much on ebay. It sounds really good, tons of volume on tap, gain goes from hybrid to borederline tone bender style fuzz. stacks really well too. totally battery hog though.
Sunking  killer buffer, lower punchier mids than a ts9. stacks well,  you can pretty much leave it on all the time. I don't really care for the cranked gain on this but anything up to half way is good.
 

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Build Reports / Re: Egodriver!!!!

« on: February 13, 2011, 01:53:57 PM »

I a/bd mine with my rev. 4 OCD and it sounded identical.

Your build looks really clean. You should be proud. Also nice job on the bianchi Celeste green. My first road bike was a bianchi.

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Open Discussion / Re: I really do need to start buying in bulk

« on: February 12, 2011, 12:32:01 PM »

also if you don't want to go crazy stocking your bench when your starting out you can get a $5 grab bag of resistors at radio shack that has more than most.. they aren't metal film but they will cover you for a while. I still end up pulling from that grab bag when I am in a pinch.

I also bought a electrolytic assortment from velleman that did me pretty well. I think it was $20. the topmay boxcaps assortment and the electrolytic assortment from small bear are really pretty good although I think the electrolytic kit is 16v so if you want to run pedals at 18v check your ratings.
 

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Build Reports / wolfshirt - with ultimate octave mod

« on: February 08, 2011, 08:17:05 PM »

Wolfshirt Octave fuzz with ultimate octave mods.
The fulltone ultimate octave pedal pretty much is a foxx tone machine with the octave switch on a stomp, and the Fat/Bright mod is really simple. Just pull c10 (3n) and wire it to a dpdt and switch between 10n and 1n.

I have never really liked the octave on a footswitch because the tone setting for good fuzz isn't the same as the tone setting for good octave fuzz but it's still a cool mod especially if you switch the octave on and off alot. 

The thick/bright mod is really drastic, especially in bright mode. it sounds really cool for leads or if you want a really junky metallic lo-fi fuzz sound.

There used to be a houston band back in the 00's called defend the ghetto and the guitar player used an original foxx tone machine through an orange and it sounded seriously awesome. I have been really into the tone machine since then.. I think houston has an above average number of foxx tone users just because of that band. I think he also uses a mutron biphase in spots.
http://texaspunktreasurechest.blogspot.com/search/label/Defend%20The%20Ghetto
really heavy stuff.