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^ Same company as above but their retail storefront: http://www.tubesandmore.com/

I buy all my guitar parts from them. Usually cheaper than everyone else if they have what you need. Good variety of pots.

They also run www.amplifiedparts.com

J

For me, as long as it's "normal" for the pedal, then I'm okay with it.

I noticed it was a bit quiet compared to a TS as well but, I saw in another thread that was also normal for the FDII.

J

I'm having the exact same problem. Let us know if you figure it out!

Yeah, I have noticed on the GFS site they aren't always accurate on any of their descriptions. They are clearly cut/pasted from another product. I've been browsing around their site and you will see the Alnico II description for the Alnico V pickups, etc. Just stuff like that.

I'm guessing their photos might be pasted in as well. Laziness more than anything.

I build websites for a living and it's surprisingly tough to get people to give you a photo and/or description of any new product. They tell you to get it on the site ASAP but when you ask for anything beyond the price it's like asking them to kill their mom sometimes.

*Duh!* someone is more likely to buy it if they know what the hell it is!

J

There are a bunch of switching schemes like this out there. Check geofex and DIYSB.

Another idea that got kicked around a while back was coming up with a scheme to do all the I/O and power stuff via a DIN type connecter. So, you could have a an X-stage true bypass looper and each one has a single cable out that does all the I/O stuff. You could easily re-arrange the order of pedals physically or come up with a switching scheme based around that. You would basically "phantom power" each pedal by keeping the DC supply in the looper, too, so rather than sending lots of little DC wires out you have only one power connection to the main hub.

^ This sounds like a genius idea. What about noise? Any risk of that with the mix of power and signal in the same cable?

J

At the end of the day, I can understand your frustration but, we are talking about a sub-$200 guitar here and they made it right in the end. That's more than can be said for a lot of companies.

I think our expectations are a little too high sometimes. If it's possible to get a guitar for that price and actually have it be playable and be happy with it overall (with or without modding), then even if it takes an extra week, so be it.

I'm not trying to be a jerk to you. When I was coming up playing in the early 1990's, I bought a few $300 range guitars (which was just about the cheapest new you could get) and they were very poor and pretty much unplayable regardless of modification. A refund or replacement would have been impossible. Even guitars in the $500-600 range were just okay. About the equivalent of a $200-300 Epiphone or Ibanez now.

We are too spoiled with our options today I think. I'm not an old timer by any means but, to see people complain about super cheap items like having a few $0.65 pots be slightly bent upon arrival when you couldn't even easily get a pot just a few years ago, seems silly to me.

Wow--rant for no reason! Sorry guys!  

J

Hey 9,

The Egodriver is a pretty "muffled" sounding pedal on some amps. First off, I would start with the tone knob all the way up, with the lowest usable place around 3 o'clock.

After that, I would experiment with a few other ICs to see if it opens up the sound of the pedal. If I remember correctly, I think I ended up sticking with a 4580 instead of the TL082.

Lastly, the pedal doesn't typically sound that great with the gain past about 10 o'clock (normal sound) or up to around 2 o'clock (maximum before it sounds like crap). This changes slightly depending on the IC and or/which position the switch is in but, those are steps to try.

Mine gets a nice JTM45 type sound through a clean amp, good for Hendrix type stuff. YMMV

J

The nice thing about the Tiny Giant is that it has a 11V tap on the board so you can power those effects without needing another PS.

It is VERY flat by itself so, having some type of EQ or preamp helps. If you have enough of one on the acoustic that may be enough though. I know people have used it with keys or bass and no other effects.

You would also want to use full-range speakers with it for an acoustic amp, not guitar speakers. I would think you would want some type of cabinet with a tweeter in it for that application.

J

For something like that I would recommend either Taylor's Tiny Giant Amp kit:
http://musicpcb.com/pcbs/tiny-giant-amp/

or one of the Parts-Express amplifier kits:
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=203

Since it's full range, you probably want something more akin to home audio than a "guitar" amp. Both of the above options are pretty inexpensive. The TG costs about $50 total to build.

J

Next time you place an order from a vendor that uses PayPal, choose the Guest checkout option. That way you can put in whatever info you want. Just ignore where it repeatedly asks you if you want to use your existing PayPal account. That's what I do. Sometimes it's hard to see that option because PayPal strong-arms you into logging in but, you don't have to log in and use the account.

J

I agree. Perfboard projects are okay for simple stuff like buffers & boosts, otherwise they are best left to the meticulous, patient, and possibly slightly deranged. You can check your work 100 times and still be wrong somewhere.

I did one Perf project--and that's probably the only one I will do! Not my idea of fun...

Vero is about as dangerous as I will go any more.

J

I have one. The tone controls are really weird. But, I spent a lot of time with it one day and got a sound I was happy with out of it. It is kind of a "quiet" pedal. It's near unity gain at full tilt.

Basically the sound I ended up with through my Deluxe Reverb was a great REM type of tone. I was learning "The One I Love" for a fill-in gig and it pretty much nailed that sound. Not really gainy or boosty, just adds some chimey grind.

So I think it's worthwhile if you are looking for that sound. Otherwise it's not really versatile like most other OD pedals.

Not sure if that helps or not!
J

I've been having the same issue however, it just started happening out of the blue. I may have changed pedal order without realizing it but, it is after a Boss PS-5 in the chain. I'll have to try different buffers to see if it goes away. Mine also has a slight "slapback" delay after higher gain notes, especially at higher pitches. That may just be short oscillation.

My question is: Does the original CM version have an input buffer? I'm wondering if that's what the difference is. I know most DIY versions of pedals take those out (usually a good thing).

Other question: With a good buffer in front, would it be theoretically possible to use bigger pots to get more gain? I like the openness of the pedal but need just a hair more gain on each channel (using with a clean Fender DRRI).

I am going to try switching out the MAXX for a TC1044 and slipping in the 150pF cap as well, just to see. I will probably redo most or all of my offboard wiring too, since it's not the greatest.

I had already ordered the pots and was ready to take it apart but, it started doing this last week.

J

I had my debit/credit card hacked via a PayPal transaction a few months back. I had ordered from Madbean, Tayda, and MusicPCB the same day so I don't know which one was the cause I thought about informing MB and Taylor but, since they can't tell me which site it was I didn't want to raise alarm or blame.

I had a client who had the same thing happen to their site/clients so we switched to Google Checkout. Before that we had many people call and say outright that they wouldn't order from them since PayPal was the only option and they had been hacked before via PayPal transactions.

I still get wary every time I order from someone who only accepts PayPal, since it's happened twice to me. (Previous time was 3 years ago.)

So, that extra charge may be some kind of hacker adding a charge onto it.

But, I didn't have any issues as far as extra charges with Tayda. It got here pretty quick. Little consolation when my bank account was disabled for about two weeks though...

J

I don't see why not. I used to use an old DOD A/B box to do what you are talking about. It would have been of the 1st design.

You are adding extra wires where you don't "need" them so as long as you have a buffer somewhere soon thereafter you won't get any tone suck.

I had thought about building one for this purpose but sticking a buffer before the output (after the switch). So in that plan, it would intercept the blue wire with the input going to the switch and the output going to the tip of the "input" jack (as labelled there). But after that it would only be used in that direction--2 to 1.

J