Messages

You sure got the enclosure to come off well.  That etch is sick.

Great project.  Is the name a refence to the Low album, or is the shared name coincidence?  I love that album.

Okay.  I did a lousy job with my question the last time, so I'm gonna give it another go.

On my big cheese, the gated setting only works in a one particular "sweet spot" on the gain knob range.  Before hitting that spot, there's basically little fuzz to speak of and no gating.  Then there is a small area where the fuzz and the gating both come on.  Then there is a spot where there is both fuzz and gating, but it's very small.  If I take the fuzz knob any further than that, then the output just fizzles.  If you hit the strings, you might get a brief fuzzy thump sound before the gate chokes it off.

The other thing I'm wondering about is the trimmer.  Because it really doesn't seem to do very much on my build.  Is there a noticable difference on different settings?  Or is it supposed to be very subtle?

Is that how it's supposed to work?  If so, then I'm good.  It just seems a bit odd to me that the functional spot would be so small.  I guess I'm comparing to a fuzz factory where if you tune the thing to a gated setting you basically still get the full run of the gain knob.

On my Big Cheese (fuzzdog stinky cheese) builds the gate amount INCREASES as you turn up the gain knob. With the gate trimmer at noon the gate starts to kick in about noon on the gain knob, and gets more gated until no output at all at full clockwise.

That's exactly what I wanted to know.  Thanks trog.

I just finished a pair of lovetone builds using alanp's boards--Cheese Source and the Meatball--and I have a question about the Big Cheese side of the Source (thank you alanp).  Is the gated fuzz position supposed to have output at all gain settings, or only when you push towards the last section of the range of the pot?  Mine doesn't seem to quite have enough signal to push the bias to "on" unless I go towards the end of the dial.  Also, the trimmer which I've read is supposed to set the level of "gated-ness" (if that's a word) doesn't seem to do anything much at all.  Is this normal?  Or am I looking at a build that's almost-but-not-quite-working?  Any insight would be very much appreciated.

Sounds to me like you don't really need help, maybe just a bit of a dose of confidence.  Your thinking is totally sound.  So just keep going with it.  It's like you went 90% of the way to solving your problem, then for some reason just stopped when you're so close to the end.  Yes, the Klon has a relatively complicated power supply.  IC2 needs to have +18V on pin 8 and -9V on pin 4.  You started by measuring your IC2 voltages--good call.  So pin 4 is right.  So what's going on with pin 8?  It should be somewhere around 17V.  So you've got a problem with your power supply.  Just use the schematic to follow that rail back to the charge pump.  Make sure you have +18V at that junction between D4 and C22.  That should tell you what you need to know.

Good luck with the repair!

Opamp big muff is the sweetest of the sweet!  Nice work!

I'm pretty much in total agreement with Rockhorst.  Especially about needing those classic neck and neck/middle sounds.  That's the whole point of having a strat, IMO.  The day I pulled out the neck and middle lace sensors and put in vintage PUs was like the parting of the clouds and the angels singing (not to bag on lace sensors, which I really like--especially the red and silver (and not the blue) ones).  But having a high output PU in the bridge is really sweet, and if you've already got a vintage style strat, then I'd definitely go that way on this one.   

So I'd go HSS.  Even though I love duo sonics, I'd resist the urge to make a strat two pickup just because the neck/middle sound on a strat is so important.  There's so much to lose if you get rid of it and so little to lose if you keep it.  So I think you should keep it.  But I would also say don't go humbucker in the neck position.  Humbuckers in the neck on a strat...it's just...eeewww.  It's against nature.  Or maybe I just never heard the right humbucker.  But IME it doesn't have the smooth mojo of a tele, it doesn't have the punch of a gibson...it just...sounds dull and wrong to me.

I'm with storyboardist--when I saw the name I secretly hoping for some Archer-related content.

Congrats on a lovely build.

Freaking awesome paintings.  You, sir, are a wizard.

What's a pangea?  I don't think I've ever heard of that circuit.  Got a link?

That demo tape fuzz build is sweetness--do you have more pictures?.  I love the label.  Stylish.

Now that my topmount OCD has been allowed to vent, as for what mutants we are with such tiny feet? I wear size EU 41/42, or a US 10. And I always wear Converse sneakers. I used to wear army surplus boots, but with those I found it harder to tap closely stacked together pedals, so I got into the habit of exchanging them for Converse for gigs and rehearsals, and even kept an old pair in the back of an open backed Fender amp just in case I forgot to change shoes. And now I only wear them. With Converse I can easily hit the right switch, even when I have a 125B with two switches. So my advice would be to select your shoes carefully before playing. Find something narrow with a pointy tip. But still something narrow with a pointy tip that allows you some control. I got a pair of cowboy boots, that are in theory also narrow and pointy, but I can't tap dance pedals with them even if my life depended on it.

LOL!  I wasn't going to join the parade, but when I read the first post I just knew it was a matter of time before someone turned this into a referendum on dick size.  Thank you, internet, for helping us all in our relentless race to the bottom of the barrel.

there's also the whole issue about limitations and creativity - again if you're sitting in front of one hardware synth that's it, that's what you have to work with, so you make it work.  whereas with software you are basically unlimited and this can be paradoxically stifling.

Huge +1 to this--I couldn't agree more.  Having limitations to work within is enormously liberating.  When I am dealing with software, I spend hours tweaking and yet somehow I'm never really happy with anything.  With hardware, I accept the limitations at the outset.  This compels me to concentrate on the other things within my control--like the song and the actual performance--which are in fact a hundred times more important to the result and (maybe more importantly) to my enjoyment of the music making process. 

Classy enclosure.  I like the font choice.