Any chance you have considered one of the brown sound Plexi variants as an offering? There are quite a few to choose from but, the Carl Martin has resurfaced lately based on a demo by Peter Thorn.
That sounds like something that could be very worthwhile. Can you link us up to some of the stuff you've seen?
"http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ng4peS3MjrY"
I need some Plexi-love for my solid state amps! :D
That pedal sounds awesome! Of course the guy playing has a little to do with that.
Quote from: mjcyates on February 22, 2011, 02:31:34 AM
That pedal sounds awesome! Of course the guy playing has a little to do with that.
...and his array of fine guitars and amps. It's a very fun video to watch.
Yeah, I could really use this pedal, so I don't have to haul my Marshall half stack to practice every week.
How much of a difference do you think there would be between this pedal and the Grapevine?
J
I think I could do something like this, but without the need of a transformer. Just take +/- 9v off a Road Rage which will get pretty close to the 12/-12 the Plexitone has.
It looks intriguing, so yeah, we'll see about this one.
I love that demo, he's come a long way since the days of doing lessons in his bedroom huh? Good for him!
The crunch and high gain would be a great project. Im noT sure the boost needs to be in there though.
As far as the grapevine is concerned i think this demo at least sounds more amp like. I like the grapevine but it doesnt do the medium to lower gain sounds all that great but i havent really done too much testing with it. Granted he's also using a tweed and marshall style amp when ive only used fender style amps with my grapevine.
Here's the schematic I came up with for this. There are a couple of small changes, but it is mostly the Plexi. I dropped the buffer altogether because there's nothing special about it. It will run on +18 / -9v from the Road Rage.
I'll try and work the rest out when I have a little more time.
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R11 should probably be connected to ground, not Vb, I just realized.
wow that was fast, nice work.
Quote from: B_of_H on February 23, 2011, 02:40:54 PM
As far as the grapevine is concerned i think this demo at least sounds more amp like. I like the grapevine but it doesnt do the medium to lower gain sounds all that great but i havent really done too much testing with it. Granted he's also using a tweed and marshall style amp when ive only used fender style amps with my grapevine.
Yeah, I have a DRRI that I like to take to practice since it's so much lighter than my Marshall half stack and two pedal boards (duh) but, I'm having a real hard time figuring out what pedal to get to cover that Marshall tone with it. I'm on limited funding right now so I can't really order a bunch to try out. I have an Egodriver and a BYOC Shredder (along with a BYOC Mouse, and a bunch of OD pedals). Those aren't doing much for me.
I haven't been able to figure out if I need to try a Grapevine or the new Boss Power Stack or some kind of emulator circuit or one of the other Madbean distortion projects (Krank, Kokbox, Boomstick). But this here pedal may just work perfectly--if it sounds good with blackface Fender amps that is.
I had to pull out the PODxt tonight to use with the DRRI and it felt like plugging in to mashed potatoes. No sustain and reacts like a wet blanket. Arrrgghh. I can't believe I used to like that thing. Someone told me to get a Boss DS-1 too and I reacted poorly to that suggestion.
But, this Plexi thing could be a really great project. For me the boost would mean one less pedal on the light board too.
J
Quote from: Myramyd on February 24, 2011, 06:02:50 AM
Quote from: B_of_H on February 23, 2011, 02:40:54 PM
As far as the grapevine is concerned i think this demo at least sounds more amp like. I like the grapevine but it doesnt do the medium to lower gain sounds all that great but i havent really done too much testing with it. Granted he's also using a tweed and marshall style amp when ive only used fender style amps with my grapevine.
Yeah, I have a DRRI that I like to take to practice since it's so much lighter than my Marshall half stack and two pedal boards (duh) but, I'm having a real hard time figuring out what pedal to get to cover that Marshall tone with it. I'm on limited funding right now so I can't really order a bunch to try out. I have an Egodriver and a BYOC Shredder (along with a BYOC Mouse, and a bunch of OD pedals). Those aren't doing much for me.
I haven't been able to figure out if I need to try a Grapevine or the new Boss Power Stack or some kind of emulator circuit or one of the other Madbean distortion projects (Krank, Kokbox, Boomstick). But this here pedal may just work perfectly--if it sounds good with blackface Fender amps that is.
I had to pull out the PODxt tonight to use with the DRRI and it felt like plugging in to mashed potatoes. No sustain and reacts like a wet blanket. Arrrgghh. I can't believe I used to like that thing. Someone told me to get a Boss DS-1 too and I reacted poorly to that suggestion.
But, this Plexi thing could be a really great project. For me the boost would mean one less pedal on the light board too.
J
IMO the difference in marshall amps and fender amps all boils down to the tone stack. the fender has more upper mids and the marshall has more lower mids. To get a marshall sound out of a fender I think you have to slightly boost the 500hz to 900 hz and slightly lower the 1k to 1.6k range...but that is just an unscientific opinion based on my somewhat unreliable ear and 'betty crocker science'. :) I'm kinda new at this whole frequency thing.
I don't buy into the power amp differences being anywhere near as significant as the tone stack.
I really dig the spackler project for this reason, I think at lower boost levels post dirt it can kinda turn a fender into a more marshall like sound. I haven't extensively tested this yet though. I do know that the spackler post OCD really sounds good to my ear through a fender blackface type amp as long as your speaker can handle it. Those jensens in the DRRI can get kinda rough when you push them with too much lower mid content. I put a Emi Governor in a friends DRRI with some JJ 6v6s's and it just oozes great OD tones now just by cranking it up and/or putting a TS style pedal in front of it (modded for more low-mids). on top of that it has a lot more headroom now and can cut through a super loud drummer onstage.
In other news, the PCB design is finished. I'll get this built up with some of the other stuff I'm working on very soon.
It'll go in a 1590BB long-wise and have board mounted pots. There will be plenty of room to work inside the enclosure, so no worries there.
Thanks Madbean!
Thanks so much also to B_of_H for the reply, I didn't mean to hijack the thread. :P
That was my next exploration, was manipulating the EQ on the front end. I also wonder if even this Plexitone pedal might require that same compensation. I will mess around with the freq. you suggest
I agree with what you say about the tone stack--also the speaker. I have to admit, I did try the OCD and Shredder straight into the Normal channel, then into my Marshall 4x12 and it sounds decidedly more Marshall and less Fender. I may also be clipping the Bright Cap on the Vibrato channel soon...
Sounds like I might be ready to try the Spackler and Plexitone (whatever 'Bean ends up calling it) next.
J
Hey Madbean,
I'm not try to rush you or be a pest (I know you are busy with lots of boards and other requests) but, when would you guess I might be able to order a PCB of this one? I'm just trying to time a new board/parts order sometime within the next month.
I fully understand if it's going to be a while. Just thought I would ask for a ballpark.
Thanks again!
J
Quote from: madbean on February 24, 2011, 04:55:36 PM
In other news, the PCB design is finished. I'll get this built up with some of the other stuff I'm working on very soon.
Brian,
Will this board be for sale? I hope so.
Let me see how it turns out first before I make a decision. I'd really like to build it, so that's a good sign that it will be done sooner rather than later. If I offer it, it would be like the Uproar---in small batches from time to time.
I still need to get the Weener Wah, reverb and vibe done, too, so there's a lot on my plate. Also, the Les Lius variant. I think I have some other shit, too...I dunno, I have like 15 unfinished projects.
Actually, I just got curious and counted the number of projects in my Eagle directory (never did this). I have 109 finished/unfinished! I need to get out more...seriously.
That's kind of what I thought. Oh well, I will just try to jump on it if I see it come up then. I plan to buy a bunch of boards from you over the course of this year, budget permitting so it's all good.
Those are all cool projects too, and this one is a new request compared to those. I understand.
Thanks for your hard work for us man, we appreciate it.
J
How would this new pedal compare to a BSIAB?
Quote from: crash on February 24, 2011, 06:10:41 PM
How would this new pedal compare to a BSIAB?
good question. i've built two bsiab's and I find them very compressed and that they lose clarity at gain levels that get the type of sustain he uses in this clip. (i've decided that the last cap doesn't need to be there on the bsiab as to let a little more high end pass through but still it's a pretty muddy sounding circuit IMO)
I'd be happy to do an a/b once this project is out.
Thanks B_of_H, I've been looking for a nice VH type pedal. On my searches on the various pedal boards, it looked like the BSIAB was my best bet. I may have to wait and see what becomes of this new madbean pedal.
This one is almost finished. Turns out that running it off +18 / -9v changed the character of the pedal way too much for my liking. It made it sound more like the BSIAB.
At +-9v it sounds much closer the the youTube demo. There will be some other changes to the actual layout, but it won't require the additional Road Rage board like I thought.
The only issue I'm finding is that there is TOO much gain. The Boost and Hi-Gain pots oscillate like a mother above noon. This was on the breadboard, though. I will probably try some value changes and make suggestions, if necessary.
Hey Brian,
What amps/guitars do you usually test things out on when you work on something like this?
I use a Tele and my Vox AC4TV for basic testing. When I want to go for full volume, I take it over to the AC15 and dime it.
The nice thing about the AC4 is that it is so bright that if an effect makes it sound even brighter, I know it definitely needs to be tamed way down ;)
Quote from: madbean on March 01, 2011, 04:00:46 PM
I use a Tele and my Vox AC4TV for basic testing. When I want to go for full volume, I take it over to the AC15 and dime it.
The nice thing about the AC4 is that it is so bright that if an effect makes it sound even brighter, I know it definitely needs to be tamed way down ;)
Cool. I was hoping you were going to say your AC15. My main amp is an AC30.
Bean you are a king!
QuoteQuote from: stevewire on Today at 09:09:30 AM
Quote from: thatirishsob on March 01, 2011, 07:30:35 PM
Bean you are a king!
+1. Cool
+1
All hail the Bean! lol
So is it safe to say that this project will be part of the "New projects coming on the first week of March" ? 8) ;D
I think so. I want to get the Weener Wah finished up so I can release that at the same time, since I've been promising that for a while.
Fantastic! I'll get both when they come out ;D
-Kaleb
Quote from: k.rock! on March 02, 2011, 10:33:33 PM
Fantastic! I'll get both when they come out ;D
-Kaleb
Ditto!
This is going to be a killer pedal! Hoping to see the vibe project soon.
Quote from: madbean on March 02, 2011, 10:09:38 PM
I think so. I want to get the Weener Wah finished up so I can release that at the same time, since I've been promising that for a while.
I'm keen for the weener as soon as it's released, got an empty wah shell sitting here. ditto on the reverb, I'm jonesing bad :D
J
I also wait for the phaser and night train