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Projects => Build Reports => Topic started by: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 03:48:23 PM

Title: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 03:48:23 PM
Smell ... baaad.

(https://jonpattonmusic.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/swamp-comp-bog-of-eternal-stench1.jpg?h=500)(https://jonpattonmusic.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/swamp-comp-bog-guts.jpg?h=500)

Okay, sharp eyed people, I made a last-minute change to the pedal after I had already boxed it up, and forgot to do something before snapping the gut shot. What is wrong with this picture? I'm gonna be Sneaky McSnearkson and replace that picture when I get home ...

This is the pedal I designed with JR Hevron (thesameage) for winning my holiday PIF thread (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=18729.30). He picked the "design an effect" prize.

JR's a bassist, so this was a new challenge for me: Designing something that I thought sounded good on bass.

After a bunch of discussion, we settled on a compressor with a blended fuzz. The compressor half is a modified Bearhug (longer attack, and hardwired to the long decay), and the fuzz is two modified BMP stages with bass boosts. The tone control is a low-pass shelf filter with a deeper cut on the fuzz side than the clean side. The fuzz output was also tuned to be about the same volume as the clean signal regardless of the pot's setting. One really neat thing that happens is that when you turn up the fuzz pot a little, you don't necessarily hear much distortion, but you do get a noticeable shift toward the bass side of the spectrum.

I'll post a schematic after JR has finished his build and given me his thoughts, in case there are any final tweaks. This is his baby now, so I don't know if there will be a project PCB available. I don't know when I'll get a chance to do a demo with FAWM coming up, but I might use it in a recording during February.

Oh, the knobs came from Cyrus at Ovnilab, which was super cool of him! I had to file out the insides a bit to get them to fit, but they're nicely made and look really good on this.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: playpunk on January 29, 2015, 03:55:19 PM
Cool! I'm interested in hearing samples and JR's thoughts on this.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 04:31:37 PM
"The child with the POWER" Ahh gotta love Labyrinth. Great build! Love the art work

As for whats wrong with the picture...Ground from the 9v isn't wired.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.

I don't want David Bowie's codpiece anywhere near my Bog of Eternal Stench OR anything of mine inspired by a Big Muff.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 07:01:32 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.

I don't want David Bowie's codpiece anywhere near my Bog of Eternal Stench OR anything of mine inspired by a Big Muff.

can't...stop...laughing!
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 07:22:12 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.

I don't want David Bowie's codpiece anywhere near my Bog of Eternal Stench OR anything of mine inspired by a Big Muff.

It shouldn't have been anywhere near a children's movie either, but apparently Bowie is a rebel rebel.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: juansolo on January 29, 2015, 07:33:28 PM
Ground control is certainly not making contact with this one.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 07:33:35 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 07:22:12 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.

I don't want David Bowie's codpiece anywhere near my Bog of Eternal Stench OR anything of mine inspired by a Big Muff.

It shouldn't have been anywhere near a children's movie either, but apparently Bowie is a rebel rebel.

He was a bit of a Super Creep for doing that.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 07:48:10 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 07:33:35 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 07:22:12 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
You clearly missed an opportunity to make an enclosure with a drawing of David Bowie wearing an absurd codpiece.

I don't want David Bowie's codpiece anywhere near my Bog of Eternal Stench OR anything of mine inspired by a Big Muff.

It shouldn't have been anywhere near a children's movie either, but apparently Bowie is a rebel rebel.

He was a bit of a Super Creep for doing that.

I'm a big Bowie fan, but I remember thinking that it was really creepy when I first saw the movie.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 07:53:13 PM
I first saw the movie when I was 5 or 6. SUPER creepy, good job mom and dad!
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on January 29, 2015, 08:07:06 PM
I'm JR... going to order Smallbear parts tonight and build this up as soon as I get the board from Jon. Can't wait! And since the diode sets are similar to the setup in a muff, there are pretty well established clipping options that you can try.

If it sounds good and seems like something people will be interested in (and Jon gives his blessing), I'll look into getting a run of PCB's made up.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 08:10:17 PM
Quote from: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 07:53:13 PM
I first saw the movie when I was 5 or 6. SUPER creepy, good job mom and dad!

Well I was the dad in this case.  Not having seen it as a kid, I didn't realize we would face the wrath of Cod.  I was told it was a good children's movie so I didn't pre-screen it.

The good news is that the kids didn't even seem to notice it.  I am guessing adults are more sensitive to it.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on January 29, 2015, 08:12:50 PM
I will def record a demo as well.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 08:49:58 PM
Btw Jon, this is a nice build.  I kind of forgot to mention that before.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 09:12:14 PM
Quote from: pickdropper on January 29, 2015, 08:10:17 PM
Well I was the dad in this case.  Not having seen it as a kid, I didn't realize we would face the wrath of Cod.  I was told it was a good children's movie so I didn't pre-screen it.

The good news is that the kids didn't even seem to notice it.  I am guessing adults are more sensitive to it.

My dad also let me watch Child's Play at 6 or 7...a little Cod is better than a TERRIFYING ragady Andy doll.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: flanagan0718 on January 29, 2015, 09:14:55 PM
Quote from: midwayfair on January 29, 2015, 03:48:23 PM
After a bunch of discussion, we settled on a compressor with a blended fuzz. The compressor half is a modified Bearhug (longer attack, and hardwired to the long decay), and the fuzz is two modified BMP stages with bass boosts. The tone control is a low-pass shelf filter with a deeper cut on the fuzz side than the clean side. The fuzz output was also tuned to be about the same volume as the clean signal regardless of the pot's setting. One really neat thing that happens is that when you turn up the fuzz pot a little, you don't necessarily hear much distortion, but you do get a noticeable shift toward the bass side of the spectrum.

I'll post a schematic after JR has finished his build and given me his thoughts, in case there are any final tweaks. This is his baby now, so I don't know if there will be a project PCB available. I don't know when I'll get a chance to do a demo with FAWM coming up, but I might use it in a recording during February.


I have a couple of bassist friends that would absolutely be interested in something like this. Can't wait for the layout. Once again killer build you always knock it out of the park with those hand painted enclosures.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on January 29, 2015, 09:29:43 PM
The idea was to have an always on compressor that can do some light overdrive and has some muffish potential. Kind of put the three most useful/non-modulation bass effects into one clean package.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: jubal81 on January 30, 2015, 12:49:28 AM
Creative, good looking and original. Top notch!
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: nzCdog on January 30, 2015, 02:45:09 AM
nice layout, love the illustration too!
labrynth one of my all time fave flicks :)
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on January 30, 2015, 02:44:12 PM
Parts ordered...  ;)
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: chuckbuick on January 30, 2015, 03:19:46 PM
Cool build but an even cooler PIF idea.  Good work, man.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on January 31, 2015, 02:43:36 AM
Got the board and components today. I'll have to see how much time I get this weekend.
Title: Re: The Bog of Eternal Stench (Swamp Comp Fuzz #1)
Post by: thesameage on February 04, 2015, 05:07:22 PM
Finished up the board last night and it works! Needs a bit of fine tuning as it's not behaving 100% as it should. Working with Jon on that:

(http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af348/coverbagman/IMG_9230_zps80ad99c4.jpg)