So I'm waiting on some fancy knobs to finish my aristocrat build and, although it works perfectly fine, I'm under-impressed. I built the second channel w/ a 250K gain pot otherwise she's as per the build docs.
Now I can hear the difference between each channel's 4 dip-switch settings--it's a clean-ish/non mid-hump OD--but WTF? THIS is analogman's "original", multi hundred $$, 2 year wait list pedal?? Am i missing something?
Really? No dis on brian as the build works--I'm just baffled *THIS* is the fabled analogman KOT!! Have I been seduced by the marketing gods?
Again: it functions as I would expect. I guess I just expected more from this boo-teak pedal.
I think it is not for everyone. You can tell just by the number of ones you see for sale everyday on TGP. People have certain expectations about it, and then find it doesn't live up to the hype for whatever reason and unload it. I think it's a nice design (remember that it's pretty much a Blues Breaker with some mods) that becomes more useful when modded further. Specifically, larger input cap, maybe tweaking the tone or presence functions, a higher gain pot, and using different diodes and op-amp on the two channels. It opens up more that way.
The waiting list is by design, I'm sure. Had the KOT been readily available and flooded the market right away then it would likely have faded out of the spotlight quickly. Not due to any design flaws, but rather because it is just a pretty nice overdrive and nothing more. There's nothing special or clever about it. But, it's well built and priced fairly for what it is, IMO. And, analogman knows how to market its wares very effectively.
I'd make a horrible scientist--walking into experiments w/ preconceived notions. I'll come back to it and try some of your suggestions, Brian. What would a larger input cap do?
Just some more low end. I used a 27n, I think. 47n is fine, too. I did this because it came off pretty weak on my Vox with the standard 10n.
I had a KOT and sold it. It was nice. I was underwhelmed by the drive side. The boost was excellent. If he sold just the boost... maybe I'd keep it. Is the Aristocrat the drive side or the boost side?
The Aristocrat can be either depending how you set the dip switches. The "King of Klones" project is just one half of the KOT (KOT is 2 of the exact same circuit on one board), and it also can be set as drive or boost.
Sad to hear that maysink.. I'm about to start my KOT soon. Unfortunately, I moved and had to build a workbench first, so the boards been sitting for a month or so. I'm hoping that I'm not disappointed with the KOT circuit, but I think it's what I'm looking for as far as an overdrive for my uses with the dual "channels". Hopefully making a couple mods will make the pedal a little more to your liking.
With all the hype on the gear page on some of this stuff, I too get a preconceived "Holy Grail" tone in my head. At least you didn't pay a boutique price. ;D
I spent some more time with her yesterday (no new mods) and it's a fine pedal but I still haven't found the magical combination of dip switch'd diodes, presence trim-pottyness and knob tweakage. I did get a nice sound out of guitar > eq > aristocrat > boost > amp so maybe there is something there I haven't quite fingered out...
Regardless, it was a fun build--I just (continue to) have preconceptions biasing my reality. Damn marketing! I am SO glad I no longer work in that profession!
I built one and really like it. I like how the two drives stack up nicely, kinda like two tubescreamers work well together. What's functional about the Aristocrat is the clipping switches, whereas tubescreamers don't feature that unless you mod them, these bluesbreakers have them built in.
I understand that buying into the marketing thing too. Once I started learning how to build pedals, I realized that it's really a lot of hype, especially the overpriced 'bootique' stuff. It's not bad, just more expensive than I'm willing to pay when I can build it for much, much less.
Jacob
So I finally got around to changing the input caps on my aristocrat build. Socketed the locations and have (so far) settled on 39n. That combined with setting the presence ~75% gets me a nice full range w/ no loss of highs. I like that much more than the icepick-y/AM-radio tone I was getting before.
Good suggestion, Brian. Thanks!
Umm I'm having the same problem with my aristocrat high gain side: icepicking fizzy distortion. I should try the higher capacitor's mod. Thanks for the information!!
You can always go up to 100n for the input cap. But, 47n will cover the full range of the guitar---that's a very standard value for an input cap.
Try backing off the presence trimpots, too. Once I dialed them back I started to get what the pedal was about.
Hi,
just found something on evilbay and I´m going nuts :o
http://cgi.ebay.de/AnalogMan-King-of-Tone-V4-Analog-Man-/270736256434?pt=Allgemeines_Musikinstrumente_Zubeh%C3%B6r&hash=item3f09236db2 (http://cgi.ebay.de/AnalogMan-King-of-Tone-V4-Analog-Man-/270736256434?pt=Allgemeines_Musikinstrumente_Zubeh%C3%B6r&hash=item3f09236db2)
It´s an original KOT, at the moment, I was copying the link, this little pedal was worth about 251 Euros (approx. $ 365) and still 2 days left....woooaah. This is insane!
Holy Sh*t!
Sold for about $ 500...... :o
Quote from: small fish on April 22, 2011, 06:16:00 PM
Holy Sh*t!
Sold for about $ 500...... :o
Thats a crime!
Sorry to dredge up such an old thread but I wanted to share my experience that is relevant to the rest of the thread. Hope that's OK.
I built the Aristocrat about 6 months ago and I've been trying hard to love it :) It's not bad at all, but compared with the other projects I've built from here it didn't really see much use!
After having a trawl through the forums here it reminded me of the build doc's note saying 'for more bass, change the input cap'.
I've just popped in a pair of 47n instead of the stock 10n. I've also turned the presence contols up to 2/3. For my rig, this is now a much better pedal! Sounds like my guitar but more of it.
It's still early days as yet and I need to try it at band practice later this week to see how it copes. But thanks for the tip on the input cap as it's sounding really promising. If anyone else is less than impressed with this build this is a dead simple mod that makes a night vs day difference to the sound.
I was less than impressed as well and it sat in a pile of junk for a while. Not sure why but when I tried playing in a live setting thru either a Lab Series (solid state) amp, or a Vox Night Train I finally "got" it. It's my fave overdrive and has been for a while now. It has whatever mods Brian suggested and I think I monkeyed with a few different op amps (don't recall what I ended up with) but the differences were not very dramatic. I use the channels independantly but can get a nice crunch sound that cleans up very well, and a great high gain sound. I've never used them together. I think the presence pots are turned up a bit and I usually have both tone knobs somewhere in the first quarter rotation otherwise it gets a little too sharp.
Hi everyone.. I am getting low volume with my aristocrat build. I ve used 1N4001 and 1N914, 47n input caps,and high gain mod 250K pots. Unity gain on distortion is about 9/10. Is it possible to raise volume a bit?
Solved :)
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5217.0
Quote from: madbean on September 28, 2010, 05:57:57 AM
Specifically, larger input cap, maybe tweaking the tone or presence functions, a higher gain pot, and using different diodes and op-amp on the two channels. It opens up more that way.
Any information on how to tweak the tone or presence functions?
What diodes and op-amps do people like?
I'm also getting switch popping on mine - even after boxing.
Ian
Hi, I've seen people using 1N4148 diodes... I did try few IC's (4580d, lf353 and 4558), and end up with 4580, but lf353 is very close to 4580d.
tweaking is about what you prefer, presence in mine build is around 9-10 o'clock on the trimmer.
Quote from: brejna on June 12, 2013, 10:19:18 PM
Solved :)
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5217.0
@brejna what did you do to bump the volume up from that linked post? Having the same issue. Thanks!