Looking for my first DIY - Distortion with Crunch

[THRobinson]

Haven't played in years, but I have a nephew who plays now and I'm just getting into DIY electronics as a hobby... thought making a pedal would be a fun project to do after I make a Ruby Amp/Little Gem.

Although I can't stand Nickelback, I love how the guitar sounds at the start of Animals. Is there any chance that there's a DIY schematic/how-to for a pedal that does a similar sound? Been browsing on YouTube at some pedals and a lot of neat ones out there, but more often than not they sound a bit more buzzy, no crunch to them.

Anyone know of something that might work?

After that, I want to build the Mockman I think it's called... similar to Tom Scholz's Rockman from Boston... but that would be for myself. 

Thanks

[jkokura]

There are more distortion and overdrive PCBs available than anything else! I have no idea what Effects were used to make the sound you're after, but the options available are very numerous. Better than looking for a specific sound might be to look for effect features and an approximate difficulty that you would prefer. Madbean and JMK and all the other hosted PCB sellers have options for you to consider.

Jacob

[jimilee]

What pups are you using, that's definition going to determine your crunch level ratio.
There's this
http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/how-to-capture-chad-kroeger.aspx

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ralfg]

It looks like Premier Guitar did a rig rundown of Nickleback.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Rig_Rundown_Nickelbacks_Chad_Kroeger_Ryan_Peake

I took a listen to that song you mentioned, there is almost a fuzzy sound to it. And if you look the one guitarist happens to use a VFE Firery Red Horse and a Dark Horse. Go figure.  I kinda think it is a heavily processed Firery Red Horse.

I think Madbean will be selling this in the future, but I wouldn't think it's a good first beginner pedal. My first thought is go with a Big Muff style pedal and do a mid boost mod on it.

And that's probably enough Nickleback for me for a while. 

[BrianS]

If you're looking for a Boston type sound (no intention to take business away from MB) GuitarPCB sells a Red Special Board combined with his Tone Tweak board that nails it extremely well.  Demo below go to 51 secs.

http://www.guitarpcb.com/apps/webstore/products/show/6653975

[intrentnet7]

If it's crunch you want... MI audio Crunch Box.

Here's an easy layout for one:

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/02/mi-audio-crunch-box-v2.html

[mrclean77]

My first thought was a RAT, but after listening to that song, I'm not sure --- still hard to not have fun with a RAT. It was my first pedal (I bought in the late 80's) and I still have/use it.