News:

Forum may be experiencing issues.

Main Menu

Custom Big Muff / Electra Distortion

Started by Ralfg, January 16, 2017, 06:53:42 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ralfg

Just finished off and handed off a build to a friend.  He wanted a pedal that sounded like Dinosaur Jr, specifically the tone from the song Kracked.  Kinda a tough order but sounded like a fun challenge.  So I did some research and yeah as expected J Mascis is a muff guy.  From what I read he had some V1 Triangle Muff that he loved (later it was stolen) during the recording of that album.  No additional info.  Also read he has a custom muff that he added a switch to bypass the volume for solos.  I kind of felt that would way too loud, so instead I opted to add a boost at the end.  But I thought it would be kind of fun to add a modified Electra Distortion instead of a clean boost. 

I spent a lot of time bread boarding the pedal and then comparing it to the recording to trying to dial it in.  I felt like the recording had a bit more note clarity than your standard muff, so I started with a V1 schematic I grabbed off Kit Rae's site.  Then tweaked some of the caps to let a bit more highs through, I also used the Pharaoh tone stack.  Honestly I think now that I could have used a fixed resistor, but what's one more knob.  I am pretty proud to say I think I nailed it.

The Electra distortion at the end adds a whole bunch of versatility.  Gives you a nice overdrive and then you could crank on the fuzz to really smash it.  Or vise versa.  Watching the dude play it for the first time was the most fun.  I was even more surprised at the note clarity we got out of it.  Pretty happy with the results.  I hope he is too.

He asked to call it JC Mascis cause his initials are JC... I would have rather called it Dino Jr, but hey, its not my pedal.  I'll have to make another for myself. 

My girlfriend did the dinosaurs for the etch.  I think they rock, I guess not really dark like the Dinosaur Jr art, but hey...

This was also the first layout I designed in Eagle Cad and thanks to Jacob's JMK Eagle tutorial it was easy.  Thank you for that!  Yeah it could probably be more compact.  I totally had trouble with the Electra, it just wasn't working, but worked on my vero prototype.  Turned out instead of 2.2M I used 2.2K, and of course it was the last component I checked... sheese.  But got it working with minimal damage.  Never assume a part is correct if its not working.  Never!

Love this site and all the resources on it.  Here are some picture on my dirty project table. 


 
Dr. Von Fuzzbrauer @ Rocket Surgeon Effects Pedals
https://www.smallspacesband.com/

alanp

Don't be surprised if people ask for a toner transfer image and a BOM.

That is very impressive.
"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken."
- Terry Pratchett
My OSHpark shared projects
My website

bluescage

Nice! I'm still trying to get something done with Eagle, and yes the tutorials from JMK are very helpful!

storyboardist

Great work, inside and out! I was totally lost in Eagle before I found JMK's tutorials. A great resource.
Guy behind Effects Layouts

raulduke


Ralfg

Thanks for all the kind words. I would gladly share this project. I need to work on getting it into a human readable form.
Dr. Von Fuzzbrauer @ Rocket Surgeon Effects Pedals
https://www.smallspacesband.com/

bcalla

Very nice!  That's a really clean etch - I thought it was a decal.

mshuptar

Sweeeeeeeeet! I would like to hear a demo of this if possible!

flanagan0718

Great project man! The graphics are cool. I love the controls layout. Overall A+ work!

stringsthings

That's a great looking pedal.  And I wouldn't mind etching one of these boards.
All You Need Is Love

mrclean77

You're a better pedal-building friend than I am.  :-[

Any etching tips? That is ridiculously clean.

midwayfair


Aleph Null

Excellent, clean work. Love the graphic and the knobs.

I wouldn't worry too much about making the layout smaller; anything smaller than a 1590BB gets cramped with more than one foot switch.

Boba7

So cute!! I love it.
Amazing job and it's really nice to read the whole story!

Leevibe