Giant Hogweed Octave Distortion (with a fun story)

[Timko]

I don't post on this forum much during the summer because I'm often outside playing disc golf.  I've played since I was in college, and moved to Kansas City after college due to the scene here.  KC is on the short list of greatest cities to play disc golf in in the world; there's nearly 40 courses within 30 miles of the metro.  We've been fortunate enough to host 3 world championships, with a 4th coming up next year.  I bring this up because the story of this build starts with disc golf.

You see, I am a board member for the local KC club.  Pedal building is what I do during the winter, and before one of our winter board meetings, I was mentioning to, Pete,  another board member, that I build pedals.  His interest was peaked, and asked if I would be willing to build something for a friend of his.  At the time, I was dealing with a lot of issues from my Lab 5 preamp build and was looking for a break from it.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Sure, I'd love to build something for you.  Do you know what kind of music your friend plays?
Pete:  Oh, sure.  He plays blues.
Me:  Cool.  I'm sure there something I can build for that style of music.  Is he in a band?  Can I listen to some of his music? (thinking I'll go to a bandcamp or facebook page and listen to some of his band's stuff).
Pete:  Yeah, he's in a band called Slipknot.  His name is Mick Thomson.

Now I don't listen to heavy rock music, but I sure know who Slipknot is, and was pretty sure it wasn't blues.  It turns out that Pete knows Mick through disc golf.  Slipknot is from Des Moines which is another disc golf hot spot with another stellar local club.  Since I was building this for someone who has access to any pedal he wants, I wanted to build something that he's probably never used before.  After watching his rig rundown, I settled on David's Giant Hogweed.  I had previously built one, and thought it would be something he would find unique like I did.  So I ordered a board, etched once of the cleanest looking enclosures I've done, and worked on it during the end of the winter.

And that's when things totally fell apart.  I've only had one build fail me, and this was the 2nd.  Somehow, the power and ground rails got connected.  I reflowed joints, I removed components, I spent what felt like weeks probing the board trying to find the bridge.  There's a long post on this board where David tried to help me figure out where my issue could be (thanks to him any anyone that tried to help btw). I had promised Pete I'd be done by March.  Since there was no way I was going to get this build done by then, I gave him the one off of my board.  I spent a little more time poking around before I trashed it, and ordered 2 more boards from David.  I finally got around to populating the board late last month, then got it in the enclosure earlier this evening.  It's still the brutal octave distortion I remember.

And Mick got back with Pete and told him he loved the sound and the options the pedal provided but said he can only use it with passive pickups.  I need to figure out a mod for active ones since that's what he uses in Slipknot.  I tried using a trimpot in front of the input, but wasn't quite satisfied with the effect that had on the octave.  With the final board I have I may try to add some sort of potentiometer before the initial gain stage.  If anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The moral of the story is:  play disc golf.  You too may end up with a crazy build story.  Oh, and it's fun watching discs fly .

[alanp]

Duuuuuude. That is one of the best stories this forum has had! Right up there with the Bill Frisell pedal.

Disc golf is the one where you're throwing frisbees into baskets, right?

[beneharris]

Yeah, that is great! Must be quite a feeling for you!

[mjg]

Cool story!  And the pedal looks good too.

(Although I was expecting the pedal to be built into a frisbee, I was sure that was where the story was going...)

[Manc]

Great story and great pedal! Though I had to llok up what disc golf actually is   

[Timko]

Thanks for the kind words!  The pedal was a great one to build, but the story is what made it something special.  And I'm trying to build another on for him for his live rig that will handle active pickups.

And maybe I should have posted a disc golf primer .  Like the assumptions pedal builders make of casual people's pedal knowledge (like the transistor counts in a Rangemaster, Fuzz Face, and Tonebender), I just assumed everyone has seen the sport or heard about it.  Here's some video for those unfamiliar with the sport; it's from a tournament in April in Emporia, KS and showcases some very good players on a really fun course.  There's going to be a lot of jargon the commentators use (the videos are marketed toward other disc golfers), but it gives you an idea of what the sport looks like.

Note:  The sport is not as easy as they make it look. 

[BrianS]

Not sure if your video linked on the post. I can't see it.  Looked at a YouTube video and never knew it was that involved, i.e., you need a bag of discs like golf clubs to play if for real.  Very interesting and good story.  That etch is awesome.

[matmosphere]

That's a pretty cool story. And I know exactly what disc golf is. I'm from the Dayton Ohio area and the sport is huge there. There are courses all over the place in that area. 

I wonder if adding a buffer at the front end would help the issue with active pickups.

I remember the Steve caballero story from last year but I don't know that I've herd the Bill Frisell story.

[stringsthings]

Awesome pedal and a great story!   Great etch and choice/color of knobs.

Hey!  Since Mick Thompson is famous, that makes you famous since you're his boutique pedal builder.
And since all of us at the forum know you thru the interwebz, ( and your personal post just to us )
that makes all of us famous by association!

And since my cat knows me, ... I now have a famous cat! 

[Timko]

Not sure if your video linked on the post. I can't see it.  Looked at a YouTube video and never knew it was that involved, i.e., you need a bag of discs like golf clubs to play if for real.  Very interesting and good story.  That etch is awesome.

Ah, good catch.  Fixed .

[Timko]

That's a pretty cool story. And I know exactly what disc golf is. I'm from the Dayton Ohio area and the sport is huge there. There are courses all over the place in that area. 

I wonder if adding a buffer at the front end would help the issue with active pickups.

I remember the Steve caballero story from last year but I don't know that I've herd the Bill Frisell story.

The circuit actually has a buffer at the beginning.  Mick told me that unless he turns the volume down to 1/4 or lower it's just like the pedal is full bore.  I've read about adding a potentiomer before the circuit, but trying the a 10k and 50k trimpot only affected the sound during the first part of it's travel.  I need to borrow someone's active pickup guitar to really try it out though.

And I'd love to hear either of the two stories you mentioned!   

[jimilee]

Would this help? I'm not sure the best way to incorporate it into an existing pedal though.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2017/06/electro-harmonix-signal-pad.html

[drolo]

Nice looking etch and great story :-)


Did he mention what exactly is overdriven too much? Like the overall fuzz tone, the octaves, not the octaves.
Depending on that you can reduce the gain at various spots in the circuit.
you could try to reduce R18, where the different signals are summed together. That will reduce the signal going into the main fuzz part.


Would also like to read that story about the Bill Frisell pedal !!

[Spacebass]

I m a noob at building stuff successfully,
but would something like this help before the octave i being hit, in order to make it see a passive alike signal and not an active signal?
http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

[Timko]

Nice looking etch and great story :-)


Did he mention what exactly is overdriven too much? Like the overall fuzz tone, the octaves, not the octaves.
Depending on that you can reduce the gain at various spots in the circuit.
you could try to reduce R18, where the different signals are summed together. That will reduce the signal going into the main fuzz part.


Would also like to read that story about the Bill Frisell pedal !!

From his texts, he told me that when he's comparing a passive guitar to his active guitar, the active guitar only has the same sounds when he turns the volume down 95%.  I was thinking of adding a potentiometer before T7 (which I think is the 1st gain stage) to reduce the overall signal heading to the fuzz.  Maybe replace R18 with a potentiometer?  Maybe a 250kA or a 500kA?