overdrive/fuzz quest

[caeman]

John, you make some very cool pedals. If you went into business, Boss would go out of business.

[yaksonator]

Originally Posted by johnk_10

i got my fenderblender completed. i wasn't crazy about the tone of it in the 'boost' mode, so i modded the tone of that part of the circuit. i also added an 'octave on/off' switch to give it a more 'normal' fuzz mode.

here's a couple of pics of it:

Do you sell any is these?? They be pretty sweet!

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by caeman

John, you make some very cool pedals. If you went into business, Boss would go out of business.

your kind words are deeply appreciated.
........ but i'm positive that boss wouldn't go out of biz since i can't mass produce them, or even come close to competing in their price range. all of mine are scratchbuilt by hand, and then i tune each one individually to get to what i think is the most out of it.

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by yaksonator

Do you sell any is these?? They be pretty sweet!

i've built a few of them for my friends, and modded a couple of TB member's pedals to sound better with a bass.

[Duke21]

A little technical question, regarding distortion, what is the main differences between the germanium, silicon and led diodes? Which of them give more tube OD type of breakup?

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by Duke21

A little technical question, regarding distortion, what is the main differences between the germanium, silicon and led diodes? Which of them give more tube OD type of breakup?

germaniums have a lower forward voltage so they break up sooner (and have smoother, darker clipping). silicons are a bit more bright and pass more signal before they clip than germaniums. leds have a higher forward voltage than silicons and break up the least. red ones break up sooner than greens, and green ones break up sooner than blues.

[Dazonbass]

Keep meaning to ask how you label your pedals so cleanly? Is it a type of sticker?

[ubnomnar]

Originally Posted by johnk_10

with the exception of a few of them, i buy my enclosures pre-powder coated from pedal parts plus. i also get my footswitches, most of my knobs, and DC jacks from them too.

i get my electrical components from mouser, and my blank veroboards & hi temp, teflon coated silver plated wire from allelectronics.

to label them, i use a brother p-touch PT-2100 and use the software that came with it.

Originally Posted by Dazonbass

Keep meaning to ask how you label your pedals so cleanly? Is it a type of sticker?

I'm awestruck by the excellence of John's custom pedal creations

[Dazonbass]

Originally Posted by ubnomnar

I'm awestruck by the excellence of John's custom pedal creations

+1...

thanks ubnomnar, read the entire thread one day but must have skimmed over the labelling.

[ryansalmond]

Hey John I've read that the black 65's eq controls are wired before the gain stage- I own a wampler euphoria which as you probably know has its bass control before the gain stage as well, and it has a huge impact on the distortion itself, almost acting like a different gain.

I'm wondering if you find the eq on the black 65 to have a similar type of impact, because in the guitar demos Ive seen on youtube, they seem to respond more like a normal eq.

And do they each impact the gain differently? ie. would boosting mids and cutting lows and highs result in dirty mids with cleaner highs and lows? Or do they each simply push the gain to clip earlier or later by feeding more or less volume into the gain, varying only in amounts (ie. bass pushing it the most because that's where the most volume from the fundamental of the note is, the mids pushing it the same way but less so, highs same but even less so).

[johnk_10]

yeah, the ecstasy ( and cochrane's timmy), which are both IC/opamp based pedals, have the bass control pre-gain, but the black '65 (jfet based) has the treble, mids and bass all post-gain, so the distortion's drive characteristic doesn't change with the eq knobs, just the overall tone of it.

[ryansalmond]

That's so strange, proguitarshop says: "...Bass, Mids and Treble are wired pre-clipping just like an amp and have a great influence over the texture, sound and quality of the overdrive."
-http://proguitarshop.com/wampler-black-65.html

I wish they were right as that would be way more flexible. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll get someone to mod it that way. Thank you for answering!

[Fuzz Aldrin]

John, thank you so much for sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge. As someone who is on the 'tone journey', you are saving me a lot of time and money (and dirty looks from my wife) by posting all your findings. Very generous of you to share.

Also, I have a question about the Timmy and WIIO pedals for you (or anyone that has experience with these.) I've read on your site that the Johnny clone you made is the same as the Timmy with no modifications. I take that to mean the Timmy is great on bass with no low end loss. Is that what you found? And I'm wondering the same thing about the WIIO. Did you have to mod anything to keep the bass, or does the original hold the bass pretty well. I'm looking at the Timmy and the SFT, but might consider the WIIO if there is no loss of low end.
Thanks again!

[johnk_10]

Originally Posted by D McCauley

John, thank you so much for sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge. As someone who is on the 'tone journey', you are saving me a lot of time and money (and dirty looks from my wife) by posting all your findings. Very generous of you to share.

Also, I have a question about the Timmy and WIIO pedals for you (or anyone that has experience with these.) I've read on your site that the Johnny clone you made is the same as the Timmy with no modifications. I take that to mean the Timmy is great on bass with no low end loss. Is that what you found? And I'm wondering the same thing about the WIIO. Did you have to mod anything to keep the bass, or does the original hold the bass pretty well. I'm looking at the Timmy and the SFT, but might consider the WIIO if there is no loss of low end.
Thanks again!

glad to hear that you've found this thread to be helpful.


both my Timmy clone (the 'johnny') and the WIIO are built absolutely stock, and neither one of them has any low end loss whatsoever. as a matter of fact, with their bass controls they both can increase your low end should you want them to.

[Fuzz Aldrin]

Originally Posted by johnk_10

glad to hear that you've found this thread to be helpful.


both my Timmy clone (the 'johnny') and the WIIO are built absolutely stock, and neither one of them has any low end loss whatsoever. as a matter of fact, with their bass controls they both can increase your low end should you want them to.

Thanks John! I will definitely have to take a look at the WIIO now.

[johnk_10]

i finally got my ampeg scrambler clone completed & boxed up . for the build, i used the original spec 2N5306 darlington transistors and 1N456 clipping diodes in it. i also added a volume control to it's outputm and an extra (switchable) output boost stage to it, so it can also be used as a clean boost, and/or raise the overall output of the pedal. the originals don't even have a volume control (the just have a 'balance, which is a clean blend, and a textrue control for the fuzz. this is a really unusual and cool sounding pedal, especially when setting the texture toward the octave up mode. anyway, here's a pic of it:



it looks pretty simple on the outside, but it actually has more complex wiring than most of my other builds.

[Duke21]

I thought about sharing my "experience" with the Fender Blender and the Møller T-Rex OD:
Fender Blender alone, the tune is well known :
http://soundcloud.com/duke21/the-house-of-the-rising

And some bits and pieces:
Part 1:
Amepg B15R & 4x12S cab with Fender Blender & X Chorus
Part 2:
Amepg B15R & 15R cab with Fender Phaser & Møller OD
http://soundcloud.com/duke21/apocalips-mix-m4a

[Duke21]

Originally Posted by johnk_10

i finally got my ampeg scrambler clone completed & boxed up . for the build, i used the original spec 2N5306 darlington transistors and 1N456 clipping diodes in it. i also added a volume control to it's outputm and an extra (switchable) output boost stage to it, so it can also be used as a clean boost, and/or raise the overall output of the pedal. the originals don't even have a volume control (the just have a 'balance, which is a clean blend, and a textrue control for the fuzz. this is a really unusual and cool sounding pedal, especially when setting the texture toward the octave up mode. anyway, here's a pic of it:



it looks pretty simple on the outside, but it actually has more complex wiring than most of my other builds.

Amazing as always John! Some MAJOR company should hire you for researching in this area and some more!!

[johnk_10]

i just got my great destroyer clone boxed up too. this one is capable of ALOT of different flavors of fuzz, and it's extremely interactive with my bass's volume and tone controls.

[Dazonbass]

John big thanks. A few months ago I soldered together the Ginger but never ended up boxing it up and completing it. However, after reading how much praise you gave it, I was remotivated and finished the project. It did not disappoint at all! I really like the range the drive has and can definitely see why you put it in your top Ten (or top five).