It's Here (E.A.S.C. Content)

[warwick.hoy]

Another Earthbound Audio Supercollider. #111

So after a 6 week wait it's here. This thread would probably have more to it but unfortunately my bass is in the shop. I'm going to pick my bass up in about an hour and head to a rehearsal....so I'll have a moment to mess with it there (and hopefully not piss off my bandmates).

Seems like the craze has died down a little on these but I'm very stoked to receive it finally. Here is some info I got from Mark during the wait.

James,

Excellent timing, I just sent an email to the email address you used for the payment. The pedal shipped out today and will take about 3-4 days to get to your coast.<snip>

Apologies for the extra wait time. Life has been a little hectic lately. I should note that your pedal is the second using bc239c transistors (i used to use 2n5088 or 2n5089). I think they give a better balance of thick tone and definition. Let me know how you like it!

-Mark

Better balance of thick tone and definition.....sounds good to me.



EDIT: And it's a kickin pedal. Really rich sounding...get's pretty raunchy really loud...gives me lots of feed back to play with. The bottom end is still there as well and sounds like a bass...also sounds great with the OC-2. I don't think I turned it off very much at rehearsal.

 

[smo]

Aren't they just the coolest looking pedal to ever come through the post?
Let us know what you think of a thick and balanced tone, and what your fave settings are. Please?

I find I have depth set all the way left,
Tone set all the way to bass, and mids maxed. Doesn't leave too much room to move. I also find increasing gain has quite a bit of say in how much bass is in the tone coming through.

I've had mine for quite a while now, a big footprint V2 like yours;
Do you have any opportunity to compare it to an older one for tonal differences?

smo

 

[warwick.hoy]

Aren't they just the coolest looking pedal to ever come through the post?
Let us know what you think of a thick and balanced tone, and what your fave settings are. Please?

I find I have depth set all the way left,
Tone set all the way to bass, and mids maxed. Doesn't leave too much room to move. I also find increasing gain has quite a bit of say in how much bass is in the tone coming through.

I've had mine for quite a while now, a big footprint V2 like yours;
Do you have any opportunity to compare it to an older one for tonal differences?

smo

This are the settings it wound up on last night. It was a rehearsal so I didn't have too much time to noodle. Consider these on the fly settings.

Since they are hard to see...the depth knob is all the way left....like yours. The tone knob is between 1 and 2 'o'clock and the mids at about 11. I like to try it with the gain a little higher.

I have no basis for comparison but this pedal is an absolute monster. I love it. I also have a BOSS SD-2 Dual Overdrive....but I think that would be an apples to oranges comparison.

I have heard the V1 on grygrx's website (www.bassfuzz.com), but it is hard to make a comparison based on soundclips recorded direct to soundcard on a passive P-bass. This is also my 1st fuzz but to me it seems very creamy and authoritative. Cuts through great, retains a lot if not all low end. A perfect bass fuzz.

 

[smo]

I find it does depend how hot a signal you feed it.
With my P (rip off) I can use a few more of the settings a bit more freely, but with the actives - with full volume - the SC gets a very saturated feel, and the fuzz is freakish. I have to set the tone below 10 o'clock or I lose the lows quite quickly, but the SC has enough low. Also, the higher the gain, the more lows come through.
Certainly enough for a stoner rock kinda fella like me who uses ported 15's.

With the tone set higher like you show here, with my SC, I find the tone very jangly with a significant drop in bass output. Very similar to how the traditional Muff tone knob works.

Seems the circuit has been improved then..........good for you!

 

[warwick.hoy]

Mine seems very active friendly. I get a lot of feedback which may or may not be attributed to the MEC PUPs. The feedback of course is only when I'm not playing and in some cases....I'm playing the feedback.

I certainly need to do some more knob fiddling but out of the gate this pedal sounds awesome. I might have to wait till the novelty wears off, but I think I've saved myself some headaches and cash with some less than bass friendly fuzzes. (Thanks TB)

My cab is surprisingly low end heavy and solid state, which may contribute some to the settings. I didn't notice any janglyness but my ear may be a bit untrained for that. I was wearing earplugs (hearos).

The one band that I use effects in is a 3 piece that; while still in it's infancy, is appearing to be a little mathy, a little synthy, a little dancy....A little Team Sleepy. Guitarist uses an AC30 and the drummer is tastefully spastic....the SC could be on a majority of the time.

 

[dannybuoy]

Hmm, tempted to try different trannies in mine now! My SC has competition now that I have a Frantone Bassweet though. The Bassweet has bigger balls and more definition, but the SC has a more organic feel, with more varied textures and less compression.

 

[smo]

Gotta admit - I'm tempted too.
But I think I'll leave this alone for now, unitl the SC is off my board - which may be a long time away -last time I tried modifying a great pedal, it became a not-so-great pedal.:scowl:

 

[Grimoire]

Only six weeks??

 

[dannybuoy]

Well, I'm gonna attempt to clone my Beast into a small enclosure, then I can put sockets in for the trannies. I'll get rid of Osc 2 and keep Osc 1 so it'll only need 2 footswitches. I can also get rid of the depth knob as I only ever have it set to minimum otherwise it loses low end.

 

[rcubed]

Well, I'm gonna attempt to clone my Beast into a small enclosure, then I can put sockets in for the trannies. I'll get rid of Osc 2 and keep Osc 1 so it'll only need 2 footswitches. I can also get rid of the depth knob as I only ever have it set to minimum otherwise it loses low end.

Let me know how that goes. I'm wondering what mods he did for the two oscillators (if they're the same ones used on the Big Muff mods website or not).

 

[dannybuoy]

Yeah, Osc 1 is brilliant, it makes the fuzz so much more reactive and alive, you can leave it on for playing all the time but have to switch it off when not playing because of the noise it creates. Osc 2 is more of a tone generator that I didn't really find much of a use for. There's a vero layout on freestompboxes.org to get a Big Muff circuit into a horizontal Mammoth style enclosure too so I might try that... or just stuff all my favourite fuzz circuits into one bigger box! Still at the homework stage at the moment though.

 

[dannybuoy]

I've not done a full trace yet, just trying to figure out what the diodes are and the values of some of the smaller caps before fully disassembling it. But it looks like the Osc1 switch (AKA the Bonekrushing switch) hooks up the emitters from Q2 and Q3, and the Osc2 switch hooks up the collectors from Q1 and Q3 with a pot acting as a variable resistor inbetween. All the solder points are nicely labelled Q2e1 etc on the PCB!

 

[rcubed]

I've not done a full trace yet, just trying to figure out what the diodes are and the values of some of the smaller caps before fully disassembling it. But it looks like the Osc1 switch (AKA the Bonekrushing switch) hooks up the emitters from Q2 and Q3, and the Osc2 switch hooks up the collectors from Q1 and Q3 with a pot acting as a variable resistor inbetween. All the solder points are nicely labelled Q2e1 etc on the PCB!

Thanks for doing that. I've done both those mods minus the pot used between Q1 and Q3. You're right, the Q2E/Q3E mod is the better of the two.