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Official Wren And Cuff Club

#42
jumblemind said:
I can't seem to find it, but in a classifieds thread where mmbongo was selling his, Matt chimed in with a great description of what happens at different stages of the knob turn. It seemed fairly complex and reactive to inputs, like you say.
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I found the thread:



Matt said:
Ha! see, you thought the Phat B wasn't good for ya either...
BTW, I only mean that in jest.
To get the Mercy to really do its thing, you gotta roll the tone knob back on your bass about 1/2 way and work the treble with that.
Then, you turn the amp down a good dose, and turn the pedal up. As the volume on the pedal is turned up, a second gain stage that was not being pushed before starts to get pushed.
I wanted to make as many things happen as possible with one knob, so here it is...
It's almost like you have two pedals hiding in that little pedal. When the volume is down around unity, the first gain stage or "Pedal #1" is just adding some grit and goodness. The second gain stage or "pedal #2" for my example is simply acting as a buffer of sorts just helping your signal through, but...
Push up the volume and the second gain stage gets its muscles pumping. The output from that first gain stage starts kicking it in the face and telling it to wake the f*$k up.
The more you raise the volume, the more that second gain stage gets pummeled.
You end up with the clipping from #1, meshing with the clipping from #2, and things really start sizzling and getting edgy and focused.
Want to see it in action? Pop the back off and play through it. You'll see the led's do their thing.
Also, you can dial back the trimmer, and this will clean up the first stage, but if you raise the volume the second stage still gets pummeled.
The only concern some may have is that the output gets pretty crazy when the pedal is pumping.
The traditional way to deal with that would be to add a master volume. but… The sound is effected when you do so, and the pedal couldn’t be one knob which is very important to me.
Ya gotta dig.
Vid is being uploaded that explains this more.
So, if you haven’t cranked the output, then you’ve only heard half the pedal.
:-}
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What Matt explains here pretty much sums it up. It's tricky to dial in, especially when trying to keep a constant overall volume all the way through the signal chain. It has forced me to reevaluate having different volumes for different sounds and applications.
 
#43
Thx for starting the thread guys, appreciate it!
I see the mercy Phuk is still causing some head scratching... It can get pretty crazy and the output can overwhelm in some circumstances. But keep in mind, running it at unity gain (even volume, no boost), or a mild boost, can also be used as a mega presence boost to help cut in a live situation. Tell me this Nero... And you can be brutally honest here. How do you feel about the sound in general, regardless of other pedals?
 
#52
I will have a TFR at some point...ended up trading my grey stache for something else, but I'm sure I will have one in the fold eventually.

Ps, the phat phuk is awesome. Can't decide if I want to leave it on all the time or use it as a boost...
 
#55
zwkoch said:
I will be joining you soon. TFR on the way.
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I have you in at #12

Rabidrasbora said:
Love my Box of War, TFR is next on the list...
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I have you in at #13

ttasselm said:
I love my Tall Font and thoroughly miss my Phat Phuk.
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I have you in at #14

LawrenceKanter said:
I leave my phat Phuk on all the time. It's one of those pedals that makes all your other pedals sound better.

Very curious about the mod people are talking about.
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I have you in at #15
 
#56
Wren and Cuff said:
Thx for starting the thread guys, appreciate it!
I see the mercy Phuk is still causing some head scratching... It can get pretty crazy and the output can overwhelm in some circumstances. But keep in mind, running it at unity gain (even volume, no boost), or a mild boost, can also be used as a mega presence boost to help cut in a live situation. Tell me this Nero... And you can be brutally honest here. How do you feel about the sound in general, regardless of other pedals?
Click to expand...

To keep it short: I. LOVE. IT. That's why I'm holding on to it.

I would have flipped it if it didn't sound so ridiculously good. It's the most natural drive pedal I've ever had, the gain staging really hits a soft spot for me.

Why do you ask?

ps. Thanks for making awesome pedals!
 
#57
thx man. I ask because it's still relatively new so I like to get as much honest input as possible. Trying to make an overdrive that is unique and not based on a tube-screamer is a pretty tough task in a saturated pedal market. Add to that the fact that it only has one knob... I like to see if people are willing to dig around to get the most out of it (which it sounds like you are doing!). I also like to get as much "real world" input as possible.
These days, its pretty easy to slap together a pedal and put it out there, but I never want to do that. In fact, I get pretty crazy and put a lot into each design. The Mercy went through about 8 revisions before I was sure about it!
But the bottom line is that it doesn't matter how much I put into it if it doesn't do the job for people... :-)
Glad you like it!
 
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#58
Wren and Cuff said:
These days, its pretty easy to slap together a pedal and put it out there, but I never want to do that. In fact, I get pretty crazy and put a lot into each design. The Mercy went through about 8 revisions before I was sure about it!
But the bottom line is that it doesn't matter how much I put into it if it doesn't do the job for people... :-)
Glad you like it!
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This is why I plan on ordering more W&C pedals. Very impressive!
 
#59
Matt,

I've had a phat phuk B for a while now, and am curious as to why several folks have had them modded to put the bias control on the outside. Is this due to using basses with different outputs?

Have to admit, with my lower output P basses, it is set perfectly, but I do find when I use my newer US P that I'd like to dial back the gain of the phat b a bit...

What are your thoughts on the mod, and would you have put this control on the outside if you were starting from scratch with this pedal??
 
#60
Flymo Wang said:
Matt,

I've had a phat phuk B for a while now, and am curious as to why several folks have had them modded to put the bias control on the outside. Is this due to using basses with different outputs?

Have to admit, with my lower output P basses, it is set perfectly, but I do find when I use my newer US P that I'd like to dial back the gain of the phat b a bit...

What are your thoughts on the mod, and would you have put this control on the outside if you were starting from scratch with this pedal??
Click to expand...

The only reason I got the mod was because I don't like opening up my pedals to adjust something...honestly I'll probably keep it in one position most of the time, but now if I do want to change it I don't have to open it up.
 

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