overdrive/fuzz quest part 2

[johnk_10]

finished another one, the JHS morning glory. this pedal is based on the marshall bluesbreaker. for me, stock, it cut too much low end so I modded it for no low end loss and more gain (dirt). it's now can be used as a clean boost, a slight overdrive, or a heavy distortion and it sounds great with a bass now.

 

[dukeorock]

It's been fun listening to your clips, John. Thanks so much for taking the time to do that!

So far, for my tastes, I've been loving the Barbershop, but there's a few you've done I'd love to have

 

[johnk_10]

It's been fun listening to your clips, John. Thanks so much for taking the time to do that!

So far, for my tastes, I've been loving the Barbershop, but there's a few you've done I'd love to have

glad to hear that you've found the info enjoyable and useful.

and yeah, the barbershop is still one of my top 5 faves out of the 150 overdrive/distortion pedals that I own, so, IMO, that's saying ALOT.


here's another one that I just completed, the Tycobrahe Octavia (with an added pre-drive control and octave up on/off switch):

 

[johnk_10]

finished boxing up my Earthquaker Devices Crimson Drive and Mad Professor (BJFE design) Sweet Honey overdrive.

both of these are really nice sounding pedals............

 

[taurus1]

finished another one, the JHS morning glory. this pedal is based on the marshall bluesbreaker. for me, stock, it cut too much low end so I modded it for no low end loss and more gain (dirt). it's now can be used as a clean boost, a slight overdrive, or a heavy distortion and it sounds great with a bass now.

I bet that sounds great.
when you mod these pedals for more low end, are you changing capacitors to allow more low end before, or after the gain stage?
pedals that have a bass knob, are some of them active circuits before or after the gain stage?

 

[johnk_10]

when you mod these pedals for more low end, are you changing capacitors to allow more low end before, or after the gain stage?

on some I raise the values of the input and output coupling caps, on others it's in the clipping circuit and sometimes it's both.

pedals that have a bass knob, are some of them active circuits before or after the gain stage?

most of them aren't before the gain stage, but some like the Timmy are.

 

[BigBeatNut]

finished another one, the JHS morning glory. this pedal is based on the marshall bluesbreaker. for me, stock, it cut too much low end so I modded it for no low end loss and more gain (dirt). it's now can be used as a clean boost, a slight overdrive, or a heavy distortion and it sounds great with a bass now.

That sounds just great. I have a Mooer Blues Crab which allegedly also a BB clone .... the only failing of that is the slight low-end loss (or actually, progressive top-end boost with increased gain, I think).

Would love your version in a 1590A format. Maybe I'll have to start pedal building myself.

 

[Silver Blues]

Hah that's crimson all right... could you make a clip? Really interested to know if it sounds as good on bass as it does guitar.

 

[johnk_10]

That sounds just great. I have a Mooer Blues Crab which allegedly also a BB clone .... the only failing of that is the slight low-end loss (or actually, progressive top-end boost with increased gain, I think).

Would love your version in a 1590A format. Maybe I'll have to start pedal building myself.

there's no way I could fit mine in a 1590A (as you can see below):

Mooer uses smd components and tiny pots so they can get them in their tiny enclosures, but I personally don't care for the 1590A sized pedals. they're just too small for me.

 

[taurus1]

on some I raise the values of the input and output coupling caps, on others it's in the clipping circuit and sometimes it's both.


pedals that have a bass knob, are some of them active circuits before or after the gain stage?

most of them aren't before the gain stage, but some like the Timmy are.[/QUOTE]

thanks for the help. I assume most clipping circuits attenuate low end, and low end has to put back to make it work for bass.
is that the case?
I'm guessing that in a tube pre amp, the signal hits the gain stage first and then gets eq'd?
I'm asking because there's another thread that references the DS-1 with claims being made that it removes bottom end from the signal and "cant be put back", you cant eq or boost frequencies that "don't exist anymore", as though the DS-1 acts likes a high pass filter or something to that effect.
it's my assumption that the clipping stage in the DS-1 doesn't completely remove the bass frequencies, it just attenuates them, to a degree.
therefore using an eq after the DS-1, those attenuated frequencies can be brought back up, because they do in fact still remain, they've just been attenuated.
so in theory, using an eq after a pedal like a DS-1, is no different than a "bass" distortion pedal that contains its own active eq, it's simply providing eq after the clipping stage and boosting (or cutting) that which was attenuated (or boosted) by the clipping stage.
am I way off here?
thanks if you can answer, your builds and this thread is amazing.

 

[johnk_10]

I built a couple more circuits last night ( but I haven't boxed them yet). like the morning glory, both of them are based on the black box marshall bluesbreaker.

one of them is the Suhr Riot. it's a high gain, heavy distortion pedal and a lot of guitarists love them. one of them was recently taken apart, had every component documented and its schematic drawn, so I built one up, socketing the caps in it, and tested it. IMO, it has a nice distortion tone but overall was too dark sounding for me, especially on low gain/drive settings. I ended up changing quite a few caps in it, and IMO, it's a lot better sounding, especially for bass now. i'll post a clip of it once it's completed.

the other one is the Analogman king of tone (KOT). I think that this one is a great sounding pedal for bass, and is even a little better if you change the input cap to a slightly higher value. i'm really digging its transparency, low end retention, tube amp-like response, overdrive and its heavy distortion tones. IMO, it's a great sounding pedal.


also, having more time to play thru the Klon that i modded for bass, I have to say that it's now in my top 5 favorite distortions for bass. it seems that Klons aren't really appreciated for their distortion, but rather their clean and slightly overdriven tone by most that own one, but I gotta say, I love even the heavy distortion in mine. when you run it at high gain and hold a note, it makes a smooth transition, jumping up to a harmonic while it sustains.

 

[Vlad5]

Yeah, the KOT is in 'Holy Grail' territory over at TGP, right up there with the Timmy, but harder to get for a deal. I've been wanting to try one too, for the guitar board.

You build some really nice looking (and sounding) pedals John! I dig every paint scheme you come up with and I'm still super loving this thread.

Cheers!

 

[johnk_10]

Yeah, the KOT is in 'Holy Grail' territory over at TGP, right up there with the Timmy, but harder to get for a deal. I've been wanting to try one too, for the guitar board.

You build some really nice looking (and sounding) pedals John! I dig every paint scheme you come up with and I'm still super loving this thread.

Cheers!

thanks!

yeah, it seems that the KOT is not only hard to get for a deal, it's hard to get without waiting a year for one and I can understand why it's held in high regard up there with the Timmy. it's really nice sounding overdrive, simple to operate and it's difficult to get a bad sound out of it.

 

[johnk_10]

I couldn't be happier with this one. I mounted the two clipping switches externally on mine (the original has them on DIP switches inside of the pedal unless you ask him to put them as toggles on the outside).

 

[Jim C]

Hi John,
You posted your top 10 awhile back but you've added so many more. What's the top 10 these days?
Maybe easier to think of it as top 5 that are overdrives and top 5 that are distortion boxes. Thanks for all the R&D, fabrication, and sound clips. It is a huge benefit to the bass community.

BTW, how's your dog doing?

 

[Bassmike62]

finished another one, the JHS morning glory. this pedal is based on the marshall bluesbreaker. for me, stock, it cut too much low end so I modded it for no low end loss and more gain (dirt). it's now can be used as a clean boost, a slight overdrive, or a heavy distortion and it sounds great with a bass now.

Wow. Awesome.

 

[johnk_10]

Hi John,
You posted your top 10 awhile back but you've added so many more. What's the top 10 these days?
Maybe easier to think of it as top 5 that are overdrives and top 5 that are distortion boxes. Thanks for all the R&D, fabrication, and sound clips. It is a huge benefit to the bass community.

BTW, how's your dog doing?

Dixie's doing great. she's recovered 110%. thanks for asking.


I was just thinking about my top 10 pedals and so far, in no particular order it's:

the Barbershop
the flipster (or ginger)
the Klon clone (modded for bass)
the Ecstasy
the Xotic RC (bass)
the Cornish SS-2 (modded for bass)
the Timmy
the KOT
the blackstone mosfet overdrive
and the Holy fire.

 

[rodl2005]

Glad Dixie's doing well John :thumbup:

 

[jumbodbassman]

go Dixie!!!!

 

[liveburning274]

Hey John here's a question for you I'm trying to land...I am looking for that next level of distortion past low OD. I'm liking something like a OCD type tone and what I fell in love with at the local GC was a Plimsoul at medium to high gain. It had a ton more mojo to my ears than the OCD even. But the problem remains that it doesn't hold the lows, or at least compresses them really heavily. Any ideas of some bass-friendly alternatives that I can look into? How hard would modding a Plimsoul be? I'm told Fulltones aren't really mod-friendly once you pop the hood.

Thanks in advance!