overdrive/fuzz quest

[Jared Lash]

John did you ever make clips for your Prunes & Custard clone?

And what were your overall thoughts on it?

It's a pedal that I like quite a bit but doesn't have universal appeal like some of the other great ODs you've built/tried.

 

[johnk_10]

BTW, almost preffered the 'plain' & polished look on this one, so I just painted the lettering on it by hand:

 

[johnk_10]

John did you ever make clips for your Prunes & Custard clone?

And what were your overall thoughts on it?

I like it a lot, but I haven't had a chance to record some clips of it yet. i'll try to post one soon.

 

[Jared Lash]

If you ever get the chance to try it with an octaver it sounds a lot like a Moog or old analog synth in the mix. Very cool for funky jams.

 

[johnk_10]

here's another recent OD build that sounds great:

 

[Silver Blues]

Is that the Timmy clone? How's it for bass?

--Silvie

 

[johnk_10]

Is that the Timmy clone? How's it for bass?

--Silvie

it's VERY similar to a Timmy and just like the Timmy, it's awesome on bass.

 

[Stumbo]

BTW, almost preffered the 'plain' & polished look on this one, so I just painted the lettering on it by hand:

Have you tried your Blue Tube with guitar?

I have a Blue Tube from about 1993. It sounds great with an '83 Les Paul Studio w/ Dimarzios/coil switch/tap, Sunn 200, and a 4x12 half-stack of Celestion 75's. Unfortunately the pedal does not have a 3-way ground and gets noisy.

I exchanged the original one I purchased because it arrived DOA (broken tube). I noticed when I took it apart it the internals had been covered in silicon in an attempt, I guess, to keep people from copying it.

Is what you build similar to the one I have? Would mine be able to be updated with a 3-way plug?

Thanks,
Stumbo

 

[johnk_10]

yours has an internal transformer (it runs on 120VAC), like my original one does, which makes them more prone to hum. i power my clones differently, running them on DC, which makes them hum-free.

the goop wasn't used to hide the components, it was to keep the tube from dislodging from the socket and other components from coming loose from the PCB.

 

[liveburning274]

John have you ever tried the Black Cat OD/Fuzz on bass before? I'm not finding much info out there and was curious.

 

[johnk_10]

John have you ever tried the Black Cat OD/Fuzz on bass before? I'm not finding much info out there and was curious.

I haven't tried that one yet, but it is in my build cue.

 

[johnk_10]

I made up a vero layout for the swollen pickle, built it and tested it. I used 4 separate transistors instead of the quad array MPQ3904LF transistor chip. on mine, the two internal controls are on the outside so it'll be a 7-knobber. IMO, it's a pretty nice BMP variant with a TON of low end.

here's a pic of the circuit:

 

[Silver Blues]

Seven knob Muff, hot damn. I'm going to have to give that one a listen.

--Silvie

 

[johnk_10]

yeah, the controls are: sustain, tone, loudness (vol), crunch, scoop, voice, and clip.

 

[johnk_10]

BTW, the current Swollen Pickle MKII also has the same 7 controls, it's just that two of them (voice and clip) are on the inside.

 

[johnk_10]

since the Black CAT OD-1 is such a simple circuit, I just built one in about 1/2 hour.

IMO, it's a nice sounding OD, but it's just a little dark for my taste, and the note decay is a bit annoying (it fizzes a little at the end of the note fade). I tried to brighten it up a little by lowering the values of the small caps (two 220pfs and one 100pf, to two 100p's and a 47 p) and though it was a little brighter, IMO, it ruined the tone of it so I put the original values back in. i also tried a TL072 instead of the OP275, but the OP275 sounds a lot better in it. i'm going to try a few other opamps in it just to see if I can make it a little more to my liking (I have more than 20 different typres of dual opamp chips that I can try in it so it could take a while.

 

[johnk_10]

I've tried about ten different chips in the BC OD so far, and the original OP275 is the best sounding one in it.

 

[liveburning274]

Thanks for some comment on this John. You didn't happen to record it did you??? I've not been able to track down any clips of this particular OD on bass.

 

[johnk_10]

i'll make a clip of it tomorrow. to me, it's a decent sounding OD, but nowhere near as nice as the others that i've built so this one's going on the back burner for now. it does clean up nicely with the volume control and seems to get a little brighter but i'm also going to try a Cornish buffer in front of it to see if that brightens it up.

BTW, just to show how simple the blackcat is, here's a pic of the circuit:

 

[johnk_10]

I just tried the Black Cat OD with the Cornish buffer, it restored the missing high end and clarity, but it lost the low end so it's going to take more experimentation with this one.