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ZVex Wooly Mammoth alternative or clone?

#41
warwick.hoy said:
To the OP,...I lurked your profile and couldn't tell if you were running active or passive basses. The WM is not known to be active friendly.
Click to expand...

I missed this earlier in the thread. I'm all passive, all the time. I've generally had better luck with passive instruments. My primary bass (which gets used 99% of the time) has two Darkstar pickups wired to a 3-way Gibson-style toggle (bridge solo, 50-50 mix, neck solo) and then straight to the jack. My other has DiMarzio Model J's wired neck-parallel, bridge-series and then straight to the jack.

I had an EE friend of mine look at the circuit shown earlier in this thread and he said "That'd be a piece of cake to build." Based on that, the allure of building a WM clone and saving a bunch of cash was great enough to offset my thoughts about it being unethical. I just ordered all of the parts I'm going to need to build it, minus what my EE buddy already has. Total cost, excluding me taking him out to dinner to thank him for his labor and a few of the parts, came in right at $30 USD shipped to my door.

I'm not sure if the circuit will sound exactly like a WM, but it will hopefully sound good and will be a fun project. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
#42
A buddy of mine built a clone for I think the second or third pedal he ever built. Personally I didn't really care for it, but if you're into the sound FSB has all the info there and the parts aren't very expensive. I'm pretty sure he used that "furry elephant" layout, though I'm completely sure. Most of the forums I post on he lurks and pops in when I mention his pedals, but he doesn't play bass.
 
#46
You should be able to find the WM in the smaller mom and pop boutique stores. You won't find it in a GC or Sam Ash because #1 it's a bass effect (it's bad enough to carry tons of guitar effects) and #2 it's an expensive bass effect. Honestly, you won't see the "Sears and Wallmarts" carrying pedals like this because nobody is going to be buying them all that often. It's just going to sit there taking up inventory space that could be better served selling off a bunch of BOSS or DigiTech pedals or something more mainstream. The reason that the boutique mom and pop's can carry pedals like this is that they thrive on the uniqueness of their inventory offerings that all the GC and Sam Ash and all of the others just don't carry.
 
#47
xray said:
Yep -that's why it's always better to "try before you buy", however, ZV knows this and won't retail the WM for fear of returns. It's smarter to build a $20 clone than to spend $350 dollars on 20 parts and pieces and not be satisfied.
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Yeah.... It's all a big conspiracy by Zvex :ninja:

:rollno:


Seriously, cut the guy some slack. Nearly all dirt pedals are made from a handful of cheap components. Zvex charges what he charges and lots of people happily pay that price. If you don't want to pay the price, then fine, you will find other ways of getting the pedal, but don't drag the guy down in the process.
 
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#48
silky smoove said:
I missed this earlier in the thread. I'm all passive, all the time. I've generally had better luck with passive instruments. My primary bass (which gets used 99% of the time) has two Darkstar pickups wired to a 3-way Gibson-style toggle (bridge solo, 50-50 mix, neck solo) and then straight to the jack. My other has DiMarzio Model J's wired neck-parallel, bridge-series and then straight to the jack.

I had an EE friend of mine look at the circuit shown earlier in this thread and he said "That'd be a piece of cake to build." Based on that, the allure of building a WM clone and saving a bunch of cash was great enough to offset my thoughts about it being unethical. I just ordered all of the parts I'm going to need to build it, minus what my EE buddy already has. Total cost, excluding me taking him out to dinner to thank him for his labor and a few of the parts, came in right at $30 USD shipped to my door.

I'm not sure if the circuit will sound exactly like a WM, but it will hopefully sound good and will be a fun project. Thanks for the help everyone.
Click to expand...

Vex has allowed, although somewhat reluctantly, his schematics to be used by the hobby builder and such. So there is less unethical-ness about it.
 
#50
gnasher1993 said:
You might like the sound of a Tonebender Mk1. Definitely worth checking out out if you can.
Click to expand...

Yup - I've got the SFX Micro Fuzz which is a Colorsound Bass Fuzz clone, which is similar to the Tonebender.

By the way, here's what you need to add to your circuit to get the Wooly Mammoth active friendly:

http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

Arger make a WM clone with a clean blend as well as the pickup simulation transformer (which they also can do as a separate unit):

Link Removed
 
#52
iamdenialNJ said:
Here is a woolly mammoth clone i bought off of this guy who builds clones for himself but decided to sell this one. No clue if it's a 100% woolly mammoth clone as I have no clue what to look for inside or how to compare schematics but it does sound like a woolly mammoth and all knobs play like what the mammoth demos say they do. It plays great with both passive and active basses but guitar not so much.
P4200020.jpg

P4200022.jpg
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How come it worked fine with active basses????
 
#54
Jacktctrl, Thats not s tupid question. Check out tonepad.com and generalguitargadgets.com for whats called off-board wiring. THere you get your jacks, switches, leds..etc.


Taylor Livingston said:
The WM is most definitely a slightly tweaked Fuzz Face. It just replaces some resistors with pots and adds a simple tone control on the end.
Click to expand...

You could buy a dunlop fuzz face and mod it.

Theres a great Jazz bass thru Fuzz Face tone from ELP. I forget the album but I think Lucky Man is on it? Awesome tone anyhoo.

a live version but the recorded version is just nasty.
 
#55
Thanks for those links Mike.


I've seen the off board wiring on some other websites but the boards I've seen like this have an In, Out, Ground, 9v and a wire just labelled switch coming off the board ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] If you scroll down there is a diagram with the off board wiring on it).


This veroboard doesn't have the switch wire so I wanted to know where you would put this on the board or if it's necessary at all.
 
#56
Jackctrl said:
Thanks for those links Mike.


I've seen the off board wiring on some other websites but the boards I've seen like this have an In, Out, Ground, 9v and a wire just labelled switch coming off the board ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] If you scroll down there is a diagram with the off board wiring on it).


This veroboard doesn't have the switch wire so I wanted to know where you would put this on the board or if it's necessary at all.
Click to expand...

The switch wire on that diagram is for the led. Mike's links to offboard wiring should point you in the right direction for wiring up the led.
 
#59
Keep us posted! I'm also interested in building a mammoth clone eventually. I ordered a starter kit for the LPB-1 on DIY stomboxes though, so I gotta do that first :)

I'm in EE, maybe I could try and get extra credit or something for building these :P
 
#60
I play active basses almost exclusively (and I'm a fairly hard right-hand hitter) so the WM didn't work for me but had a godly tone to my ears. Just bought a Mastotron - the impedance knob cought my attention - used it in the practice room with a band two days ago and will use it on a gig tonight and report back on real-world use.



Herwig
 

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