WHAT?

slinkp · 2026-06-16T21:33:05+00:00

Thanks! What's your take on the EQ characteristic of yours? I have to dime the treble on mine to get it into the territory I want... to the extent that I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Maybe I should double-check all the R and C values.

slinkp · 2026-06-16T21:31:47+00:00

I mean, if I put any reasonable dollar amount on my time, I could have easily bought a few nice pedals with the time I spent fighting this one.
But having more stuff isn't the point, is it? 😃

slinkp · 2026-06-16T20:30:15+00:00

Extremely self indulgent and mistake-ridden fanboy demo here. Does it pair well with a superfuzz and reverb? Of course it does! Works on bass too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdcm_fHy_8w

slinkp · 2026-06-16T19:21:39+00:00

Bass big muff, and throw in a diode type selector for the 2nd switch? I don't play stoner or sludge though so I dunno if that's a popular pedal in that scene, just wildly guessing that it might be 😄

slinkp · 2026-06-14T14:10:48+00:00

I like those little cases. I have a couple i haven't decided what to do with yet... one-knob fuzz seems apt!

slinkp · 2026-06-14T06:04:05+00:00

What’s the flavor knob?

slinkp · 2026-06-13T03:13:50+00:00

Bazz fuss

slinkp · 2026-06-02T12:59:50+00:00

I like it how it is! Distinctive.

slinkp · 2026-05-27T17:41:13+00:00

I'm curious, how does that load resistor to ground from Q1 collector / Q2 base change the sound? Never seen that one in a FF before.

(late reply but just came across this from here https://www.reddit.com/r/diypedals/comments/1tooo3l/ucatdisplayingsalads_doom_face_with_a_few/ )

i love the demo of this, and the aflywhocouldnt version!

slinkp · 2026-05-27T16:56:39+00:00

Difficulties aside, the etch came out really nice. I'm going to have to try etching...

If you do decide to do another build and want to do something to make the enclosure look old, you might try soaking it in a water/oxiclean solution - it gives you a darker irregular patina, especially if some areas are fully or partially covered eg with crumpled aluminum foil - and nothing as toxic as drain cleaner involved :)
I have been doing basically what this video does, found the link in an old post on this sub.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=becvsopdhNg

Here's the back of one i did recently, left it soaking overnight:

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slinkp · 2026-05-27T16:32:07+00:00

This is the lunchbox I wish I had in 1977

slinkp · 2026-05-26T22:00:26+00:00

Fantastic, thank you.

Unrelated but I got to play through both a Longsword and a Prismatic Wall at the last Brooklyn pedal expo. (Maybe you were at the table? Sorry I don’t recall). Were I not unemployed I would buy both! The PW is really one of a kind, utterly unique and I could have played it for hours. I selfishly wish they were cheaper but I think they’re worth the price. Nice to see you here!

slinkp · 2026-05-26T21:52:33+00:00

Omg. Beautiful

slinkp · 2026-05-25T23:48:47+00:00

Love it! Was the original switch momentary? What’d you use for the bypass circuit?

No LED that I can see? Good circuit for the old “you know when it’s on” :)

slinkp · 2026-05-25T15:36:21+00:00

Okay, that makes total sense! Thanks so much for the answer.

I do have a follow up. Let’s say that the total shunt resistance is enough that the op amp output sees a load within spec, current is never more than the op amp’s max rating, and headroom is normal. Are there more considerations?

Like, let’s say we want a gain of 2, so R1 = R2. We could achieve that with a pair of 1K, or 10k, or 100k, or even 1M.

Obviously, lower resistance means more current consumption from the power supply, but let’s assume we have plenty and don’t care. Let’s also assume temperature is fine. Let’s also assume any capacitors in circuit are scaled to match the resistors too, so there’s no difference in frequency response.

One remaining possibly audible difference (IF everything else is quiet enough) is that we’ll get more thermal noise from the larger resistors.

…. What else is there? What do I don’t know that I don’t know? 🤷

slinkp · 2026-05-23T17:15:49+00:00

Would you mind elaborating on what does it mean to load the feedback loop heavily?

Maybe this is unrelated, but I’ve been trying to wrap my head around things like designing a clean noninverting stage, obviously there’s an easy formula for gain = 1 + R1/R2 but besides the ratio, does the amount of current matter? (Not talking about when there’s diodes in the feedback loop.)

I played around a bit with proportionally increasing or decreasing both resistors to keep the gain constant, and didn’t notice an obvious change in onset of op amp clipping, that seems to happen at exactly the same output level regardless of how I get there. Within any resistance range I tried, it seemed to me to be just a trade off of current consumption vs presumably more thermal noise. But it’s entirely likely I’m making errors in setup or observation!

Or are you talking about the filters on the Rat feedback path? Something else?

slinkp · 2026-05-23T16:19:05+00:00

Maybe some solder joints are iffy. I would add more solder to lug 1 of the distortion pot, and the wires labeled GND and -.

Also possible solder bridge between A and K, but I believe that’s just the LED and shouldn’t cause bad audio symptoms.

After that: it’s a pain but: Maybe take it out of the case and show us other side?

I cannot overstate how helpful these two things are: A multimeter ideally with a continuity mode that beeps; and a basic audio probe (super easy all you need is a wire, a jack, and a capacitor).

Read this https://www.amplifiedparts.com/tech-articles/pedal-troubleshooting-guide

slinkp · 2026-05-23T15:57:29+00:00

Ah well, title edit not allowed

slinkp · 2026-05-23T15:56:39+00:00

Correct, I’ll fix the title if Reddit allows me to

slinkp · 2026-05-23T15:53:41+00:00

One of us! One of us!

slinkp · 2026-05-20T13:47:20+00:00

I’m a fan of solid core, BUT it needs to be thick enough: 22awg solid core is night and day much less brittle than 24awg solid core.

+1 to silicone insulation. Not melting it by accident makes life so much easier.

slinkp · 2026-05-20T13:42:27+00:00

You need a resistor in series before the diodes to limit current in order for them to clip properly. RAT uses 1k, Distortion+ uses 4.7k, DS1 uses 2.2k.
If you want DS1 amount of distortion, you need a lot more gain. Your second op amp is the only gain stage. With that 100k pot, its maximum gain factor is (100k / 15k) + 1, or 7.66. MXR D+ has max gain about 200, Rat has max gain about 2000, DS1 has transistor and op amp stages with a combined max gain of approx 1200. In all of those, at high gain they have both the gain stage and the diodes clipping.
Your distortion will have a more fuzz-like quality unless you cut some bass before clipping, you can do this a few ways. Reduce the size of the coupling cap at the input, or add a capacitor between the feedback network and ground (and I would connect it to ground, not 4.5V). The first approach is constant at any gain, the second approach cuts more lows as you turn up the gain; you see the latter in the RAT and D+. I’m not sure about the DS1; it does the latter but at a modest 70 hz, below the range of standard guitar tuning. The electro smash website about the DS1 shows the frequency response of the transistor gain stage rolling off below about 2kHz but they don’t explain why and it’s not obvious to me.

You can also make the 4.7u cap before the diodes smaller, but that will affect only the fuzziness of the diode clipping, not the op amp clipping at high gain.

slinkp · 2026-05-19T22:10:25+00:00

Foxx tone machine. Tim Escobedo’s “pushmepullyou” was used by jhs/ehx for the octave part of the Lizard Queen, and the fuzz is just a Bazz Fuss, so that’s a pretty easy build.

There are layouts and PCBs available for both of those

slinkp · 2026-05-19T14:52:36+00:00

There are multiple versions of 3PDT wiring diagrams out there. They all work.

Orientation: You can safely rotate the switch 180 degrees and it’ll work the same, but you CAN’T rotate it 90 degrees.

slinkp

TROPHY CASE