ShortScale.org

Ok, so the big problem here with creating pedals is the fact that I can do anything with it. Sounds nice, but when you are creating pedals for other people to buy, you can't just go with what you want. I'm not a huge OD user myself, so what I consider to be a good OD is something that other's consider crap.

Since I am offering OD pedals as one of the four designs, which the other three are done, btw, I have to consider this now. I HAVE the initial design, but it was too mellow (no clipping, quiet). The input stage is nice, and I designed an almost flat freq response in a tone filter following the input. I tried just adding a gain stage after that, but it was a bit bland to me, still no clipping. SO, I had an idea, but that idea might go a bit beyond how dirty an OD should be.

The input stage is a lot like a Fender tube amp input stage. The second phase is a static tone network of resistors and caps. My first stab was to just put in a normal plain transistor gain stage that I used on the output stage of my Rat build that made it SUPER loud. Sounds good with the tone fiiltering, but still a bit MEH for an OD. My current thought is to use the push/pull design that the Perky uses, but without the clipping diodes. This stage is very efficient in getting volume with low current usage. Problem is, when I tested this, it gets dirty fast even w/o diodes. I could keep trying to modify that to be more clean, then have the "Gain" control dump some signal to ground from the first stage before entering that. Might work, but it STILL sounds dirty and like the Perky.

SO, my question is, what do YOU want? How dirty should an OD get? What are the most important features and sounds of an OD for you? Note, this is ONLY going to have a GAIN and VOLUME control, no extra controls because that will increase the price. I want your feedback, as potential customers.

I personally hate overdrives like tube screamers.

I like treble boosters like the rangemaster and other things I've heard with germanium transistors. I know you don't work with those but that's what I like personally.

Any chance of you making a squarewave fuzz in the future, that is totally missing in the current market place.

My Fuzz-1 is pretty damn clipped, I have no idea if it is a true square wave but it is pretty nasty. When I made that I used the sound clips on the website that prompted me to do this as a guide, and my goal was to sound better than the fuzz they had. After I get this OD finished I can finally print and etch the boards. After that I will be assembling one of each, recording sound clips, and shipping out to the first few. So you'll be able to see how the Fuzz sounds.

The biggest complaint about the TS, and it's characteristic, is the mid range boost it does. My design thus far has no bias over any freq, except it does remove certain bass frequencies, but it still has a warm bass tone in there. My bigger question is how dirty should this be?

Make it go from clean to DEATH.

Personally, I'm not going to use your OD as my dirtiest setting, for that I go with my amp OD. So for me, from slight breakup to mid- crunch would be ideal... And as flat an EQ as possible would be great.
However, from the general public point of view, i guess the bigger the range, then the bigger the appeal.

EDIT - however you decide to make the final design, I'm looking forward to it greatly!

jcyphe wrote:I personally hate overdrives like tube screamers.

I like treble boosters like the rangemaster and other things I've heard with germanium transistors. I know you don't work with those but that's what I like personally.

Any chance of you making a squarewave fuzz in the future, that is totally missing in the current market place.

I'm working up to a fuzz based on the misuse of an IC.


On the OD front- my current fave is a digitech Bad monkey, which i hear is pretty much a tube screamer clone, but it has treble and bass knobs. The gain goes pretty far, from more mellow "moderately pushed" crunchy stuff to balls out rage.

As far as a quality of sound, I like an OD to essentially exaggerate my clean tone, as in more bass, more treble/harmonics. "transparency" as they call it is important to me as well, not just turning into "generic Overdrive guitar sound" Being able to tell one guitr form another through the effect I guess, is what i like.

Probably not very helpful.

for me, overdrive should go a little beyond angus young's tone.

aen wrote:

jcyphe wrote:I personally hate overdrives like tube screamers.

I like treble boosters like the rangemaster and other things I've heard with germanium transistors. I know you don't work with those but that's what I like personally.

Any chance of you making a squarewave fuzz in the future, that is totally missing in the current market place.

I'm working up to a fuzz based on the misuse of an IC.

i'm really not into those kinda of e13 like fuzzes, that are purposely awful sounding. I actually still like the classic designs and updates n those designs. The squarewave concept has been around forever. Dearmond did one and I just saw a diy magazine article for a squarewave generator for synth taht works well on guitar from the 80's.

all that matters is that standard overdrives like the Tube Screamer and Ol' Yeller don't quite get dirty enough. people keep coming into my store looking for something to bridge the gap between a normal OD and a distortion box. so if it were me (which it isn't, and i know nothing about building pedals) i'd build something that covered the standard OD stuff AND went beyond that (but not to the level of a distortion box). ya know what i mean???

Ok, I think I have my answer then.

The thing I like about the gain stage of the Perk is how even as nasty as it gets, you can always hear the fundamental note. Which IMO is important for an OD. I love this push-pull gain stage. It is still fairly nasty although it doesn't get into extreme distortion zone. I'm going to finish this pedal up then.

Thank you to everyone for your input.

once you get them finished... let me know, i'm interested in hearing (and quite possibly getting my hands on) one of your OD pedals!

jcyphe wrote:

aen wrote:

jcyphe wrote:I personally hate overdrives like tube screamers.

I like treble boosters like the rangemaster and other things I've heard with germanium transistors. I know you don't work with those but that's what I like personally.

Any chance of you making a squarewave fuzz in the future, that is totally missing in the current market place.

I'm working up to a fuzz based on the misuse of an IC.

The squarewave concept has been around forever. Dearmond did one and I just saw a diy magazine article for a squarewave generator for synth taht works well on guitar from the 80's.

Same same water buffalo.

As long as it has no TS mid boost I'll be a happy man regardless of the gain sweep.

paint big titties on it.

Something with a nice bit of low end, 3 band EQ if poss, can almost work as a clean boost with the gain all the way down. That shit yanks my crank, yo.

PenPen wrote:SO, my question is, what do YOU want? How dirty should an OD get? What are the most important features and sounds of an OD for you? Note, this is ONLY going to have a GAIN and VOLUME control, no extra controls because that will increase the price. I want your feedback, as potential customers.

My immediate thought is that if it doesn't have bass/treble controls, it's no good to me. I've owned so many pedals that don't have at least a good basic EQ and in the end I got pissed off and sold them... MXR D+, ProCo Rat, numerous Boss stompers. The only one I kept is the Danelectro Daddy-O, which on a good day I like as a hard rock style overdrive/distortion. It has a three band EQ which works well enough.

The most important thing for me, other than an EQ, is that it has the potential to give a lot of volume boost even without a lot of drive dialed in. I HATE volume drops.

Sadly the only thing that has worked for me so far, giving me all of these things, are the ODs on the GT-8, specifically the Guv'nor one. It sounds nothing like the Marshall pedal it copies; to me it sounds BETTER although I do use the EQ for LPF @ 4khz to get rid of the excess high end.

This is my contribution, which is probably worthless as the only 'single use' pedals I consider these days are digital delays and loopers. The GT-8 has almost everything covered.

EDIT: Oh and one more thing. At lower gain levels, as little compression as possible. I like to be able to play softly and hear a nearly clean tone, then windmill into a chord and hear the grit. Also it's a bonus if it works well with the guitar volume rolled back... some pedals break up in a fizzy crappy way, some kick ass.

Sloan wrote:Make it go from clean to DEATH.

that is precisely what I'm thinking.

gary wrote:My immediate thought is that if it doesn't have bass/treble controls, it's no good to me. I've owned so many pedals that don't have at least a good basic EQ and in the end I got pissed off and sold them... MXR D+, ProCo Rat, numerous Boss stompers. The only one I kept is the Danelectro Daddy-O, which on a good day I like as a hard rock style overdrive/distortion. It has a three band EQ which works well enough.

The most important thing for me, other than an EQ, is that it has the potential to give a lot of volume boost even without a lot of drive dialed in. I HATE volume drops.

Sadly th

A-greed. Although the RAT2 worked out perfectly for me as a singlecoil user- there's a low end increase compared to the clean tone which is exactly what I want in a dirt box.

Aug wrote:

Sloan wrote:Make it go from clean to DEATH.

that is precisely what I'm thinking.

i'd want one of those....

gary wrote: My immediate thought is that if it doesn't have bass/treble controls, it's no good to me. I've owned so many pedals that don't have at least a good basic EQ and in the end I got pissed off and sold them... MXR D+, ProCo Rat, numerous Boss stompers. The only one I kept is the Danelectro Daddy-O, which on a good day I like as a hard rock style overdrive/distortion. It has a three band EQ which works well enough..

+1.

To me an overdrive should be like having an extra channel on my amp. Needs to have EQ (more dials the better), volume, gain.