Penny Pedals King Diode Fuzz ( 2017 blog: cover song)
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:53 pmHey all. how's it been?
Here's the story on this monster:
I hate clones and copying pedals. just not my thing. I know that it IS important, and I'm not getting into the whole debate on it. BUT, when at all possible, I try my best to use my knowledge and some dumb luck to come up with some pretty cool pedals.
This is sorta like, to me, a band. I'm in a band called Penny Pedals. We don't play cover songs, instead try our best to come up with weird sounds not heard before. Now obviously we use the same chords, transistors, drums, guitars, pieces of schematics, melodies... tough to break out and do something worthwhile and unique. Sometimes, no one cares. Other times, people really dig it and want to try it out. Either way, I'm happy to get the creative juices going, get some "songs" (pedals) off my chest, and have a good time... and the real magic comes when you use my 'song' to create your own. awesomeness.
2016 sucked a fat one. I won't go too deep into it but man, what a rough year. Playing songs (pedals) was the last thing on my mind, but if someone asked I built it. The election made people ugly. The whole world is changing. Pretty tough to stay in a creative, productive mood when you really just want to escape to a cabin in the woods and read a book or something.
So, I wrote songs. A LOT of songs. And by songs I mean pedals.. sure I built the ones you are familiar with, paid the bills and made the donuts... but I was writing new ones, designing weird shit that would either be amazing or a complete failure. The problem with that is that sometimes you just can't let it go... you tinker and tweak, like a songwriter, but it's not good enough. Your brain drives you to near madness with your inability to shit or get off the pot. I've been in a creative freeze not for lack of output, but for complete lack of organization (i will start and stop 2 or 3 designs in a matter of hours) and lack of real time to commit and be happy with what I've done.
So, to help get my ass back in gear, I decided to do what a lot of bands who are having trouble do: blast out a quick cover song. This is my cover song, King Diode fuzz.
The original idea of this design was to take the Colorsound Fuzz Box, one of my favorite fuzzes of all time, and add dip switches to it to add and remove several tweaks I made that did various things. I went through a lot of prototypes and shit and eventually calmed down and created this. The lone knob sticking out the side is the master volume control. There is a tiny switch on the other side that selects the mode: Red or Blue. The LED changes color for the mode you are in.
The Red mode is a straight up cover song: as close as I could get to the Colorsound unit using modern components (OK, one vintage transistor, one newer). It is a sweet, creamy and classic sounding fuzz that is at home in most situations. In Blue mode, 9 different components are added or swapped to completely change the sound, but keep it in the same family. Input and output caps are larger for more bass, resistors are swapped for hotter bias, extra filtering is added, and the real key: a clipping section using a vintage germanium diode. It's my take on this classic and one of my favorite fuzz sounds.
Plan is to release this Monday, January 30th. Price will be $129 for now, we'll see how the prices go on the unobtanium stuff. Hopefully it will stay that low. I will be doing the video demo tomorrow and hopefully upload it Saturday.
Here's the story on this monster:
I hate clones and copying pedals. just not my thing. I know that it IS important, and I'm not getting into the whole debate on it. BUT, when at all possible, I try my best to use my knowledge and some dumb luck to come up with some pretty cool pedals.
This is sorta like, to me, a band. I'm in a band called Penny Pedals. We don't play cover songs, instead try our best to come up with weird sounds not heard before. Now obviously we use the same chords, transistors, drums, guitars, pieces of schematics, melodies... tough to break out and do something worthwhile and unique. Sometimes, no one cares. Other times, people really dig it and want to try it out. Either way, I'm happy to get the creative juices going, get some "songs" (pedals) off my chest, and have a good time... and the real magic comes when you use my 'song' to create your own. awesomeness.
2016 sucked a fat one. I won't go too deep into it but man, what a rough year. Playing songs (pedals) was the last thing on my mind, but if someone asked I built it. The election made people ugly. The whole world is changing. Pretty tough to stay in a creative, productive mood when you really just want to escape to a cabin in the woods and read a book or something.
So, I wrote songs. A LOT of songs. And by songs I mean pedals.. sure I built the ones you are familiar with, paid the bills and made the donuts... but I was writing new ones, designing weird shit that would either be amazing or a complete failure. The problem with that is that sometimes you just can't let it go... you tinker and tweak, like a songwriter, but it's not good enough. Your brain drives you to near madness with your inability to shit or get off the pot. I've been in a creative freeze not for lack of output, but for complete lack of organization (i will start and stop 2 or 3 designs in a matter of hours) and lack of real time to commit and be happy with what I've done.
So, to help get my ass back in gear, I decided to do what a lot of bands who are having trouble do: blast out a quick cover song. This is my cover song, King Diode fuzz.
The original idea of this design was to take the Colorsound Fuzz Box, one of my favorite fuzzes of all time, and add dip switches to it to add and remove several tweaks I made that did various things. I went through a lot of prototypes and shit and eventually calmed down and created this. The lone knob sticking out the side is the master volume control. There is a tiny switch on the other side that selects the mode: Red or Blue. The LED changes color for the mode you are in.
The Red mode is a straight up cover song: as close as I could get to the Colorsound unit using modern components (OK, one vintage transistor, one newer). It is a sweet, creamy and classic sounding fuzz that is at home in most situations. In Blue mode, 9 different components are added or swapped to completely change the sound, but keep it in the same family. Input and output caps are larger for more bass, resistors are swapped for hotter bias, extra filtering is added, and the real key: a clipping section using a vintage germanium diode. It's my take on this classic and one of my favorite fuzz sounds.
Plan is to release this Monday, January 30th. Price will be $129 for now, we'll see how the prices go on the unobtanium stuff. Hopefully it will stay that low. I will be doing the video demo tomorrow and hopefully upload it Saturday.
