GnomeratronVTF pedal, with clips!!!!!

[Chumley]

You rock, man.

[Wizard]

IT'S ON IT'S WAY TO MY HOUSE HOLY FUCK

[McSpunckle]

Ω iGod

[Wizard]

OH MAN IT'S HERE. JUST GOT IN, TOMORROW IS A 10 HOUR BAND PRACTICE MARATHON

[McSpunckle]

iamhorrified.

[Wizard]

iamhorrified.

there's no reason to be horrified, i'm the drummer of that band.

Here's how it went.. I walked down stairs at about noon, handed the pedal to my little brother and told him to give it the first test drive.

Well, he plugged it in to our pedal boards combined, and ran his Tele through it into his Sunn Model T and Marshall 1960a on 10...

And......




after the most incredible 5 seconds of fucking awesome fuzz (the setting jrmy left it on)...


the amp shit out.




BUT ALAS!

we drove around and finally borrowed this Carvin Bass amp from my friend, also named Jeremy.

Our guitarist Matt plays a Rat as his distortion, and he just couldn't get a tone he liked out of it during practice... so I had this idea.



He should use the Gnomeratron. It took a second to sort of some what figure out what the knobs do, but after a couple minutes, he was beyond stoked.


He used it all day, and it sounded awesome. We're doing tracking, i hope we get to some guitars on Wednesday, because i'd love it to see the album, and he would too


so we'll see.

10 hour practice sesh pt. II

PS the sam ash by my parents house has a vox AC100cph there for 500$.

i'm buying it tomorrow.

[Wizard]

oh man and jrmy sent me this great mix cd with it...

the first four tracks keep repeating in my car.

[McSpunckle]

: D! Great to know it's good on geetarz too!

Glad ya dig it. <3

[McSpunckle]

Just for fun... Final circuit proto:

[bubstance]

.

[phantasmagorovich]

Oh fuck YES!

When can I pick one of these bad boys up? Hopefully I won't have to steal it.

Yes. this looks pretty

[deadbeatriot]

this thing sounds gorgeous. can we get a guitar demo?

[McSpunckle]

Someone on Talkbass asked for a a description which I thought was... fair. This, in it's length, is an over-simplification in a way. Doesn't explain how things interact:

[QUOTE=dannybuoy;9324765]Can you explain what all the controls do then?[/QUOTE]

I've been kinda delaying that until I knew for certain what was going to be in the pedal. But, here goes a brief explanation. There will be a lengthy one later since everything is pretty interactive.

TL;DR at the bottom of the post

[SIZE="4"]Fuzz Side[/SIZE]

Knobs From top to bottom
Fuzz Volume: Overall output of the fuzz side
Gain: Usually the "sustain" control on a Big Muff. Can turn all the way down, unlike a typical Big Muff because that's the only way to really isolate the clean blend.
Gate: Use (sometimes with the gain control) to stop noise and oscillation. Turning it all the way up will mute the fuzz. In some settings, it'll also make some gated fuzz tones.
Tone: ...tone control, function decided by tone switch

Switches From top to bottom
Diode 1: Diode selection for the first clipping stage. Select Silicon or LEDs-- germanium may may be an option for a small actual-cost markup. In the middle position, diodes are removed from the circuit.
Diode 2: Same as Diode 1, but on the second clipping stage
Octave: Adds an analog octave-up circuit after the first clipping stage. This is very interactive with settings on the first clipping stage.
Tone: Selects between scooped, flat(er) and a significantly louder low-pass style tone control. In the low pass mode, with the tone all the way up, it's very similar to having the tone control removed.

[SIZE="4"]Clean Side[/SIZE]
Clean Volume: Controls output of the clean blend
Tone: low pass filter similar to the low pass mode on the fuzz side. Used to roll off high end from the clean signal.

[SIZE="4"]Trimmers[/SIZE] From top to bottom
These trimmers control the gain of various stages within the pedal. In some settings, their function won't be noticeable, in others, they'll make a dramatic difference.

Clipping stage 1- useful for limiting gain to the octave circuit or first clipping diodes
Clipping stage 2- significantly alters tone with diodes engaged
Clean - Can make the clean booster hotter than I designed it, which distorts, but is useful for getting an edge over louder settings on the fuzz side. Can also make it quieter and clean up better-- compensate with fuzz volume control
Output - Significantly reduce gain on the output stage so it doesn't distort (unless you want it to, of course).

Magic Switch: Magic



The basic idea of the circuit, for me, was a Big Muff spliced with a Brassmaster. Realistically, the with no diodes in, and the octave on, the circuit is pretty similar to a Brassmaster in function (tons of gain into a phase-splitting/canceling octave-up circuit). As a Big Muff, some controls are more standardized. There are limiting resistors within a standard big muff between stages... the VTF doesn't have these. Think of the muff side as a Big Muff circuit with the limiters removed. It's also got a more raspy high end (like the Tone Wicker muff), but the ability to roll off only high end with the tone control helps here if raspy high end isn't your bag.



For parts, because of the gain of this circuit, I did what I could to cut down on noise. 1% metal film resistors, Panasonic caps, MPSA18 transistors, etc. The parts I use are generally touted as "top-quality", and functionally they are... but there's no fake "mojo" in the pedal. The circuit is build on a very high quality board, as well.




TL;DR
Knobs top to bottom: Fuzz volume, gain, gate, tone
Switches top to bottom: Diode 1, Diode 2, Octave, Tone filter

Clean volume, clean tone
Magic Switch

[htsamurai]

fuck....I want this...like you have no idea


I really gotta check back more often, I never know when I'm getting mentioned in threads

[jrmy]

Just out of curiosity, could you describe (approximately, of course) the tonal difference between LED, silicon & germanium diodes? It's cool if it's too much of a hassle to get into... I'z just curious.