Effector 13 Truly Beautiful Disaster Help

[JehuJava]

I just acquired an old E13 TBD, but it doesn't appear to be working as it should. Not knowing much about this pedal, can you guys tell me if I'm an idiot or if the pedal is being weird?

http://vid1197.photobucket.com/albums/a ... 20Demo.mp4

The video is just a sine wave from a Yamaha TG77 into the TBD. I used Live to trigger the note on for the duration so my hands would be free to film and tweak. Top knobs are from left to right, volume, fuzz, octave. The knob under volume is blend. The knob under octave is warp...but I think this is for the feedback loop and I do t test.

So is it me or are the knobs behaving incorrectly? The Fuzz is very thin, explainable by a sine wave test signal, but it is very very weak, no?

So What do you guys think?

[UglyCasanova]

I think you should send it to Devi now that she's become so customer oriented.

[Ghost Hip]

Honestly, the early E13 boxes were pretty weak volume wise. And that is one of the first Truly Beautiful disasters you have there. You can tell by the black enclosure and pyramid graphic. There is a reason I have a Karaoke Party installed within my E13 Super Tri-fuzz, without it the thing could barely hit unity volume. Another thing to note is the Blend and Volume (maybe the fuzz knob too?) is wired backwards, so turning it down actually turns it up. Which is how my Super Tr-fuzz operates.

It is odd that the oscillation knob is cutting the signal when it is bypassed though? Also, despite the E13 drama, Devi did post something on the facebook page about servicing E13 pedals I believe.

[sonidero]

Sinewave test is a weird way to test pedals...

The blend knob bends original signal into fuzz, and thins the fuzz sound. The fuzz knob controls power going to fuzz, which becomes more sputtery at lower settings. The fuzz pedal's oscillation knob controls the intensity and pitch of the oscillation. The gate flip switch toggles an alternate fuzz mode on which can gate the oscillation. The loop foot switch engages true bypass / feed back loop. The eye flip switch engages photo-sensitive eye to control loop intensity. The loop flip switch engages feedback function of the loop, and the loop foot switch engages pedals in the loop.

I'd ask anyone in the diy section for help first...

[JehuJava]

Honestly, the early E13 boxes were pretty weak volume wise. And that is one of the first Truly Beautiful disasters you have there. You can tell by the black enclosure and pyramid graphic. There is a reason I have a Karaoke Party installed within my E13 Super Tri-fuzz, without it the thing could barely hit unity volume. Another thing to note is the Blend and Volume (maybe the fuzz knob too?) is wired backwards, so turning it down actually turns it up. Which is how my Super Tr-fuzz operates.

It is odd that the oscillation knob is cutting the signal when it is bypassed though? Also, despite the E13 drama, Devi did post something on the facebook page about servicing E13 pedals I believe.

Oh that's good to hear. I wanted to see what she thought, but this was my check to make sure I'm not an idiot first. Lol.

[JehuJava]

Sinewave test is a weird way to test pedals...

The blend knob bends original signal into fuzz, and thins the fuzz sound. The fuzz knob controls power going to fuzz, which becomes more sputtery at lower settings. The fuzz pedal's oscillation knob controls the intensity and pitch of the oscillation. The gate flip switch toggles an alternate fuzz mode on which can gate the oscillation. The loop foot switch engages true bypass / feed back loop. The eye flip switch engages photo-sensitive eye to control loop intensity. The loop flip switch engages feedback function of the loop, and the loop foot switch engages pedals in the loop.

I'd ask anyone in the diy section for help first...

Yeah, I only did sine just to hear the fuzz itself without confusion of the OG sound source. But I'm guessing that the more content the OG signal has the more the fuzz has to work with.

I also was hoping to get some TBD user comments from those familiar with the pedal who would know whether this pedal behaves like theirs.

[JehuJava]

Never mind...I just googled it. So the KP boost is inside your fuzz. Interesting!

[JehuJava]

Honestly, the early E13 boxes were pretty weak volume wise. And that is one of the first Truly Beautiful disasters you have there. You can tell by the black enclosure and pyramid graphic. There is a reason I have a Karaoke Party installed within my E13 Super Tri-fuzz, without it the thing could barely hit unity volume. Another thing to note is the Blend and Volume (maybe the fuzz knob too?) is wired backwards, so turning it down actually turns it up. Which is how my Super Tr-fuzz operates.

It is odd that the oscillation knob is cutting the signal when it is bypassed though? Also, despite the E13 drama, Devi did post something on the facebook page about servicing E13 pedals I believe.

What's the karaoke party?

[aens_wife]

It sounds right to me. I don't care for that fuzz at all, but I don't think yours is malfunctioning. I could be wrong (hard to know without testing it with familiar gear), but its probably fine.

The fuzz is really finicky and thin, IMO, on guitar too. The only thing that might be messed up is the oscillation knob, as mentioned, but pots will cut the signal if turned all the way up or down (depending on what it is doing in the circuit).

Hope that helps. You can email us if you have any other questions, but we aren't able to help with a repair if it is needed.

[JehuJava]

It sounds right to me. I don't care for that fuzz at all, but I don't think yours is malfunctioning. I could be wrong (hard to know without testing it with familiar gear), but its probably fine.

The fuzz is really finicky and thin, IMO, on guitar too. The only thing that might be messed up is the oscillation knob, as mentioned, but pots will cut the signal if turned all the way up or down (depending on what it is doing in the circuit).

Hope that helps. You can email us if you have any other questions, but we aren't able to help with a repair if it is needed.

Thank you for the frame of reference. The good news is that it seems to be working fine barring the octave/oscillator issue. But it looks like this is turning out to be one of my less favorite pedals. Oh well. Thanks again.