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Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 1:15 am
by BetterOffShred
Man I kind of want to build one of each of these, but the expandora seems crazy noisy. It also has two lm308's in it .. but I'll just drop OP07's.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 11:46 am
by Jero
codetocontra wrote:
IIRC, this song was recorded with one of those super mini Marshalls with the volume cranked. I got similar tones with a Fender one that ran on batteries. But the rest of the album was supposed to be Rat.
I have one of those little Marshalls, a Fender Mini Twin, and the Vox. The Fender has got to be the highest gain thing they ever made

Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:07 pm
by dubkitty
it appears that the bad switch on my Expandora is easily fixable...it's free of the circuit board to which it's connected by wires. pictures later if need be.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:58 pm
by BetterOffShred
Sweet man. I'll fix it for you if you need. I can PM references.
Let me know
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 8:25 am
by cutonio
Thom Yorke was playing Bodysnatchers with his MXR Distortion+, then with the Bixonic, and now with the Crowther Hotcake.
I'm pretty close with the DOD Carcosa.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 12:41 pm
by Christophe
cutonio wrote:Thom Yorke was playing Bodysnatchers with his MXR Distortion+, then with the Bixonic, and now with the Crowther Hotcake.
Ah ah! What goes around comes around: I do have a Hotcake!
Problem solved/no need to look for an Expandora.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 12:47 pm
by D.o.S.
It's one of those riffs that when played correctly sounds 'right' regardless of the pedal
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:22 pm
by BetterOffShred
Dubs expandora showed up .. the problem is intermittent so I've gotten to use the device as it should operate .. damn It sounds great. Definitely on my clone list now. Yeah wow.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:03 pm
by BetterOffShred
Dub has the 2000R, which has a toggle for the selectable input cap I believe. It sounds pretty huge on bass mode. Unfortunately it uses a compact DPDT stomp and a milenium bypass (not surprising for the era when they were made) so I have to order a compact stomp.
The later expandora apparently use TL072s and LM324 etc.. the 2000R sounds amazing. I'm impressed.. now to get it fixed up for Dub.

Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:30 am
by Jero
Nice! Gotta keep these old things running.
I'll open my red knob version up later and confirm the guts if anyone's interested

Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 12:20 pm
by taco satori
BetterOffShred wrote:It sounds pretty huge on bass mode.
The later expandora apparently use TL072s and LM324 etc.. the 2000R sounds amazing.

Yeah! I had the chance to play a reissue. They’re a bit smaller than I thought, def smaller than the Expandora II in videos. I kept it on “bass” mode even for guitar because, indeed, it sounds huge. And that’s cool about the opamps used - it sounds great and doesn’t seem super fizzy in the decay.
I have a clone that uses metal can LM308’s in a FuzzDog PCB, but the bass switch is pretty subtle. I honestly miss the bass freqs more than I like the idea of mojo components, ha.
Forbidden mode on the reissue is interesting. It doesn’t get into oscillating dolphins territory like some vids seem to show but is just super saturated and gated, which is cool, too. The clones I’ve played in Forbidden mode seem to kinda crap out and sag considerably after getting slammed with a few loud chords and the Gain around 11 o’clock to noon. Not necessarily a bad thing, just something I have to keep in mind.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:09 pm
by BetterOffShred
Jero wrote:Nice! Gotta keep these old things running.
I'll open my red knob version up later and confirm the guts if anyone's interested

Yes plz.
Yeah the 2000R definitely does whistling dolphins with everything up and forbidden mode. It's neat.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:48 pm
by digi2t
Here are the schematics.
2000 (v.2)
2001 (v.4, with the VU LED's)
I prefer the final version myself, though the second version can be modified to use a pot instead of the switches. I find it handier for setting the gain to in between settings.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:13 pm
by BetterOffShred
Thanks man

I had found these on your stash from the DiYSB gallery.
I'm hoping the DPDT is the culprit. It's intermittent, the input jack was loose and rotated where it was touching the board, but I haven't been able to get it to act up since. The stomp should be in Thursday.
Re: Bixonic and The Rat
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:46 am
by Christophe
As a -temporary- epilogue to this post: I just bought the Bixonic 2000R that had been on Reverb for a while.... I've just spent a few moments with it, and...
God it sounds fantastic!!!
A really mean, dirty, rattling-riffing dirt pedal.
Really worth trying guys, instant classic for me...
(I'll come back here when the honeymoon's over, promise)