The Elements... *teaser pic July 5, page 16*

[Ryan]

Tonight I finished the first pcb layout for the new Tremolessence and that means this weekend it's time to start the bread board for the Elements! Let's make a medium/high gain overdrive/distortion pedal!

I'm thinking medium/high-ish gain.. I don't love the low gain stuff. I'm thinking 3 band active eq (like the Cleanness) that can be switched before or after the gain section. I'm thinking a choice of clipping diodes or clipping options of some sort. I'm thinking no flippin' battery. I'm thinking I'd like to use the LM386 in this, I love it in the Frazz (The Elements won't sound anything like the Frazz at all) and I feel like those chips have been my distortion buddy for a long time. I'm thinking expression control could be possible, clean blend could be possible. I'm thinking soft touch switching, top mounted jacks, and the 1590B or 125B depending on where we take the features.

So... what are you thinking? Love to hear your thoughts on the matter, any features you think are needed, fire away!

[proroby]

Absolutely top mounted with no battery = my favorite. Toggle switch for pre/post distortion for EQ sounds amazing. An expression control over anything is always a plus, so please tell what you are thinking about; I'm thinking control over the mid/high settings, to sweep through. Would you do a clean blend with a mix knob, like on a frazz? Your ideas have me DROOLING!

[Blakemore]

Now this is an exciting thread for me.

Everything you have listed sounds great. I think being able to switch between clipping options and a clean blend knob like on the Frazz are the two things that have me the most excited, and they both seem pretty unique in the dirt world. I also love top-mounted jacks, soft touch switching, and no batteries, so those all sound great too!

I'm not sure if this is in any way possible, but it would be cool if you could sort of sweep the center frequency for each of the three bands. Like, instead of just having the mid knob centered at a certain frequency, if there was a way you could add a knob so we could sweep where the center frequency was so we could fine tune the pedal even more, that would be pretty sweet, but I'm not sure if that's possible (or if it even made sense!)

Either way, looks like we've got the makings of a pretty sweet pedal here, and don't forget in the other thread that I called dibs on the first one.

[pillof]

nothing to add. just can't wait

[one bad monkey]

I'm not sure if this is in any way possible, but it would be cool if you could sort of sweep the center frequency for each of the three bands. Like, instead of just having the mid knob centered at a certain frequency, if there was a way you could add a knob so we could sweep where the center frequency was so we could fine tune the pedal even more, that would be pretty sweet, but I'm not sure if that's possible (or if it even made sense!)

You could have those as internal trimpots, although that would make them less easy to dial in on the fly.

I would love the clean blend, so I can dial in as much or little as I need. You wouldn't know it, but the bass in my picture is quite a hi-fi sounding instrument.

If it was active bass friendly (as in, sounds roughly the same with passive or active), it would make my soul giggle with delight.

[Toonster]

Maybe a voltage control if that would have any cool effect on the circuit you're going to design..

[bronzetalon]

I think the clean blend is a must. You gotta keep the bass players happy. I know low gain isint you thing but maybe you make a switch to make the pedal low to med gain or med to high gain. Have you look into the eq system used on the blackout effectors mantra? Its a two knob that scoop the mids when the knobs are cranked and boosts the mids when the knobs are backed off. If you have space a choice between true and buffered bypass would be cool.

[hclapp219]

Hmm, here are my thoughts:

EQ sounds awesome (I'm loving my Cleanness). Would there be any way to make each band be able to be either pre or post gain? I know on the Timmy the Treble is pre and the Bass is post, and that he had some reason for putting it that way. That might be a lot of switches, but who says no to extra tweakage?

I like the idea of multiple clipping options. How about a clipping blend, sort of like the threshold knob on the singing tree? Or maybe be able to blend two different types of clipping?

Being a guitarist, I don't really care for a clean blend option...

Also, what are you thinking in terms of compression? I prefer less compression, but can be handy to have (see Timmy, White Light OD).

If voltage sag does something cool, go for it.

[Fuzzy Picklez]

Maybe a dual pedal? Those are cool.
A mids knob is cool though. I like pedals with those.
A clean blend knob is cool I guess?

A mids knob would be awesome though.
Keeps everyone happy.

[Ryan]

Thanks guys!

Let's definitely do the clean blend, I think it's really important too. You think it would be cool having expression control over that? So you could do distortion swells from clean to dirty?

I'm going to do my style of EQ for it, like the Cleanness, although I'm sure the Blackout EQ style totally owns too. My style will be 3 bands, bass, mids, and trebs, each with about 15dB of cut and boost.

I like the idea of being able to move the mid frequency around... my EQ style isn't suited for parametric control but I could do a 3 way toggle for 3 different mid frequency settings that the knob would then control. Mids are so important with distortion, they're maybe the defining quality.

I'm definitely planning on making the EQ section switchable from pre to post gain, both situations sound so different it's a great way to add a lot of tonal variety. It won't be each band though, it'll be the whole EQ section, I don't think it would be very feasible to do it for each band, that would be a lot of signal routing.

I don't plan on doing this as a dual pedal, I want this in the 1590B or 125B box.

Compression is a good question and I don't really have any preconceived ideas about that.. I'm going to let that play out. I'm shooting for a big meaty rock and roll distortion that can get aggressive or be pretty laid back. I guess the sound I'm shooting for isn't very compressed sounding...

It'll be active pickup friendly for sure... it won't be one of those vintage style fuzzes that has to go right after your guitar. I love active pickups and I also love circuits that are easy going regarding input instruments or signal chain placement.

Voltage sag is something I'll experiment with but I think in this circuit it'll just cause oscillation and while that is obviously cool as heck it's not something I'm going for with the Elements. *ducks and dodges the bottles and tomatoes being thrown*

I'm going to try to avoid any internal trimpots... I don't like using those for any feature that has a lot of effect over the sound, I'd rather it be a top panel pot. I only use trim pots for house keeping stuff, stuff that sets the pedal up to work well.

Great first round of chats, thanks again!

[one bad monkey]

Thanks guys!

Let's definitely do the clean blend, I think it's really important too. You think it would be cool having expression control over that? So you could do distortion swells from clean to dirty? !

Before I was an enlightened musician and used stand alone pedals, I had a Line 6 BassPod. Pretty much any patch that had distortion had the expression pedal wired for the clean/dirty blend. I used it a LOT that way to add a lot to heavier parts of songs, but then pull it back.

So for me, yes, I'd find it useful to have the blend with an expression control.

It'll be active pickup friendly for sure... it won't be one of those vintage style fuzzes that has to go right after your guitar. I love active pickups and I also love circuits that are easy going regarding input instruments or signal chain placement.

I have three fuzz pedals already, and this statement alone assured that I will most likely have a fourth. *fights back tears of joy*

Seriously, I've had to rule out a lot of fuzz pedals strictly for this reason alone, so it will be nice to say "the players with active pickups will enjoy the same sounds and tonal controls that passive people enjoy."

[Eric!]

I'm on board with Jon about active-friendly!
Also approve of clean blend and pre/post switch.

Could go without expression pedal, I never use those damn things.
Also, your mid 3-way sounds great!

Also, you'll need a bass demo-er

[solarolosonoio]

I think the 3 way switch for mids is an awesome option!

so would the Elements have like:

knobs:
o Gain
o Clean Blend
o Volume
o Treble
o Mids
o Bass
switches:
— pre/post EQ
— mids
— clipping options?

[Blurillaz]

Could we ditch clean blend for some more stranger stuff?

[veteransdaypoppy]

Could we ditch clean blend for some more stranger stuff?

Can't we have both?

I really love OD circuits that play nice with my volume knobber on de geet.