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ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:11 am
by Kellanium
Am I the only one that gets annoyed by trimpots. I mean, they're fine if you're biasing a delay or something, but what about a fuzz pedal? or that MXR delay that has the modulation trimpots? Is it really THAT HARD to fit a couple extra knobs on the top to allow us to mess around with our sound. Look at the EHX Germanium OD, it doesn't have trimpots, the bias and voltage are on the top! it sounds AWESOME, especially when starved. Is the idea that we're too fucking stupid to understand it? I don't get it. i don't get it at all.

P.S. I'm Bored, can't you tell?
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:27 am
by futuresailors
and an electro whormonic! aha! ZING
That said I don't mind them that much because once I find a setting I like I pretty much leave it.
That said, DO WANT MOAR NAWBZ!
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:10 am
by FuzzHugger
I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:12 am
by MannequinRaces
Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
Well put Tom!
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:51 am
by devnulljp
Biasing some fuzzes is pretty tricky -- not a Fuzz face of course, but sticking a bias knob on top of something like a Tone Bender MkI would be a recipe for disaster for any builder, as pretty soon 90% of his/her lovingly built fuzzboxes would sound like ass.
I also think that people who blindly fiddle with trimpots in delay pedals should be shot -- you're not going to get 800 ms delay time out of an analog delay by screwing with the trimmers; all you're going to do is introduce clock noise and distortion artefacts that will need a scope to fix.
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:21 am
by Kellanium
Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
Thank you Tom!

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:36 pm
by mutmoo
Having the depth be a trimpot is what kept me from buying this.
http://proguitarshop.com/store/tremolo- ... dal-p-1248I MEAN COME ON IT'S A TREMOLO PEDAL I NEED A DEPTH KNOB!
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:39 pm
by dronemachine
devnulljp wrote:I also think that people who blindly fiddle with trimpots in delay pedals should be shot -- you're not going to get 800 ms delay time out of an analog delay by screwing with the trimmers; all you're going to do is introduce clock noise and distortion artefacts that will need a scope to fix.

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:50 pm
by futuresailors
Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
I'm disappointed Tom...
http://fuzzhugger.com/pedal-tafm.html
Send me one from the next batch and this can all disappear.

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:54 pm
by Kellanium
futuresailors wrote:Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
I'm disappointed Tom...
http://fuzzhugger.com/pedal-tafm.html
Send me one from the next batch and this can all disappear.

Yeah tom, that's kinda exactly what i meant.

On a related note: another pedal GUILTY of the hidden setting trimpot!
EHX, i expected better of you. (the micro synth has an input gain setting inside)
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:59 pm
by FuzzHugger
futuresailors wrote:Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
I'm disappointed Tom...
http://fuzzhugger.com/pedal-tafm.html

Okay, I was really just talking about my own pedals...there
are some pedals that need biasing, etc... Just not something I'm interested in doing.

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:24 am
by futuresailors
Kellanium wrote:futuresailors wrote:Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
I'm disappointed Tom...
http://fuzzhugger.com/pedal-tafm.html
Send me one from the next batch and this can all disappear.

Yeah tom, that's kinda exactly what i meant.

On a related note: another pedal GUILTY of the hidden setting trimpot!
EHX, i expected better of you. (the micro synth has an input gain setting inside)
Basterds! wait wut? MOAR GAIN?
Tom Dalton wrote:futuresailors wrote:Tom Dalton wrote:I promise I'll never use trimpots! If it's worth adjusting, it's worth putting on top of the pedal.
I'm disappointed Tom...
http://fuzzhugger.com/pedal-tafm.html

Okay, I was really just talking about my own pedals...there
are some pedals that need biasing, etc... Just not something I'm interested in doing.

lulz. I'll let it slide this time.

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:47 am
by smallsnd/bigsnd
true... it's not fun making something that needs/uses trims. it wastes some time and a better design probably wouldn't use them...!
like tom said, there are some components or circuits that trims help to bias/stabilize/etc. for whatever reason or it may be to make a subtle change (maybe not enough to warrant the extra space/cost of a pot+knob+wire)... it just depends on the pedal. it's usually good to at least explain what they are doing in the circuit - that way if people feel the need to mess with them, they'll have an idea of what's happening. ...next pedal i make will NOT have any trims, fwiw.
Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:03 am
by Ghost Hip
I got my CC/DC today and I tweaked the same trim pot that devi ever has tweaked.

Re: ITT: Kelly Rants about Trimpots
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 10:58 am
by futuresailors
You can tweak my trimpots any day PP.
smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:true... it's not fun making something that needs/uses trims. it wastes some time and a better design probably wouldn't use them...!
like tom said, there are some components or circuits that trims help to bias/stabilize/etc. for whatever reason or it may be to make a subtle change (maybe not enough to warrant the extra space/cost of a pot+knob+wire)... it just depends on the pedal. it's usually good to at least explain what they are doing in the circuit - that way if people feel the need to mess with them, they'll have an idea of what's happening. ...next pedal i make will NOT have any trims, fwiw.
Oh don't worry, you can keep using trimpots. I understand that it makes life a lot easier with biasing, etc. I just felt like hassling Tom, so if it keeps it fuzzy, use as many as you want. Slap a little EHX sticker on it and Kelly won't mind either.