Built my first pedal... guess what it is?

[Jason]

My brilliant wife bought me a pedal kit for Christmas. Awesome gift... kept me busy for about 6 hours, being my first attempt. It turned out great and I'm itching to get out the soldering iron and build something else... Painted by yours truly with the Krylon touch. Any guesses as to what this green monster could be??

 

[PraXis]

I don't know of any DIY fuzz kits with two switches, so you'd better tell me!... some sort of Big Muff Pi variant?

 

[Jason]

I knew I'd get your attention, Mr. Fuzzaholic... I may spill the beans in a bit...

 

[Jason]

Oh, and no it's nothing to do with a Big Muff...

 

[AngryHatter]

Od

 

[xsouldriverx]

something based off a TS circuit?

 

[AngryHatter]

Wait, I got it.
It's a flux capacitor!

 

[Quill]

It is a brilliant gift. Paint job looks perfect from where I sit.

Could it be an A/B/Y switcher with a boost circuit and output levels? Or a single-line booster with two levels of boost?

 

[Jason]

Pwozzie was closest so far, it is indeed a type of Fuzz... Ahh, screw it! It's a clone of a Tycobrahe Octavia from generalguitargadgets. It's modified from the original in that it's true bypass, has a pregain knob, and a second footswitch to turn the octave on/off. This pedal is bad ass!

I need a new tube for my Peavey, so I've only been able to test this out on my 20w SS Crate... but it already sounds good. I have a good idea of what it will sound like through the tube amp, cranked... God I can't wait...

 

[Quill]

You're kidding ... your wife zeroed in on that? Does she play, too? Actually I'm sure you'll want to keep that detail to yourself - nothing else needs to be said, except for maybe one more "wow, great!"

Ring modulation with fuzz is my favorite effect. My tendency is to run dry but the one just-in-case pedal I take with me everywhere is an octave/fuzz pedal. And among octave/fuzz pedal fans, the Octavia is a legend. If you can, please post a clip sometime - even just a couple of long notes would be nice to hear.

 

[Jason]

You're kidding ... your wife zeroed in on that? Does she play, too? Actually I'm sure you'll want to keep that detail to yourself - nothing else needs to be said, except for maybe one more "wow, great!"

Ring modulation with fuzz is my favorite effect. My tendency is to run dry but the one just-in-case pedal I take with me everywhere is an octave/fuzz pedal. And among octave/fuzz pedal fans, the Octavia is a legend. If you can, please post a clip sometime - even just a couple of long notes would be nice to hear.

It was strongly "suggested" by me, of course.

Here's a decent demo of what the pedal can do:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU_2Rg1N_7M]YouTube - General Guitar Gadgets TOCT (Dual Switch) Demo[/ame]

 

[diceman]

SWEET! I was looking at those the other day. I got there effects loop box as my first project - it went together nice and easy. I'm looking at doing another "real" pedal before too long. Nice work!

 

[kungpow!]

Very cool! Smooth paint job.

 

[PraXis]

Win.

 

[Alligatorbling]

nice job! man those sound awesome! now i wanna put one together too lol!

 

[Quill]

Here's a decent demo of what the pedal can do ...

And it is a nice demo, but I'd still be really interested to get your or anyone else's impressions of the pedal, once you get your preferred amp sorted out.

I kinda like fuzz and octave effects better than overdrives, because the decay of a good fuzz is just so interesting, the way different parts seem to fall off at their own, independent rate, and the notes sort of come apart, rather than fade off ... so beautiful and weird ... and you can get a strange exaggeration of the harmonics of a nice, harmonically rich instrument - or even a total transformation! To my ear, they tend to push the centre-heavy sound of a Strat into the territory (I suppose I mean in terms of the double-tones and harmonic richness) of an old Les Paul, but with a crazy, dark, almost comic-book-like twist.

And with a Les Paul, they do very interesting things in response to the volume and tone controls. I find my fuzz pedals are a bit unpredictable on the neck pickup in the way they respond to a tone roll-off; the highs don't come off, but they do change; hard to describe, but they sort of shift from "clarinet" over to "flute". I love it!

And - with an octaver - I find I can kind of bring the octave in and out of the sound, without too much drop in volume, by playing with the upper third of the volume controls, especially on the neck pickup.

Did that demo go into the response of this particular pedal to the guitar's controls? I didn't make the time to watch all of it ... and it'd be more fun to hear from some users here on that point anyway.

 

[snaredrum]

is this some special order kit or something? the double switch is genius...