DEMO Oops! Wrong-808

This post contains an audio or video demo

Bricksnbeatles

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5.00 star(s)
This one is long overdue.
Some of you may recall the Little Green Scream Machine contest that our resident Monty Hall/Oprah hosted last year. Well, thanks to that contest and it’s associated prize, this pedal exists. Big round of applesauce for @fig— He makes the dreams come true 🤩

So yeah, took a long time to get this one done for a few reasons. First, I ordered the UV print back in December, and that was all good, but then I decided I wanted to do relay bypass, and I couldn’t get my hands on the relays for quite some time. Wound up getting the relay when @PedalPCB started stocking them last month, and once I saw it was orange, well… you give a mouse a cookie; I wanted to color coordinate the insides. Did carbon film resistors for their creamy beige coloring, but was missing a few essential values, so I had to order a cheap assortment, so that stalled things a bit. Some point around this time I also ordered repro 808 knobs from Thonk in the UK. Then when I was populating the relay board I realized I had forgotten the regulator, so I had to wait for the Tayda order to arrive, which took about a month. Got the regulator on Saturday, and got everything else loaded up, but then the power went out as I was starting the offboard wiring. Yesterday after finishing up some school assignments I was able to get the offboard wiring all hooked up and get this dude plugged in.

Please note that I’ve always been a big TS hater— back when I was playing my Strat for 90% of my stuff, I found that every TS I played just gave me that obnoxious SRV “blooze dad” tone. I had no interest in ever building a TS, and just came up with the design because I liked the visual concept— hey, I’m a sucker for a gimmick. Well, let me tell you— after plugging my LP into this thing, I was blown away. I guess I like tubescreamers after all, with the big caveat being that I only like them paired with humbuckers. A happy ending was had for all!

Oh, that’s right. You’re here to see guts n’ stuff. Here you go. [Edit: I swear, the tone knob is perfectly centered over the text. The camera angle is playing tricks. My drill-skill is on fleek]



I’m sure most of you get the visual gag, but if not, I’ll explain: to the average guitarist, the mention of an 808 conjures up images of green boxes, magical op amps, and gigantic hats. To any other musician, the term “808” immediately evokes thoughts of the world’s most iconic drum machine, with its hi-hat rolls and tuned-kick sub-bass lines. See for yourself:


Now that you understand the visuals, you may be asking “but how does it sound?”

Probably not. You know what a tubescreamer sounds like, and this sounds like that. Nevertheless, I threw together a quick track featuring the Oops! Wrong-808 just so I can display this post with that oh-so-magical “Demo” flair, and bask in the prestige it grants me.

The track starts with four bars of the dry guitar, and then kicks into two different screamery tones— a mid gain one with a compressor after it for rhythm, and a pretty-much goosed one with oodles of echo for the lead stuff.

Henceforth and hitherto, let the demonstration of thine coveted screamer commence:

 
Ok at 1:47 time stamp on your clip that was TOTALLY a "blooze dad" lick.......hahahah. :)

Awesome build and awesome clip dude, I had to really think about the chord progression and what you were playing over it.
I love harmonically interesting clips.

When I saw the title it made me think of Utopia's "Oops, Wrong Planet" album.
 
Ok at 1:47 time stamp on your clip that was TOTALLY a "blooze dad" lick.......hahahah. :)

Awesome build and awesome clip dude, I had to really think about the chord progression and what you were playing over it.
I love harmonically interesting clips.

When I saw the title it made me think of Utopia's "Oops, Wrong Planet" album.
Thanks! There are three key progressions in this:
An E mixolydian-dominant type-thing: I - V6 - bVII9 - IV6 V9
An E dominant-quartal sort of vamp: I9 - bVI9
An E mixolydian “Louie-Louie” circle: I - IV - v - IV

I tried to strike a balance between fun modal stuff and typical “blooze dad” licks— the lick you pointed out, but there are also some passing quotations of Louie Louie and some Page tropes. On the other hand, some of the more interesting modal licks were approached by me playing stale blues licks based around the upper chord extensions. The bVII9 (D9) in the main progression, for example, can be thought of as a D major witg a rootless A minor stacked on top, so I played A minor licks on top of that chord even though that chord would typically function as a dominant chord for G major.

The pedal name was 100% meant to be a subtle cross-homage to Utopia’s Oops, Wrong Planet and the classic Captain Crunch “Oops! All berries” ads (I’ve never even liked Captain crunch) so I’m glad you picked up on that! Just so happens I’m wearing a Todd Rundgren tee shirt now with the A Wizard, A True Star artwork from when I saw him on the Individualist, A True Star tour last year.
 
I love the design and how it came out with the UV print. I also love that you color coordinated those 4 wires… You are making me want to try the Tayda UV printing service now!
Good one dude, the matching wiring to the relay🥵🥵🥵
Thanks guys! Is it bad that those four little wires are my favorite part of the build? I was so incredibly tempted to do the same for the input and output wiring (input red, in gnd orange, out gnd yellow, output white) but I didn’t think it would have the same visual impact if it wasn’t a continuous straight run, and instead it would just look like I used a bunch of different random wires. I’m not known for my nuance and restraint, but I’m glad I forced myself to limit the 808-gradient colors to the bypass wiring. The black keeps the theme balanced anyway.

@giovanni about the UV printing…
 
Thanks! There are three key progressions in this:
An E mixolydian-dominant type-thing: I - V6 - bVII9 - IV6 V9
An E dominant-quartal sort of vamp: I9 - bVI9
An E mixolydian “Louie-Louie” circle: I - IV - v - IV

I tried to strike a balance between fun modal stuff and typical “blooze dad” licks— the lick you pointed out, but there are also some passing quotations of Louie Louie and some Page tropes. On the other hand, some of the more interesting modal licks were approached by me playing stale blues licks based around the upper chord extensions. The bVII9 (D9) in the main progression, for example, can be thought of as a D major witg a rootless A minor stacked on top, so I played A minor licks on top of that chord even though that chord would typically function as a dominant chord for G major.

The pedal name was 100% meant to be a subtle cross-homage to Utopia’s Oops, Wrong Planet and the classic Captain Crunch “Oops! All berries” ads (I’ve never even liked Captain crunch) so I’m glad you picked up on that! Just so happens I’m wearing a Todd Rundgren tee shirt now with the A Wizard, A True Star artwork from when I saw him on the Individualist, A True Star tour last year.
Man hard to believe someone as young as you are can be into "A Wizard a True Star" HAH. I'm a huge Todd fan. But haven't seen him live since the early Utopia days. I saw them on the "RA" tour when they did the whole "Singring and the Glass Guitar" live with all the props and Todd doing his solo on that crazy ladder thing and somersaulting off of it.

Love your approach to playing and the thought you put into it. Keep it up dude!
 
Man hard to believe someone as young as you are can be into "A Wizard a True Star" HAH. I'm a huge Todd fan. But haven't seen him live since the early Utopia days. I saw them on the "RA" tour when they did the whole "Singring and the Glass Guitar" live with all the props and Todd doing his solo on that crazy ladder thing and somersaulting off of it.

Love your approach to playing and the thought you put into it. Keep it up dude!
Oh yeah, I’m a huge Rundgren fan. AWATS is probably the album with the single biggest influence on my own approach to music. Just saw Todd on Saturday night alongside Joey Molland of Badfinger, Denny Laine, Christopher Cross, and Jason Scheff of Chicago doing a tribute to the Beatles’ Revolver and Rubber Soul. 4th time seeing Rundgren for me, and he always brings his A game.
 
Thanks guys! Is it bad that those four little wires are my favorite part of the build? I was so incredibly tempted to do the same for the input and output wiring (input red, in gnd orange, out gnd yellow, output white) but I didn’t think it would have the same visual impact if it wasn’t a continuous straight run, and instead it would just look like I used a bunch of different random wires. I’m not known for my nuance and restraint, but I’m glad I forced myself to limit the 808-gradient colors to the bypass wiring. The black keeps the theme balanced anyway.

@giovanni about the UV printing…
YES MASTER
 
This is really clever. Really did the whole build. And, boy, do I know about the 808. I remember when Propellerhead software released their Rebirth app that had an emulation of an 808 as part of it. Really cool stuff.
 
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