BuddytheReow
Breadboard Baker
- Build Rating
This is the Dingo Distortion, which is a clone of the VFE Alpha Dog.
What is it? It's a very tweakable Rat. Think of this as a Rat with some balls and different texture options.
There are 6 controls on this circuit, 3 of which are standard Rat controls (Volume, Gain, and Filter/Tone). I won't talk about those. What DID make me interested in the circuit are the 3 other controls: FAT, HARD, and SOFT. The FAT control adjusts the frequencies in the opamp loop to allow more bass to come through. Now, as a bedroom/basement player I've always though a Rat sounded on the thinner side and needed some low end thrown in there. This control doesn't disappoint. I've yet to try this on bass, but it's on my short list of things to try out. The other 2 controls tweak the amount of clipping in the circuit and I have a love/hate relationship with them. For the record, IMO, most of the clipping is done via the opamp and I only had a OP07 on hand. When I decide to spend the $5-8 on a LM308 I'll definitely try it out. There are 4 hard clipping diodes controlled by the HARD knob. The SOFT knob controls the unique soft clipping done with a GE diode (I think I used a 1n270) and a BS170. This one I kind of like. What I don't like is at either extreme or both clipping knobs the circuit almost sounds like gated BJTs, which I don't like for a Rat. As long as the knobs aren't at 7 o'clock or 5 o'clock I'm good.
The build itself was pretty smooth. A pretty low parts count which is expected in a Rat. I mean, all a Rat is is a non-inverting opamp with 2 cutoff Rc filters, a high cut filter, and some hard clipping diodes. Also for the record a Rat should be breadboarded once in your life to understand how opamps work in this context. The problem I had was finding the weird HARD and SOFT pots as per the build docs. They are virtually impossible to find via the normal routes (Tayda, SmallBear, SBP, etc.). Knowing that all these pots are just odd tapers, I decided to just go with linear tapers instead and minus the extremes I think they work fine as I turn them.
The enclosure itself is just some rattle can rustoleum. I think the color is Green Apple which I had in my stash for a different project, but this turned out nicely. The artwork is hand painted acryllic pen with some green knobs. My wife loves this design and she picked it out with all the other options I gave her.
If you want a Rat that sounds like a Rat with some balls and different textures, get a Dingo. You won't be disappointed.
BuddytheReow
What is it? It's a very tweakable Rat. Think of this as a Rat with some balls and different texture options.
There are 6 controls on this circuit, 3 of which are standard Rat controls (Volume, Gain, and Filter/Tone). I won't talk about those. What DID make me interested in the circuit are the 3 other controls: FAT, HARD, and SOFT. The FAT control adjusts the frequencies in the opamp loop to allow more bass to come through. Now, as a bedroom/basement player I've always though a Rat sounded on the thinner side and needed some low end thrown in there. This control doesn't disappoint. I've yet to try this on bass, but it's on my short list of things to try out. The other 2 controls tweak the amount of clipping in the circuit and I have a love/hate relationship with them. For the record, IMO, most of the clipping is done via the opamp and I only had a OP07 on hand. When I decide to spend the $5-8 on a LM308 I'll definitely try it out. There are 4 hard clipping diodes controlled by the HARD knob. The SOFT knob controls the unique soft clipping done with a GE diode (I think I used a 1n270) and a BS170. This one I kind of like. What I don't like is at either extreme or both clipping knobs the circuit almost sounds like gated BJTs, which I don't like for a Rat. As long as the knobs aren't at 7 o'clock or 5 o'clock I'm good.
The build itself was pretty smooth. A pretty low parts count which is expected in a Rat. I mean, all a Rat is is a non-inverting opamp with 2 cutoff Rc filters, a high cut filter, and some hard clipping diodes. Also for the record a Rat should be breadboarded once in your life to understand how opamps work in this context. The problem I had was finding the weird HARD and SOFT pots as per the build docs. They are virtually impossible to find via the normal routes (Tayda, SmallBear, SBP, etc.). Knowing that all these pots are just odd tapers, I decided to just go with linear tapers instead and minus the extremes I think they work fine as I turn them.
The enclosure itself is just some rattle can rustoleum. I think the color is Green Apple which I had in my stash for a different project, but this turned out nicely. The artwork is hand painted acryllic pen with some green knobs. My wife loves this design and she picked it out with all the other options I gave her.
If you want a Rat that sounds like a Rat with some balls and different textures, get a Dingo. You won't be disappointed.
BuddytheReow
the shit.
). 
