DEMO [Vero] Suhr Riot - altoids / (PedalPCB Disarray Distortion - almost)

[owlexifry]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

hot damn.
this distortion is unhinged.
i’ve never played one with so much gain.
but i have a feeling that might be because this is geared towards the single coil player in mind.
not that it matters, cos it sounds very good regardless.



my last altoids build with the russian big muff inspired me to do another one with top jacks.
wasn’t sure what to do, then found another good layout from harald sabro, supposedly of the original version. i couldn’t find the schematic that it was referencing, wasn’t sure about it, so i looked to the PedalPCB Disarray Distortion schematic.
made some adjustments to sabro’s layout, so that it would match the Disarray, except for the clipping section, where the standard red LED pair is hardwired into the clipping circuit / not switched out. (uses an on-off-on SPDT)
so it’s almost a Riot reloaded / PedalPCB Disarray Distortion i guess.

for the first time in my life i actually did the thing and measured diode leakage for the x4 germanium diode clippers.

out of my bag of about x20 D9Es, this is roughly the distribution i ended up with:
90-110 mV (0.90-1.10 uA) - x4
170-180 mV (1.7-1.8 uA) - x2
205-220 mV (2.05-2.2 uA) - x7
235-290 mV (2.35-2.90 uA) x7

i picked x2 1.7 & x2 1.1 for this build.

here's a fun pic showing the visual differences between the clipping modes:

<< germanium // just red LEDs // green + [x2 4148 in series] >>



- very impressed with the sound.
- fantastic distortion.
- gain/tone/level controls work well.
- takes an overdrive wonderfully (sounds even better)
- the clipping modes:
in my setting, perhaps at least with humbuckers, the clipping options are entirely redundant. the centre toggle / standard red LED pair mode sounds best to me, the 'down' mode didn’t sound much different (didn’t have a blue led so i used a green one) and the germanium mode was just quieter and maybe a little squishier? not enough of a difference to warrant a switch (in my opinion).


demo:

this might be one of the best 9V distortions ive ever tried.
(kinda funny cos ive been meaning to build a marshall guv'nor for the longest time and kept putting it off. i'm guessing this is better?)

in conclusion, given what i have experienced here, i would definitely recommend the PedalPCB Disarray Distortion

 

[micmac]

Regarding "i’ve never played one with so much gain", I remember that you also built a tight metal clone. Has the Disarray more gain than the tight metal?

Just curious.

Thanks!

 

[owlexifry]

Has the Disarray more gain than the tight metal?

hard to say without doing a side by side comparison, i don’t have the tight metal anymore, but i’d say they’re very different kinds of distortions.

tight metal is very mid scooped no matter how you dial it. i guess it’s supposed to be. the gain / drive is a very compressed buzzy type, but there’s plenty of it, it’s saturated, not as crunchy as i'd like, but it does the metal thing well. i didn’t get a chance to try it with an overdrive in front.
the multiple toggles and tone controls really didn’t offer as much control or versatility that i had hoped for. its basically got one good sound.

disarray/riot has tonnes of mids. the drive is thick, crunchy, and saturated, hairy, actually relatively tight-ish, can get loose, but nothing that can’t be tightened up with an overdrive in front. the tone control works well to give you enough of the sizzle you need. does very good lower gain tones as well.

i guess they’re two different flavours of ice cream.

i’ve done demos for both, so you could kinda do an A/B comparison with those