Moonn Lo Fran PTP

comradehoser · Nov 9, 2024

[edits for clarity:]

Ahhh man!

This one will be interesting as I've already screwed up the pot placement.

It was supposed to go the other way, dummy! Well, it was a very non functionalist layout to begin with, so maybe it won't make too much difference.

Trying something new. I'm really trying to assemble everything by layers and logically in sub units. So, everything attached to the pots goes first, and I'll connect the sub unit layers after that. From top to bottom: fuzz, tone, volume, since volume is closest to the switch outs.

Forgot the Schematic!

Here's the main bits laid out, so how to get it all in?

It's a bit crowded. And I am trying to make this one look nice, dammit!

comradehoser · Nov 9, 2024

Well, after a lot of finagling, one busted IC leg, fitting and refitting, and moving the ground line, I made definitely the best looking PTP build I have ever done (in my opinion). This was unanticipatedly a very crowded and finicky build as well.

I think taking care of all of the pots first makes things WAY easier and better. The circuit is basically split at the fuzz pot, so I took it all the way up to the top, then all the way back down and had to curl it a bit on itself to join to the tone pot

Sounds wise, it doesn't blow me away in the same way that the peach fuzz and the cream puff do. Played PBass to LoFran to Sunn Sonaro to 2x15 Sunny cab. It definitely puts the BASS in bass fuzz.

I think I might have issues with fuzz on bass. I find it much harder to discriminate between bass fuzzes than for guitar, and I don't particularly like the result a lot of the time.

Mentaltossflycoon · Nov 9, 2024

When i say that these guts are making my eyes cross, it's 100% complimentary. The Lo-tone is one of my favorites but as always, it depends on tastes as much as the interaction with the rest of the gear and we don't have similar rigs. My only want for the lo-tone is to have some control over the lows. The elka dizzy tone is what replaced this on my board. Maybe you'll also like that one more, if you've not already built one. Only knock to that one is a lack of versatility as 2 out of 4 of the controls are useless.

comradehoser · Nov 9, 2024

Mentaltossflycoon said:
When i say that these guts are making my eyes cross, it's 100% complimentary. The Lo-tone is one of my favorites but as always, it depends on tastes as much as the interaction with the rest of the gear and we don't have similar rigs. My only want for the lo-tone is to have some control over the lows. The elka dizzy tone is what replaced this on my board. Maybe you'll also like that one more, if you've not already built one. Only knock to that one is a lack of versatility as 2 out of 4 of the controls are useless.

Maybe I didn't interpret something correctly on the schematic--it's always a worry when there are a bunch of pins unused on the ic. The circuit sounds very muff-like to me, and yeah, the low end is pretty massive. I'm thinking there's just something that doesn't jive with me between fuzzes and bass--odd because I do love me guitar fuzz.

For reference, the bass dirt out of the stuff I've built that I like the most is the dark glass B3K and the Blumes. I might try running the LoFran and my Moonn 200 Sunny Sunns preamp and see what gives. It into the pyrocumulus muff is godlike bass tones to me.

comradehoser · Nov 11, 2024

Mentaltossflycoon said:
When i say that these guts are making my eyes cross, it's 100% complimentary. The Lo-tone is one of my favorites but as always, it depends on tastes as much as the interaction with the rest of the gear and we don't have similar rigs. My only want for the lo-tone is to have some control over the lows. The elka dizzy tone is what replaced this on my board. Maybe you'll also like that one more, if you've not already built one. Only knock to that one is a lack of versatility as 2 out of 4 of the controls are useless.

Hey, I auditioned the lo fran through my multifx pedal bass amp sims and yes, it seems very affected by rig.

It still has commonalities: medium gain fuzz with a very healthy bass presence, and reduced treble and mids to the point of sounding a bit muffled in some combos. That's consistent with reviews of bass with the circuit online, but I'll crack it open to make sure i didn't eff something up that is limiting gain or the tone stack.

If you are looking for better EQ control, I would highly recommend you check out the pyrocumulus. It has a similar fuzz tone (naturally more present top end, though), and can be similarly MASSIVE on bass, but with the ability to dial in the EQ.

comradehoser · Jan 5, 2025

Final form. Not so happy with the lettering. The clear coat reacted with the red sharpie and blotted it out. Tried to go back on and it didn't work. Was too lazy/risk averse to take the circuit out and stamp the enclosure.