Brassmaster Mods?

[mzy12]

Hello! I recently got a Brassmaster PCB from Fuzz Dog (pedalparts.co.uk) and I was wondering if anyone here has any interesting mods they know of for this pedal. I really like Zachary Rizer's demo of the Hiero B.E.A.D. and I'd like to add some the functionality of that unit to my build. One of them is a tone pot for both the main effect (external control) and the clean blend (internal pot). That's an easy add with just something like a SWTC from AMZ.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

(P.S. Zachary has some incredible videos on his channel of him demonstrating some great sounding effects with his great bass playing, if anyone's interested)

 

[jwin615]

Following closely.
That video makes me want to box a BrM with an octaver.

 

[mzy12]

Following closely.
That video makes me want to box a BrM with an octaver.

Every one of his videos makes me want as many octavers as I can reasonably fit on my floor.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

The BEAD is an incredible fuzz. I have a V1, which is essentially just a regular Brassmaster with tweaked values, but the newer 6 knob version seems really incredible— would love to see a trace of the recent ones

 

[Coda]

Why mess with perfection?…



That’s the FuzzDog version. It’s excellent…

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I've done the fuzzdog and madbean brassters and the only knock I have toward either is the size of the FD. 125b is always better. Never considered modding either. I'm tackling the vfe woodchipper in the near future just for the novelty of getting one into a 1590b.

 

[peccary]

I could see a clean blend being really useful. I like pairing mine with the Madbean Edgelord and pretending I'm playing a synth bass.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

I could see a clean blend being really useful. I like pairing mine with the Madbean Edgelord and pretending I'm playing a synth bass.

Clean blend is already part of the Brassmaster circuit. That’s what the Bass knob is. My only gripe has consistently been that I think the clean blend (and the clean blend in any gain pedals) should be able to go above unity

 

[peccary]

Clean blend is already part of the Brassmaster circuit. That’s what the Bass knob is. My only gripe has consistently been that I think the clean blend (and the clean blend in any gain pedals) should be able to go above unity

My god, I totally forgot that because it's always turned to ten and I'm wishing that it went to fifteen.

 

[mzy12]

My only gripe has consistently been that I think the clean blend (and the clean blend in any gain pedals) should be able to go above unity

Hmmm... I'm not really sure I understand the use case of that. I usually try to keep my drive pedals at around unity, maybe a bit more for cutting through a mix. Can you explain to me your thought process for an above unity clean blend? Genuinely curious, as it could make me open my eyes to the possibilities that provides.

Looking at the schematic, the clean portion of the circuit comes from a common collector configuration of Q1 (looking at fuzz dog schematics). Because of this, I don't see any way to get it above unity gain other than tapping the signal at, say, the negative of the coupling cap C2 and sticking an above unity gain buffer into the enclosure. Pretty easy to do with some stripboard and an opamp/jfet, depending on your preference (opamp would be better, unless you enjoy futzing with JFETs for a simple gain circuit). I might try that and report back on what it sounds like.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Hmmm... I'm not really sure I understand the use case of that. I usually try to keep my drive pedals at around unity, maybe a bit more for cutting through a mix. Can you explain to me your thought process for an above unity clean blend? Genuinely curious, as it could make me open my eyes to the possibilities that provides.

A few different uses:
First, if a fuzz is being used only for occasional lead stuff, then having it be set a decent bit above unity is useful for standing out a bit more, especially for bass that’s sitting back in the mix a bit more for most of the time. By having the clean blend go above unity, it means that settings that are largely clean with just a bit of fuzz blended in (80/20, let’s say) can be used in those solo contexts.
Another context is when pushing a tube amp on the verge of breakup, the added clean level won’t give a perceived volume jump, but will still keep clarity to the fuzz while it really pushes hard; if the fuzz is that far above unity (for tone purposes of pushing the amp into distortion) and the clean blend isn’t above unity, it gets a bit funny sounding for lack of a better word.
Lastly, especially with an octave fuzz like the Brassmaster, you often get a sharper octave sound with the volume of the guitar rolled back a bit, so if you have the fuzz and clean both set for a considerable boost above unity, it might actually be just about the same volume as the guitar on full volume without the pedal engaged.

 

[jwin615]

Bass/clean is fed by CC amp stage of Q1. Aren't common collector amp stages limited to a gain of (near) 1?
It could be cool to box a dual pedal with an octave and have the octave switchable between pre BM and inserted on the BASS line(guessing between Q1 and the Bass pot). Could just tap the signal at the Bass pot lugs.
Then you'd have octave in or octave blend.
Could inject an always on buffer there as well to increase the clean signal.

Could add some switchable hard clipping in the feedback amp. Jumper off each side of R21(geofex schematic) to a switch with a pair of diodes or 2(need to know what the signal voltage here is. May need to double up so as to not induce too much volume loss)

http://www.geofex.com/PCB_layouts/Layouts/Maestro_BB-1_Bass_Brass_Master.jpg

 

[mzy12]

By having the clean blend go above unity, it means that settings that are largely clean with just a bit of fuzz blended in (80/20, let’s say) can be used in those solo contexts.

That does make sense to me.

Another context is when pushing a tube amp on the verge of breakup, the added clean level won’t give a perceived volume jump, but will still keep clarity to the fuzz while it really pushes hard; if the fuzz is that far above unity (for tone purposes of pushing the amp into distortion) and the clean blend isn’t above unity, it gets a bit funny sounding for lack of a better word.

Personally I would use an clean boost for those purposes, but I can understand wanting that volume built in to the unit!

Lastly, especially with an octave fuzz like the Brassmaster, you often get a sharper octave sound with the volume of the guitar rolled back a bit, so if you have the fuzz and clean both set for a considerable boost above unity, it might actually be just about the same volume as the guitar on full volume without the pedal engaged.

Hahah I should thought of this myself tbh. You've sold me on the concept!

Bass/clean is fed by CC amp stage of Q1. Aren't common collector amp stages limited to a gain of (near) 1?

Indeed they are. It's generally 1 minus a bit of loss from the voltage dropped from Vbe, though if you want to get more granular and specific than that, you'd have to ask someone else

It could be cool to box a dual pedal with an octave and have the octave switchable between pre BM and inserted on the BASS line(guessing between Q1 and the Bass pot). Could just tap the signal at the Bass pot lugs.
Then you'd have octave in or octave blend.
Could inject an always on buffer there as well to increase the clean signal.

Since the Fuzz Dog brassmaster build already demands a larger enclosure size, I see no reason not to do this

 

[jwin615]

Something simple like a green ringer might do. Looks like there would be room for it in the bottom half of the BB.
I think I'm talking myself into this...

 

[mzy12]

Something simple like a green ringer might do. Looks like there would be room for it in the bottom half of the BB.
I think I'm talking myself into this...

Since this is gonna be on my bass rig, a PedalPCB ocelot looks like it's gonna find it's way into this one haha

 

[jwin615]

Here's a crude drawing on the fuzzdog schematic

Using a DPDT, this would patch into the parallel clean of the pedal.
Then use a 3pdt footswitch to move FX pre or parallel.
Can bend up leg 3 or snip it and solder to the little rivet hole.
The dpdt would essentially be a parallel bypass.
Since you're in a BB already, could also use this point as an insert/loop with switching jacks.
The. You could utilize whatever fx you want, including a clean boost.
At least this all works in my head.

 

[mzy12]

Since you're in a BB already, could also use this point as an insert/loop with switching jacks.
The. You could utilize whatever fx you want, including a clean boost.

Sounds like a cool idea! I'd probably just stick with the ocataver personally. Definitely stick a buffer in there if you're doing that.

 

[jwin615]

Sounds like a cool idea! I'd probably just stick with the ocataver personally. Definitely stick a buffer in there if you're doing that.

Is Q1 not a buffer already? That's a pretty run of the mill CC buffer.

 

[mzy12]

Is Q1 not a buffer already? That's a pretty run of the mill CC buffer.

Sorry, an above unity gain buffer at the end of the fx loop haha.

But now that I'm thinking about it, if you were to be very pedantic, a good quality opamp buffer before the fx loop would offer much better performance than a basic CC buffer of a BJT... it probably doesn't matter, but dual opamps run about the same as single opamps so if you already have one on there you might as well make it a dual one and use both sides!

I cannot lie though, that's way overboard haha

 

[jwin615]

Here's a vid of someone's prototypes where they compare Si and Ge(D9Es) in their BM. Looks like fuzzdog layout.

Si seems more splatty and Ge more compressed, no surprise.
IIRC, the Ge assmaster only changed Q2 and Q3 to Ge.