Stickman393
Well-known member
I have a calamity fuzz that's been...en...unpleasant to build.
My main issue with the pedal is the gate...I don't know if it's the components that I chose, but I have to absolutely slam the front end of this thing in order to get any kind of output. It benefits greatly from a buffer in front of it...but even then I find I may have to...ah...finger the left hand side of the board...to generate enough input noise to open the gate.
Now, granted: the first attempt I made at building this thing I used some ebay J201's that I figured must've been at fault, so I pulled em and put in some SMD J201s. Same issue, double and triple checked all my component values, orientations, solder joints.
Then I found the following language on the FC website:
The Unpleasant Surprise is a tricky pedal because each one is different, and there's a careful balancing act to be made each time we calibrate them. We want the two ‘G’ settings to sound different enough from each other, however this can cause the gating threshold to be pretty high, and as a result, lower output guitars can have a hard time pushing through the gate at lower onset positions.
One remedy is to hit the Unpleasant Surprise with a stronger/louder signal. This can be done by placing something like a clean boost, compressor, or anything with a master volume really, before the Unpleasant.
Careful calibration balancing act, they say? Hmmmm.
So...I'm curious as to exactly what they mean by that. Is it due to the variability in j201 specs?
And if that's the case...how would one compensate for that? Could it be as simple as a trimmer in place of a resistor, dialed in by ear?
Attached the schematic...any help from the gurus here would be greatly appreciated.
My main issue with the pedal is the gate...I don't know if it's the components that I chose, but I have to absolutely slam the front end of this thing in order to get any kind of output. It benefits greatly from a buffer in front of it...but even then I find I may have to...ah...finger the left hand side of the board...to generate enough input noise to open the gate.
Now, granted: the first attempt I made at building this thing I used some ebay J201's that I figured must've been at fault, so I pulled em and put in some SMD J201s. Same issue, double and triple checked all my component values, orientations, solder joints.
Then I found the following language on the FC website:
The Unpleasant Surprise is a tricky pedal because each one is different, and there's a careful balancing act to be made each time we calibrate them. We want the two ‘G’ settings to sound different enough from each other, however this can cause the gating threshold to be pretty high, and as a result, lower output guitars can have a hard time pushing through the gate at lower onset positions.
One remedy is to hit the Unpleasant Surprise with a stronger/louder signal. This can be done by placing something like a clean boost, compressor, or anything with a master volume really, before the Unpleasant.
Careful calibration balancing act, they say? Hmmmm.
So...I'm curious as to exactly what they mean by that. Is it due to the variability in j201 specs?
And if that's the case...how would one compensate for that? Could it be as simple as a trimmer in place of a resistor, dialed in by ear?
Attached the schematic...any help from the gurus here would be greatly appreciated.
