Disarray and Van Pelt
- Thread starter spi
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Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
Very clean!
spi
Well-known member
I didn't get much chance to try this in the past week, but noodled around a bit today. Here's my initial impressions:
Van Pelt: I think it's supposed to be a JTM45 style overdrive? It adds a nice Marshall flavor to the tone, but with not as much gain as I expected. It only starts to crunch once the gain knob gets to 90% or so. I can see using it as boost or low gain to add just a bit of British touch. It's the first pedal I have based on a mosfet SHO type of circuit--it sounds great in my tube amp not on my SS practice amp (although not many overdrives do).
Disarray: I already built a Captain Crunch, so was wondering if this would be redundant (very close Guvnor circuits, but with different ICs and clipping). My initial impression is I like it better than the CC. The CC has a smoother distortion, while the Disarray has a bit more edginess or grittiness to the overdrive tone.
One little glitch with my Disarray build, which I don't know if is something wrong or part of the design, but whenever I put the toggle to the up position, there's a transient spike of static (like a discharge), which then goes away and then sounds fine. It only happens if I switch it to that position again after a while of not being in that position (if I toggle back and forth it doesn't happen--have to let the charge build up).
My preference is for the middle position. I'm not sure what clipping that option that is, but from the schematic I think it must be through the one with the blue LED?
Van Pelt: I think it's supposed to be a JTM45 style overdrive? It adds a nice Marshall flavor to the tone, but with not as much gain as I expected. It only starts to crunch once the gain knob gets to 90% or so. I can see using it as boost or low gain to add just a bit of British touch. It's the first pedal I have based on a mosfet SHO type of circuit--it sounds great in my tube amp not on my SS practice amp (although not many overdrives do).
Disarray: I already built a Captain Crunch, so was wondering if this would be redundant (very close Guvnor circuits, but with different ICs and clipping). My initial impression is I like it better than the CC. The CC has a smoother distortion, while the Disarray has a bit more edginess or grittiness to the overdrive tone.
One little glitch with my Disarray build, which I don't know if is something wrong or part of the design, but whenever I put the toggle to the up position, there's a transient spike of static (like a discharge), which then goes away and then sounds fine. It only happens if I switch it to that position again after a while of not being in that position (if I toggle back and forth it doesn't happen--have to let the charge build up).
My preference is for the middle position. I'm not sure what clipping that option that is, but from the schematic I think it must be through the one with the blue LED?
Last edited:
Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
Did you use C10K for the Van Pelt's DRIVE pot?
Did you use a 3-position ON-ON-ON toggle switch on the Disarray?
Are the LEDs all facing the right way?
Did you use a 3-position ON-ON-ON toggle switch on the Disarray?
Are the LEDs all facing the right way?
spi
Well-known member
There's definitely a C10K somewhere in the Van Pelt--I suppose it's a possibility that I mistakenly swapped it with a tone control (but I think it's unlikely, I usually check multiple times before soldering). At some point I'll open it and up and check, but it's not high priority because I'm happy with the way it sounds anyway (and even if it is wrong I dread trying to unsolder knobs to fix it so I'd probably leave it as is).
For the Disarray, yep it's an ON-ON-ON and the 3 toggle positions give distinct sounds. I'm pretty sure LEDs are facing the right way (I am cautious about diode and cap polarities). I'm actually more suspicious of the germanium diodes than LEDs (but I'm not actually not sure which of the clipping options is engaged with the switch is pointing up). Again, it's a minor annoyance, and if I get around to it I might open it and check the solder joints, etc. But it sounds great in any position, so I can live with the transient spike.
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