DuoCast (But what exactly is it?)

MichaelW

Well-known member
Well, I after a slight delay waiting for 1590BBS to arrive (missed that part initially in the build docs) I put my DuoCast together and buttoned it up this morning.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It's like an odd, angular, juxtaposition of overdrive, distortion and fuzz.
I used a TG55/OC71 with HFe of 63.

I have the internal gain trimpots barely cracked as any higher, the gain sounds just weren't very appealing to me, too splatty and farty. I definitely prefer running it at 9v as opposed to the 27v setting.
It sounds better on some guitars than others.
Sounded the best with my Nash Tele when I was messing around with it today.

I have to admit, even though I got some cool sounds out of it, it's not my favorite pedal. But I need to play around with it some more.
Build went very smooth although I totally goofed on the 330U caps. Somehow I missed the part when I was ordering them where it said "12.5mm"o_O, those are some BIG suckers! I managed to get them on with some inventive lead bending.

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I said the same thing in my Duocast build report. Interesting, but I don't get the gushing praise. As I said, maybe into a loud valve amp it sounds amazing, into my little practice amp it's not grabbing me. And possibly it's better as an actual preamp - ie after all the other effects. Haven't experimented with that yet.
 
Can we see that Nash @MichaelW ?
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It's a pretty light piece of Swamp Ash. The only mod I've done is re-wire it for 4-way switching. Lollar Vintage-T in the neck and Special-T in the bridge.

Edit: Actually I just remembered, I also swapped out the saddles. The ones in the pic are the standard Gotoh compensated saddles, I installed a set of the Gotoh "In-Tune" saddles that have the notches so the strings don't slip around. I was having an issue of the high E string not staying in place.

Edit #2: You know what? I just looked at my notes.....sheesh. When I re-wired it for 4 way switching I also installed a treble bleed cap and a Russian PIO tone cap. So I guess I did do a bunch of mods......I'm an incurable tinkerer.

Interesting "fun fact" about this guitar. For some reason this particular guitar seems more susceptible to static electricity and I get so much pick guard noise that it drives me nuts to play it. I rub it with a piece of dryer sheet and it goes away, for about 6 months then it comes back:) Must something with the finish and how it builds up when I play it.
 
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Nice, I have two teles. On my 50s blonde blackguard I have calaham slanted brass saddles. On my 60s lake placid blue I have calaham straight compensated steel saddles. The polished steel is slippery as hell but the soft brass has never been an issue. That's a purdy tele. Nothing beats a good tele, except a new tele🤣
Callaham makes some nice stuff, but ungodly expensive heh. I've got the same brass saddles in both my Tele's but now you got me thinking I need a steel saddled Tele too......hmmmm......
 
tjCP0md.png

GmPl42g.png


It's a pretty light piece of Swamp Ash. The only mod I've done is re-wire it for 4-way switching. Lollar Vintage-T in the neck and Special-T in the bridge.

Edit: Actually I just remembered, I also swapped out the saddles. The ones in the pic are the standard Gotoh compensated saddles, I installed a set of the Gotoh "In-Tune" saddles that have the notches so the strings don't slip around. I was having an issue of the high E string not staying in place.
Fine looking guitar you got there
 
Callaham makes some nice stuff, but ungodly expensive heh. I've got the same brass saddles in both my Tele's but now you got me thinking I need a steel saddled Tele too......hmmmm......
I also discovered yesterday that you can only order from Callaham by phone, FAX, or mail 🥴
 
I've used a few Callaham parts, including his steel Strat bridge. Overall I'm kinda underwhelmed with his stuff. Beautifully made usually but I don't really think the parts sound better. And the steel bridge I bought had the wrong angle for the whammy bar. It comes out at 90 degrees rather than the laid-back angle that the traditional Strats do. So I couldn't leave the arm on the guitar in the case and I couldn't really use it anyway because it sat in the wrong place!

For Tele bridges and parts I love Marc Rutter's stuff. His Tele saddles are some of the best I've used.

Anyway, as far as the Duocast is concerned, well, I really like it. I don't LOVE it but it makes an excellent treble booster. Into a clean amp no, I don't really dig it. But into a slightly dirty sound it's amazing - warm, incredibly responsive and just beautiful sounding. If you like classic 60s-70s rock and roll sounds it should be right up your alley. I generally use a lo-gain OD pretty much all the time. Stick a Simulcast or Duocast in front and you'll get all sorts of classic sounds from ZZ-Top to Queen, etc. I swap between the single one and the Dark Esbat frequently - they do a similar job and neither sounds perfect into a clean amp by themselves. But into an already dirty sound they sound great. I would guess that the rather crude sounding clipping is what makes them sound so responsive in that situation.
 
Nice stuff all around!

I used to have a Tele. It was a beautiful milky white with a one-ply guard ans a maple neck.
Never got played once I got my Strat. The body is very uncomfortable to me and I need a whammy bar to play my surf music. Too bad because there's nothing like a Tele bridge pickup.
 
I've used a few Callaham parts, including his steel Strat bridge. Overall I'm kinda underwhelmed with his stuff. Beautifully made usually but I don't really think the parts sound better. And the steel bridge I bought had the wrong angle for the whammy bar. It comes out at 90 degrees rather than the laid-back angle that the traditional Strats do. So I couldn't leave the arm on the guitar in the case and I couldn't really use it anyway because it sat in the wrong place!

For Tele bridges and parts I love Marc Rutter's stuff. His Tele saddles are some of the best I've used.

Anyway, as far as the Duocast is concerned, well, I really like it. I don't LOVE it but it makes an excellent treble booster. Into a clean amp no, I don't really dig it. But into a slightly dirty sound it's amazing - warm, incredibly responsive and just beautiful sounding. If you like classic 60s-70s rock and roll sounds it should be right up your alley. I generally use a lo-gain OD pretty much all the time. Stick a Simulcast or Duocast in front and you'll get all sorts of classic sounds from ZZ-Top to Queen, etc. I swap between the single one and the Dark Esbat frequently - they do a similar job and neither sounds perfect into a clean amp by themselves. But into an already dirty sound they sound great. I would guess that the rather crude sounding clipping is what makes them sound so responsive in that situation.
Just for giggles I was on the Hudson site today listening to some clips. The version he makes for Ariel Posen sounds the most appealing to me. (Or It could just be that Ariel is a monster player:)) Sounds fatter, warmer, smoother. There's some marketing copy about a different transformer in that version blah blah blah but I wonder what it would take to modify the Duo into something like the AP version.

 
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