Expectation: High/Low…

Coda

Coda

Well-known member
Let’s talk about pedals you may have built that exceeded…or fell below…your expectations.

I build the Super Fuzz (Uber Fuzz) because it’s a classic. Ive never had much interest in the circuit, nor octave fuzz. I built it because of its legacy. After tweaking it (my pcb didn’t have the trim pot, so, other than adjusting resistors, swapping Q 4 and 5 determines the octave), I fell in love. It has been on my board since January.
I also built a Klon (Kliche). It doesn’t work right (still troubleshooting). I mean, it works…but only it you hold the pedal just right. Anyway, I’m not impressed with the Klon.
 
Red Llama. I built one because I fell on love with a model on my Helix called Alpaca Rouge. I genuinely had no idea what it was and hadn't tried it the whole time I've had my helix. After falling for it big style I built one on vero and it sucked... A lot. It was really noisy, spitty and had none of the low end thump that the 'model' had so I put it aside and kinda forgot about it.

Later I came accross a post from @Chuck D. Bones that some modern TI CD4049s were really noisy and he had better luck with a nos chip from a different manufacturer. So I had a hunt and picked up 2 NOS Motorola Mc14049. I tried one in my llama build and the difference was night and day. It sounded fantastic and I use it all the time.
 
Yeah, you need the 4049UBE (unbuffered) for the Red Llama. Most 4049s are of the UBE type now but they used to make 4049B (buffered) and those do not work well in the Red Llama. The "B" version will do what you described.
There is a nasty pedal that is made for the "B" version of the 4049, I think it's called "Satan's Revenge" or something like that.
Typically, when 4000 series ICs are used to run audio signal through them, you want the "U" or unbuffered version of the IC.
 
I built the Aion Meridian and it is underwhelming, but I am wondering if it's my fault. The changes are very subtle on it's own, but you can hear it affect other pedals following it in kind of weird ways. I need to find a good demo of the original to be sure. It's a bummer, too, because it's one of my better looking pedals I think.
 
danfrank said:
Yeah, you need the 4049UBE (unbuffered) for the Red Llama. Most 4049s are of the UBE type now but they used to make 4049B (buffered) and those do not work well in the Red Llama. The "B" version will do what you described.
There is a nasty pedal that is made for the "B" version of the 4049, I think it's called "Satan's Revenge" or something like that.
Typically, when 4000 series ICs are used to run audio signal through them, you want the "U" or unbuffered version of the IC.
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No the TI chips I used originally are definitely CD4049UBE but they're really noisy, fizzy and the circuit has no low end at all when I use those. Both of the Motorola MC14049UBCP I bought sound great and fixed thr issues I was having with the pedal.
 
peccary said:
I built the Aion Meridian and it is underwhelming, but I am wondering if it's my fault. The changes are very subtle on it's own, but you can hear it affect other pedals following it in kind of weird ways. I need to find a good demo of the original to be sure. It's a bummer, too, because it's one of my better looking pedals I think.
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I built that pedal and I am not sure if i screwed up or what but it got scrapped and I used the enclosure for something else.
 
Built a Big Cheese clone using bc549c’s a few months back. Got the board for free, and didn’t have big expectations for it. I enjoy a good Muff or Tonebender, but the Big Cheese definitely brings something new to the table. It has the grit of a very good Tonebender, but with more focus and better control.

Also can’t say enough good things about the 1776 Multiplex Echo Machine.

on the other side of things I fixed up a Randomatic pedal for a friend of mine last year. Had heard it was great and it certainly fetches a high price on the used market. I will preface this by saying I don’t like flangers. But it was terrible IMO. Maybe it stood out twenty years ago, but you can make something way more interesting happen with an FV1.
 
Guardian OD aka Thorpyfx Peacekeeper. I like a lot of Adrian's pedals and when I heard he was doing a low gain pedal I assumed I'd love it. I built a guardian and once I sorted an issue with the bc549 I used it sounded fine but really just fine. I've been really underwhelmed by it tbh and keep thinking maybe I've screwed it up but having listened to a lot of demos now I'm not sure I have. It was billed as being a great all-rounder which could cover a lot of ground but I'd rather keep a klone, a blues breaker and Timmy style pedals all on my board together rather than the peacekeeper. I also noticed that out of the people who raved about it when it first came out none of them still have one on their boards anymore.
 
SillyOctpuss said:
Guardian OD aka Thorpyfx Peacekeeper. I like a lot of Adrian's pedals and when I heard he was doing a low gain pedal I assumed I'd love it. I built a guardian and once I sorted an issue with the bc549 I used it sounded fine but really just fine. I've been really underwhelmed by it tbh and keep thinking maybe I've screwed it up but having listened to a lot of demos now I'm not sure I have. It was billed as being a great all-rounder which could cover a lot of ground but I'd rather keep a klone, a blues breaker and Timmy style pedals all on my board together rather than the peacekeeper. I also noticed that out of the people who raved about it when it first came out none of them still have one on their boards anymore.
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Are they paid to rave about it? It seems like that can be a bit a business. Not to shit on Thorpy or any of these pedal companies but I wonder how much of it is heavily influenced.

I have pedals I have tried that I didn’t like at first but then came back to it months later with maybe a different guitar or amp and loved it or even a different mindset.

I was never a big bluesbreaker pedal fan but once I started playing around with the vfe blues king and thinking of it like an eq with a little dirt it because much more versatile.

stuff that has blown me away out of the gate; duo phase, dung beetle, jet drive, skylight od, chickenhead, mbp dirtbaby and wavelord, 1776 multiplex, carcharias effects sagan delay, deandendfx hooke, vfe dragon and yodeler. I am sure I am forgetting a bunch, having so many sounds to play around with makes me smile. What a great hobby
 
jjjimi84 said:
Are they paid to rave about it? It seems like that can be a bit a business. Not to shit on Thorpy or any of these pedal companies but I wonder how much of it is heavily influenced.

I have pedals I have tried that I didn’t like at first but then came back to it months later with maybe a different guitar or amp and loved it or even a different mindset.

I was never a big bluesbreaker pedal fan but once I started playing around with the vfe blues king and thinking of it like an eq with a little dirt it because much more versatile.

stuff that has blown me away out of the gate; duo phase, dung beetle, jet drive, skylight od, chickenhead, mbp dirtbaby and wavelord, 1776 multiplex, carcharias effects sagan delay, deandendfx hooke, vfe dragon and yodeler. I am sure I am forgetting a bunch, having so many sounds to play around with makes me smile. What a great hobby
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No I was talking about people I know on another forum who had been early adopters and then sold their Tim pedals or Klons etc before going back to them a year or two later.

You're the second person I've seen mention the vfe dragon recently. I've had a pcb for that since Peter's patreon experiment a few years ago and still haven't gotten round to building it.
 
SillyOctpuss said:
No I was talking about people I know on another forum who had been early adopters and then sold their Tim pedals or Klons etc before going back to them a year or two later.

You're the second person I've seen mention the vfe dragon recently. I've had a pcb for that since Peter's patreon experiment a few years ago and still haven't gotten round to building it.
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Build the dragon, become one with the dragon, love thy dragon.
 
I thought the Friedman BE:OD was greatly hyped and never delivered for such a pricey pedal. It reminded me of a Marshall Guv'nor except much noisier and with little top end; use it a band context and you just disappear. Luckily the Friedman name carries some weight so it was easy to shift but that thing felt like a giant waste of time.
 
One that exceeded my expectations is a Speaker Cranker. It's just a simple electra distortion variant. It's a great stacker, it seems to make any pedal I put it in front of a little bit better.

I've never been much impressed with any fuzz circuit I built (FF, tonebender, muff). None of them are bad by any means, but I always thought they'd be more of a revelation--I want to be a fuzz enthusiast, so they always seem good in theory, but I think I'm just not that into fuzz for my own playing.
 
I never bonded with my hoof clone (jedspeds) like I thought I would. I'm both a huge bmp nerd and eqd fan and thought it would be a go to but it's looking pretty dusty. Even with the led diode switch it's a hard meh.

Blown away by the VIIB. Didn't think it possible but with the switching it really is better than a boss/behringer. Extremely satisfying build. Honorable mention to the escobedo ugly face. Tons of fun for the trouble.
 
I was also underwhelmed by the paragon (mini). I was really surprised by the special overdrive (dumbloid) and the aft preamp (EQD Bows).
 
Just finished a Crowther Hotcake / Awful Waffle. Pretty underwhelming. The note decay kind of sputters out in an unpleasant way and you lose a lot of high end with the gain up. Built one because one of my favorite guitarists uses it as his only drive pedal, but I’m just not feeling it!
 
scheffehcs said:
Just finished a Crowther Hotcake / Awful Waffle. Pretty underwhelming. The note decay kind of sputters out in an unpleasant way and you lose a lot of high end with the gain up. Built one because one of my favorite guitarists uses it as his only drive pedal, but I’m just not feeling it!
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What amp are you using the hotcake with? I've found it's particularly picky about what you use it with. Voxs, matchless, badcat etc seem to work well
 
I have two disappointing builds with higher expectations.

The little angle chorus. First, It was a royal pain to get working. Second, I tried 10 different pt2399’s before I found one that wouldn’t latch up on occasion. Third, it just doesn’t sound good. It’s very muffled sounding.

BYOC little echo. It only works as a slap back echo. The farting, motor boating, noise becomes too much at longer delay times.
 
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