MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Final report for today and the one with the demo in it
So this pedal actually IS supposed to sound like a Dumble, as VTT amps main flagship offering is their Dumble style amp the "X-1".
The unique features of the "X-1" (in a sea of Dumble clones) is first its size. It's like a lunchbox amp sized head, yet has a full complement of 6L6's and outputs 40 watts.
Secondly, it's price. For a US made, hand wired Dumble clone, it's like around $1800. Compared to a Two Rock, or St Lous electric which are 3-4x that much.
The demo's of it sound really good too. But I digress...
Seems like VTT is trying to capture some of sound of their amp in a pedal, and thus the Kudzu.
Schematically it's something of a cross between a Zen and a YATS. (You may think that's thats a distinction without a difference )
What's interesting is that it's using Mosfet clippers with no diodes. It's a very VERY warm saturated overdrive and actually does the Dumble thing quite well.
What I really like about it is that it's not super "fizzy" like some Zen variants can be. Its gain is thick enough to cut with a knife.
Very cool pedal and highly recommended build if you're into the Dumble sound.
One issue is that most of the usable sounds for me was in the last 10% of rotation of the tone and presence controls. I've been chatting with @music6000 about whether a pot swap to log taper or C taper would be better at spreading out the tone range. You can see in the demo below how drastic the tone change is with the treble control.
Here's the schematic for the Kudzu
The demo below is for the Kudzu, the Comprehensive Drive and the Stringer. Comparing them to my VHT "Dumble Style" amp's overdrive channel.
So this pedal actually IS supposed to sound like a Dumble, as VTT amps main flagship offering is their Dumble style amp the "X-1".
The unique features of the "X-1" (in a sea of Dumble clones) is first its size. It's like a lunchbox amp sized head, yet has a full complement of 6L6's and outputs 40 watts.
Secondly, it's price. For a US made, hand wired Dumble clone, it's like around $1800. Compared to a Two Rock, or St Lous electric which are 3-4x that much.
The demo's of it sound really good too. But I digress...
Seems like VTT is trying to capture some of sound of their amp in a pedal, and thus the Kudzu.
Schematically it's something of a cross between a Zen and a YATS. (You may think that's thats a distinction without a difference
)What's interesting is that it's using Mosfet clippers with no diodes. It's a very VERY warm saturated overdrive and actually does the Dumble thing quite well.
What I really like about it is that it's not super "fizzy" like some Zen variants can be. Its gain is thick enough to cut with a knife.
Very cool pedal and highly recommended build if you're into the Dumble sound.
One issue is that most of the usable sounds for me was in the last 10% of rotation of the tone and presence controls. I've been chatting with @music6000 about whether a pot swap to log taper or C taper would be better at spreading out the tone range. You can see in the demo below how drastic the tone change is with the treble control.
Here's the schematic for the Kudzu
The demo below is for the Kudzu, the Comprehensive Drive and the Stringer. Comparing them to my VHT "Dumble Style" amp's overdrive channel.
