rwl
Well-known member
- Build Rating
This is my report on a build of the Mid-Fi Clarinot, which I gotta say is one of the most unique analog circuits I think I've heard. It's some combination of delay/envelope filter/fuzz/etc. I saw it recommended on the forum at some point, and what a cool effect.
Inspiration
I spent a while trying to figure out how to get an image of a bird to convincingly playing a clarinet, and I just couldn't figure it out.
Conveniently, though, there's a small family of birds called Reedhaunters, from South America, which I went with as my inspiration based on the fact that clarinets are reed instruments. Reedhaunters are marshbirds that I think occupy a similar niche as wrens. The pedal has a really nice woody tone, and a sort of blurry, faded sound, so I felt that "Reedhaunter" was a great term for the pedal.
This was an early design after I started my "no backgrounds for pedals" journey, but one I'm very happy with. I wanted to emphasize the "haunt" part of the reedhaunter name, so I went with a sort of ghostly fade effect, and it turned out beautifully. I really think the pedal looks super coherent, even though it's not necessarily as fancy as some of my other designs. I was impressed after I built it, and I might go with similar monochromatic styles for other pedals in the future.
The Build
I actually built this one twice. The first one was the PedalPCB Chalumeau. My father-in-law (a musician from the 70s) was housesitting for a week and played around with my pedalboard, and the two pedals that jumped out to him were the Funbox (I think with the Venus effect loaded), and the Chalumeau. The first time I was demoing some pedals he looked really confused by the effect, just kinda staring for a while trying to figure out what was going on. He said he'd never heard a guitar sound like that (I had it set quite subtly tbh, but he has a great ear), I had that in a generic enclosure with some labelmaker labels on it, so I gave him that. But I also really loved the sound so I had to make another one. I wanted to go more DIY anyway and make my own boards for some of my favorite pedals, so I gave that a shot here, and I'm happy with the results. It's not a very complicated pedal at all.
It does need a homemade vactrol, which I think it's recommended *not* to wrap with tape, but you can do as you like. According to my notes, I used a 5mm yellow LED and a GL2258 for the LDR. The build is surprisingly simple given the complexity of the effect.
The Pedal
I think this is in my top 5 pedals? It's certainly in my top 10. It's just such a unique pedal, there's nothing that compares to it. I've heard that some people will disable the fuzz, and I know Mid-Fi offers a non-fuzz version, but to me the fuzz is the most usable part of the effect. Like, you can do plenty of wacky things with the pedal, but the tone of the fuzz really sounds unlike any other pedal I've heard. It's undeniably a "woody" tone that does seem reminiscient of a reed instrument.
I'd really say that there's few other pedals that will give you more bang for your buck than one of these, given the limited number of simple components, the fact that it sounds great with "boring" settings, and the fact that it has a lot of range and can get really wild. I'd encourage building one.
Ratings
Inspiration
I spent a while trying to figure out how to get an image of a bird to convincingly playing a clarinet, and I just couldn't figure it out.
Conveniently, though, there's a small family of birds called Reedhaunters, from South America, which I went with as my inspiration based on the fact that clarinets are reed instruments. Reedhaunters are marshbirds that I think occupy a similar niche as wrens. The pedal has a really nice woody tone, and a sort of blurry, faded sound, so I felt that "Reedhaunter" was a great term for the pedal.
This was an early design after I started my "no backgrounds for pedals" journey, but one I'm very happy with. I wanted to emphasize the "haunt" part of the reedhaunter name, so I went with a sort of ghostly fade effect, and it turned out beautifully. I really think the pedal looks super coherent, even though it's not necessarily as fancy as some of my other designs. I was impressed after I built it, and I might go with similar monochromatic styles for other pedals in the future.
The Build
I actually built this one twice. The first one was the PedalPCB Chalumeau. My father-in-law (a musician from the 70s) was housesitting for a week and played around with my pedalboard, and the two pedals that jumped out to him were the Funbox (I think with the Venus effect loaded), and the Chalumeau. The first time I was demoing some pedals he looked really confused by the effect, just kinda staring for a while trying to figure out what was going on. He said he'd never heard a guitar sound like that (I had it set quite subtly tbh, but he has a great ear), I had that in a generic enclosure with some labelmaker labels on it, so I gave him that. But I also really loved the sound so I had to make another one. I wanted to go more DIY anyway and make my own boards for some of my favorite pedals, so I gave that a shot here, and I'm happy with the results. It's not a very complicated pedal at all.
It does need a homemade vactrol, which I think it's recommended *not* to wrap with tape, but you can do as you like. According to my notes, I used a 5mm yellow LED and a GL2258 for the LDR. The build is surprisingly simple given the complexity of the effect.
The Pedal
I think this is in my top 5 pedals? It's certainly in my top 10. It's just such a unique pedal, there's nothing that compares to it. I've heard that some people will disable the fuzz, and I know Mid-Fi offers a non-fuzz version, but to me the fuzz is the most usable part of the effect. Like, you can do plenty of wacky things with the pedal, but the tone of the fuzz really sounds unlike any other pedal I've heard. It's undeniably a "woody" tone that does seem reminiscient of a reed instrument.
I'd really say that there's few other pedals that will give you more bang for your buck than one of these, given the limited number of simple components, the fact that it sounds great with "boring" settings, and the fact that it has a lot of range and can get really wild. I'd encourage building one.
Ratings
- Build: 5/5
- Pedal: 5/5
