comradehoser
Well-known member
- Build Rating
A while back I breadboarded this and was thinking of dropping it from the build list. Gain, gain, gain, fuzz, fuzz, fuzz, blah, blah, blah. Seen it, done it, got the Conan shirt.
Then it came up in rotation and I breadboarded it again, since I had all the parts. Boy, I'm glad I did.
This is one of those builds that just kind of fell together (mostly). I built it straight stock with no fiddly mods, since subtleties of tone is not really its forte--it's just a big old lumbering fuzz. This is a pretty straightforward circuit with 3 tie ins--tie ins are the crucial complications of PtP construction for me--and 4 repetitive blocks plus a power section that I built individually and just played with on a 125b outline until something came out of the possibilities that I liked. After I laid down all of the bottom layer stuff to the volume knob and 3PDT switch, I contemplated slotting in the circuit blocks edgewise (like books on a shelf) instead of flat, or folding one half under the other, but I wanted to show off what up until that point was a very clean line circuit layout and assembly, so flat it was, and I staggered the first half right and the second left.
Of course, when I started "final touching" things, things started warping and getting out of relation. The end result is some minor infelicities of line, but overall, I am pretty happy with the aesthetics. As usual for me, ground is to the right, hot line is to the left. Looks I am highly resistant to clean right angles and continue to default to flowy organic curves.
Oh well.
I made my life more complicated by locating the line of pots up under the jacks more than they needed to be, which made for an overly cramped top area, but I used the PTP power of spatiality to deal with it. I also tried a new in/out and power jack arrangement, and I think I actually like it a lot.
Soundwise, I dig it. It starts as kind of a grainy overdrivey fuzz, and it progresses through the rotation to a super fuzzed-out sandstorm of a gain beast. Still manages to preserve note clarity until the very end, and it's surprisingly quiet on humbuckers. Doesn't chug really (maybe @owlexifry can do it since he pulls squealies out of everything), but it's a doom mallet, and that it does well. If you know the ionostrophere, you will be familiar with this sound, kind of reminiscent of a big muff (hey, it's got 4 transistors) although the OK Doomer manages to have its own thing going. The filter knob has a very useable and much appreciated sweep. Also pretty low noise floor on humbuckers.
Of course, it's a slab of doom cake on guitar; sounds really great on baritone; and I would say sounds pretty good on bass as well. Doom metal circuits generally do all these in my experience if you like the low and slow kind of thing. I don't think it's as much for shredding or dad rock.
And the LED is a bit dim. Oh well! Can't change it now!
Will probably slap a graphic or drawing on it at some point
Then it came up in rotation and I breadboarded it again, since I had all the parts. Boy, I'm glad I did.
This is one of those builds that just kind of fell together (mostly). I built it straight stock with no fiddly mods, since subtleties of tone is not really its forte--it's just a big old lumbering fuzz. This is a pretty straightforward circuit with 3 tie ins--tie ins are the crucial complications of PtP construction for me--and 4 repetitive blocks plus a power section that I built individually and just played with on a 125b outline until something came out of the possibilities that I liked. After I laid down all of the bottom layer stuff to the volume knob and 3PDT switch, I contemplated slotting in the circuit blocks edgewise (like books on a shelf) instead of flat, or folding one half under the other, but I wanted to show off what up until that point was a very clean line circuit layout and assembly, so flat it was, and I staggered the first half right and the second left.
Of course, when I started "final touching" things, things started warping and getting out of relation. The end result is some minor infelicities of line, but overall, I am pretty happy with the aesthetics. As usual for me, ground is to the right, hot line is to the left. Looks I am highly resistant to clean right angles and continue to default to flowy organic curves.
Oh well.
I made my life more complicated by locating the line of pots up under the jacks more than they needed to be, which made for an overly cramped top area, but I used the PTP power of spatiality to deal with it. I also tried a new in/out and power jack arrangement, and I think I actually like it a lot.
Soundwise, I dig it. It starts as kind of a grainy overdrivey fuzz, and it progresses through the rotation to a super fuzzed-out sandstorm of a gain beast. Still manages to preserve note clarity until the very end, and it's surprisingly quiet on humbuckers. Doesn't chug really (maybe @owlexifry can do it since he pulls squealies out of everything), but it's a doom mallet, and that it does well. If you know the ionostrophere, you will be familiar with this sound, kind of reminiscent of a big muff (hey, it's got 4 transistors) although the OK Doomer manages to have its own thing going. The filter knob has a very useable and much appreciated sweep. Also pretty low noise floor on humbuckers.
Of course, it's a slab of doom cake on guitar; sounds really great on baritone; and I would say sounds pretty good on bass as well. Doom metal circuits generally do all these in my experience if you like the low and slow kind of thing. I don't think it's as much for shredding or dad rock.
And the LED is a bit dim. Oh well! Can't change it now!
Will probably slap a graphic or drawing on it at some point
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