Rounding the third turn with the Fig builds (pendulum, Alpaca, special k)

Diynot

Well-known member
So here is the next to last batch of pedals from my @fig winnings. First up is the Ample Alpaca. Have seen many mentions of the red llama over the years and I like Tom Petty as much as the next 40+ guy, so I decided to give it a go. So off the bat, it is def a woofy pedal, even with the hi-cut/treble dimed. I increased the power resistor to 2k at the leading of Mr Bones elsewhere in the forum. This brought the voltage on pin 1 down to 4.9v, might try a 3k, might not, meh. This seemed to tighten up the overdrive a bit. Are there some usable sounds? yes. Is it anything special? not really. speaking of “ample” check that 330uf. Also, who doesn’t love a little Carl:
2FA4B53A-D080-4567-B32C-F709D260B221.jpeg 2C6B1ABF-01CE-4B4D-B291-37D175FE11D7.jpeg
Next, the Special K. Oh wait, you guys were thinking ab the cereal? Can’t really go wrong with an Electra based drive, always a classic. Modifications include a on/off/on clipping switch to allow for “clean” boost mode. Since you are throwing one gain stage into a “recovery” gain stage, it can still be a little dirty. Used a couple of 2n2484 trannies that have been hanging around my transistor bin, hfe around 418. Def plenty of gain on tap. Would it have been cool if I had aligned my artwork so that the LED was in the middle of the “hole”, yes, yes it would have been. It won’t bother me though….much. Pics
: 51BA5437-6F2B-42B2-B0E2-33903A54EBFE.jpeg AE9E8CD4-6903-44FF-9BC4-EE7A96FA7255.jpeg
Last up, the Pendulum trem. The harmonic part def makes this a step above the standard trem, very warm and musical. I did not pay a whole lot of attention to the LDR distance, but I like what I am hearing so probably won’t mess with it. Was looking for a good “Pit and the Pendulum” picture, but searching for Poe brought up this and I liked it so there you have it. I must have installed the rate LED backwards because it isn’t currently working. Will I fix it? Maybe, maybe not. Pics:
2A549974-B8AF-4831-B27E-3E2DFAEABD70.jpeg 118A73A0-059E-4B57-AE9B-12BFF0B86740.jpeg
All art was done in GIMP and printed on vinyl sticker. I took notes from @jjjimi84 and only painted the top given that the weather around the Ohio valley in late October doesn’t make for the best rattle can application. Over sprayed the vinyl with clear enamel. In summary, some easy/fun builds. Some usable sounds, but will any of them be in regular rotation? Probably not. I have a lot of boost/OD/fuzzy distortion pedals that sound similar or better and all but one of my amps have tube trem. None of these gave me that “HELL YES!” sort of feeling that makes you want to play for hours, but that’s just my lowly opinion. Now go build some stuff
 
Duuuuuuuddddeeee these are some of the coolest designs ever! Im really really loving the Red Llama (BTW im 30 and love Tom Petty!). Super clever with the K hole graphic! But i think the pendulum looks absolutely killer! Great job on every one of these!
 
So here is the next to last batch of pedals from my @fig winnings. First up is the Ample Alpaca. Have seen many mentions of the red llama over the years and I like Tom Petty as much as the next 40+ guy, so I decided to give it a go. So off the bat, it is def a woofy pedal, even with the hi-cut/treble dimed. I increased the power resistor to 2k at the leading of Mr Bones elsewhere in the forum. This brought the voltage on pin 1 down to 4.9v, might try a 3k, might not, meh. This seemed to tighten up the overdrive a bit. Are there some usable sounds? yes. Is it anything special? not really. speaking of “ample” check that 330uf. Also, who doesn’t love a little Carl:
View attachment 34796View attachment 34802
Next, the Special K. Oh wait, you guys were thinking ab the cereal? Can’t really go wrong with an Electra based drive, always a classic. Modifications include a on/off/on clipping switch to allow for “clean” boost mode. Since you are throwing one gain stage into a “recovery” gain stage, it can still be a little dirty. Used a couple of 2n2484 trannies that have been hanging around my transistor bin, hfe around 418. Def plenty of gain on tap. Would it have been cool if I had aligned my artwork so that the LED was in the middle of the “hole”, yes, yes it would have been. It won’t bother me though….much. Pics
:View attachment 34798View attachment 34803
Last up, the Pendulum trem. The harmonic part def makes this a step above the standard trem, very warm and musical. I did not pay a whole lot of attention to the LDR distance, but I like what I am hearing so probably won’t mess with it. Was looking for a good “Pit and the Pendulum” picture, but searching for Poe brought up this and I liked it so there you have it. I must have installed the rate LED backwards because it isn’t currently working. Will I fix it? Maybe, maybe not. Pics:
View attachment 34800View attachment 34804
All art was done in GIMP and printed on vinyl sticker. I took notes from @jjjimi84 and only painted the top given that the weather around the Ohio valley in late October doesn’t make for the best rattle can application. Over sprayed the vinyl with clear enamel. In summary, some easy/fun builds. Some usable sounds, but will any of them be in regular rotation? Probably not. I have a lot of boost/OD/fuzzy distortion pedals that sound similar or better and all but one of my amps have tube trem. None of these gave me that “HELL YES!” sort of feeling that makes you want to play for hours, but that’s just my lowly opinion. Now go build some stuff
Oh man, Can you elaborate a bit more how you did the Special K mod? I have this in my queue as well as the Cranker. Not sure which to build first but it sounds like with your mod it can be best of both worlds?
 
So here is the next to last batch of pedals from my @fig winnings. First up is the Ample Alpaca. Have seen many mentions of the red llama over the years and I like Tom Petty as much as the next 40+ guy, so I decided to give it a go. So off the bat, it is def a woofy pedal, even with the hi-cut/treble dimed. I increased the power resistor to 2k at the leading of Mr Bones elsewhere in the forum. This brought the voltage on pin 1 down to 4.9v, might try a 3k, might not, meh. This seemed to tighten up the overdrive a bit. Are there some usable sounds? yes. Is it anything special? not really. speaking of “ample” check that 330uf. Also, who doesn’t love a little Carl:
View attachment 34796View attachment 34802
Next, the Special K. Oh wait, you guys were thinking ab the cereal? Can’t really go wrong with an Electra based drive, always a classic. Modifications include a on/off/on clipping switch to allow for “clean” boost mode. Since you are throwing one gain stage into a “recovery” gain stage, it can still be a little dirty. Used a couple of 2n2484 trannies that have been hanging around my transistor bin, hfe around 418. Def plenty of gain on tap. Would it have been cool if I had aligned my artwork so that the LED was in the middle of the “hole”, yes, yes it would have been. It won’t bother me though….much. Pics
:View attachment 34798View attachment 34803
Last up, the Pendulum trem. The harmonic part def makes this a step above the standard trem, very warm and musical. I did not pay a whole lot of attention to the LDR distance, but I like what I am hearing so probably won’t mess with it. Was looking for a good “Pit and the Pendulum” picture, but searching for Poe brought up this and I liked it so there you have it. I must have installed the rate LED backwards because it isn’t currently working. Will I fix it? Maybe, maybe not. Pics:
View attachment 34800View attachment 34804
All art was done in GIMP and printed on vinyl sticker. I took notes from @jjjimi84 and only painted the top given that the weather around the Ohio valley in late October doesn’t make for the best rattle can application. Over sprayed the vinyl with clear enamel. In summary, some easy/fun builds. Some usable sounds, but will any of them be in regular rotation? Probably not. I have a lot of boost/OD/fuzzy distortion pedals that sound similar or better and all but one of my amps have tube trem. None of these gave me that “HELL YES!” sort of feeling that makes you want to play for hours, but that’s just my lowly opinion. Now go build some stuff
Also, after my experimentation with LDR distance on my EQD Depths build I went back and tried to do the same thing on my Pendulum. It made zero difference on the Pendulum. It was originally about 4 to 5mm gap and I closed it to about 2mm. I guess it depends on the circuit if the gap makes any difference. I need to use mine more, it was my first non-overdrive build and sounds awesome!
 
Oh man, Can you elaborate a bit more how you did the Special K mod? I have this in my queue as well as the Cranker. Not sure which to build first but it sounds like with your mod it can be best of both worlds?
It’s a pretty common mod and It’s really nothing too fancy. It can be done with any circuit with hard clippers. Many a famous modders has made $$$ with this little trick. Just install an on/off/on Spdt (instead of the on/on) so when in middle position the diodes are removed from the circuit.
 
Also, after my experimentation with LDR distance on my EQD Depths build I went back and tried to do the same thing on my Pendulum. It made zero difference on the Pendulum. It was originally about 4 to 5mm gap and I closed it to about 2mm. I guess it depends on the circuit if the gap makes any difference. I need to use mine more, it was my first non-overdrive build and sounds awesome!
Good to know. For all the fuzz/dirt I seem to build I am a hard and fast modulation man myself. I tried mine with my hydra delay and it was a very nice combo. Also tested against my amp trem and it does have a little extra sweetness, buuuuut, tube trem.
 
Duuuuuuuddddeeee these are some of the coolest designs ever! Im really really loving the Red Llama (BTW im 30 and love Tom Petty!). Super clever with the K hole graphic! But i think the pendulum looks absolutely killer! Great job on every one of these!
Thanks man, I appreciate the kudos. I really thought ab combining the llama with the pendulum since I have heard the llama tone described as being a “tweed” type distortion and of course harmonic trem…. Glad I didn’t though. I may try and lower the voltage some more to see what happens, but I am a little burned out after so many builds at once. We can’t all be like @MichaelW 😆
 
@MichaelW is a machine :cool:.......some say he builds with his hands tied behind his back just give himself a challenge....others say he once made 10 pedals.......in 1 day......Whatever the legends are you dont want to compete with him :ROFLMAO:
 
A terrif' trio. [hip slang usage] :love: No bonding aside, glad you enjoyed the ride;)
I’ve got one more from the lot waiting on some artwork so really this is the 4th turn. I live in the state famous for horse racing, you would think I would know which turn comes before the final stretch. 😵
 
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It’s a pretty common mod and It’s really nothing too fancy. It can be done with any circuit with hard clippers. Many a famous modders has made $$$ with this little trick. Just install an on/off/on Spdt (instead of the on/on) so when in middle position the diodes are removed from the circuit.
Ah ok, I get it, so just adding the "no clippers" mode by swapping the On-On to an on-off-on. Ok definitely putting that in my build doc notes. That's like a "nothing to mod" mod...:p
 
Sweet looking builds!

The artwork and how you achieved the look of it makes me want to bring out the gimp, again.


GIMP PULP ART.jpg



I used to bring out the gimp a lot, but lately I'm trying to get Inkscape to work for me because inkscape never worked on my old computer properly and now I have a newish computer where Inkscape is behaving much more reliably.






Here's another trick for the on-off-on, @MichaelW

If you put a high forward-voltage diodes (LEDs for example) in the middle position, and lower forward-voltage on the outer lugs of the switch, the circuit will "ignore" the higher forward-voltage is when a lower-voltage (Bat41, 1N914 etc) is presented to it.

For example, in my Filigree Siberian Hamster I socketed the middle position and put LEDs in, so I could have a Turbo Rat in the middle position, in addition to the stock Rat and Fat Rat in the outer positions, but if I ever want to have just op-amp clipping of the LM308, I can simply pull the LEDs out of their sockets.
 
Sweet looking builds!

The artwork and how you achieved the look of it makes me want to bring out the gimp, again.


View attachment 34843



I used to bring out the gimp a lot, but lately I'm trying to get Inkscape to work for me because inkscape never worked on my old computer properly and now I have a newish computer where Inkscape is behaving much more reliably.






Here's another trick for the on-off-on, @MichaelW

If you put a high forward-voltage diodes (LEDs for example) in the middle position, and lower forward-voltage on the outer lugs of the switch, the circuit will "ignore" the higher forward-voltage is when a lower-voltage (Bat41, 1N914 etc) is presented to it.

For example, in my Filigree Siberian Hamster I socketed the middle position and put LEDs in, so I could have a Turbo Rat in the middle position, in addition to the stock Rat and Fat Rat in the outer positions, but if I ever want to have just op-amp clipping of the LM308, I can simply pull the LEDs out of their sockets.
Interesting, well in the example or the Special K I'd have to solder a pair of some lower Vf right onto the lugs on the top of the board.
Or wait. from the middle lug to ground somewhere. Since this pedal already has a complement of Ge's and Bat41's and 1N60P's.
It would have to be something even higher Vf in the middle. Like maybe some 1S1588's or something. But then you lose the "clean boost" mode which is what I was looking for. Still very cool tip, thank you!

We really need a "tips and tricks" library. I suppose the Mods forum serves that purpose but it's hard to find stuff without hours of going down the rabbit hole....
 
Sweet looking builds!

The artwork and how you achieved the look of it makes me want to bring out the gimp, again.
Thanks! Gotta let the GIMP out lest it get lonely or hungry. GIMP is a means to an end, a free end that is. I do have Inkscape, but have not explored the capabilities. I kind of like being able to manipulate photos instead of just doing vector designs, but should broaden the horizons.
 
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