- Build Rating
Here is my build of the Scenario Preamp, based on the Cornerstone Gladio SC. This was a client build. This is my first build for a new client, with whom I have now officially doubled my client base! (*)
This was a very straightforward build, both because it uses common parts, and also because this client wanted simple options (no fancy bypass scheme, bare aluminum enclosure, black 1510 knobs, no graphics, just knob labels). I had all the parts on hand except one pot and the knobs.
I knew very little about this circuit before building it. Although, I had considered building it in the past based on a handful of positive mentions here on the forum. The circuit is basically a Timmy with a clean blend option. The bass pot has been moved to an internal trimmer. There is a "compression" switch for changing the clipping diode arrangement.
Apparently, the commercial version of this pedal is marketed as a Dumble-style overdrive. I don't have any experience with D-style amps, so don't have any frame of reference for what that's supposed to sound like. My expectation was that it would mostly sound like a Timmy, based on the circuit topology. A clean blend on a Timmy seemed redundant to me, since the Timmy is famous for being "transparent".
I've sold the Timmy clones I've built over the years, so couldn't do a side-by-side comparison. But, the Scenario Preamp is indeed transparent - by that, I mean it generally doesn't alter the fundamental guitar or amp EQ, unless you really push it. It's more like a bit of light seasoning for your tone, rather than a new recipe, so to speak. But I do feel like the Scenario feels a little different than a Timmy, and despite being similarly EQ-neutral, also sounds a little different. To put it another way, the stock Timmy never really got me where I wanted to be, but I could see myself getting some mileage out of this circuit.
It is very much a low-gain specialist. Once the clean knob is past noon, the dirt starts to get really subtle. The setting I liked was with the bass trim pot dialed back a bit (i.e. some bass cut), clean blend around 10-11, gain around 3, high compression, and tone right around noon. This, to my ears, was like a smoothed-out light overdrive, great edge-of-breakup tone that retained 95% of my guitar and amp's core sound. But that was just where I landed, there's a lot of workable tones in there. I also found it to be great at pushing other pedals.
While I've kind of passed on Timmys, I'm making a mental note of this circuit to revisit some day. My first thoughts are that I might do away with the compression switch and move the bass pot back to the front of the enclosure. I feel like the clean blend control could be tuned a bit too. And there's probably some room for simplification, as @jesuscrisp has already proposed some ideas here, Scenario Preamp... but simpler... and better.
The actual build was unremarkable: everything went together easily, and worked perfectly on first power-up. The enclosure was an unfinished aluminum 125B. I hit the front face with the belt sander to clean off some of the factory imperfections. I used Sunnyscopa waterslide decals for the labels. I added some hot melt glue to the offboard wires for strain relief.
(*) Client list has indeed doubled, from one to two.
This was a very straightforward build, both because it uses common parts, and also because this client wanted simple options (no fancy bypass scheme, bare aluminum enclosure, black 1510 knobs, no graphics, just knob labels). I had all the parts on hand except one pot and the knobs.
I knew very little about this circuit before building it. Although, I had considered building it in the past based on a handful of positive mentions here on the forum. The circuit is basically a Timmy with a clean blend option. The bass pot has been moved to an internal trimmer. There is a "compression" switch for changing the clipping diode arrangement.
Apparently, the commercial version of this pedal is marketed as a Dumble-style overdrive. I don't have any experience with D-style amps, so don't have any frame of reference for what that's supposed to sound like. My expectation was that it would mostly sound like a Timmy, based on the circuit topology. A clean blend on a Timmy seemed redundant to me, since the Timmy is famous for being "transparent".
I've sold the Timmy clones I've built over the years, so couldn't do a side-by-side comparison. But, the Scenario Preamp is indeed transparent - by that, I mean it generally doesn't alter the fundamental guitar or amp EQ, unless you really push it. It's more like a bit of light seasoning for your tone, rather than a new recipe, so to speak. But I do feel like the Scenario feels a little different than a Timmy, and despite being similarly EQ-neutral, also sounds a little different. To put it another way, the stock Timmy never really got me where I wanted to be, but I could see myself getting some mileage out of this circuit.
It is very much a low-gain specialist. Once the clean knob is past noon, the dirt starts to get really subtle. The setting I liked was with the bass trim pot dialed back a bit (i.e. some bass cut), clean blend around 10-11, gain around 3, high compression, and tone right around noon. This, to my ears, was like a smoothed-out light overdrive, great edge-of-breakup tone that retained 95% of my guitar and amp's core sound. But that was just where I landed, there's a lot of workable tones in there. I also found it to be great at pushing other pedals.
While I've kind of passed on Timmys, I'm making a mental note of this circuit to revisit some day. My first thoughts are that I might do away with the compression switch and move the bass pot back to the front of the enclosure. I feel like the clean blend control could be tuned a bit too. And there's probably some room for simplification, as @jesuscrisp has already proposed some ideas here, Scenario Preamp... but simpler... and better.
The actual build was unremarkable: everything went together easily, and worked perfectly on first power-up. The enclosure was an unfinished aluminum 125B. I hit the front face with the belt sander to clean off some of the factory imperfections. I used Sunnyscopa waterslide decals for the labels. I added some hot melt glue to the offboard wires for strain relief.
(*) Client list has indeed doubled, from one to two.
