jeffwhitfield
Well-known member
Man...I've got a LOT of pedal builds to post but figure I'll pace myself. Quite a few built up over the past months so I'm just working through them. They're all part of a larger pedal study, looking at circuits, and seeing what does what.
I've had my eye on some of the ThorpyFX stuff and was always curious about them. So, figure I'd jump in and build a few of them. Seems like straight-forward and easy ones to build. Pretty much covered the gamut with these three. Only one left out was the compressor (which I didn't really need).
I kept the designs pretty simple and concentrated mainly on the enclosure color, primary color (with matching knob color), symbols, and typography. The designs came together pretty fast (thanks to various graphics off Vecteezy).
I think the one that surprised me the most was the Shrapnel Overdrive. That Calibre knob is what did it for me. It works in tandem with the Gain knob to help send the overall gain into pretty gnarly territory. Thorpy calls it a "proprietary cascading gain engine". Ok then. What it appears to be is a BS170 transistor that is being pushed more with the Calibre knob to add more gain ahead of the main gain stage. Regardless of how "proprietary" it really it, it does result in some pretty heavy gain.
The Guardian was probably the least surprising. It's a damn good overdrive pedal for sure....but it's pretty low gain. The Presence knob does help give it more character and yields some pretty nice amp-like tones.
The Pyrocumulus Fuzz is good too but, if I'm being honest, the circuit does look like a derivative of a standard Muff circuit. Nothing super special really. The choice in transistors (BC549C) does yield a nice mid-range set of tones though.
Good exercise and certainly things within these circuits to learn from.
I've had my eye on some of the ThorpyFX stuff and was always curious about them. So, figure I'd jump in and build a few of them. Seems like straight-forward and easy ones to build. Pretty much covered the gamut with these three. Only one left out was the compressor (which I didn't really need).
I kept the designs pretty simple and concentrated mainly on the enclosure color, primary color (with matching knob color), symbols, and typography. The designs came together pretty fast (thanks to various graphics off Vecteezy).
I think the one that surprised me the most was the Shrapnel Overdrive. That Calibre knob is what did it for me. It works in tandem with the Gain knob to help send the overall gain into pretty gnarly territory. Thorpy calls it a "proprietary cascading gain engine". Ok then. What it appears to be is a BS170 transistor that is being pushed more with the Calibre knob to add more gain ahead of the main gain stage. Regardless of how "proprietary" it really it, it does result in some pretty heavy gain.
The Guardian was probably the least surprising. It's a damn good overdrive pedal for sure....but it's pretty low gain. The Presence knob does help give it more character and yields some pretty nice amp-like tones.
The Pyrocumulus Fuzz is good too but, if I'm being honest, the circuit does look like a derivative of a standard Muff circuit. Nothing super special really. The choice in transistors (BC549C) does yield a nice mid-range set of tones though.
Good exercise and certainly things within these circuits to learn from.
