Topographer Distortion: Finding My Way...

[jeffwhitfield]

I built this one a few weeks ago. By far one of the most original distortion boxes I've tried yet. At first, I wasn't sure if it was working right. The problem was that setting the gain up high causes it to clip with a gated effect. It's actually a pretty cool effect...but unexpected from a distortion pedal. The reason is due to how the transformer works. Push it hard enough and it clips really hard.

In terms of sound, it adds quite a bit of grit. By itself, it's a pretty good distortion box...but where it shines is when you stack something behind it. In this case, I stacked it with a Harmonic Perculator clone. Once I did that, holy cow, did it ever open up! Seems that pushing it with a Germanium-based boost or pre-amp really makes this one sing. And you don't have to turn up the gain much to get it there. For me, the sweet spot was around 10-11 o'clock...not quite halfway.

For the design, I used a flat black textured enclosure. Used AmplifyFun for the UV printing. Wanted something that sort of resembled the original IVP pre-amp that this particular circuit was based on. I found a really cool topographical graphic and added it to the bottom. It's funny cause it sort of has that Asteroids thing going with it. Still a damn cool effect for the pedal though. Pleased with how it turned out.

 

[Coda]

Your’s definitely looks better than mine. I think the gated clipping you are describing is what the pedal is supposed to sound like. It’s a kind of nasty, solid-state distortion, in a good way…

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Your’s definitely looks better than mine. I think the gated clipping you are describing is what the pedal is supposed to sound like. It’s a kind of nasty, solid-state distortion, in a good way…

Yep! AionFX mentions this in their documentation of their IVP-based pedal. Absolutely normal. It’s just how the transformer works.

 

[fig]

I'm diggin' the topography relief graphics!

 

[SimonSudd]

Looks sweet!
I built the AionFx version, but haven't experienced what your talking about with the gain maxed. I think they also said it may self oscillate if the treble is turned up all the way, but I don't have this issue either. Hmm, I wonder what I did differently?

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Looks sweet!
I built the AionFx version, but haven't experienced what your talking about with the gain maxed. I think they also said it may self oscillate if the treble is turned up all the way, but I don't have this issue either. Hmm, I wonder what I did differently?

My guess is that the gain on the transistors might be a little high. Could be they’re overloading the transformer a bit at higher drive settings. I’ll test this theory out soon.

 

[iamjackslackof]

Very cool!

What was the process like using Amplify Fun? I know the whole process with Tayda, but not them. Do they take Affinity files or just illustrator?

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Very cool!

What was the process like using Amplify Fun? I know the whole process with Tayda, but not them. Do they take Affinity files or just illustrator?

It’s pretty straightforward and easy. They’re super easy to work with. And, yeah, they accept either Affinity or Illustrator files.