Fuzzonaut
Well-known member
On one of my strolls through the impressive catalog of dirtbox layouts I stumbled across a strange kind of Japanese late 60ies thing, the Shin-Ei ME-7, a "multi-effect". The acid must have been pretty good back then, I mean the idea behind this thing is just far out, they were like "let's make a wah and volume pedal, add some white noise generators and to top it off let's throw in some siren sound that mimics air raid horns .... ".
Uhm, はい、お願いします, I'm game.
Here's a (nerdy) write-up about those kind of pedals (there were more of this kind).
And here's the schematic, that was inside the pedal.
Apart from the 8 tranistors and the transformer, it calls for a 4P4T rotary for the 4 modes, but as the only guy (thanks Ian!!!) who did comment to have built it mentioned - "Hurricane is pretty loud, surf is quiet, Wah isnt bad and siren is instant 'Blockbuster' - The Sweet!!" - and I couldn't seem to find a 4P4T, I decide to ditch the quiet Surf setting.
As for the Wah/Volume part, I went for a potentiometer and installed a exp/vol input for that. Works fine with my Moog.
Then I also added a toogle switch that let's you choose between the potentiometer or a LDR, placed between the footswitches. When engaging the LDR, a bright white light (with a trimmer for brightness) goes on and you can use your foot to control the Wah/Vol potentiometer. Works, but the sweep is not as good as with the knob or the expression pedal.
What else? Ah yeah, the Siren. I put that on a momentary footswitch. It's present on all 3 modes.
So, when in Wah mode, it's, well, a Wah. And in Volume mode, its a volume pedal. I kept those modes, although they are nothing special, I'd say.
When in Tornado mode, the Wah/Vol potentiometer changes the pitch of the white noise. This mode is my jam. There's a short taste of this mode at the end of this post, using my "bass test loop".
The "Siren" and "Tornado" knobs are volume.
Finally, after some initial testing, I added a LPB-1 boost at the end.
I'm not too sure, that I wired everything correctly, if it comes to rotary switches, I have switchlexia. A big part was just "try and hear".
Warning: gut shot might trigger you. Even I am glad to not have too look at that mess any more.
Uhm, はい、お願いします, I'm game.
Here's a (nerdy) write-up about those kind of pedals (there were more of this kind).
And here's the schematic, that was inside the pedal.
Apart from the 8 tranistors and the transformer, it calls for a 4P4T rotary for the 4 modes, but as the only guy (thanks Ian!!!) who did comment to have built it mentioned - "Hurricane is pretty loud, surf is quiet, Wah isnt bad and siren is instant 'Blockbuster' - The Sweet!!" - and I couldn't seem to find a 4P4T, I decide to ditch the quiet Surf setting.
As for the Wah/Volume part, I went for a potentiometer and installed a exp/vol input for that. Works fine with my Moog.
Then I also added a toogle switch that let's you choose between the potentiometer or a LDR, placed between the footswitches. When engaging the LDR, a bright white light (with a trimmer for brightness) goes on and you can use your foot to control the Wah/Vol potentiometer. Works, but the sweep is not as good as with the knob or the expression pedal.
What else? Ah yeah, the Siren. I put that on a momentary footswitch. It's present on all 3 modes.
So, when in Wah mode, it's, well, a Wah. And in Volume mode, its a volume pedal. I kept those modes, although they are nothing special, I'd say.
When in Tornado mode, the Wah/Vol potentiometer changes the pitch of the white noise. This mode is my jam. There's a short taste of this mode at the end of this post, using my "bass test loop".
The "Siren" and "Tornado" knobs are volume.
Finally, after some initial testing, I added a LPB-1 boost at the end.
I'm not too sure, that I wired everything correctly, if it comes to rotary switches, I have switchlexia. A big part was just "try and hear".
Warning: gut shot might trigger you. Even I am glad to not have too look at that mess any more.
