Bricksnbeatles
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A few years back I ordered a few Moo-Tron boards from FuzzDog in the UK, but a lack of ideas for graphics left me holding off on building them for a long time.
Not too long ago, I finally came up with with an idea, so I put together a few designs and had a few forum members “vote” on their favorite. I had the winning design made up into faceplates by Spencer over at @amplifyfun , and after finishing up a long and busy semester just over a week ago, I was finally able to get back to the workbench, and on Wednesday I whipped this up. The other one will have to wait until after the new year (and might get some additional mods) since I’m all out of caps in the single-digit nF range and my last charge pump chip is coming to NJ with me today to fix a busted charge pump in a relative’s pedal.
The pedal is called the μ-Wahhh! in homage to the recurring sound in the late 60s/early 70s era of the Mothers of Invention (most notably on Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which is my favorite Zappa release) wherein “Moo-ahhhh!” is aggressively shouted. As you may know, μ is the Greek lowercase letter “Mu”, which points towards the Mu-tronics/Mutron DNA of the pedal, while the “Wahhh!” part is because it’s an envelope filter/auto-wah. The dash in μ-Wahhh! Is the Zappa moustache insignia, since it’s of course a Zappa themed pedal, and Frank was an occasional user of the Mu-tron III envelope filter, even if he’s better known for his use of the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase and the Maestro SF/H /Oberheim VCF. At the bottom is a quote from Lowell George’s iconic “German-boy” monologue in the opening track of Weasel’s Ripped My Flesh. Red anodized hardware all around, but it’s a bummer that not all of it matches in shade. The other one will be all green hardware.
The circuit FuzzDog has designed this board around already includes some of the Madbean naughty-fish mods, but I’ve incorporated additional mods by, first off, increasing the range of the Sweep control, and secondly, setting the rotary switch to have 4 stops, rather than the circuit’s intended three, and numbering some unused pins of the switch to give a fourth secret notch-filter mod. The notch filter is absurdly subtle with a clean signal, but if you put something with strong harmonic content into it, like a fuzzes out guitar or a fat monosynth, it gets pretty wild and super fun. The vactrols are Xvive VTL5C3s that I bought back in highschool, and were tested to match them into pairs for matching off-resistances and response times.
It filters, and boy does it filter good!
Demo forthcoming— didn’t have time to record one before Christmas!
Recorded a quick demo of it– Not my greatest, but whatever lol. Here's the breakdown of the settings on the demo:
Now, for the bonus:
During the semester I made a latex mold of my ears for a sculpture project I did. I wound up with some of the plaster casts breaking partially when removing them from the mold due to the thinness of the material and the steep undercuts requiring them to be removed at a fairly unusual angle. What did I do with these spare broken ears? Make Mike Tyson ornaments of course!
Merry Chrithmath, to you and yourth!
Not too long ago, I finally came up with with an idea, so I put together a few designs and had a few forum members “vote” on their favorite. I had the winning design made up into faceplates by Spencer over at @amplifyfun , and after finishing up a long and busy semester just over a week ago, I was finally able to get back to the workbench, and on Wednesday I whipped this up. The other one will have to wait until after the new year (and might get some additional mods) since I’m all out of caps in the single-digit nF range and my last charge pump chip is coming to NJ with me today to fix a busted charge pump in a relative’s pedal.
The pedal is called the μ-Wahhh! in homage to the recurring sound in the late 60s/early 70s era of the Mothers of Invention (most notably on Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which is my favorite Zappa release) wherein “Moo-ahhhh!” is aggressively shouted. As you may know, μ is the Greek lowercase letter “Mu”, which points towards the Mu-tronics/Mutron DNA of the pedal, while the “Wahhh!” part is because it’s an envelope filter/auto-wah. The dash in μ-Wahhh! Is the Zappa moustache insignia, since it’s of course a Zappa themed pedal, and Frank was an occasional user of the Mu-tron III envelope filter, even if he’s better known for his use of the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase and the Maestro SF/H /Oberheim VCF. At the bottom is a quote from Lowell George’s iconic “German-boy” monologue in the opening track of Weasel’s Ripped My Flesh. Red anodized hardware all around, but it’s a bummer that not all of it matches in shade. The other one will be all green hardware.
The circuit FuzzDog has designed this board around already includes some of the Madbean naughty-fish mods, but I’ve incorporated additional mods by, first off, increasing the range of the Sweep control, and secondly, setting the rotary switch to have 4 stops, rather than the circuit’s intended three, and numbering some unused pins of the switch to give a fourth secret notch-filter mod. The notch filter is absurdly subtle with a clean signal, but if you put something with strong harmonic content into it, like a fuzzes out guitar or a fat monosynth, it gets pretty wild and super fun. The vactrols are Xvive VTL5C3s that I bought back in highschool, and were tested to match them into pairs for matching off-resistances and response times.
It filters, and boy does it filter good!
Recorded a quick demo of it– Not my greatest, but whatever lol. Here's the breakdown of the settings on the demo:
- Rhythm (Left): High-Pass; Hi; Up; Vol- 11:30; Gain- 9:30; Sweep- 4:30; Peak- 2:00
- Rhythm (Right): Band-Pass; Lo; Down; Vol- 3:00; Gain- 11:30; Sweep- 11:30; Peak- 2:30
- Lead 1 (Clean; first 32 bars): Low-Pass; Lo; Down; Vol- 5:00: Gain- 11:00; Sweep- 10:00; Peak- 5:00
- Lead 2 (Dimed Silicon Fuzz Face into µ-WAHHH!; last 32 bars + fade out): Notch; Lo; Down; Vol- 12:00; Gain- 11:30; Sweep- 1:00; Peak- 3:30
Now, for the bonus:
During the semester I made a latex mold of my ears for a sculpture project I did. I wound up with some of the plaster casts breaking partially when removing them from the mold due to the thinness of the material and the steep undercuts requiring them to be removed at a fairly unusual angle. What did I do with these spare broken ears? Make Mike Tyson ornaments of course!
Merry Chrithmath, to you and yourth!
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Demo in the future?
