What Makes a Guitar Pedal Sound Good?

[LucifersTrip]

Haiku:

No guitar pedal
Good bad, some like or hate all
Just good bad designs

[mremic01]

I'm gonna hijack this for a sec (ever so slightly). Why DOES the klon sound so good? The ever present mythology and hype aside, I love the klon and it's derivatives. Was it design genius or luck, or potentially some mix of both? I know that many people don't really care for the klon, an is say a small percentage of that is simply because it is in fact, THE KLON. His seamingly foolish claims that the tears of God himself formed the particular diodes on the 8th day of creation and the odd component values are necessary to achieve klon-ness haven't helped his credibility at all (although may have padded his wallet a but more), but what gives? Design magic or lottery style luck?

The Klon sounds good for the same reason other circuits sound good. It's well tuned. The frequencies it filters or doesn't filter are frequencies that most people find pleasing. But it goes above and beyond typical overdrive circuits in that it's tuned specifically for pushing already pushed tubes. Bill took a circuit topology that his engineer collaborators came up with and auditioned components of different values until he got it sounding exactly how he wanted. That's why instead of the more typical 330k and 420k, we get values like 392k and 422k. He's never claimed the diodes were anything special. He just thought they were the best sounding choice for his circuit, and there is something to their uniqueness, though I can get very very close by hand-picking diode pairs from more standard germaniums. He also hasn't made a whole lot off the Klon-hype. It's the used Centaurs that go for crazy $$$, not the ones that were bought from Bill.

[FlyingZ]

Swapping parts is easy leaving me to conclude what makes a great pedal is all in the circuit-board layout.

[Tony Forestiere]

...leaving me to conclude what makes a great pedal is all in the circuit-board layout.

   Laying out a PCB design that is well routed in signal separation and interference rejection, proper power filtering and distribution, compact size, rugged board construction with proper support for all board mounted and off board wiring, and esthetically pleases the eye is a skill I am still woefully lacking. 
   I guess I subscribe to the "If it pleases you..." camp. I have heard neophyte players make the most horrendous noises. Those sounds were what they wanted them to be, and it pleased them. 

[Thecomedian]

This topic is actually why I started building pedals. I (as so many others) thought that the answer to my sound was a handwired TS that came out a few years ago. When I started looking into what made that pedal $350 over the $100-150 other TS models I came to the conclusion that there couldn't be $200+ more magic in that box (and of course, I didn't have $350 to drop on a pedal). I started looking around and found sites like this gem and others (although this is my daily mainstay for info and all), now I've built about 100 pedals, MOST of which work.... Since then I have affirmed my original conclusion that pretty boxes are nice and help me look cool as I rock out on stage but really the benefit stops there. I have built so many pedals that I couldn't otherwise afford, an have found some amazing circuits an some big disappointments, and am often surprised by which ones I love and vise versa. I have modded some common pedals where a few component changes (higher quality components, no value change) has made a decent improvement  (boss pedals mostly), and modded others to the extent of component value changes which great results (cry baby, OCD, marshall jackhammer).  I'd be lying if I told you the flair and shine of a new pedal doesn't get me excited now and then, but then I do a little digging to find its pretty much a ever so slightly modified version of something I already have. Matter of fact, I'm surprised that more musicians that buy audio products like effects and such don't do a little digging instead of so readily spending their cash on hyped up knockoffs.

Between psycho-acoustics or whatever that term which means how people decipher sound, and regular psychology, there's so many reasons.

Its just like cars, buildings, etc. No one needs cars that look different or buildings that are shaped with particular architecture.

[Canucker]

my sweet riffs!

[amz-fx]

It's all about the EQ...

At least in fuzz/distortion/overdrive pedals.

Look at the Tube Screamer. With the tone control centered, you still have the low and high ends rolled off to form a mid-range peak. With the Rat, you have the low end rolled off so it is very biting with a treble boost.  Big Muffs are mostly flat response with a notch in the response from the tone control, and so on.

The EQ matters much more than any other aspect of the circuit design.

The same may apply to designs other than distortions. PT2399 circuits may have differences in EQ because of the filtering stages, and also other variations due to the LFO design. Some LFOs are more symmetrical than others. Even so, the EQ dominates.

Ross-type compressors can have the EQ tweaked for a jangly sound. Phasers have the caps tweaked to move the notch filters, but that is still EQ.

It's all about how the circuit designer is handling the frequency spectrum, and less about the choice of opamps or other components. Good EQ choices will usually lead to a good sounding pedal.

Best regards, Jack

[FlyingZ]

It's all about the Bass...

JK

[amz-fx]

It's All About That [Upright] Bass (no pedals)

http://youtu.be/iyTTX6Wlf1Y?t=2m20s