ampeg scrambler

[dave h.]

has anyone built a scrambler? ive been browsing around for my first dist. pedal project, and i found some sound clips of a stock scrambler and it sounded awesome. how does it compare in difficulty to say, a fuzz face, or the other popular DIY distortion projects? feel free to recommend any easy "beginner" distortion pedals, so long as they aren't boosters, and can get decently heavy sounds out of them.

[sir_modulus]

I'd say a muff fuzz. I think it's a good distortion.

Cheers,

Nish

[bluesdevil]

Try the Buzz Box over at http://www.home-wrecker.com. A real easy, nasty one to get warmed up with!! When you get that built try the Scrambler.

[petemoore]

Counting the number of connections at adjacent nodes and comparing them and the parts count of a schem, then add pots and switching...the Scrambler is a rather convoluted and 'long build.
 No boosters? Ok .. I recommend a booster anyway.
 Otherwise ther'es the 'Black Ice' diode in guitar / passive distortion, but I don't think this will get you the distortion you're after.
  To me, booster is the first thing to do to get 'more' Fuzz than your guit/amp gets by itself, after boosting the signal, the clipping can then be added for harder distortion and voicing options.
 I'd say check out a booster, build it, then a DIST+ or DIST of your choosing, then put the booster in front of the FUZZ and start to enjoy tweeking, knob twiddling and future build combinations.
 Bypassing that first step can lead to frustrations...Scrambler?...whew...!

[smashinator]

I built a scrambler, and because I really enjoy causing myself pain and frustration, I built it on perf (actually, because I don't know how to make pcb's yet, and I HAD a perfboard just sitting there taunting me.).

It was definitely convoluted, not to mention the schematic I had was confusing to make a layout from.  I forgot to include some parts on my layout, and had to come up with some creative routing to hook everything up.

But it was totally worth it.  It's a crazy awesome pedal.  I can get the most magical faux feedback on the e on the 3rd string...    That said, it's not exactly an effect I would leave on all the time.

My wife hates it.

For a "heavy" distortion, you should check out the big daddy at runoffgroove.com.  I just noticed it the other day, it's looks pretty easy.  Not too much harder than a fuzz face, and you can judge the heaviness for yourself from their sound clips.

Ummm.  Have you built a fuzz face?  I built one using 2 2n3904 silicon trannies and I put a trim pot in and tweaked until I got the CRAZY HEAVIES.  Of course, it's been in pieces for months because I started the paint job and never finished it.  Hopefully I'll have THAT done tomorrow.

[dave h.]

no, i havent built a FF, the only things ive made are my amp-footswitch and a dual true-bypass box, which is still unfinished.

it seems fuzzfaces are pretty basic to make, and easy to mod. so i was thinking id give that a try. is it terribly hard to make a 2-3 position switch to switch between diode types?

i'd also like to make a parametric EQ, but im still researching that.

i love all this DIY stuff, ive been "conceptualizing" different pedals for a few months now and im glad to actually get started and get my hands dirty. eventually i want to build an amp head, so i really want to get the EQ thing down, but thats a loooooong ways away. knowledge-wise and resource-wise.

ill be sure to check out all the other stuff mentioned too. thanks for all the suggestions! this board is really great as far as not flaming the people who dont yet know what theyre doing. i appreciate that, because ive seen boards that definitely arent that way...

[tcobretti]

DO NOT build a fuzz face!  Build a Multi-face.  Way, way cooler with little added complexity.  

http://www.runoffgroove.com/multiface.html

I love the scrambler.  I built one with a PCB from http://www.generalguitargadgets.com and it is a great pedal.  It's pretty unique.  I also really like the tone bender mkII.  It's slightly more complicated than the fuzz face but has its own sound.  I used perfboard and the schematic from generalguitargadgets.

Some of this hinges on your guitar amp combo.  I think fuzz faces are great with single coils, while the tone bender and scrambler are slightly more versatile.  If you have a marshall or fender (or any other tube amp) you may want a booster to just get more of what you already have.

Another way to go is with the thunderchief or bsiabII if want a more natural amp-like distortion.  I haven't tried the tube-reamer from runoffgroove but people seem to love it.  It's pretty simple and has a perfboard layout on the site.

I recommend the buying a PCB for more complicated projects, especially if you haven't built many projects before.  It makes life much easier.

[dave h.]

the guitar amp combo im working with is a double humbucker-equipped fender musicmaster (think mustang, only made in the late 50s) into a solid state amp. i use my compressor as a slight boost already, putting my "drive" channel gain decently low, and compressing/boosting it for heavy/lead work.

[tcobretti]

What type of music do you play? If you are more metal, I would go for the thunderchief or bsiabII.  More rock or pop and I'd do one of the fuzzes.  

On an unrelated note, you should check out some of the new modeling amps from Vox.  You can get into a 50w vox for $359.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/482615/

Those amps sound great, and they give you mucho room to grow.

[R.G.]

For a first, do a silicon fuzz face. Easy, no rare parts.

[PB Wilson]

I built a Scrambler using a PCB from General Guitar Gadgets. Once I got the transistor pinouts straight it was ready to make some hellacious noise. It's not a pedal for every situation and it really mangles chords, but for sonic doom, you can't do much better.

For a basic project that doesn't use a PCB, try out the MultiFace as tcobretti stated above. It's really basic, but leaves lots of options with the final sound. If you get the hang of perf-board by looking at the Beginner Project on this site, you should have little trouble with it.

Another project that isn't too complicated is the Whisker Biscuit at Runoffgroove.com. It is a great sounding variation on the Muff sound and it doesn't have too many parts.

Yet another is the Harmonic Jerkulator at home-wrecker.com. Easy to build and a nice brash sounding distortion/fuzz circuit.

A bunch of the RunoffGrove projects are doable because they provide such clear perf layouts. Give 'em a look and a listen.

[dave h.]

sonic doom is always a plus. i need a sonic doom pedal or two, but also a more or less straight fuzz.

how does the blue box compare to the scrambler?

[NaBo]

ehh... it doesnt, really

blue box is a double/single octave down, warm fat and fuzzy... scrambler is more harsh noisy and grating, with a strongish octave up overtone.  at least thats what i gather from sound samples... mines rather tame at the moment cuz i only had MPSA13's kicking around to use for the darlingtons in it ... i'll pick up some MPSA18's tomorrow, see how that sounds.

and hey, don't be afraid of drawing and etching your own PCB.  its really really not that hard.  my first projects were all hand-drawn PCBs, using GGG layouts:  big muff, tube screamer, scrambler, rodent...  not too hard.  I really don't think more parts = more difficult, especially when working from GGG or tonepad projects.  just follow it through, read up on anything you;re unsure about, and be careful when you solder... and it'll work right the first time!

good luck, and welcome to the highly addictive world of DIY stompboxes!

[dave h.]

last time i checked small bear was still down. where else can i get the etching supplies and how much does it usually run for a small, bare-bones startup setup?

i read one of the photoessays on etching at tonepad, which i must take time to compliment the nice layout and content of the site. very informative and very easy to use, especially for someone who has no idea how a circuit board is made. but it does seem pretty straightforward.

just acquiring that stuff, finding it and affording it, will probably be the issue for me. as a college student, the biggest problem i have is IHOP and Denny's whittling away my pocketbook one midnight meal at a time...

all i knew about the blue box and scrambler was that they were considered to be on the noisier, crazier side of the distortion/fuzz spectrum. id eventually like to try both of them.

[NaBo]

you'll have to look around town a bit.  here, i can get a 4x12" sheet of copper clad, enough for about 8 projects, for 67 cents, and enough ferric chloride powder to last me ages for 5 bucks.  after those two things, you just need a permanent marker with a thin tip to draw it, and you're pretty much set.  but thats here...

there's all sorts of poor-man's tricks for the drawing part... my preference is to print the layout out, colour on the back with pencil, tape it down on the board, trace over everything with a pen or something, while pushing down very very hard, then removing the paper and tracing with my marker.

if you really can't find any deals on supplies, or wanna just get everything in one go, theres the ratshack PCB starter kit that comes with two approx. 3x6" copper-clads (double-sided though), a sharpie (fat tip though), ferric chloride (solution though), a tiny piece of scotch brite, and some alcohol...  oh, and you can use the plastic case to etch stuff in.  it'll probably run ya less than 20 bucks or so.  the boards probably won't come out PERFECT, since they're double sided, and take a while to fully etch, but i had good enough results and only had to repair maybe one or two traces in total.  i used clothespins to hold the board, and a piece of floss threaded underneath it to keep it off the bottom of the container.  hows that for poor-university-student

the only problem i had with going the PCB route while away at school, was that i didnt have a drill with me.  so i had to wait for christmas to use dad's dremel... and even then, he didn't have a 1/32" drill bit, so i had to buy that- as part of a set.  and then, he didn't have the right collet for that size bit, so i ended up buying an adjustable chuck.  but it was easy from there, i guess  :roll:

[j0shua]

YOU CAN USE ONE OF THOSE FUZZ , BUT I LIKE MXR DISTORTION + AND BIG DADDY , ARE VERY EASY TO BUILD ( ABOUT 1 HOUR ) AND ARE VERY GOOG......... OF COURSE IF YOU LIKE FUZZ SOUND TRY THE OTHERS......

[jmusser]

I would second the Buzz Box for an easy build and lots of mayhem for a simple project. It really depends what you want. Do you want a more universal fuzz for general playing, or do you want the up octave for more specific songs? If you want a nice easy distortion/overdrive, build Joe Davisson's Easy Drive. It's one transistor, and sounds great. If you want nasty, it's hard to do better than the Buzz Box. Other simple, nasty sounding up octave fuzzes, are the Bobtavia, and Gus Smally's Simple Octave Up. Both of them are drawn up in EZ Build schematics on the General Guitar Gadgets site. One thing you will definitely want to do, is go over to Tim Escobedo's Circuit Snippet site, and listen to his sound samples. He has a gob of simple circuits over there, and they're are all great. His Simple Square Wave Shaper is wonderful and variable. I have built about half his stuff to date, and I've never been dissapointed by any of them. One that looks hard, but isn't really that bad, is Tim's Ugly Face. It really has very few components on it. It has more panel wiring than anything, because it has 4 pots (5 with a new mod that just came out), but it gives you a hundred different fuzz pedals in one circuit. The cool thing about it, is that all of it's parts are available at Radio Shack. It uses an LM386, TLC555 timer, and a 1/4" red (or green) LED and photocells  you get in a multipack. That ought to be enough choices to keep you busy for awhile! :?