best and worst build

[Processaurus]

As a bit of a stompbox snob I can say 2/3 of the ciruits I've put together don't really do anything for me, and hence will not be honored with a box and get lovingly stomped to death.  That being said theres alot of ways to tweak blah sounding things to get them to your liking, if you still have the enthusiasm for the project once you aren't initially excited.

Worst/ least favs:
Paia stack in a box.  Made this a long time ago, wasn't too impressed even though it used REAL TUBES.

Lava Rim 2.  NOT Aron Nelson's fault!  First pedal, had a bunch of crazy part substitutions that made it sound like ass.  It was emotional when I stole its knobs.

Germanium 3 knob tonebender.  The tone knob stabs my soul.  

EA tremolo.  I would actually recommend this to someone looking for an easy, basic tremolo project.  But there's not enough bells and whistles, lfo range, and the lfo shape seemed kind of ...weird.  

Most Fav:
Orange squeezer.  Its a tad noisy, but is very musical sounding.

Rosscompressor (Dynacomp).  Everything the orange squeezer isn't.  Quiet, and sounds awsome with distortions.  Mine sounded really dark until I added a "simple JFET buffer" (from GGG) before the input.  That really changed the sound.

Scrambler.  A friend heard mine and learned how to solder and follow schematics just to make one.  Get the special darlington transistors from //smallbearelec.com Ampeg is reissuing this one supposedly.

Juergen Haible Pseudo Wave Multiplier.  This is from a synth site (http://home.debitel.net/user/jhaible/jh_wavefolder.html), but it makes a unique sounding wave folding effect, like 4 scramblers in series.   Theres two versions, Schematic B is the one to make. It needs a high gain preamp to make it work with guitar ( I started with 100x gain with a level pot after it), and a charge pump IC for a bipolar supply.

Red Llama (tube sound fuzz variant)  Best sound to assembly time ratio.  No one's gonna buy your clone for $500 though.  :wink:

[funkiness]

Up

[syzygy]

So far my best build has been the BSIABII, and the worst is the CHAOS.
In total, all my builds have worked, but out of 5 I liked 3 and disliked 2:

thumbs up-> BSIABII: What can I say ??  This thing works with your playing nuance, yet has a good solid sound, not too compressed, great harmonics and responsiveness, great tone control, and has that brown sound feel.  Very Excellent pedal indeed.

thumbs up-> The Bazz Fuss does a great job with the bass and is very simple.  I will box this one up.  It is a bit sterile in a way, but I have yet to add the transformer in the circuit to match up with my active bass, and add a few other mods before I'm done with it (like a wet/dry knob to blend the clean signal in).

thumbs up-> The fOXX Tone Machine.. the octave switch on this thing rips like nothing I've ever heard.

thumbs down-> The Chaos clips I heard sounded good, but I think that was because the output was recorded direct to mixer.  I tried switching out diodes with LEDs, and different combinations of 1N914, symmetrical and asymmetrical, and it all sounded characteristically the same, so I'm not boxing this one up.

thumbs down-> Another build I did was the Double D, from RunOffGroove.  I didn't like it because I'm looking for a metal tone, and I heard something in the sound clips I liked, but couldn't reproduce it with my build.  However, it has a great sounding channel #1 (classic amp overdrive).  But channel #2 (more distortion) has a distortion character has a hollow instability to my ears.  I'm not boxing this one up either.

[Moonface]

Favorite: Maybe Masaru Kubota's Orion Fuzz or something like sili-face.

Worst make: Vox Treble Booster. Sounds like a girl screamin', I don't like it all.

[nelson]

Favourite so far, Rat clone, no mods, LM308. Gonna add alot of mods to it


Least favourite has to be the rebote 2: Clock noise makes it unusable and is only good for slapback. Going to build a PT-80 .

[LP Hovercraft]

Best:  Original stuff  made from snippets/stages of typical distortion circuits modded for extra fury- thank's RG!  ...AND Big slobbery thanks to all of you for your help here!!  Stock:  Foxx Tone Machine (No Quarter)  Ross Phaser: (low budget David Gilmour swirl tone!!)
PT-80!!!!!!  GGG Electric Mistress (detuned note hell!!) Anderton Envelope Super Tone Control.   Supreaux (my amp loves that Page-Angus Young sound)  

Least:  Archie Mustang's Mustache Driver.  No Camaro. No womens. No mustache.  WTF Archie?  Let down and run over.

[Steben]

Haven't built enough I guess, yet so far:

Worst:
- My first project was a TB MkII. It was a joke, not enough perseverance I guess...
- Fuzzrite. pfff It just sounded like crap.

Best so far:
- Purple Face, own FF mod design with NPN buffer in front and between FF and buffer a variable impedance (pot) and without fuzz control. To be used with guitar volume pot. Sounds like Axis fuzz on low impedance setting and like BeeBaa on higher. Problem: I sold all three I've made...

[Manolo Dudes]

Favs: RangeMaster, TubeScreamer TS-808, GT-2,  EA-Tremolo and MuTron III, in that order.

Worst: Pulsar Tremolo.

[Steben]

Well yeah the Rangemaster...
I didn't count that one in. It's more in the-gift-from-god league. ;-)

[Manolo Dudes]

Yes... sorry for the repetition but to me there's nothing like a well tuned Ge Rangemaster in front of a good tube (not black/silverface) amp.

[Steben]

Yes... sorry for the repetition but to me there's nothing like a well tuned Ge Rangemaster in front of a good tube (not black/silverface) amp.

Never say never. It seems Jimmy Page and even Clapton used to range-torture some Black- and Silverface Champs in the good old days. With succes I must say.

[jmusser]

Well, since this came out, I've built some more, so I'll have to amend my choice. Definitely, Jordon Boss Tone, with the Simple Square Wave Shaper coming in a close second. They're two different animals. The Boss Tone is just a Monster pure and simple, and the best over all sounding distortion/ fuzz that I've built (thus far, or maybe ever). The SSWS, because I love the synthy, buzzy, sustain of the square wave. It's like you're playing something totally different than guitar, and it just flows from one note to another.

[Manolo Dudes]

Never say never. It seems Jimmy Page and even Clapton used to range-torture some Black- and Silverface Champs in the good old days. With succes I must say.

sorry for this is actually a bit OT but read this:

http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=28198

[hank reynolds 3rd]

Best builds...Great Cheddar,McMeat,Rat,Mongoose,Infinitphase Mk1, Bluebox (modded w/ octave switch and´gate/splutter´ knob,MXR EF (again, modded)

Worst....I don´t really have any, but the slow gear isn´t that hot, but i still like it....
I love all of my Children, faults and all......  :roll:


Sam