Snarling Dogs Very Tone Dog

[sysexguy]

Hi all, I've got one of these and...while it's a cool idea, in practice, it's way too noisy. Anyone one have a cool mod they could share?

Basically AFAIK it's the Anderton version of a varitone combined with a pre-amp for buffering and make-up gain, not TB and noisy!!! To be more specific, should I restart from scratch, sell this and build a varitone type circuit from scratch or a kit (http://www.bigdguitars.com/varitonespec.htm) or is there a few things I could do with the Snarling Dogs...  

Thanks,

Andy

[Mark Hammer]

It's actually a potentially more flexible thing than you would imagine, so unless you feel confident that you could find an extremely generous buyer, I'd say hang onto it and adapt it.

I made myself an EPFM passive tone control with inductor, and rotary switch for caps (11 position, no less), and tacked on a Stratoblaster FET preamp (see project at generalguitargadgets) on the front end to maintain level balance with bypass (those passive mid scoops do tend to eat up a lot of signal).  The neat thing about the LCR filter arrangement is that if you bypass the inductor (SPST switch to shunt it), you have a variable treble cut whose corner frequency can be at any of the frequencies set by the rotary switch.  If you bypass the caps instead, you have a variable bass cut.  If the amount of cut is set to min, you also have a clean booster or volume preset available from the same pedal.  A virtual swiss army knife pedal for tone/level shaping.  One of the units I made now has its place in a studio in town and enjoys use.

[sysexguy]

Hi Mark, we're almost neighbours (St-Sauveur, QC)....thanks for the tips,

I have a few of a similar pre-amp built from a plan that was in an early eighties GP (from John Carruthers, not CA)....Frampton's on the cover. They have served me well in several similar situations.

Q: is the inductor critical ie. is the one in my unit as good as it gets or should I change that too? Everything else can even be found at a Radio Shack at "the mall"

These things are great in the studio especially to get layers of tracks to each have space....the noise was killing me though.

Thanks again,

Andy

[airhole]

sysexguy,

do you use a walwart for your verytone, i realized the noise stopped when i used batteries...

seems like it is like that for the verytone.

george

[Mark Hammer]

Andy,

If you're in St. Sauveur, you may know a local jazz musician (drummer) who was a high school buddy of mine, Gary Lindner.

As far as I know, the inductor is not all THAT critical.unless you are decidedly aiming for emulation of an ES-355.  I think I picked up a 1.2H inductor (or something like that), and just tacked on 10 different caps that seemed to make a pleasing audible difference.  If you go with a 6-position rotary switch, the inductor value may be more critical in nailing something useful with that many caps.  If you go overkill like I did, the inductor becomes less critical, and if you see equal value in using it for treble cut by shunting the inductor, of course even LESS critical.

Not sure where the noise is coming from, though there are plenty of lo-noise FET-based alternatives.  Hell, mine is in a plastic case, and noise is no issue.

[sysexguy]

I most surely do, we ski and train together, jam occasionally although he's usually substituting the chords I'm still learning  :lol: and he's one of the few that gets my humour.    :twisted:

I will say hi!!!

Andy

[sysexguy]

Hi George, thanks for the tip, will try....if it works I could easily "lose an eye" and reduce the intensity of the other LED, that should make the battery life quite long (just one transistor)

Andy

[sysexguy]

I tried George's tip (battery) and it specs out much better...but I'm sure I can get more performance with some surgery + mark's mod's sound like a good plan.

I noted that in one spot, the jumper used to connect ground to the pre-amp circuit is ....the inductor's case!!!!  hmmmm?

Thanks for the tips!

Andy