Build report: Aron's Smash Drive.

TheBigMan · January 16, 2006, 10:49:02 AM

What a great sounding distortion. Extremely dynamic both to picking and the guitar's volume knob with a large range of usable sounds. I built the simple version, and it could probably do with a master volume control. Without the tone stack on the end it's pretty loud. Built it using my vero layout (now verified!) and it only took about half an hour or so.

I'd post some pics but I don't have an enclosure for it yet. It's such a great feeling when you put something together and it works first time without any debugging. Doesn't happen very often either.

troubledtom · January 16, 2006, 11:39:50 AM

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

- tom

Xavier · January 16, 2006, 11:46:06 AM

What kind of distortion is it? Big Muff fuzz-type distortion? can you compare it to a "reference" dist pedal? I heard the sound samples and reminded me to the AMZ OD pro. Uncontrollable wall-of-sound-fuzz

aron · January 16, 2006, 11:46:20 AM

Great!

Contratulations!

Paul Marossy · January 16, 2006, 03:13:36 PM

I built one a while back, with the Marshall style tone stack. It's a cool one.

(Sorry for the lo-fi picture)

TheBigMan · January 16, 2006, 05:26:07 PM

I'd describe it as similar to an Ibanez SD-9, at least with a strat. It's less harsh in the highs, but has a similar dynamic range. Lowering the gain and backing off the guitar volume a little gives almost TS a like OD tones, and it goes all the way up to roaring Marshall-esque distortion.

Paul, what's the fifth knob on yours? Master volume? Input volume?

Paul Marossy · January 16, 2006, 05:38:44 PM

QuotePaul, what's the fifth knob on yours? Master volume? Input volume?

I don't remember for sure. I have dismantled it a while ago, but I think it was a master volume control...

Xavier · January 17, 2006, 03:32:49 AM

Quote from: TheBigMan on January 16, 2006, 05:26:07 PM
I'd describe it as similar to an Ibanez SD-9, at least with a strat. It's less harsh in the highs, but has a similar dynamic range. Lowering the gain and backing off the guitar volume a little gives almost TS a like OD tones, and it goes all the way up to roaring Marshall-esque distortion.

Paul, what's the fifth knob on yours? Master volume? Input volume?

Thanks for the explanation. Good to know, as the SD9 was in my list for future builds, but I wasn't able to find a 4559 IC. For some reason, simplest builds seem to sound the best. The Llama is still the most natural sounding out of all my OD's, and the parts count is riduculous.

I had an SD9 back in the day and it was a dist pedal without any hint of fuzz, is it like this?

MartyMart · January 17, 2006, 05:40:26 AM

SD-9, if you're interested :
http://aronnelson.com/gallery/Martys-layouts-and-photos/SD9verify?full=1
Any dual opamp will be fine

MM

Xavier · January 17, 2006, 06:08:48 AM

Quote from: MartyMart on January 17, 2006, 05:40:26 AM
SD-9, if you're interested :
http://aronnelson.com/gallery/Martys-layouts-and-photos/SD9verify?full=1
Any dual opamp will be fine

MM

What layout did you think I was going to use?

. Isn't the 4559 gainier than the 4558? that should make a difference, right?

Alex C · January 17, 2006, 04:12:31 PM

Quote from: TheBigMan on January 16, 2006, 05:26:07 PMPaul, what's the fifth knob on yours? Master volume? Input volume?

It controls the damage, of course.

Paul, I seem to remeber you posting long ago about this, and I believe you said it was a master volume.

I built this circuit a year or two ago, without the tone stack. I tacked on a low-pass filter (I don't remeber the values) at the end to take away some of the sharp, biting high end. I fiddled with lots of values before settling on whatever I have in there now (I could crack it open and see, I suppose). Now I get sound like TheBigMan described, a very warm, smooth OD. The low-pass filter lowers the drive and some of the output, so I don't really get distortion sounds. Mine is more transparent than my TS clone Sparkle Drive, and about as dynamic (or "touch-sensitive"). It's a different sound, though, and I like it more in many applications.

This has so few parts, I'm probably going to have to whip up another one and mess around with more values and maybe even a proper tone stack.
-Alex

Paul Marossy · January 17, 2006, 04:36:16 PM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that my "damage control" was a master volume the more that I think about it.

TheBigMan · January 17, 2006, 05:47:24 PM

I'm pretty happy with the tone personally, but for a less flexible tone stack (particularly if you're looking to tame the treble) I think this pedal is a prime candidate for Mark Hammer's Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control in conjunction with a master volume pot.

fikri · January 17, 2006, 07:09:15 PM

Yeah, it is one of my first project too. Very easy and surprisingly have a very good result

TheBigMan · January 29, 2006, 05:55:00 PM

Just a quick addition. I tacked a 100K log pot onto the output last night. This pedal is definitely a keeper. It has the volume and the dynamic range to be used as an OD, but at full bore I was getting decent metal tones even though I was playing a Strat equipped with Alnico pickups. When I get a chance I'll try it out with my other strat, which has much hotter pickups.

p1_ind · January 29, 2006, 06:45:40 PM

I put one together a few days ago on protoboard. I decreased the gain pot to a 1k and put a modified Big Muff tone circuit and a 100k volume pot. It sounds great!!
I also tried a simple jfet buffer at the front of the circuit but I can decide which way I like better.

Adam

aron · January 29, 2006, 11:36:37 PM

Cool Guys!

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Build report: Aron's Smash Drive.