I was wondering if anyone would be interested in this. It's not really a stomp box, but an instrument you play with your feet. Check out www.morganpedals.com for a couple of pictures of the two units I have made.
Basically it is just a stripped down organ that I play with my feet. I had started out with the Boss RC-20 loop pedal, and I would play a simple bass line, and then play a bass lead over top. Well drummers don't seem to like to play to a loop, so I started looking for an alternative. I stumbled across the Moog Taurus pedals, that are hard to find, and harder to afford. So I read up on what was available, and figured that I could just tear apart an organ and add some bass efect pedals to get the same result.
I have finished two so far. I play one set while playing bass guitar. The other set went to a friend in Nashville. I started a couple more, but ran into problems. I am more of a tinkerer than an electonics repairman, so if I break something, or I can't get the organ to function in the first place, I am limited as to what I can repair.
I love the set that I play, and have been trying to find some effects to add to the plain organ sound. I would like to find some Moog type effects without spending $200. I had thought about adding the effects into the unit, but I like the idea of adding whatever effect you want in line. Right now I am playing with the Line 6 Filter Modeler. That gets some cool sounds, but not exactly what I was looking for. Some sort of slow filter that isn't too in your face. One problem that I have found with Auto-Wah effects is that the organ pedals don't trigger the effect with each note becuase of the sustain. So I need some sort of filter that continually sweeps without seperate triggers. Maybe some sort of bandpass filter.
Sorry this is soo long. Thanks for reading. Let me know if anyone else is interested. I have thought about posting a little how-to on my site.
huh, i'm interested. big fan of the taurus stuff, as well as most of the bands on your home page. :)
-ian
Yeah, a 'how to' would be great!!
Had a set of the Taurus. Running through two SVT [8x10]] cabs with two custom Hiwatt 100w's....on top of the bass guitar...we used to trade instruments...that thing was so much fun to play...WOW
These little pedals [now that you bring them to mind again] wouldn't be that hard to make...well would be worth the trouble for me to try...making something 'right' for use with guitar has way potential I think...that and a few cool efkts on it...mod a dinky keyboard cct. with a nice wave generator on it...
Alot of woodworking...hmmm...would probly be pretty cool...
Right now, I am working with an old Conn organ. The thing is all Tube. Very cool, but difficult to work with. I have it stripped and working, but I would like to eliminate the tube power amp, and just have the tube pre-amp output. Once I get that done, I will draw up a schematic so it can be re-produced.
Does anyone know about patent issues? I had thought about selling these, after I get a design I am happy with. Moog had some patents with the Taurus pedals that cover some of the general design. And if it is essentially a modified organ, I would think that every organ manufacturer would have a patent associated. I had thought about going to a patent attorney, but it is really just a hobby.
I did find this - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3709054186&category=1289
Antoher good idea, but I don't like being stuck with the sound module that he used. Also, I like the original wood organ look, but that is preferential.
Anway, glad to see this interests others.
the fb-01 he uses is a midi controlled unit, so presumably the pedals send midi. also note that the taurus and probably all the organs you will find are analog, the fb-01 is very digital. there are plenty of ways to make what you describe, but i would suggest looking at some synth stuff. the sound output of the pedals could be used to derive a gate and/or trigger signal, which could trigger an envelope generator, which could drive a filter. this is a pretty classic architecture, and gives a lot of flexibility. good luck.
Moog Taurus is a great instrument! :shock:
Please try and post a project in your site!!!
I remember there were some posts with the same topic but I don't know if anybody made something with success...
As computerjones suggested, it should be pretty straightforward for anyone to do this - rip out the bass pedals from an old organ, wire to use the 1V/octave scheme as required by analog synths, then simply connect to the VCO(s) of your choice (along with ADSRs and a VCF for filtering). There are scads of synth schematics all over the net that would work well; this should be a pretty cheap approach also, the hard bit would be doing some woodwork to encapsulate the pedals I would imagine....
Mike
Something else you may want to consider (I've done it a couple of times) is to hardwire bass pedals into the lowest octave of a cheap MIDI keyboard. You can probably pick up a used Casio or Yamaha portable keyboard for under $50.
The advantage for me is that not only can you play the sounds in the keyboard you hardwire but you can also use the MIDI out to control as good a MIDI sound module as you're willing to pay for.
Quote from: morganpedalsDoes anyone know about patent issues? I had thought about selling these, after I get a design I am happy with. Moog had some patents with the Taurus pedals that cover some of the general design. .
Those patents expired years ago. Don't worry about it! :wink:
Here http://www.synthfool.com/schematics/taurus1.jpg you can find a schematic of the taurus
as you can see here http://guitargeek.com/rigview/259/, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN uses the taurus (not that I like YNGWIE MALMSTEEN :? )
john paul jones from led zep used the Taurus also... (I do like this one :D )
http://www.geocities.com/jpjkeys/basspedals.html
"The Mahn"
I found that article about Jon Paul Jones. That is what got me started. Thanks for the links.
Another idea that I had was to tie some momentary switches into the lower octave of any keyboard, and utilize some of the cooler effects that aren't tied into the bass pedals. This would also make the unit smaller, as you could use stomp switches if you wanted. You could make a latching circuit to sustain one note while rocking out also. I wish I had more time to work on this stuff, as it occupies a lot of quality day dreaming time.
PIC microcontroller octave generator
http://chip.aeug.org/oct54all.asm
4024 CMOS dividers for fundamentals
CD4046 pLLs for glide/follow tracking
voicing filters.