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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: projectx102 on November 30, 2009, 04:44:26 PM

Title: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: projectx102 on November 30, 2009, 04:44:26 PM
Does anone have a layout or schem of an Ultimate Octave? I want to mod my DIY Tone Machine to UO specs.Thanks!
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on November 30, 2009, 06:33:50 PM
me, too.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: projectx102 on December 01, 2009, 06:38:18 AM
I got it! It sounds awesome now!
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on December 02, 2009, 06:06:13 PM
can i have it?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: aziltz on December 02, 2009, 06:38:42 PM
can we post it somewhere?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: gigimarga on December 03, 2009, 01:01:56 PM
Quote from: aziltz on December 02, 2009, 06:38:42 PM
can we post it somewhere?

Here it is (the link is taken from another site): http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa115/jimi_026/Ultoct.gif (http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa115/jimi_026/Ultoct.gif)

Are C8 and C9 (and the other electrolytics) in the right direction?
I saw that they are in an opposite direction as they are in the Foxx Tone Machine...
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: projectx102 on December 03, 2009, 09:51:12 PM
Mine started out as a GGG FTM so I just made the changes in the UO schematic posted and it worked out great.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 04, 2009, 02:30:40 AM
I had a thread here where i managed to get the schem. I have it saved. Its a few simple cjanges to the filter and the tone control. I love it. Especially with an OD before it.

But does anyone else have a problem with volume loss in octave mode? I guess its not really loss, but the fuzz is so much louder that i cant see how to switch modes while playing. I dont remember this in demos ive watched.

Also when i stomp my octave switch it takes a bit to turn to octave. It fades up like the diode has to charge. 

It acts differently with a buffer in front too. Its my favorite octave and i think fuzz too.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: alex frias on December 04, 2009, 08:38:07 AM
My FTM works in the oposite way: when you engage the octave up switch you get a audible boost in overall sound.

About using a buffer or boost before it: I have a Dano French Toast. it's very good, a Si diode FTM with electronic buffered bypass switching. I really liked my DIY FTM to interact with guitar Volume and Tone controls better.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: gigimarga on December 04, 2009, 01:47:42 PM
Anyway, are these electrolytics caps in the right way or not?
Is there a "rule" for them?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 04, 2009, 02:01:18 PM
I used all tant caps. Some where + facing transistor.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 04, 2009, 02:06:44 PM
The ones coming fromthe wiper lugs of the tone and fuzz pots to tranny bases. Those should have + facing the transistor. I dunno why. But ever since i noticed this ive followed it. With op amps too. If it was + input, then i attatched the + side of the cap to it. Other than that the caps face the way  youd expect them to.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: gigimarga on December 04, 2009, 03:43:12 PM
Thx a lot El Heisenberg!
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: fuzzo on December 04, 2009, 03:53:57 PM
Quote from: alex frias on December 04, 2009, 08:38:07 AM

About using a buffer or boost before it: I have a Dano French Toast. it's very good, a Si diode FTM with electronic buffered bypass switching. I really liked my DIY FTM to interact with guitar Volume and Tone controls better.

I think that too, that sounds better in a overdrive or boost in front of it.

Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 05, 2009, 07:51:19 AM
Fuzzo, you have an ultimate octave dont you? Have you looked inside? Did you say u just used a boss od before it?

My mxr noise gate effects this pedal. I dont like the sound of it without the noise gate in front of it. Recebtly ive had problems with scratching Noises when running a comp or noise gate before it. I recenrly got a box wah and put that after all
my distortions and that fixed it. the wah doesnt work before any of my pedals. What about a buffer before the ultimate octave?

Id dtill love to have the boost the octave switch is sposed to give. I just get a delayed response and then a (seemingly) quiter output. The fuzz settin is so bassy.

Iv been thinking about adding a green ringrr to make two otcaves. Or trying to combine blocks of FTM and GR and see if i could do a hybrid. Why not?? Green ringer and FTM/ Ultimate octave are my favorite favorite octaves up ive built. 
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: projectx102 on December 05, 2009, 09:45:13 AM
If you have built a GGG FTM then the changes to make when looking at the layout http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf) are:
C1 and C2 need to be changed to .047uF
C10 needs to be changed to a toggle switch that switches between .001uF and .015uF
C11 needs to be changed to .1uF (in some threads I've read this one seems to be left out but it is important)
You need to add a 10k resistor from S3(after the 10uF electrolytic) to lug 3 of the Sustain/Fuzz pot
The Volume and Tone pots need to be changed to 100k
I left the Sustain/Fuzz pot at 50k or you can use a 100k pot with a 100k resistor across the lugs
With these changes my FTM sounds awesome!
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: fuzzo on December 05, 2009, 10:30:11 AM
Quote from: El Heisenberg on December 05, 2009, 07:51:19 AM
Fuzzo, you have an ultimate octave dont you? Have you looked inside? Did you say u just used a boss od before it?

My mxr noise gate effects this pedal. I dont like the sound of it without the noise gate in front of it. Recebtly ive had problems with scratching Noises when running a comp or noise gate before it. I recenrly got a box wah and put that after all
my distortions and that fixed it. the wah doesnt work before any of my pedals. What about a buffer before the ultimate octave?

Id dtill love to have the boost the octave switch is sposed to give. I just get a delayed response and then a (seemingly) quiter output. The fuzz settin is so bassy.

Iv been thinking about adding a green ringrr to make two otcaves. Or trying to combine blocks of FTM and GR and see if i could do a hybrid. Why not?? Green ringer and FTM/ Ultimate octave are my favorite favorite octaves up ive built. 


Yeap I've a Ultimate cotave by fulltone, of course I look inside (I do that each time I have a new pedal ;D) . Nothing magic inside in my opinion, greenie cap , Elna electrolytic cap, metal resistor and transistor are standart silicon .

Works perfectely in my Wah (modded with an output buffer) , and for my tastes that sounds better with a Boost/OD before, I don't know why. That adds something (I couldn't what). Alone, its sound excatly like the QOSTA song "little sister".



Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 06, 2009, 03:24:11 AM
Ah! I play that song with an OD and sometimes compressor before the ultimate octave. Leave it on fat and octave on the whole time. Do you just have the wah set heel up the whole time?

The solo is crazy how you gotta bend all the notes before you pluck them like muddy waters style or something, then he stops with the blues and the end of it uses western notes. I can't pull it off. But the octave brings me so close.

Still gotta build the output buffer for my vox wah.


Im still gettin the splattyness from it when theres something on in front of it. Compressor or noise gate or anything. Wah after it takes it away but the vox wah totally changes its tone. I gotta open it up and see if a transistor is wacked or something os touching. I should rebuild it anyway. I want a green ringer after or before it that i can switch on for two up.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on December 06, 2009, 03:31:22 AM
Quote from: projectx102 on December 05, 2009, 09:45:13 AM
If you have built a GGG FTM then the changes to make when looking at the layout http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf) are:
C1 and C2 need to be changed to .047uF
C10 needs to be changed to a toggle switch that switches between .001uF and .015uF
C11 needs to be changed to .1uF (in some threads I've read this one seems to be left out but it is important)
You need to add a 10k resistor from S3(after the 10uF electrolytic) to lug 3 of the Sustain/Fuzz pot
The Volume and Tone pots need to be changed to 100k
I left the Sustain/Fuzz pot at 50k or you can use a 100k pot with a 100k resistor across the lugs
With these changes my FTM sounds awesome!



Actually, its C3 that is .047. C2 stays at .001

theres room for cool mod. Since there one toggle why make it two to match the foot switches? I used an spdt center off switch to switch between ge diodes, si diodes, and none in the center off position. Should i have really used a dpdt center off for this?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: projectx102 on December 06, 2009, 05:17:20 PM
Quote from: El Heisenberg on December 06, 2009, 03:31:22 AM
Quote from: projectx102 on December 05, 2009, 09:45:13 AM
If you have built a GGG FTM then the changes to make when looking at the layout http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf (http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_ftm_lo_2fsw.pdf) are:
C1 and C2 need to be changed to .047uF
C10 needs to be changed to a toggle switch that switches between .001uF and .015uF
C11 needs to be changed to .1uF (in some threads I've read this one seems to be left out but it is important)
You need to add a 10k resistor from S3(after the 10uF electrolytic) to lug 3 of the Sustain/Fuzz pot
The Volume and Tone pots need to be changed to 100k
I left the Sustain/Fuzz pot at 50k or you can use a 100k pot with a 100k resistor across the lugs
With these changes my FTM sounds awesome!



Actually, its C3 that is .047. C2 stays at .001

theres room for cool mod. Since there one toggle why make it two to match the foot switches? I used an spdt center off switch to switch between ge diodes, si diodes, and none in the center off position. Should i have really used a dpdt center off for this?
Correct! Oops my mistake!
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on December 13, 2009, 08:14:47 PM
would someone mind posting pics of this? i'm pretty new to this and i'm going to build a ggg tone machine and mod it to an ultimate octave. i understand the resistor substitutions but i'm not too clear on the fat/bright switch or how to run the resistor to the pot. it all seems self-explanitory, but if i could see pictures i'd be a lot more confident.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on December 13, 2009, 08:41:23 PM
also, what kind of transistors are you using for the ultimate octave?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: fuzzo on December 14, 2009, 01:46:38 PM
 all NPN low gain will work.

For the fat/bright just add a switch to select between the stock values of the cap and the new one to boost mids. (sorry I don't have their values )



Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on January 02, 2010, 03:48:11 AM
sorry, but i've just gotten around to doing this. i think that the fat/bright switch should look like this...

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/olslick/sc00af1739.jpg

and i'm stiil a little unsure about this..."You need to add a 10k resistor from S3(after the 10uF electrolytic) to lug 3 of the Sustain/Fuzz pot
The Volume and Tone pots need to be changed to 100k
I left the Sustain/Fuzz pot at 50k or you can use a 100k pot with a 100k resistor across the lugs..."

i don't know what s3 is. and a 100k resistor across the lugs? all the lugs?
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on January 04, 2010, 06:13:53 PM
i noticed that on the actual fulltone, they used an spdt switch with six lugs. looks like two for cap A, two for cap B and i can't tell where the other traces go. do you think it would work if i wired it like this, and used the two center lugs to wire to the pcb?

also, i'm sill not clear on the stuff from my last post if anyone wants to give me a hand...
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on January 05, 2010, 10:11:30 PM
bump
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: El Heisenberg on January 08, 2010, 07:40:23 PM
Its a DPDT switch. Its just like a SPDT except it's two of them in the same switch. Its hard to explain the wiring of the tone switch, u just gotta solve the puzzle looking at the schematic. You'll figure that out.

I dunno why he put S3. But just put the 100k resistor, if youre using 100k pot for the sustain control, between lugs 3 (after the 10 uf cap) and lug 2 of the pot. This will make it act as a 50k pot.
Title: Re: Foxx Tone Machine to Ultimate Octave?
Post by: olslick on January 22, 2010, 07:42:26 PM
so i finally built this. pretty awesome. my only complaint is that, when the tone knob is all the way towards bass, the sound seems kind of like it's buried deep in the amp. i don't know if i'm explaining this well but that's the best way i can describe it. does anyone know what i mean? is it supposed to sound like that? is there a mod to increase base. all of the modifications i made came from here as far as converting a ftm to an ultimate octave.

also, i bought the transistors that the fulltone schematic specified and they didn't work. i switched them out for the one's i originally had for the ftm, then all was well. anyone know why that could be?