stutter fx pedal - beavis audio

[popstudioguitar]

Anyone came across this:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/StutterPedal/index.htm   

Would the usual pulldown resistor be a solution to get rid of the clic/pop from the swtich (even if no circuit is present) ?

Thanks

Christian
www.pepcotubeamp.co.cc

[Processaurus]

My guess (not having tried it), is that it will pop and click no matter what.  Guitars that I've modded with momentary kill switches on board with the shunt switching to ground like your diagram have all popped on me (gaahh!).  It isn't a DC difference between signal and ground that will make it pop (the situation where pulldown resistors would help bleed the DC off to ground), it is the switch contacts bouncing for a couple milliseconds, or being dirty, or even with an impossibly perfect switch that instantly cleanly grounds the input signal, that ideal behavior in itself makes an ugly, fast transient, by switching the smooth signal at a point were it (probably) isn't at zero volts suddenly to zero volts, and any fast transient will sound like a *pop*.

Kill switches are great for making glitchy sounds, I suspect the way to get a popless kill would be an electronic switch of some kind, with a slowdown on the control voltage turning the switch on and off, so it has a gentler transition to zero over a few milliseconds.  A simple setup with a JFET used as a shunt switch would probably work, with a cap to ground on the gate (being fed through a resistor from the mechanical switch) to slow the on/off control signal transient.

Sorry, I think it's an arrangement like that, or learning to love the click...

[dano12]

Yep, the click is pretty much going to be part of the sound.

Making a solid-state (ie. transistor-based) switch would be the only way around it.

Another thought is to build a hard-chop tremolo that can go real fast

[ayayay!]

Hmm, this gets me to thinking then:  Why doesn't my Les Paul have that problem when I do the "chopper" thing on the pickup selector?  Because I'm killing the pickups...

Buckethead has a great vid or two on YouTube where he's got a kill/mute built into his Framus.  Check that out.   

[dano12]

Hmm, this gets me to thinking then:  Why doesn't my Les Paul have that problem when I do the "chopper" thing on the pickup selector?  Because I'm killing the pickups...

Buckethead has a great vid or two on YouTube where he's got a kill/mute built into his Framus.  Check that out.   

Most likely because the switch is easier to move faster? I.e. the contacts aren't in-between for as long. Doing it on a pedal with a momentary stompswitch means your foot really can't go as fast...

Which leads me to thinking about a better active way to do this: press and hold the stompswitch for automatic transistor-based on/off stutter.....

Hmmm....

[ayayay!]

Well what I'm getting at is that when doing it on the Les Paul, the pickups are still grounded.  That's why there's no pop.  Dano, your pedal doesn't provide for this.  It's just an open.  Opens + Cables (capacitors) are kinda like oil and water:  They can be mixed, if you use a little soap...

...and no one take that the wrong way.  I practically worship Dano...

This subject was eerily familiar to me, and I finally remembered where I read about it:  http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/killswitch.htm

Edit:  whoa whoops!  I didn't review Dano's article first.  Hmm, that shoulda worked....  Maybe the resistor as Andreas suggests? 

[CynicalMan]

I just built a stutter pedal (pics on p. 441 of the pictures thread) and yes it does have the clicking problem. It seems to be louder when I'm playing loud, which sounds like an electrical problem to me.

[Sir H C]

Les Pauls and the like short a pickup out not going open, that is why you don't get the pop.

[jefe]

I just built a stutter pedal (pics on p. 441 of the pictures thread) and yes it does have the clicking problem. It seems to be louder when I'm playing loud, which sounds like an electrical problem to me.

Then stop playing so damn loud! Jeez...

j/k  (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

[Bensnap]

My buddy put a momentary kill switch on his gitter and it popped like crazy. Maybe it could be done by adding the guitar signal 180 degrees out of phase... Not even sure where to start with that though.

[ppatchmods]

I had an old strat that I put an off(on) momentary switch in for this purpose. It was a very small, plastic push button found at radio shizack. It worked exactly the same. I added mine right to the wire going to the jack. I never had any popping involved with mine.

[birt]

i don't think it will pop if you don't break the signal connection but just short it to ground.

[Sir H C]

Thought about it a bit, with a guitar signal, it is a current generated in the pickups, so the current wants to be continuous (it is an inductor) so when you go open, that current kicks up the voltage to get the current continuous across the gap, that equals pop.  Shorting, no pop, does this make sense?

[CynicalMan]

I just built a stutter pedal (pics on p. 441 of the pictures thread) and yes it does have the clicking problem. It seems to be louder when I'm playing loud, which sounds like an electrical problem to me.

Then stop playing so damn loud! Jeez...

j/k  (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

(slaps forehead) Why didn't I think of that! 

You know what would be a great glitch pedal? An envelope controlled stutter that only stutters during the decay of a chord or note.

[birt]

you mean something like a very fast chopper tremolo with the speed controlled by an envelope follower? so the speed drastically goes down when the note starts to fade?

[newfish]

Would using a SPDT switch work?

Centre lug takes the signal from the selector switch, Left hand lug goes to out put as normal, Right hand lug goes to ground.

...another mod would be...

DPDT switch with the Input from switch to Centre-Left, Output as normal to Centre-Right.
Jumper across Top Left and Top Right (to give original signal).
Cap (100pF or so) across Bottom Left and Bottom Right.

This would give just the very top of the signal left - without popping - to go through, so it's effectively killed the signal.

Changing the cap to suit (maybe 0.1uF or so) would effectively give a half-power / full-power arrangement from the guitar.
Handy for overdriving / cleaning up your amp maybe...

I have the 100pF mod on my Tele and it makes a very effective kill-ish (maim?) switch.

[Fleetdog]

Newfish, I also have a switch to throw a cap inline with my tele's output.  I got the idea from jaguars where I believe it is affectionately known as the "Strangle Switch".

[newfish]

...well there you go.

There really *is* nothing under the Sun... 

[CynicalMan]

you mean something like a very fast chopper tremolo with the speed controlled by an envelope follower? so the speed drastically goes down when the note starts to fade?

I meant having no stutter during the first part of the note and then starting to stutter when the note starts to fade but that would be neat too!

[Andi]

That's a fantastic idea. You could perhaps do it with an envelope detector feeding some sort of threshold thingy. When it's below the threshold the stutter circuit kicks in - the stutter rate could also be controlled by the envelope detector. Like a faulty noise gate almost.