What Constitutes A "Boutique" Grade Pedal?

[alparent]

I suppose if I had posed the question in a different way like: "I want to buy a really nice and funky looking pedal, help please!" everybody would have sent me links to there own companies. Again: I DONT HAVE A COMPANY. I just have a fascination. I didn't have to give anybody anything to get on this forum and neither did you. Stop doing your best to alienate people. Nobody else finds it amusing or likes it. You think my question is stupid. I get it. I'm sorry for what its worth but stop acting all elite please. Just trying to learn. I am new to this sight and again i did use the search. I just missed a couple things. This is a learning experience and not an opportunity to jump down a learners throat. Do you do this to every new comer you find? Not that I expect it to stop because everybody with a keyboard and internet is a guru nowadays but can we keep this on topic at least? If you don't like the questions I ask then don't answer them. Simple as that. No thanks for putting a negative spin on this post.

I think your getting us wrong! Who said your question was stupid? People just have a strong opinion about "Boutique".
No one on this site will ever jump down a learners throat! Nobody ever jump down mine......and God knows I'm no elite!
I've learned very fast not to get offended by other peoples opinions. (Especially on forums!)

If you want to learn how to build better effects 'cause you want to sale some off and you want to offer a quality build product to your clients......then you ARE at the right place.

[MikeH]

I think you've mistaken people making fun of "Booteek" pedals in general for people making fun of you and/or your question.  People here have forgotten more about stompboxes than I'll ever know; such as the fact that any successful boutique pedals are more the result of clever marketing and being well-hyped, and less the result of superior engineering and construction.  This makes the majority of DIYers scoff at anything labeled as "boutique", and scoff even harder at the manner in which it's advertised/promoted.  Anyone who knows anything about pedals knows there's nothing special about a JRC4558, but boutiquers advertise the fact that their pedals use them like they have some kind of magical property or they're forged from unicorn tears.  Maybe even NOS unicorn tears.

Truth is, the boutique market can't even come close to the mass market in terms of product range and affordability.  If they could you'd see boutique clones of the EHX HOG, Eventide Timefactor or a pigtronix whatever...

"Boutique" doesn't mean higher quality, and as far as a "Boutique sounding" anything, well there's so such thing.

[wavley]

Yeah, seriously dude, nobody is making fun of you.  Boutique yes, you no.  I think you are taking the general fun attitude of this place an putting a negative spin on it.  Time and time again people have tried to use the info from this forum to make money off of these people's hard work, so yes, we tend to make fun of this behavior. There are a lot of people here that know exactly why electrons get from point a to b and "boutique" is more about marketing than science, these are people that know that there is no difference between a 4558 made a 3:00 pm vs. 3:01 pm or that tubes filled with leprechaun farts aren't necessarily better than ones filled with ones filled with ogre breath, though there are a lot of people that would have you believe otherwise.

So we use humor, get used to it, we make fun of each other all the time.

[alparent]

tubes filled with leprechaun farts aren't necessarily better than ones filled with ones filled with ogre breath.

What!?! Filling tubes with ogre breath adds mojo?!?  And I've been wasting my money on mouthwash all this years!!!

[deadastronaut]

oh btw,welcome thomas...

[thomasthebuzzard]

with that said I feel 100% better about this. Sorry. I wont mention the evil word ever again and as a sign of goodwill and apology i will post some of my own schematics. Anybody ever make a ring mod with 2n3904? I have a new design of my own that i put in some pedals. love ring mods. If your interested let me know!

[wavley]

with that said I feel 100% better about this. Sorry. I wont mention the evil word ever again and as a sign of goodwill and apology i will post some of my own schematics. Anybody ever make a ring mod with 2n3904? I have a new design of my own that i put in some pedals. love ring mods. If your interested let me know!

There are quite a few folks around here that love ring mods, Taylor comes to mind, we would like that very much.

[deadastronaut]

are they boutique?..

[markeebee]

At the risk of stoking the fire now that the flames are dying, may I just say that I always find all the eye-rolling and *another flower blooms* stuff quite tedious, smug and condescending. And I didn't think this forum was that kind of place.

Snarkiness is cheap.

EDIT:
I've never been up here on the high ground before. I think I'm getting a nosebleed.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

At the risk of stoking the fire now that the flames are dying, may I just say that I always find all the eye-rolling and *another flower blooms* stuff quite tedious, smug and condescending. And I didn't think this forum was that kind of place.

Snarkiness is cheap.

+++++++100.  STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!!

[thomasthebuzzard]

yeah! ill get a schematic up. its actually a faux ring mod. the basic workings are:
2 of the transistors are used to make a fuzz circuit that self oscillates.
1 of the transistors is used as a boost to go into the begining of the oscillator and the base of the fourth transistor to switch the gate on and off.
the fourth transistor is a noise gate so it cuts off the oscillator when you aren't playing. When you are playing the transistor modulates the dirty guitar with the oscillator.
an opamp sits at the output of this circuit to boost the volume back up because of the severe volume drop from using q4 passively.
The result is a really dirty sounding fuzzy ring mod. not good for warm blues players but noiseniks can have alot of fun and i bet it would be good to spice up guitar solos! I have built it a couple of times so i am fairly confident that it can be built accurately over and over and tried with different resistor,diode and capacitor values. when i write down the values i use i will put up the schematic.
QUESTION: Should I post it as a new thread or put it here or put it in the schematics part of the forum?

[thomasthebuzzard]

after getting the general feel of this forum i think it would be best to try and contribute as much as possible from my own diary of circuits and pedal misadventures! after all I am no scientist and maybe someone can rip my designs apart to be more efficient and maybe someday i will have my own solid diy design that people like me (a little experience and a curious interest) can build it.

[jrod]

Hey Thomas,

I would love to see your fuzz circuit! You might want to start a new thread. It may get kind of lost in this one.

[jefe]

yeah! ill get a schematic up. its actually a faux ring mod. the basic workings are:
2 of the transistors are used to make a fuzz circuit that self oscillates.
1 of the transistors is used as a boost to go into the begining of the oscillator and the base of the fourth transistor to switch the gate on and off.
the fourth transistor is a noise gate so it cuts off the oscillator when you aren't playing. When you are playing the transistor modulates the dirty guitar with the oscillator.
an opamp sits at the output of this circuit to boost the volume back up because of the severe volume drop from using q4 passively.
The result is a really dirty sounding fuzzy ring mod. not good for warm blues players but noiseniks can have alot of fun and i bet it would be good to spice up guitar solos! I have built it a couple of times so i am fairly confident that it can be built accurately over and over and tried with different resistor,diode and capacitor values. when i write down the values i use i will put up the schematic.
QUESTION: Should I post it as a new thread or put it here or put it in the schematics part of the forum?

Sounds very cool! I would post it as a new thread, in this (the Building your own stompbox) section.

[deadastronaut]

At the risk of stoking the fire now that the flames are dying, may I just say that I always find all the eye-rolling and *another flower blooms* stuff quite tedious, smug and condescending. And I didn't think this forum was that kind of place.

Snarkiness is cheap.

EDIT:
I've never been up here on the high ground before. I think I'm getting a nosebleed.

+1

look forward to your stuff dude......cool.

[wavley]

At the risk of stoking the fire now that the flames are dying, may I just say that I always find all the eye-rolling and *another flower blooms* stuff quite tedious, smug and condescending. And I didn't think this forum was that kind of place.

Snarkiness is cheap.

EDIT:
I've never been up here on the high ground before. I think I'm getting a nosebleed.

Markee's right.  I had no intention of sounding condescending in my posts, I was just trying to make a funny and if I came across as rude then I apologize.

[Lurco]

At the risk of stoking the fire now that the flames are dying, may I just say that I always find all the eye-rolling and *another flower blooms* stuff quite tedious, smug and condescending. And I didn't think this forum was that kind of place.

Snarkiness is cheap.

EDIT:
I've never been up here on the high ground before. I think I'm getting a nosebleed.

and another bleeding nose 

[thomasthebuzzard]

Hey. Its ok! I understand where you guys are coming from and for what its worth: I am sorry too.
OK HERE IT IS: THE RING FUZZ?
I put it up in the build your own stomp box area of the site. Just type ring fuzz into the search.

[thomasthebuzzard]

I hope i put it in the right spot

[jefe]

I hope i put it in the right spot

Yep, I can see it, great job! Thanks for contributing this.