is the hotcake a variation of a rat pedal?

[tele_guitarist]

If not, is there anyway I can build one myself?

tg

[Mark Hammer]

Nope, it ain't like a Rat.  Several *possible*, but ultimately unconfirmed, schems have cropped up over the past 5 years, and not a single one has included any diodes, so not the same beast at all from what we've been able to tell.  At least some of what the Hotcake does is related to the compensation pins in a TL071 but that is about as much info as I can provide with any certainty.

In all fairness, the Hotcake is probably one of those pedals that, while not as constantly in demand for a schem as the Fuzz Factory, deserves a similar amount of gentlemanly protection and consideration.  Paul Crowther makes a handful of different products at less-than-Cornish prices.  People like them but he's not retiring to his own Fijian island any time soon.

[BDuguay]

I've built a couple.
It was at least 3 years ago, and before I discovered this forum and the respect and confidentiality that goes with it. I would like to help you out but I'm not sure how to go about it. Suggestions Mark?
Bad Brian

[Ansil]

i have to agree, i have recently seen the inside of one, and the scheme that i had all along [minus the switching] was on the nose



but to help you out,  why not do what we always do when someone asks for  fuzz factory scheme or other taboo ones


[OK I AM NOT STARTING AN ETHICS CHAT SO PLEASE KEEP THOSE OPINIONS TO YOURSELF]  

we usually [and zach himself has done this from what i remmeber from the other board] point someone in the right direction to discover a similar sound on there own

so while i duck the hail of bricks here goes


mxr type ciruit, replace opamp with socket and try another one like mark said the tl071

increase teh gain, and play with teh rc filter there,

add a presence circuit.  almost any amp one would do.

think speaker roll off and set the straight output on the otherside of the presence for that.

as soon as i  find my pic in the email i will be less vague

[Ansil]

change the RC filter so you have a low e response you can figure that out here

http://www.muzique.com/schem/filter.htm    

the presence is more of a blend one side of it being set at a certain freq range. And the other at another.

The low side is 10 times higher than the cutoff I think that’s one of the keys, you can change the feedback loop RC filter to what you wish as lo9ng as you keep it constant

I had good results with a lm386 and a 5k drive  pot and 50k other pots
Check out my flap jack for the lm386 version of it, no parts values on it  Gain is around double that of a mxr   or aprox 454


http://www.geocities.com/cemaynard1134/flapjack/flapjack.htm

[Gary]

I've seen a schematic for what was alleged to be the Hot Cake.  It has a single diode (not to ground) and a PNP BJT in there.  It's an interesting circuit topology, even if it is not the real thing.

If what I have seen is correct, it's not a RAT.  It's more like the MXR Micro Amp Ansil mentioned.  Start with that and see where it takes you.

[jrc4558]

Hey, Mr. Ansil!!!
Whaddaya say, isn't it just a variation of a BMP tonecontrol? I mean the one on your 386 thingy. Seems to me so.
I once had such a setup - tweaked BMP tone section, but instead of pot I used a two 47k resistors and took the sound from the middle(like a midway tone on a bigmuff). The controls were adapted  :idea:  as the potentiometers instead of the resistors in the low and high pass filters that the original pot balanced between. Very interesting effect. Separate control for the lowpass and highpass frequencies.

Also on what Mark said earlier. TL071 sound very nice when overdriven by itself with no diodes (like open feedback loop kind of thing). However, such setup is usually very noisy. Do you really think that Hotcake does that? How come it's so quiet?

[Ansil]

yes it could be considered a variation on the bmp control,, althouh instead of the standard lp filter and hp filter blended via a pot. this has

a low pass filter on one side.  and the other side has a cap to ground through a  resistor so i guess then it could be considered another lp filter instead of the bmp's hp filter

so in that regards i would suggest that you balance a 159hz signal and teh 720 sginal via the presence pot.


the 10k's seem to help keep it from being noisy..

look at the sansamp stuff it is not that noisy and there are no diodes in there.
but perhaps a usefull venue is to use a dual opamp and make it a recoverystage with a diode clipper in there.


also if you go this route or make up a universal socket to put in dualopamps in a singles place. theni would suggest that you try a tlc2262 in there as it is by far nicer to my ears than anything else

also it won't work on my layout as there is no vbias and different pinout than my 386 but it could be modified to work

[jrc4558]

But from what you saw, the original has no diodes, right? Also, if you ever discover that schem you mentioned, would you kindly throw it to ac_128@yahoo.com ?
Thanks.

[drew]

Anyone have info on where to purchase this dude (or the prunes & custard) for a decent price.... or how to get one from mr. crowther himself? I wouldn't mind dropping $120 or thereabouts on it, if it's as nice as a lot of people say...


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[csj]

Crowther Audio
PO Box 96 104,
Balmoral,
Auckland 1030,
New Zealand.

//croth@clear.net.nz

I'd easily give this guy $120 for the pedal.

[aron]

> not a single one has included any diodes,

The Hotcake does contain a diode, but it is not used for clipping like we use them for.

Yes, it's as good as people say (provided like any pedal it "matches" with your setup).

Yes, it's completely worth $125.

Aron

[snarblinge]

am fixing a presense control on one of these and was looking for some info. thought this was worth adding in case anyone stumbles upon this thread. www.crowtheraudio.net