Bazz Fuss inna Pickle (report, clip, pic)

[tommy.genes]

Well, I have no radical - or even conservative - new technology to offer here, buy my latest build might be a useful point of reference for my fellow bass distortion afficionadoes.

I plan to call it the T.G.B.F. - for tommy.genes Bazz Fuss, a play on the common phrase T.G.I.F. (Thank God It's Friday). It cross-breeds the amz-fx pickup sim with a home-wrecker.com Bazz Fuss v3 and the tone control and output stage of a Swollen Pickle. Here are the particulars:

Schematic; Vero Layout

BTW, on the layout, TCC = Tone Clock-Wise, TCW = Tone Counter-Clockwise and TW = Tone Wiper

And here is the proof-is-in-the-pudding Clip

For some reason, this file did not encode to mp3 well, so it sounds a little modulated, but you still can hear the character of the pedal. The recording chain was custom bass (Moses graphite neck, Warmoth alder body with flame maple top, single Basslines soapbar roughly in the P-bass position) -- pedal -- Eden WT-800 amp (EQ flat except for a touch of "Enhance") -- DI out to Behringer mixer (also EQ flat) -- Quattro USB audio interface -- Mackie Tracktion software (with just a touch of reverb to avoid that "center-of-the-head" feeling through headphones).

The 125B-sized box isn't painted yet, but maybe I'll post a pic of the guts once I figure out what's wrong with my digital camera.

My main "lesson learned" on this build is that an EQ control - specifically one that is a bass BOOST and not just a high cut - is possibly the biggest single improvement you can make to a bass effect, along with the prerequisite larger input/output/coupling caps (although you will see the ones I used aren't that big). I even tweaked the Swollen Pickle tone stack further away from the BMP, as can be seen in this Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator screen grab.

I also tweaked around with the clipping diodes trying all sorts of parallel and asymetrical combinations. But after I had installed the tone control, I realized that the diodes had a relatively small effect on the sound I was looking for, and went back to the single diode configuration. I definitely preferred the 4148 to the 914, however, and ending up building it that way.

Otherwise, my building skills got better but are still far from perfect. I also plan to have some fun with finishing as well. I plan to go for a simple "Ferrari red" paint scheme, but hope to take time to add multiple color and clear coats with occasional sanding between and waxing/polishing at the end to get a really nice "showroom" finish.

My very next project is to clean my work bench. After that some of my choices are: improve my Bass Router (paralooper) design, further mod my DD-2 to add an external feedback loop, build a Rebote with modulation and external feedback loop, build an on-board Baxandall tone control for my bass, build a Ruby in an Old Bay tin, build a class-T amp from a kit for my computer speakers, build a Small Clone clone, try out even more types of distortions... 

-- T. G. --

[Bernardduur]

Nice one.

I used a similar EQ for my Cheddar version but I added a "mid boost" that enhance my bass setting.

Really nice. If I needed another fuzz I would build one!

[Mark Hammer]

Nice work.  Not meant at all as a criticism, but I just find it chuckle-worthy that there's more stuff to the right of the 5306 that there is to the left of it.

[tommy.genes]

Not meant at all as a criticism, but I just find it chuckle-worthy that there's more stuff to the right of the 5306 that there is to the left of it.

Well I know you've been an advocate for tone controls after the clipping section as opposed to before, and now I whole-heartedly agree.

And there was originally even less on the left. Without the pickup sim the effect still sounded good straight after my bass, but it sounded like ass in the buffered loop of my paralooper. I also tried using just the Pickle tone control without the output stage, but this resulted in the fuzzed tone being quieter than the clean tone even at full volume.

I'm sure there are numerous non-conventional things about this design because I'm still just a noob, but it worked, so I froze development and went into "production" as it were. You know the old saying, "eventually you have to shoot the engineer..." (I am an engineer BTW.)

-- T. G. --

[MartyMart]

Nice work Tommy, I went straight from schem to vero, using a different layout
Worked right off the bat !
I used an MPSA13, as that came up as similar to the 5306.
Q2 "choice" makes a LOT of difference, 3904/4401/3903/2369 all have a
very different character, It also sounds quite good with gtr, though a little
"whoolie" at the top end !
Cap switch perhaps ?
Perhaps a "gain" control would help a little, though bass/gtr vol seems to
work OK.
Thanks for sharing
Cheers,
Marty.

[tommy.genes]

I used an MPSA13, as that came up as similar to the 5306.

The original home-wrecker.com schem did use an MPSA13. I substituted the 5306 because it is what I had.

It also sounds quite good with gtr, though a little "whoolie" at the top end!

Dang! And here I thought I had succeeded in building a pedal that only sounded good on bass. (It didn't sound too great on guitar when I tried it here, buy maybe I wasn't trying very hard.)

Oh, and I finally got a pic together too. My digital camera had hosed its compact flash card somehow. Word of advice to owners of "older", i.e. about 4 years old, digital cameras. Empty those CF cards out before they get close to full, because apparently they can start to "wrap-around" and try to write data in the first sectors that usually contain the FAT tables etc.



-- T. G. --