Shocktave impressions...

snoof · January 04, 2007, 11:17:27 AM

Built the Shocktave (http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/shocktave.html, fun little circuit!! Used two 5088's for the first two trannys, and 5089's for the other 3. Just wanted to let anyone searching for info about this effect to know that this is not a clean octave!! It's a fuzzy octave-down. Not that this is a bad thing, I just didn't see much mention of this fact when I searched for info before building it. To get good results I had to...

1. Back off the tone knob on the gtr quite a bit.
2. Play in the high registers of the neck, tracks fairly well down low, but it sounds better up high.

Overall impressions-
Pretty easy build.
takes tweaking of the three knobs to get a good sound. You gotta spend a little time w/ it. At first, I thought it wasn't working properly until I spent some time tweaking.
With the mix knob more to the clean side, the thing is LOUD, be careful.

For me personally, I'd like it to be cleaner/less fuzzy, but that's just me

.
Great bang-for-the-buck!
It could use a high-cut knob, or else a teeny bit of high rolloff. Kinda spitty on the top end. I tried some mods mentioned in a thread having to do with a res/cap addition in the octave side of the mixing portion, but it didn't quite work the way I wanted.

SISKO · January 04, 2007, 11:33:53 AM

Congrats.

So, did you fix it, dindt you?What was the problem?

snoof · January 04, 2007, 12:20:21 PM

I had a ground issue when I first fired it up, but fixed it soon after

DDD · January 04, 2007, 12:21:18 PM

This octave-down unit is too simple to track precisely and to produce cleaner octave-down sound. It sounds just as it should sound ;-)

snoof · January 04, 2007, 12:36:16 PM

Good to know that that's how it is supposed to sound! At least it seems I built it correctly...

Paul Marossy · January 04, 2007, 01:03:12 PM

QuoteJust wanted to let anyone searching for info about this effect to know that this is not a clean octave!

Yep, just the way the circuit's designer intended it to be!

MikeH · January 04, 2007, 01:34:38 PM

Dang. I almost built this because someone told me it was a clean octave down. Can anyone reccomend a CLEAN octave down DIY project?

snoof · January 04, 2007, 01:41:32 PM

all the clean ones that I found were rather complex builds...

Paul Marossy · January 04, 2007, 03:38:56 PM

As I understand it, it's hard to make a clean octave down/octave up because that process inherently introduces distortion into the signal...

MikeH · January 04, 2007, 05:23:49 PM

The FoxRox(?) Octron does a pretty good job of it. I say some pics of the guts; kind of complicated, but no more than your average DIY delay

http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/Octron%20sound%20clips.html

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Shocktave impressions...