Dr. Boogey vs Rat vs Bluesbreaker vs Timmy

[spargo]

For overdrive I currently have a Bluesbreaker (with a really fat bass switch), and a RAT with 3-way diode switching on by board.

I've been considering building a Dr. Boogey or Timmy clone.  How would these two compare to the Bluesbreaker and RAT?  Would they be really close to what I already have or offer a lot more options?

[ghostsauce]

Dr Boogey is characterized by it's ridiculously high gain, but it also has a really nice sound all it's own, so yeah I think it will be very different.  If you don't need death metal gain settings, I'd recommend putting a 500k pot on the gain control instead of 1M, which decreases the amount of gain on tap, because it sounds better to me at lower gain settings.

And another must-have mod for me is to put a 10nf cap between lugs 1 & 3 of the volume pot. When I tried this, it turned my pedal into an eargasm.  No matter where the gain setting is it always sounds.. beautiful. I can do really pretty lead stuff on low gain or high gain and it just blows me away..

But anyway, if you look up Dr Boogey videos you'll find that the stock boogey is a metal pedal... and it sounds very different from the bluesbreaker or rat.

[deadastronaut]

you can never have too much gain...imo..  \m/  \m/ 

the boogie will blow the cob webs off your bluesbreaker...and your rat will sound like a mouse!..squeek squeek...

go for it...build it, you can always turn the gain down....

http://www.youtube.com/user/100roberthenry?feature=mhum#p/u/10/f4M0_rrtse0

[oldrocker]

Yes the DB is a great pedal for chunky palm mute style.  If you want a pedal that good sustain and hi-gain you will love it.  It's quite a bit harder to build that the BB or Rat though.  I perf boarded using Xaviers layout and Guassmarkov's mods with a BSIAB2 tone stack.  It's my favorite distortion pedal.  I have also built the Rat and Bluesbreaker and both are great for what they were designed for.  Build a Boogey.

[elshiftos]

you can never have too much gain...imo..  \m/  \m/ 

the boogie will blow the cob webs off your bluesbreaker...and your rat will sound like a mouse!..squeek squeek...

go for it...build it, you can always turn the gain down....

http://www.youtube.com/user/100roberthenry?feature=mhum#p/u/10/f4M0_rrtse0

That sounds great, nothing like mine at all! 
I've spent ages methodically biasing each stage in various ways, but it still has a slightly fuzzy/square wave character to the distortion, and a crackle on note fades. Also, the eq sounds so shrill I find it hard to dial in a sound that doesn't make my ears bleed.

[zeeman]

you can never have too much gain...imo..  \m/  \m/  

You must be my long lost brother.
I have a Mesa Dual Rec and I use a BSIAB2 in front of the overdrive channels. (<- one for each overdrive channel on a Dual Rec )

zeeman

[deadastronaut]

@steve. have you tried a different batch of j201's....if you socketed them of course..

and yeah the eqcan be a bit bright...there are eq mods on here though..check em out..worth doing.


@zeeman, ha ha hi bro!...that sounds well greedy...but i bet it kicks ass

[spargo]

Any input on the Timmy? I've considered cramming the Dr. Boogey and Timmy into one enclosure, and I'm wondering if it's worth it.