can you use a footswitch to change cap connections?

[pinkjimiphoton]

hi guys,
built up alex frias's trumpet sim fuzz the other day...
my blind glaucomic arse made a mistake and used a .0068 cap instead of the .068 one specified, and further, had it coming from the base of q2 instead of the emitter..
here's the thread:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=70080.new#new

it raised some questions in my slowly forming mind...

do you think it's worth subbing that cap for the correct one?

or, can i do this:

leave the .0068 cap connected at it's output end, tack on a .068 cap to the same point, then hook the other ends of the caps to the two outer positions of a spdt, and take the center common to the correct point at the emitter? will it pop like a son of a gun if i did this?

or...if the .0068 cap is close enough for rocknroll (sounds pretty good to me, honestly as built wrong) can i hook the end of the existing cap to the center pole of an spdt, and connect the base of q2 to one side, and the emitter to the other so i can have alex's stock circuit, or my inadvertantly modified one?

again, will this make it pop? if so, is there a way to suppress it....maybe a 1 or 2 meg resistance to ground at that point?

sorry for the dumb questions, but i figured i should ask before i go break it all again.

thanks guys...hope i explained myself right!!

[petey twofinger]

again fwiw , i have a switchable cap on 2 pedals , a buffer and a 3 legged dog that i really do not care for , may have to swap chips on that one . the fuzz control is useless , and it sounds like donkeys .

anyhow , the buffer cap switch pops , the 3dog doesnt .

please keep me posted if u decide to monkey further and how to eliminate the pop , that would be very useful info , cause i like the idea of footswitchable caps . either way no poppy better than poppie pop .

good luck !

[digi2t]

I did a 4 cap selector mod for the Range section of my Skyripper, and it pops when I change it with the effect on. Yet, the same mod on my Uglyface is pretty quiet when I switch it with the effect on.

I`ll have to take a look at the circuit and see where the differences are. Good question though.

[Quackzed]

You can also leave the .0068 always connected,then  connect one side of the .068 cap to one side of the .0068 and the other side of the .068 to a spst switch that has its other end tied to the other side of the .0068 cap. 
ok that sounded confusing... all i mean is you can put the .068 cap in parallel with the .0068 with a spst switch, in parallel they're .0748 close enough i'd say...
as to wheather to bother or not, the few octave trumpeter type circuits ive built seemed to do their thing either way and cutting bass or letting more in didn't seem to change the character of the effect, just a little less or more bass, though an extremely small cap might cut too much signal... i'd say unless it sounds too thin for you, leave it!
- the emitte/base thing might be cool, if it sounds different enough...

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanks guys.

i think if the cap is close enough for rock and roll, i'll leave it as is cuz i dig the sound. so the chore at hand will be to switch the "hot" end of the cap between emitter and base for alex's circuit and my inadvertant mod. i really dig the sound i'm getting out of it, but to get the trumpet effect is a bitch. i have gotten it, but it's got really narrow sweet spots as i built it.

i think the way to do it is to just use a small toggle instead of a footswitch, cuz there probably won't be much benefit in switching it live...i'll try it tho, cuz i suspect connecting that cap to the emitter where it's supposed to be will give a big gain jump. if it's noticeable enough, i'll add a footswitch...

i mean if ya HAVE to, ya can stomp it on on the attack of a note and hide the click in your attack....sometimes...with practice.

i will report back on my findings, gonna go play with it in a minute.

[pinkjimiphoton]

ok, i didn't bother messing with the switch.

when i opened it up, as i slapped my fool head, i remember i caught the mistake on the vero when i built it, and completely forgot to update the vero i drew.
i DID wire it right...cap to e...but messed it up on the vero. my bad.

thanks to bart for catching it so i could fix it.

what i did do was parallel the .0068 cap with a .082...closest value i had. done deal. suddenly a completely different animal....sounds like alex's trumpet instead of a fuzz. the smaller cap makes it a normal fuzz, the bigger one makes the brass happen. turn the attack up about 6, turn the warp down half way, done deal, instant trumpet..it helps if you slide up or down into notes. it really kinda nails the cheezy synth trumpet sound! and now the warp control warps..because i only had a 50 k pot, it seems to give me a fifth kinda overtone...it's tough to get the octave down thing to track.

i thought about adding a switch, but the trumpet thing is cool enough to merit the thing existing as a standalone.

thanks for the help guys!!! this thing sounds like a different animal. look for the stupid pedal tricks (slight return) coming to an interweb page near you soon!

[Quackzed]

i had one circuit, i think it was tim escobedos octup blender that got that 'trumpet' tone. totally blew me away how 'trumpety' it was.
i played 'feels so good' by chuck mangione about 100 times then it stopped working... i think it died of shame... 
im gonna see if i have all the bits for the t-bone. it sounds at least as good if not better than my poor octup blender did...
btw love the stupid pedal tricks!

[pinkjimiphoton]

thats so funny...i've been playing the same thing...feels so good...yuck!!!

hear it every nite on king of the hill...double yeck!!
lol

glad ya like the stupid pedal tricks....many more to come...and then we start combining stupid pedals to do unusual things...

like putting an octave fuzz before a compressor into an autowah...the octave makes the compressor swell (set attack at min, sustain at max , volume just below unity) , as the comp swells, it sweeps the filter of the autowah open...

sounds like a filter sweep on an analog synth ala rick wakeman.

put a noise gate after it, get the balance right, and you can play backwards guitar in real time...stuff like that.

[Quackzed]

cool. ill try that! i have a dr.q and a dano surf n turf comp... thats a good one!

[pinkjimiphoton]

i used to run my doctor q in the effects loop of my boss me 5. set the sustain to 7, the attack to zero, and give it a little treble cut, and about 4.5 on the comp volume...5 is unity gain.
kick on some overdrive, turn the q on...and if you turn the guitar down slightly, you'll hear the compressor start to turn up immediately. of course, the doctor q being an envelope follower
sees this as a control voltage, and begins to sweep the filter. it's pretty sick. if you find the right balance between guitar and effects, you can ride it...if you play legatto, as the filter sweeps you can play phrases...but if you play stacatto, it trys to sweep every attack.

if you then crank the noise gate on the me5 full, there comes a point where when you turn the guitar down, the compressor and noise gate engage in a duel to the death...the compressor trying to make it louder and sweeping the filiter, and the noise gate trying to neuter it. what you get is notes that swell into an attack that then quickly decays. the more guitar volume you give it, the more control you have over the sustain, above a certain point you lose the backwards effect...but you can swell into notes and make the filter open automatically, then drop way down and sound backwards and ghostly...especially with a reverse or gated reverb (and some spring reverb in the amp) . with a little practice, you can literally sound like you are playing backwards in real time.

lottsa stupid pedal tricks to come...that's one of my favorites, and my super - secret never revealed "famous" backwards guitar sound.

if you don't have a boss me5, i highly reccomend every guitar player on the planet get one. they are sick sick little units. 

[m4j0rbumm3r]

The smaller cap makes it a normal fuzz, the bigger one makes the brass happen.

Just want to confirm this. I changed C5 from 0.068uF into effectively 0.090uF, by putting a leftover 0.022 in parallel, and it became markedly more brassy.
Then drive a warm/crunchy 'clean' channel on your amp with it and it will make the brass-fuzz sound more natural, less Casio-like.
Very cool if you want to do Trombone Shorty type of stuff on guitar.

[petey twofinger]

i was at the boss clinic when they rolled out the ME5 , man what a cool unit for the time , i distinctly remember thinking "holy eff" ...

" i  mean if ya HAVE to, ya can stomp it on on the attack of a note and hide the click in your attack....sometimes...with practice. "

^

stupid pedal trick is not so stupid .

thats awesome , i just cant remember what pedal i used to do that with ....

[pinkjimiphoton]

the stupid part in them videos is usually ME!!! LOL

[bhill]

Jimi, from your description I think I finally have a reason to build a compressor. Been avoiding them for 40 years 'cause I do not like what they do to my dynamics, but for that sound (backwards playing) I think it is time to put one together. Thanks, just what I need, yet another item added to the list that never ends.

[pinkjimiphoton]

the whole idea is to break stuff, make it do what it shouldn't, and make it make cool loud noises!!

glad to be of help!!

i reccomend googling "really cheap compressor...Mark or IvLark or whatver he calls himself on turretboard.org has a nice layout for a really clean, useful simple couple part compressor!

[bhill]

That is mictesters really cheap compressor, yes familiar with the ckt and have seen Mark's layout, but I will probably have to convert it to pcb. Have to look through the thread at my other home and see if there is a pnp there.

Thanks bro

[pinkjimiphoton]

no worries bro! that's like the only standalone comp i ever liked. should be easy enough to convert to a pcb. wonder if rutabaga bob is around? he's good with perf and pcbs and stuff.

so it's mark...i was like...ivlark? IvLark? what???

i am sofa king stupid...lol..

[bhill]

In the 11 page thread over there, there are several pnp's to chose from, so I'm in good shape there. Already had a couple of them on this hard drive. Just need to put things in the proper folder to make things a bit easier to track down. See what happens as we age Jimi? (Not looking forward to being dumped into medicare later this year.) Now back to nasty fuzziness...

[alex frias]

Congratulations!!!