Ugly Face mod herein!

[strungout]

Oy.

Well, I haven't yet commited one to perfboard, for lack of enclosure, really. I just take 5 to rebuild it when I feel like playing it. So, I was rebuilding it to try out a few homemade LED/LDR modules as I got me some heatshrink tubing, worked ok. Then a while after RATM's "Voice of the voiceless" song popped into my head, and unless I'm mistaken (very well could be), the bagpipe-like riff was made with an oscillator signal running in parallel with the guitar signal which triggers it, so you can't hear the oscillator when you're not playing (just a gate?). Anyway, I figured I'd try sum on the Ugly Face and found something cool  

So at first, I took the signal from the negative end of the 2.2uF cap (from pin 5 of the 386) that goes to pin 4 of the 7555 and rerouted it to pin 7, without changing anything else. Was nice not only did I get the effect I was hoping for, I got more. Basically, it added more noise capabilities. The guitar signal primes over the oscillator, but the two interact and create some octave-and-other-notes that can be clearly heard althought it sounds alot like the green ringer sounds. I used a 5k pot for the sensitivity control, so I can have no effect at all from the envelope follower. If I turn the sensitivity up, there's some nice spacy noises added in the background, sorta like a stretched version of the lazer gun effect. Pretty fun. And noisy.

Then I figured it'd be nice to have a blend control. Nothing complicated here either. So now I can pan between the sounds I just described and an envelope controled oscillator (w/ the EF on). More fun, more noise.

Here's a schematic to make it simple:

http://www.freewebs.com/fkstilt/uglyfacemod.htm

Ciao.

[Marcos - Munky]

Interesting. Could you post some soundclips?

[jmusser]

I just built one last week, so I'll give this mod a try. Thanks!

[strungout]

Oy.

Marcos - There's two quick and easy clips here:  
http://www.freewebs.com/fkstilt/
not much but enough to give you and everyone else an idea

jmusser: np

Ciao.

[Marcos - Munky]

Thanks a lot. I will listen to them later. I was planning to build a UF for me too.

[ryanscissorhands]

Just FYI, Tom uses a Digitech Pedal for the bagpipey sound--not sure if his old Whammy has ISP "Intelligent pitch shifting" or not. I figured this out when I wa susing a friends Digitech GNX3 (or maybe 4. . .) and was playing with the interval knob while holding a note. The original note carries, and then by turning the knob, it doulbs at whatever interval you select.

The cool thing about the ISP is that you can select it to go up a certain interval ACCORDING TO A SCALE OR MODE. Really sweet to be able to punch in A# mixolydian and it will always make the correct 3rd above the note you're playing.

Looking forward to building an uglyface.

[jmusser]

Hey Strungout, I like what you came up with in that first sample. It would be interesting to see how well the harmonic background follows what you're doing while noting. The second sample is cool just for its sonic weirdness, but the first sample is something I'll enjoy tinkering with. By the way, between pins 7 and 8 of the timer chip, you show a 10K resistor. Did you change this from the original 100K, or was this just a misprint? I really like what you've come up with here, and just when I thought this thing couldn't get anymore versitile, you prooved otherwise! :shock:

[strungout]

Oy.

ryan: I wish I could get my hands on a whammy like that. I'd have so much fun learning the actual techniques of the songs instead of doing pale replacements techniques Anyway, I love that effect.

jmusser: thnx. Yes, the 10k is a mistake, it should be 100k. I'll have to fix that. Sometimes, it really doesn't take much to add or take from a pedal, just mess around with it on a breadboard

Ciao.

[snorky]

Good job on those mods.

Not a mod at all, but I use a compressor before the UF and a delay after.  The compressor keeps the signal in the non-oscillating sweet spot longer, and the delay can extend whatever craziness you're generating...

- Mark

[jmusser]

Hey Strung out, will there be a tone change with your switch in the normal setting, since you'll be going through some of the Blend Pot's resistance? I figure you can adjust most of it out anyway, but I thought I'd ask. The mod is very simple, but your schematic is almost exactly backwards from Tim's, and it threw me for a couple minutes. I probably won't get to it for a few days, but I'm dying to try it

[strungout]

Oy.

Hehe I drew it this way cause the lines crossing in Tim E.'s  schematic threw ME off

The tone shouldn't make much a difference if any, just turn the blend pot to 0k, when in the original mode. The switch I used was actually a bio-mechanical one: me pulling off and putting back wires on my breadboard

Ciao.