My Biscuit is all Whiskery! (Review)

[jmusser]

Well, I got my boo boo fixed (emitter and base resistors switched on Q3) on the Whisker Biscuit just before work, and was almost late trying it out. What a wonderful circuit! It lives up to the sound samples, and then some, because the sound samples don't show how absolutely nasty and thin this thing can get. I'd guess that's the Bazz Fuzz making it's self known over top of the Big Muff. The tone to me sounds best with the tone as bassy as it can get, and then backing it off until you can just hear the snarl of the Bazz Fuzz starting. It has massive sustain, and loves chords. The sustain is at it's best on the neck pic up, and the tone controls rolled back, as you would imagine. Once you switch to the bridge pic up, roll the guitar tone controls up, then you get as much distortion crunch as you want. Crank the tone pot up on the effect to get whatever nasty distortion you need after that. It almost approaches heavy metal at the far end. I added the 47pf caps, and pulled them in an out of the sockets to see what I heard. What I heard wasn't really a change, in the velvety tone that it already has. The main thing they do (at least in my build), was to tame the fizz and hiss out of the high end distortion selection of this pedal. I haven't even begun to put it through it's paces yet, but this is a pedal I know I will use. I would guess that the only thing I could say against it, is that it could use a little more output, but it may be held down to keep the tone smooth in the bassy section, because my Easy Face is sort of along the same lines on it's output. This pedal will probably make the Easy Face head further towards the back of the shelf in preference. It just has a huge amount going for it, that the Easy Face just can't compete with. It has way more sustain, and way more tonal variation. If this circuit would have been around before the Easy Face, I probably would never have built it. My hat is off to the guys at ROG. Thanks for this gift to the effects world!

[robotboy]

Nice review! Do you think the Whisker Biscut would work well for bass if I simply increased the input and output cap values? It sounds like a really fun pedal.

[bwanasonic]

Which version of the tone control did you use? I'm about to start laying this one out myself.

Kerry M

[nightingale]

Hello,
I play a WB in my live setup. I have built/modded a couple of them.

The one I am currently playing, i left out the "velvety" caps. I went with a 68k reisistor on the input instead of the 33k. This gives me more useful settings at the minimum fuzz settings on the pot.

I also put a 1k pot wired as a variable resistor on the emitter of the bazz fuss, so i have a "fuzz" pot. The circuit still cleans up really well with the guitar volume at all of the fuzz settings on the pot. [See the deluxe bazz fuss at ROG for fuzz pot wiring]

In my expeirments I noticed that "up-ing"  the 33k input resistor too much affects the way this circuit cleans up with the guitar volume..

hope this helps,

[jmusser]

I used the stock tone control which has a nice wide range of tones. I'm not sure I would like the more subtle one, because I believe it would cut down on the versatility. I'm sure with the stock tone control, that you're still able to dial in the same tone as in the more subtle version. I got a chance to play it some more, and it just keeps getting better! One thing I tried a little while ago, was running the Tycho ahead of it, as it was suggested to me, that I would get closer to the Tobias sample tone. It's getting there. It seems like I'm closest, with the WB set wide open on volume, and the tone at full bass, with the Tycho having it's tone control rolled off, and set at about half volume, so as not to over power the WB. That helps the octave show up a lot better, and makes the overall tone more gutteral and wooly. I think what I'm really missing now is Tobias's fingers! It's a must to incorporate the wammy bar quite a bit, and I still think it's going to take a tube amp, but I'm getting closer. I'm liking the WB more that my stock Russian BMP, because of the added snarl and sustain. What's cool, is that if I want the BMP tone, it's just a twist of the tone control away.

[jmusser]

I just saw robot boys question on using the WB for bass. I would say yes, that it would work fine with the cap values adjusted to bring out the lower frequencies. I don't play bass, but to date, the best sample I have heard of the ultimate bass fuzz, was the Bazz Fuzz by it's self. Those two were made for each other!

[petemoore]

I built 'n Boxed one Whisker Biscuit yesterday.
 It is a Mongo Muffbiter.
 What's the noise floor like on yours?
 I think one of my tranny's or something might be contributing to the noise I'm experiencing. I'll have to get some same ones and see if alternate Q's don't quiet it down.
 I like the 100k tonepot, works great or too good, mainly gets a bit more high end at extreme settings...EZ enough to just turn the knob down I think. Sizzle, Thick Fuzz, and Mud are all  there.

[jmusser]

The noise level is very low on my build Pete. It is not non-existent noise like in Tim's circuits, but it is very low. I've had very few pedals that I've ever had noise problems with actually. I believe the worst was the Rex's Fuzz of all things, and I believe the Univox Square Wave was really high noise. I have had a chance to play it a little more, and it is just an all around fantastic pedal. When you have it adjusted to where it is more of a Bazz Fuzz, the volume level is acceptable, but once you get it into the heavy bass Muff tone, it lowers the volume probably by a third. The distortion on this pedal is exceptional, and then it sweetens out into Muff land. This to me is one of the more perfect marriages of circuits that I have seen since I've been building here. You can have things as fuzzy sweet or as snarly as you want them, just by turning the effects tone knob, and adjusting your pic up and guitar tones. Even if you have it adjusted into the nasty range, as long as you're still on the neck pic up, you get oodles of sustain. Three circuits come to mind that have this kind of variety. This one, Simple Square Wave Shaper, and the Tripple Fuzz. The WB has a better distortion at the high end then either of the other two IMO. It comes close to having an almost "Boston" type grind. I'm VERY impressed with this circuit! We're still talking apples and oranges with the other two circuits though. They are both great circuits in their own right.