Birthday present tips.

[Albot]

I want to build a pedal for my friends birthday in december. I came here cause i could use some advice on what to build for a guy who has never owned a pedal and has a realy good sounding amp. I was thinking about a distortion or fuzzface at first but i don't think he needs one cause he geats a realy nice and dirty tone from his amp as-is. He likes crazy sounds I guess, he tells me he's gonna get a ton of effects someday 

Also: I play bass and not guitar so i dunno if i could test them out with desireable results.
I've built the newbie booster and a fuzzface so far so im kinda a beginner but I have no problem reading the schematics so i guess a semi-complicated project would be fine.

So, any ideas?

[Dragonfly]

Look up the "Parallel Universe". Pretty low part count, highly variable op amp fuzz.

[Albot]

Cool, I'll look into that.

[famous birds]

You could make him a Roland BeeBaa clone.  One of the best fuzzes, in my opinion, that his amp probably can't come up with on it's own.

[raulgrell]

Well, if you think a fuzz/dist isnt the best choice, my guess would be that a tremolo or an auto-wah would be the next simplest circuits in terms of building... There are a bunch of really good, simple trems out there... I'm sure a quick search would get you some, if not, someone can point you to one.

I would, but I'm completely oblivious to trems...

A good auto-wah to start with is th nurse quacky... Nicely simple, very good sound.

[Processaurus]

Octavias are fun, and work with overdriven amps.  Foxx Tone Machine is great, as is the ampeg scrambler, as is the Dan Armstong Green Ringer (with the mods at GGG).  Octavias are a cool gateway effect, its unusual (as far as modern guitar tones go), its playable, you can get a couple different sounds depending on pickup choice and tone control, classic w/o being cliche, etc...

[foxfire]

the ea trem is good and easy.

[MikeH]

If he like crazy sounds th Parallel Universe is good, but also check out the Crash Sync and Ugly Face.  Those are pretty wild too.

[ambulancevoice]

tremelo's are boring, just a varible in out sound... nothing special imo oh my brothers
you need something with lots of yarbles!
id go with the p.u. crash sync or ugly face
truly interesting effects that thou can find anywhere else

[Albot]

I've finished the circuits of the green ringer. I kinda like it so far although i can't get much octave action going with my bass so i'll have to borrow a guitar from someone to try it out for real

I'm realy proud i got it working on only one day! yay!

Hope he'll like it so he can pay me for the more crazy sounding pedals later. Mouahahahah! (evil laughter).

[Processaurus]

I've finished the circuits of the green ringer. I kinda like it so far although i can't get much octave action going with my bass so i'll have to borrow a guitar from someone to try it out for real

Cool!  The Green Ringer is a full wave rectifier for your guitar signal, and the octave is the strongest when the two halves of the rectified signal are equal.  JC Maillet's Nulling mod at GGG is a pot to adjust the balance of the two halves of the waves, and there is a spot that is the most equal, and has the strongest octave/least fundamental.  You could try it as a trim pot, or tape a pot inside the box if you wanted to see if you could dial it in a bit.

I got the PNP transistor backwards in mine, and didn't notice for years, I just thought the octave wasn't very kickin.

[Albot]

Oh. i acctualy tried putting the PNP backwards now.. i get pretty much the same sound with it backwards as in int's original alignment.
something wrong then? tried different transistors and all seem to act thesame.
Maybe there'll be a diference when i try it out with a guitar.

[petemoore]

  GR does heavier thicker tones when coupled with a Distorter.

[g3rmanium]

He likes crazy sounds I guess, he tells me he's gonna get a ton of effects someday 

Build him an octaver. If he doesn't like it, you can still give it to me

I recently built Tim Escobedos Pushme Pullyou:



It's slightly easier than the Ringer, I think. And with the AC128 it sounds great.

[nbabmf]

I'm going to build either an Octavia or a Foxx Tone Machine for my best friend's birthday.  I'll probably just do both and keep the one I like more hehe.