Stupid Pedal Trick: Phat Lardacious Monkey Balls (w/schem)

[pinkjimiphoton]

build yourself one.



one fuzz to rule them all? naaaaaaw.... but a little bit closer

lardacious is the tone control, it uses a curious feedback arangement that is not as lossy as standard tone controls. it combines adjustable feedback with a faked variable cap to achieve a wide range tone control with minimal loss.

phat pumps up the low midrange. to the left of the dial, its a treble booster, to the right more mids and lows as you turn it up

monkey is a combo bias/starve control for the second transistor. it lets you dial in everything from very blatty broken gated fuzz to a very smooth overdriven octave up fuzz when pegged. the more ya monkey with it, the more sounds you can find.

balls makes you deaf, so turn the mother@#$%er down!!! seriously, this thing is unity gain around 12:00.

a whole lotta tone for two transistors.

q1 should be ge. i purposely did NOT measure it before i put it in. i wanted to do a circuit where anything would work as long as it was ge and npn. so socket and tinker.

q2 should be silicon. i spec mpsa06 cuz i currently have a love affair with them, but any qs around 200 should be fine. if ya need to use say something with an hfE of 400-500 or so, add in a 47-100 ohm resistor between emitter and ground. that will help get the gain where ya want it without @#$%ing up the tone too much.

this thing will sustain literally forever. the video, too long for sure, just touches on all the crud ya can do with it.

when i get around to making a vero, will post. i think i can stick a fork in ths one. try it on your breadboard i think you will be very pleasantly surprised.

peace out

PjP

ps: c11 got cut off a litle and is 33 picofarad

[italianguy63]

Good to see you again Jimi!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey bro!

i f'd up tho, it stopped recording about 6 minutes. i sat their wankin for half an hour.
so may i present to you part deux....err... derrr??

[italianguy63]

I did wanna' hear it!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

i made a slight mistake on the schematic, i messed up one node a little. attached is the corrected and verified schematic, and a vero layout. i haven't built this one yet, but unless my jaded old eyes decieve me, it should match the schematic.

sorry for the mistake, hope it didn't f anybody up

[italianguy63]

This is another fun looking one.....  I am filing it away with the Flying Spaghetti Monster...  I will get to them eventually.  Maybe sooner now that I quit my career, and am a beach bum now.  How you holding up Jimi?

MC

[Mark Hammer]

A really interesting envelope-controlled character to it,such that the tone changes as the signal settles down.  For me, that makes it worth a build.

Nice one.

[sominka]

This is good working on a pcb now.

[pinkjimiphoton]

This is another fun looking one.....  I am filing it away with the Flying Spaghetti Monster...  I will get to them eventually.  Maybe sooner now that I quit my career, and am a beach bum now.  How you holding up Jimi?

MC

i'm getting old bro. not gigging as heavy as i used to do... really down to hosting one jam a week, maybe going to a second one. too lazy to pursue gigs, but i just joined an oldies band up in mass (almost in new hampshire... i must be high, living in hartford ct) so who knows. neck bones are pretty much fused by themselves now, the menieres has me in a permanent state of feeling slightly drunk (which i hate) and the glaucoma has ups and downs too.
but..
other than that crap, i am right as rain. doing the atkins thing, no carbs... well, i try to keep it under 20 grammes a day. i've gone from a 5x to a 3x so far. hoping to starve this dang liberal off my back <vbg>

beach bumming must be awesome. i need to take a pilgrimige there, a white whale that will scare all the pretty girls away lol

[pinkjimiphoton]

A really interesting envelope-controlled character to it,such that the tone changes as the signal settles down.  For me, that makes it worth a build.

Nice one.

yeah, you can hear the definition in the individual strings when its down lower really well. by combining open and fretted notes and some creative fingerpicking, you can almost make it swirl like a phaser.
i think the key to the tone is the treble booster slamming the second stage, which is basically set for full gain. when it slams it, since most of the lows are filtered off, it immediately trys to push out an octave, which fights with it a bit. if ya leave out the tone control completely, to the left of the phat control will do octave ups that track most of the neck on the treble pickup.
that octave aspect makes it "chime" like a vox amp at some settings too... complete with "class a " style intermodulation distortion where ya get bizzarre sub harmonics that play the opposite of what you do at some settings.  its really kinda cool, and imho the best thing i've come up with yet.
i think phil moulder is working up a PCB for the project... that guys is one gem of a dude, for sure.

but anyways... i dedicate this one to my bro wes, who inspired it with some purple monkey balls and an endorsement of the original, pre- monkey balls boostndrive, and mostly to all the peeps out HERE who have inspired me with their collective insanity passions.

it seems to play nice with other pedals for a change too.

used it live the other nite and it was pretty astounding. the band leader said it was the best tones he'd ever hear me play. during one song me and my bro mark were showboating at the end, and i hit the last chord and held it... and held it...til his fingers gave out. it was funny. in the original video that i screwed up, at one point i literally hold one note while bending it and shaking it around for over 3  minutes. this thing is sick!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

This is good working on a pcb now.

cool!! look forward to seeing it.


guys... play it loud. it sounds best slammin' your amp with the volume at least half way up. sounds less like a fuzz and more like an amp that way. i couldn't do it cuz the ol lady woulda killed me at that point lol

[sominka]

[pinkjimiphoton]

looks perfect, sominka!! thanks man!

[italianguy63]

This is good working on a pcb now.

Can you cut me in on one?  I'll put in a share!  $$

MC

[italianguy63]

This is another fun looking one.....  I am filing it away with the Flying Spaghetti Monster...  I will get to them eventually.  Maybe sooner now that I quit my career, and am a beach bum now.  How you holding up Jimi?

MC

i'm getting old bro. not gigging as heavy as i used to do... really down to hosting one jam a week, maybe going to a second one. too lazy to pursue gigs, but i just joined an oldies band up in mass (almost in new hampshire... i must be high, living in hartford ct) so who knows. neck bones are pretty much fused by themselves now, the menieres has me in a permanent state of feeling slightly drunk (which i hate) and the glaucoma has ups and downs too.
but..
other than that crap, i am right as rain. doing the atkins thing, no carbs... well, i try to keep it under 20 grammes a day. i've gone from a 5x to a 3x so far. hoping to starve this dang liberal off my back <vbg>

beach bumming must be awesome. i need to take a pilgrimige there, a white whale that will scare all the pretty girls away lol

Brother.. getting old ain't for sissys.  I'm just glad to be alive and kicking ass again.  I love the water-- and I found my place.  I have lived in FL for the past 47 years... the area I am in is undeveloped mostly (protected gov't land)-- no condos and unspoiled beaches... If you feel the need to come visit-- come on down, I have a guest room.  About 20 miles from touristy Cocoa Beach (which is awesome too).

Keep on keeping on my friend.. us old fcuks have to carry the torch.

MC

[italianguy63]

This morning...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213065925948626&set=pcb.10213065926308635&type=3

[Cozybuilder]

R4 should be 1.0K, not 10K

4n7 in the input ckt (Phat) should be C1, not C3, then renumber the caps as per PJP

[pinkjimiphoton]

good catch russ. right on the money!
phat control should be treble boost on left, full on right.

[sominka]

Thanks for the corrections guys.

[sominka]

Corrrected R4