Boogeyman review

[marino]

I just recently finished Boogeyman MKII emulation and I'm not so satisfied. It might be cause I always played Marshalls and never Fender or Boogie and I'm not used to it. My circuit is completely the same as Electrictabs schem. I just included DPDT switch for clean/dirty as found in original amp schematic.
In my Boogeyman the bass pot although its a log pot is too sensitive, it seems to go from no bass to full bass in one point.
Mid pot is more like another gain control than actual mids control.
Also the distortion is fahrty and not clear on low strings.
I dont know if this is what MKII should sound.
I dont find the box useful for rhythm.
Does anyone have a link to some sound samples of the boogeyman?

Marin

[Bucksears]

I'll try to finish mine up this weekend and give you some feedback (no pun intended). The circuit board is finished, I just need to add the off-board parts and bias the transistors.
I've built the JCM800 (a little bright, but love the 'openness') and Dr. Boogey (satisfies any need for a 'metal' distortion), both by Electrictabs, and have been really pleased with them.
The only one I've built in a while that I wasn't crazy about and scrapped for parts is the Dumble emulation at ROG.

Doublecheck your wiring and voltages (which I'm sure you probably have), but some sounds aren't for everyone.

[Bucksears]

Ok, finished wiring it up tonight.
Here are my thoughts:

It sounds a little flabby bass-wise, but could be worse. Interestingly enough, like a Mesa, you HAVE to sit there and tweak it to get the sound you want out of it. I'm kinda surprised the bass and mid pots don't have their center tab connected somewhere.
With the gain all the way up (pre & post), it DOES get fuzzy; no real definiton to the distortion. Also, I've found that the only EQ control that does much of anything is the treble; I have to turn the treble up in order to cut through the distortion. The best thing about it, though is the fact that (when you hit that 'sweet' spot), it does sound a lot like an amp; very open distortion.

All in all, it sounds ok. I like it a lot more than the ROG Umble, but not nearly as much as the JCM800 or Dr. Boogey. I'll play around with it some more to get more familiar with it, but I doubt I'll box it up. It doesn't excel at lead or rhythm like the Dr. Boogey or JCM800 (respectively).

[Bucksears]

Ok. After almost writing off the BoogeyMan as 'non-caseworthy', I swapped out Q1's J201 for an MPF102 and biased. Checking all of the voltages on the other Q's, I noticed that Q4 was at 4.3v. I got them all as close to 4.50v as humanly possible and fired it up.
MUCH clearer now. It sounds amazingly 'open' (I know I keep using that word, but I guess that's the short way of saying that it sounds like an amp and not just a distortion pedal). The eq isn't very versatile other than the treble. I'll have to look into that.
The gain is a little lower, so I may try the J201 again for kicks; I'm thinking it didn't sound so great before due to a misbiased Q4.
All in all, it's nice distortion box; slightly vintage-y in an early Mesa (preamp distortion) sorta way.

[jc]

Can you post some links to the schematics?

Thanks!  

[Bucksears]

Here you go:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=25327&highlight=

[ragtime8922]

Hey guys, try the my circuit under the "New Project - Super High Gain" thread. It started out as a ROG-style sim of a Bogner and got modded and became the Cauldron of Gain. It does Metal but with a tube feel. Roll back the volume and it really reacts. I'm picky and I've built a ton of stuff. Very few get my hi regards but this does.

                                                                      -Chris

[ragtime8922]

Hey guys, try the my circuit under the "New Project - Super High Gain" thread. It started out as a ROG-style sim of a Bogner and got modded and became the Cauldron of Gain. It does Metal but with a tube feel. Roll back the volume and it really reacts. I'm picky and I've built a ton of stuff. Very few get my hi regards but this does.

                                                                      -Chris

[electrictabs]

hey guys
Boogeyman is an emulation of a Mesa Boogie amp.
I can tell you that Boogies are not plug & play amps they need a lots of ours to dial in a great tone.So far my emulation emulates that characteristic too
yes it ain't high gain and doesn't sound like the usual Marshall stuff
That's why some people like the boogie sound and some not...
the eq is not so  responsive (mesa has added another graphic eq too) but that can be fixed somehow by changing log pots to lin and vice versa or adjusting the pot,cap values to taste.
oh and always use accurate trimpots(the ones with more turns) in your emulations they are more expensive but you get the job correctly done
hope you all like it
ELECTRIC

[Bucksears]

Absolutely. I think that's a great testament to the accuracy of these emulations when they nail the original shortcomings too!  :wink:
With regards to the Mesa 5-band eq, I might use my Boss GE-7 in the same manner, but the unit doesn't sound bad as-is.