3 Legged Dog Review

[jmusser]

Around here, we call a 3 legged dog an "Arithmetic Dog" (Bringing down 3 and carrying the 1). Anyway, ROG has another great circuit on their hands. I have built a lot of stuff on here, and I have nothing that sounds remotely like this one. Everything I have built, you "know" is a distortion or fuzz effect box. This one, if you didn't actually see it plugged in, and you were just outside the door listening, you would swear I was playing through an expensive valve amp, instead of a solid state Crate. It breaks up like one and it has the pick attack dynamics and responsivness of one. It makes me feel like formerMember1 Blackmore just said "Here, play this, and see what you think"! It's an absolutely wonderful sounding circuit in every way. With the 1 meg pot backed off, it gives you a nice tube style overdrive sound you would associate with Angus Young. I will mess with the cap values a bit, to see if I can refine it a little for my rig, but basically it's great as is. Right now not being in a box, it squeals some, and tries to feed back if the amp is turned up much past a third, but that would be expected. It's nice and crunchy with the pic up at the bridge, and sweet with just a touch of grit in the neck pic up position. I'll give you another update after the "Honeymoon phase" is over, and let you know, if it's still "all that", but right now, I'm very impressed. The sample sounded good, but it actually sounds better in real life. Well done gentlemen!

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, that's a cool one.  The only thing about those CD4049 chips in a distortion circuit is that they can squeal like a son of a gun with a low battery! But, it's got the tone.

[MartyMart]

Nice review Jeff,
I need to re-build mine as the layout "stinks" and is waaay too cramped.
Still have not found any 4049UBE - my smallbear ones are 4049UBCP ?

I've yet to get a 4049 circuit to work "correctly"   !!!  :cry:

Marty.

[Paul Marossy]

I built mine exactly per the runoffgroove layout. I didn't have any problems with it at all, except for squealing due to an old battery.  

[MartyMart]

I built mine exactly per the runoffgroove layout. I didn't have any problems with it at all, except for squealing due to an old battery.  

Ah, I should STRESS that "MY" layout stinks .... NOT the ROG layout !!!

BTW - Just got it working, took all the parts off "carefully" and re-used
everything on a more "spacious" piece of vero  

One issue .... 1M gain pot :
1 - wired it lug 3 lug 2 to board, lug 1 N/C   = no drive and just a nasty
cut off at the end of the pot !

2 - wired it lug 1 and lug 2 to board, lug 3 N/C = drive 'til around half way
then no more increase, and a slight "clean up" if anything !!!
What's going on here I wonder  ?

Marty.

[puretube]

free information sucks...

[MartyMart]

...squealing due to an old battery.  

has any of you CMOS guys ever soldered an electrolytic cap across the rails?  :shock:

(like ought to be common practice in any stompbox circuit? - see "subject"-)

Marty: all unused inverters grounded?

Yup, 1N4001 protection, 100uf and 0.1 across 9v - ground, I try to do this
on every build, for some time now.
Pins 8-9-11-14 all grounded .....
also added an input cap before the J201 - I had some "crap" going on
and a "dissapearing" gtr vol at other than "full up" otherwise  !!

Marty.

[puretube]

free information sucks...

[Paul Marossy]

has any of you CMOS guys ever soldered an electrolytic cap across the rails?

Hmm.. haven't tried that, but it seems like it ought to help with that squealing thing.

[jmusser]

As I was telling Marty, I used a 4049AE in mine. I could or could not have worked, but I got them free from our IT guys at work. I probabaly will try a small pf cap from the output to the input of the first inverter, because there is a bit of hiss and fizz that might be helped by it. To me, this thing is a miracle, and worked way better than I figured it would. I had never tried a tube immulator before, because I figured "tube tone from a chip" (yea right!).  I had been thinking about building the Craig Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz to see if there was any truth to "tube sound" through a solid state amp. I sort of stumbled across this circuit on ROG and listened to the sample. I thought "hey, it's simple, and the sample sounds good, plus I have a 4049 in the drawer". I haven't tried to use it with other effects yet to see if it will give them a tube texture or not, but by its self, it does a wonderful simulation. I've gotten several different  reactions from the circuits I build, and most of them are good. You have the one where it sounds as good or better than the sample. You have the one where there wasn't a sample and the circuit definition is a little vague, and you end up with something way better than you thought (JBT, DOF, SOU, and Octup Blender). Then there was the reaction I got with bringing the XORUS to life, when there wasn't such a thing. Then, there's the Harmonic Percolator. I had the thing miswired and laying in a closet for 3 years. I finally get it out and debug it, and have the anticipation like we all do of waking up a circuit, then, it's like plugging in a turd between the guitar and amp! There isn't much of that though. Most effects are at the very least decent, and then there are those few that perform above and beyond what you ever expected. The 3 Legged Dog, is one of those.

[MartyMart]

The 4049UBCP's from small bear seem to work....
Just de-bugged my "cmos boost" - one of Tim's great little circuits, and
that was down to a "non UBE" chip that I had in there ( 6 months ago ! )

I may try a "Red Lama" now that I know they are working fine, anyone
built one ? .... comments ?

Marty.  

[gaussmarkov]

...squealing due to an old battery.  

has any of you CMOS guys ever soldered an electrolytic cap across the rails?  :shock:

(like ought to be common practice in any stompbox circuit? - see "subject"-)

Yup, 1N4001 protection, 100uf and 0.1 across 9v - ground, I try to do this
on every build, for some time now.

Marty.

Would someone graciously point to an explanation of the 0.1 cap?  I have found discussions of the 1N4001 diode for polarity reversal protection and the 100uf (electrolytic) cap to lower the effective impedance of the power supply and reduce hissing in high gain circuits.  I have seen the 0.1 cap in voltage dividers.  Would you help a poor newb out?  :?

[donald stringer]

Yes I have, try the way huge red lama. 4049 are fun to play with and capable of a variety of sounds.  Some where back in mark hammers archives there are some insights from some of the originals that first had a go at this chip. To quote from one of them, "The secret to getting good tone out of a 4049 is to overdrive them . I am presently on that very kick. I have an oc128 using that as pre-amp. and utilizing three inverters. I think I will go through the whole gammet 5089, j201, mosfet[5532] work good.The quote may not be exact but that is the jist. I am goig to have to go back and reread them. By the way marty I got my tone bender working and the res. on the 5k pot worked out pretty good

[puretube]

free information sucks...

[Mark Hammer]

I'm lucky enough to have a small Leslie, and let me tell you that a 4049-based overdrive through a slow Leslie is simply one of the great rhythm guitar sounds for "classic" rock.  If you like the way that rhythm guitar sounds in Tom Petty's recordings, you'll love this.  Fuzzed up, I 'm not a major fan, but if you're aiming for bite and just a bit of grind and stridency, this does a very nice job.

[jmusser]

If I was to stick a scope on this circuit's output, what type of wave form would I see during overdrive, and fuzz, and how similar is this with respect to the real thing?

[puretube]

free information sucks...

[jmusser]

Puretube, would what you're talking about, be something like tha wave form that RG shows on Geo in Distortion 101, called "Tube-ish Distortion"? Would it eventually evolve to the more "Hard Clipped" wave form he shows later on, when you're going into tube fuzz mode from overdrive?

[troubledtom]

I'm lucky enough to have a small Leslie, and let me tell you that a 4049-based overdrive through a slow Leslie is simply one of the great rhythm guitar sounds for "classic" rock.  If you like the way that rhythm guitar sounds in Tom Petty's recordings, you'll love this.  Fuzzed up, I 'm not a major fan, but if you're aiming for bite and just a bit of grind and stridency, this does a very nice job.

mark , why'd you have to mention tom 'petty', now you phucked this hole thread up for me , i really hate'm though.
   peter frampton [sp?] is a much cooler example. :twisted:
             peace,
                 - tom

[neon333]

I saw this post and I checked out the "3 Dog" clip at ROG.  Yow!  That sounds exactly like what I'm looking for.  Dare I say it but, the "3 Dog" seems to have a Matchless Clubman quality to it with a little plexi sauce for good measure.  Chimey and brown at the same time.  I like the BSIAB2 as well, so now I'm kinda torn.  I'm trying to decide on my first build and I'm wondering if anybody has more pics/clips of the "3 Dog"?  I ckecked out the clips at Paul's site and (no offense Paul) they sounded a little muddy compared to the clip at ROG.

I'm new to all this diy stuff and the info here and at GEO, TonePad, ROG and GGG is mind boggling.  Great stuff, very generous people, but somewhat intimidating to a newbie like me.

Anyway, you all are a great resource and I look foward to hearing from everyone.

Thanks,
Joe