hotrodding a hotfoot

[aankrom]

I found this Pevey Hotfoot distortion pedal in ym basement that had been partially immersed in water for I dunno how long. I took it upstairs to strip it for possible parts. When I opened it I realised it was almost an exact copy of a ProCo Rat (the one with the FET buffers).
I took off all of the yucky parts and replaced them with better than new. I also replaced the ceramics with mylar or silver/mica where appropriate (and some where not appropriate).
I have never heard what a Hotfoot sounds like, but I think I've heard what a Rat sounds like. I've never been much of a fan of symmetrical hard clipping with Si diodes so I put in 3&2 Ge diodes.
Worked the first time I fired it up and it sounds sweet. There's a wide range of tone but I didn't think my asymmetrical clippling with Ge diodes through very well  since it's only asymmetrical by a single Ge diode drop - and I used these really old HP diodes that have a smaller forward drop than a 1N34 (1N76's I think or 1N67's whatever...). And the threshold still isn't close to where I want it so I'm going to put 3 more in for a 5 & 3 and maybe a switch - inside. I hate drilling holes when I don't really have to.
As it is it goes from overdriven tube to - actually I looked at it on the scope and you can watch it go from almost all 2nd order harmonics to very strong 3rd with less strong 2nd. And that's what it sounds like. With the "distortion" knob cranked it's synthy. Not just cheesy square wave, but fat pulse...

I like every sound it makes which is cool. I want to get another one to A/B and because no one seems to like them - cheap on eBay.

Oh I also changed the stock LM308N with a metal can LM308AH. I dunno if that has some kind of mojo value - it's just the only one I had and the original was corroded beyond scrapage.

Now all I have to do is fix the switching action.

I read lots of reviews on Harmony-Central and when I see someone diss a pedal I always wonder "well did you crack it open and @#$% around with it?" I've never ever owned a pedal or any effect that I haven't opened up and modified (mostly because I am poor and cannot aford a Dynacord TAM21...)


aa

[XtraMedium]

I've had one of those pedals for years.  I bought a guitar off of a guy and he tossed in that pedal to sweeten the deal.  I always hated the sound of it thru my SS amp back then, so I rarely used it.  But one day I plugged into a tube combo (Fender Blues Jr.) and was amazed at how good it sounded.  In fact, this weekend I gigged with only that pedal and my DIY P1 tube amp (and my guitar!  ). 

IIRC, my Hotfoot had the controls connected to the board with a stiff plastic ribbon cable, and it came loose on me a few times and left me soundless.   I forget how I stopped it from comming loose--that was probably 15 years ago.

I'd love to see a schematic, if you drew one up.  Mine's still stock--I could probably do a soundclip for you if you're interested.

[bluesdevil]

Wow, I'm glad to see this thread!! I played through a Peavey Hotfoot in my wilder days of gigging with a hardcore punk band in the eighties. Since discovering this forum I've been hoping somebody would find one to reverse engineer so I could build a copy to replace my long gone one. I'm hoping a few us can nudge you into it!! Or maybe easier to tell us what parts are different than the Rat circuit it copies?

[aankrom]

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but if anyone is still interested, the Hotfoot schematic is available online. I recently opened mine up again to fix some switching issues De-Oxid is SO much better than WD40! I noticed that I switched in some Rat components, mostly in the tone-shaping circuit in the feedback network. I always wondered why two resistors and two caps to ground. I assume it's to limit some bottom end because there's a pot in the feedback loop that controls the gain and thus the distortion. With an LM308 and clipping diodes, I imagine you get distortion from both elements, since an LM308 isn't exactly 'hi-fi'.