Psychtar build report - sound clip

[psiico]

I built a Psychtar.  I don't yet have an enclosure for it so for now all the wires are really long, I'll trim them and resolder when I figure out how long they need to be.



I made a couple of mods - sort of.



I did the DPDT switch thing for the octave up but left off the jumper for the 100k input resistor, I found it sounded horrible when I had the jumper on it.  I had a couple of DPDT on/off/on switches handy so I figured I'd put one to good use.  Experimenting I discovered that the 20nf cap makes it sound smoother while the 330pf cap makes it crackle more.  So the switch positions are Crackle/Normal/Smooth.  Since it was a DPDT I added indicator LED's for the two outside modes.  I also added a Rat style bypass indicator LED.  There's a DC jack but it's not shown on the schematic.

You're probably wondering about the two transformers, I didn't have a TM018 but I did have a couple of TL021's.  The TL021's are 4k:600, I arranged them like this: 4k:600/600:4k.  I know it should be 10k:10k but it works anyway, I can always change it later when I get the proper transformer.  I built this on the breadboard first to see if it would work and it did so I started soldering.

Here's the sound file:

http://media.putfile.com/psychtar

It was recorded   guitar - preamp (similar to Alembic Stratoblaster) - Psychtar - Condor Cab Sim - computer.  The only thing I could think of with a sitar in it was Wherever I May Roam so I started with that then made something up that sounded vaguely sitarish to me.

[pyrop]

Nice one there psiico.
Sounds cool.
I been wondering about the psychtar, now its on my to build list.

pyrop

[Mark Hammer]

Excellent sounding.  Clever idea with the transformers.  Strikes me as an "import" from the Real McTube transformer trick, no?  Even so, smart.

I picked up a set of piezo bridge saddles for a Strat last year, and have a hex output conversion planned for later in the year.  Hearing the sample makes me wonder what a Psychtar or Jawari would sound like with strings processed independently.  Tack a bit of chorus on that, and I'll bet it would be heavenly.

[finkfloyd]

That sounds great! Ive been wondering about building one of these, but was having problems finding a cheap source for the audio transformers in the uk

I wonder how that would sound like this:

guitar > Psychtar > acoustic sim > chorus

[psiico]

Excellent sounding.  Clever idea with the transformers.  Strikes me as an "import" from the Real McTube transformer trick, no?  Even so, smart.

I picked up a set of piezo bridge saddles for a Strat last year, and have a hex output conversion planned for later in the year.  Hearing the sample makes me wonder what a Psychtar or Jawari would sound like with strings processed independently.  Tack a bit of chorus on that, and I'll bet it would be heavenly.

I got the idea for the transformers from something I saw in a thread here while searching for something totally unrelated.  So it may have been smart but it wasn't my idea, in fact, I think it may have even been yours, lol.