Red Llama is great

oldrocker · January 16, 2007, 12:25:43 AM

I just built this and I can't believe it took me so long. It's got a nice warm sound. A little overdrive and slight fuzz. What I really like about it is when full chords are played all the notes come through. Even with open chords at the first frets. Of course power chords sound huge. An easy build but sounds like a big circuit. Bringing the gain knob down and it gives a whole new sound to the distortion which removes the fuzz and is great for rhythm playing.

Xavier · January 16, 2007, 04:21:45 AM

Yes, it's the more natural, fullest sounding and more amp-like OD I've built so far. The only reason I'm not using it is because the fuzzy edge it has. If I could have that same sound but 100% OD and no hint of fuzz, that would be a winner.

Bernardduur · January 16, 2007, 04:48:32 AM

Less powerfull pickups remove the fuzz

I found my lama to be too much dependent on what guitar I put into them; same with my Hot Tubes btw!

markm · January 16, 2007, 07:22:43 AM

Roll the volume back a bit on the guitar, helps to clean up the Llama.

Congrats oldrocker, it is a great sounding circuit!

oldrocker · January 16, 2007, 01:44:52 PM

I just tried the Red L with my HB pickups and it sounds really nice. Very tube like and with the gain knob all the way down the fuzz goes away and you're left with a nice slightly overdiven tubey tone. This is a very unique effect as opposed to any other distortion pedal I've built so far. It has a deep tone that I like. I haven't boxed it up yet so at this moment it seems to buzz a little even with the volume turned all of the down. I'm hoping that after it is put in a metal housing, that will go away or at least cut it down some. Other than that I may be using it a lot for the rock genre.

markm · January 16, 2007, 03:40:23 PM

oldrocker,
Did you use my layout for your build?

oldrocker · January 16, 2007, 04:03:57 PM

Ah oh!! I just laid it out as I built it. I wasn't aware of a layout for this. Mark is there a perf layout you made for the Red Llama? I didn't see it. If I did I would've used it for sure. Is there one in the layout section? Could the way I grounded it be why I'm getting the buzz? Let me know where I can find it.

stobiepole · January 16, 2007, 05:37:38 PM

I love the Red Llama sound as well - such a nice, honky slide tone - and have started building a few 4049-based distortions. Check out the (I think overlooked) Twenty Two Sevenths in the August contest entries. It's a Big Muff Pi work-alike with two tone stacks using a 4049 chip and sounds fantastic. So you get that Red Llama sound with more sustain and far greater tonal variety.

Chris

oldrocker · January 16, 2007, 05:46:23 PM

Hi Chris, I'm sorry for sounding uninformed but I don't know what contest you are writing about. Is it in this forum somewhere? This 4049 based Big Muff sounds very interesting. Is it Christine on Tone Gods Site?

tcobretti · January 16, 2007, 05:52:24 PM

I tried to make a layout a week ago, but it may be beyond my abilities. Or maybe I'm just too lazy. However, while I am not a Big Muff fan, I'd love to try this out. It seems like the 4049 may yet have untapped potential!

stobiepole · January 17, 2007, 06:46:42 PM

I'm looking forward to seeing a layout for the UBE screamer (which was also in the 4049 compo...). Oldrocker: the Contest Archives is in the Child Boards box at the top of the home page of this forum. Have a look - there's good stuff to be found.

http://runoffgroove.com/ubescreamer.html

Chris

oldrocker · January 17, 2007, 07:54:43 PM

Yes Chris, I saw that TS using a CD4049. I looks very interesting also. I have a bunch of these chips so I might just build them all.

Meanderthal · January 17, 2007, 09:49:55 PM

Here's MarkM's layout from the PCB gallery, easy enough to do as a perf though...

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album76/Red_Llama_revised_LAYOUT

MikeH · January 18, 2007, 02:08:03 PM

If you poke around a little, (I think it was in one of the "Cream Pie" threads) beavis did a point-to-point wiring layout for the red llama. If you're into that style of layout.

markm · January 18, 2007, 11:07:17 PM

Here's the perfboard version as well for anyone interested;

oldrocker · January 19, 2007, 01:09:25 AM

Ok. There you go. That's what I was waiting for. Cool. I was going to use the PCB one you had posted but this is even better. Thanks Mark.
P.S. Does the 330 need to be Axial cap? On mine I used a polar electro. I also used a 4001 diode like the Craig Anderton version. It sounds great.
http://www.logmonster.com/images/full/?pic=RedLlama_1169182004-422-14605.jpg

mdh · January 19, 2007, 01:38:48 AM

That's axial as opposed to radial... just how the leads come out of the capacitor. Mark seems to have specified axial because he had room for one on the board (and maybe not enough room for the ones in his parts drawers... just a guess

), and they're lower profile than radials. On perf, it would of course be trivial to use a radial cap there, and just lay it down on its side if you want the lower profile.

pyrop · January 19, 2007, 01:40:06 AM

Quote from: stobiepole on January 17, 2007, 06:46:42 PM
I'm looking forward to seeing a layout for the UBE screamer (which was also in the 4049 compo...). Oldrocker: the Contest Archives is in the Child Boards box at the top of the home page of this forum. Have a look - there's good stuff to be found.

http://runoffgroove.com/ubescreamer.html

Chris

I have a pcb layout for the UBEscreamer if interested as well as a more compact version of the cmos big muff v1.3 based on stm's layout

pyrop

amz-fx · January 19, 2007, 06:26:03 AM

Quote from: stobiepole on January 16, 2007, 05:37:38 PM
Check out the (I think overlooked) Twenty Two Sevenths in the August contest entries. It's a Big Muff Pi work-alike with two tone stacks using a 4049 chip and sounds fantastic.

Interesting... I did not see it before as I don't usually read the contest posts. I did a similar design of a cmos Muff a couple of years ago when the Way Huge Muff chip was being discussed, but I never did much with it. The resistor values in my design were quite a bit different than this one...

regards, Jack

j.y · January 19, 2007, 11:45:38 PM

hi guys..

i juz finished my first built - red llama.. it sounds exactly like wad u guys describe..wonderful touch sensitivity.. i love the tone when the gain is zero... juz slight dirt riding on.. sounds wonderful..

im playin the red llama with my zoom g2 using a les paul.. i realise tt the red llama realli packs a powerful boost.. the volume on my llama is juz abt 1 or 2 and its slightly louder den when its bypass.. is it normal??

i followed gauss's layout.. but used a 1.2M resistor at the output.. i used a 100k linear pot for e volume and stuck a 15k resistor between lug 1 & 2.. i followed the tapering excel file... did i placed my 15k resistor correctly??

thanks guys..

News:

Red Llama is great