Slow Century vs. Dr. Boogey + Thor vs. Thunderchief + Umble vs. Uno

[nosajwp]

I'm becoming more interested in the amp simulator kits out there where the designer replaced the tubes in a normal amp with FETs to create the circuit.  Can any of you guys make direct comparisons between the following pairings of pedals?

Slow Century vs. Dr. Boogey
Thor vs. Thunderchief
Umble vs. Uno

I'm interested in which one sounds and responds more like the real amp, which has better sound quality in general, and which is most versatile.

[Bucksears]

Ok, I'll throw in my $.02

1) Dr. Boogey is the heavy, scoopable mid-range, Dual-Rectifier emulator circuit; it's a fabulous metal sound and is everything the Boss Metal Zone wishes it was. From what I've read, the Slow Century is a SLO100 emulator; I haven't played the Slow Century, but I was forwarded a prototype SLO100 emu schem a year and a half ago that I might look at rebuilding. Given how high gain this thing is, it runs into the same noise problems that plague the Dr. Boogey. Everything must be wired correctly and cleanly, short leads and shielded wire where available. That being said, the SLO100 emu that I built was pretty much a thick, hot-rodded Marshall. A lot of gain, great, thick lead sound and a very usable EQ (I like that in a pedal).
The Dr. Boogey and pretty much any SLO emu are going to sound a little different (to my ears anyway) and could pretty much sit side-by-side; one's based on a Marshall, the other based on a Boogey.

2) Thor vs. ThunderChief - can't comment on the Thor since I haven't built it, but the Thunderchief was a disappointment for me since it had a very flabby bass and fuzzy distortion. I had everything biased at 4.5v and 100% on the parts.

3) Umble vs. Uno - The Umble was almost a good sounding pedal, but still suffered from some of the fuzzy/flabby bass/distortion that the TC has; haven't built the Uno, but I DID (stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) build Electrictabs' Boogeyman (based on the Mark IIC+). It was a 'vintage high-gain' sound, remarkably sounding like preamp distortion (a little buzzy) vs poweramp/amp distortion; it sounded a little like an actual Mark I that I played once. I imagine the Uno isn't TOO terribly far off from that circuit. Another user forwarded me some mods to the Mark II that he suggested applying to the Boogeyman, but it would require changing the PCB a bit, so I haven't gotten around to it.

From your question, it sounds like you have them broken up into three categories:
1) Hi-gain heavy metal/metal
2) Marshall hi-gain
3) Vintage Lead

All in all, I'd have to sum it up like this:
1) Dr. Boogey; hands down, the ceiling of hi-gain for me, don't want it any higher than that.
2) I know you didn't include this one, but I'm absolutely loving my BSIAB II; some think it doesn't have enough gain or bass, but it's not meant to do thrash; it covers almost all things Marshall for me. The key to it (for me) was removing the two .0022uF caps in the low-pass filter to allow more highs in without losing the low end. I'm working out a slightly modded version to build separately for more upper mids to do the lower gain, early Angus/AC-DC thing. Turning up the volume on my SRRI, rolling back the gain and upping the volume on my BSIAB II turn it into a very convincing classic Marshall. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.
3) Tough call on this one since I didn't keep either build; some people have built the Umble and loved it, so you might want to check that one out. That being said (and I'm not a BSIAB II salesman), I can get a great, bluesy-Santana lead sound with my Ibanez Artist (neck p'up) with the gain and tone rolled back on my BSIAB II.

Good luck,
- Buck

[Pushtone]

I think the amp makes such a big difference that any discussion comparing these pedals is futile.

For instance, I built most of the pedals mentioned in this thread.
I had my favorites based on how they sounded with MY amp.

I put them ALL on a board and took it to buddy's rehearsal studio to let four guitarist try them out.
All four players preferred the one pedal I thought sounded the worst. And I had to agree with them.
It sounded way better in this test than thru my amp. That threw me for a loop and I was unable to explain why.

It has to be the amp!
What sounded great on my amp sounded terrible through Buddy's amp and visa versa.




For what it's worth, all four players liked the Thunder Chief best and the amp was a Fender Twin.
The only pedal that sounded the same on my amp and the Twin was the Tube Screamer (GGG build).

The one that sounded the worst thru the Twin was the Dr. B.
That floored me, especially since I had been raving about it to these players before the test.

[John Lyons]

All good points.
Your amp and speakers will make the most difference with any of the circuits you build...

Just a little clarification.
The DB and the SLO Century are based on the Soldano SLO 100 Amp. They may sound a little different due to the buffer in the SLO's output and slight tone control differences but basically they are very similar. I plan to make the SLO century at some point so I can be sure.
The DB was hammered out pretty well as far as noise ans layout bugs. I'm curious to see how the noise and squeal factor play out in the SLO century, not many build reports here for that one.

John

[DougH]

FWIW, if you're looking for a SLO sound I think Joe Davisson's Blackfire comes pretty close and is a much easier build than the amp sim stuff.

[olcircuits]

Keep in mind that I'm the OLCircuits guy and the Slow Century, in particular, is my baby (with lots of help from Runoffgroove and Gringo). I'm never here to sell anything at all, but keep it in mind nonetheless. I live, practice, and preach transparency at every level (but please don't ask me to give my OLC-branded schemos and such away ( )

The Slow Century is not an exact FETs-fer-tubes circuit. It didn't sound "right" without modifications. There was a ton of work put into it and any build reports of a SLO-100 type circuit will not be truly accurate unless your PCB has my brand on it, you use the same values, and you build it according to the guide. My PCBs are not mojo-filled or anything, it's just highly unlikely that someone else's attempt at this would have the same result (unless they had actually copied mine).

I'm not going to touch a Dr. Boogey vs. Slow Century comparison because it's not my place to do so. The Dr. Boogey is very popular around here. The Slow Century is one of my most popular kits/pedals. They both popular.

Noise/oscillation: The kit includes shielded wire for the input jack>switch>PCB. That took care of the oscillation unless you dime the controls (and not always at that). I say took, past tense, because I finished some mods last week that eliminate the oscillation. The mods also lower the background hiss considerably. The current state of the mods require some work on my customers' end for now, but I'm having the new version PCBs designed and manufactured shortly.


Umble/Uno: The Umble kit has outsold everything else aside from the Slow Century. People are happy as a pig in poop about it. That's a Runoffgroove design, not mine. I don't offer the Uno, but the two special-order, pre-built pedals I sold: One ordered a second one. The other guy sold his, then bought it back.


Thunderchief/Thor: Although I offer both, few people buy the Thunderchief anymore.


Again, I'm not trying to sell you anything at all. These are just my stats from my sales of the circuits you inquired about. Perhaps you can keep them in mind when deciding which to build.

[nosajwp]

Thank you all for your responses...this is exactly what I was looking for.

By the way, I will be using these into a Sansamp Para Driver DI set as a clean amp simulator, then direct into the board or into a powered main.