Omega - Muff Boost

[tcio]

John, thanks for all of that.


"Mid boost via MXR 6 band>omega>smashdrive>EQ with scooped mids correct?"

Yes. That is correct. There are some other slight adjustments on the parametric other than just the mids scooped but when I used a graphic in the past that's what I did (Kind of like a U) and basically got the same results except the Tube parametric is larger and warmer sounding to me with more options for shaping.

"How much bass and treble are you cutting on the MXR? (roughly)
How much is the MXR boosting?"

If you look at the topic I posted "MXR 1970 6 band EQ" you can see exactly how I have the mids boosted on the MXR. I am not cutting anything on the MXR, just boosting and not much at all.


"There have been some bandpass filters threads lately, this is what you are doing with the mxr eq basically, a wide band pass."

I like the sound of that. I must be honest, my experience as a guitarist far exceeds my understanding in electronics and the technical side of sound but it's not because I am not interested as I am infatuated, I am just a very slow learner academically and never really took an interest until the past couple of years so I am way behind. I sometimes have to read something 10 times and still don't get it but I never quit trying, especially now that I have finally come up with something that works better for me than anything out there on the market I have tried.


"Maybe take a look at the MR EQ circuit at ROG"

I actually have that one all slapped together and yes on a breadboard. I did solder my first two pedals I ever made and thank goodness they were simple but once I got hold of some bread boards, never again until the project is 100% complete. I cannot get it to work but I did have to combine some small caps together here and there because I didn't have the right values. It is a cobbled mess so I am going to keep going over it until I figure out what's not right.

"You were saying that the omega is not turned up much as well correct? You could rework that so the gain range is lower and you get more pot rotation and shades of distortion going into the smashdrive or muff boost."

Correct. I was planning on working on that someday if I ever built one for my brother but never had any idea there was potential for different shades of distortion. Man I just love the world of DIY! It just never stops getting better (minus the frustration of spending an hour or two on a circuit and it not working when I'm done LOL!).

I might have to start playing around with that sooner than I expected. Being not a standalone pedal yet I figured I wouldn't bother building one for anyone else but I am always after better tone & distortion.

It was a dream many years ago to build my own pedal. I took an electronic class and although I did graduate from it, I barely understood half of the answers I wrote in on the tests and decided it was way over my head and just gave up. I just kept buying new gear never being 100% happy with it but with a small budget there was nothing else for me to do but try to make it work. I started wondering if it just my ears or something as I just was never satisfied with my tone no matter how much I spent and what I bought. That was way before I ever owned a computer and Internet was popular in the average home (yeah I'm a Dinosaur).

So recently after trying every pedal on the planet and still not being happy I started checking out DIY sites, buying electronic supplies and trying some simple schematics. Some of them sounded ok but not what I wanted so I kept reading hoping to build my own custom made pedal just the way I wanted it. Again it was just way over my head building one from scratch so I gave up and spent another few hundred on more pedals. I didn't like a single one of them and they were all modded too. I then told myself "well, you have all of these boxes of resistors, caps, etc. There is only one thing left to do so I continued trying to build something. I was completely overwhelmed and frustrated but still kept tinkering around. That was around the time I ran into the Omega circuit. I fell in love with the thing and would play for hours and hours. I was getting the tone I was after but couldn't get the drive I wanted out of it. Then I started experimenting and running different pedals (circuits) together.

So here I am today in tone heaven, just blown away at what can be done right at home in ones own living room with a just few resistors and capacitors thanks to the DIY community.

Thanks so much for the tips John and also the kind input 

[Ben N]

Along the same lines you could try something like the Anderton Frequency Booster, which is a simple broad mid-boost that you can tweak for center frequency and gain, to drive your Smashdrive, and a passive mid-cut after, followed by a recovery stage/output buffer, like an LPB or the last stage of a Big Muff. Take a look at these, they may provide you with some useful building blocks:

http://www.diyguitarist.com/PDF_Files/FreqBooster.pdf
http://hammer.ampage.org/files/FortyNiner-1.zip
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/STMs-Circuit-Ideas/Simple_Mids_1.png.html
http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/

Good luck,
Ben

[John Lyons]

Ben's right, the CA freq booster is simple and just what you need I think.
Those links are a good start and something to get you thinking in the right direction.

Tcio
The main thing is that you have a vision to get things done and an ear for what you want and how to get it.
As long as you are willing to learn you'll get there. Just ask questions here and read all you can.
The bread board is the only way to really do anything other than simulation. Keep on plugging!

John

[tcio]

Along the same lines you could try something like the Anderton Frequency Booster, which is a simple broad mid-boost that you can tweak for center frequency and gain, to drive your Smashdrive, and a passive mid-cut after, followed by a recovery stage/output buffer, like an LPB or the last stage of a Big Muff.

Thanks Ben. I don't know how I missed that one! That looks like exactly what I m looking for. I checked through my archives and I didn't find the schematics. Not sure how that one slipped by me. Thanks for the links also. Can't wait to get started.

Ben's right, the CA freq booster is simple and just what you need I think.
Those links are a good start and something to get you thinking in the right direction.

I think you guys hit it right on the button! What I was going to do anyways was get the schematics for the MXR and only use the main 3 mid bands that I use on the pedal (was going to try this on Mr EQ also). The less knobs the better as I keep it at the same setting all the time anyway.

My main concern though is loosing that unique tone and sound the MXR seems to have but I am sure that once I find the right circuit to begin with, it's just a matter of tweaking by the selection of cap types/values and resistor values. I know the MXR has a few chips in it and that could possibly contribute to it's unique and juicy sounding output.

The main thing is that you have a vision to get things done and an ear for what you want and how to get it.
As long as you are willing to learn you'll get there. Just ask questions here and read all you can.
The bread board is the only way to really do anything other than simulation. Keep on plugging!

Thanks John. I really appreciate that encouragement. I didn't post on this board for a long time because I felt so intimidated and behind the rest of the pack. I try to find the answers as much as possible before pestering everyone with a post lol! I just love working on the breadboards. Two days seem like an hour or two. I literally get lost in time and forget about everything else around me. It is literally like a dream come true.


I will keep you guys posted with my results on the Anderton Frequency Booster. May need to start a new topic for this one. We'll see what happens 

[tcio]

In regards to the Anderton FreqBooster,

I cannot thank you guys enough for your help. Sorry for getting off the main topic here but I have to let you guys know - the Anderton FreqBooster is "exactly" what have been looking for as a DIY alternative to the MXR 6 band EQ (used as a mid boost).

Thanks Ben, Thanks John 

[Ben N]

Good to hear that is working for you. Let us know how you resolve the post-distortion eq, too. The whole general idea you came up with seems really promising. Would probably work well with something like a Rat, too. So thanks to you! 

[tcio]

Let us know how you resolve the post-distortion eq, too.

Sure will. It may be a while though as I am so spoiled with my Tube Parametric EQ (boast  boast  ) but I would like to do this in case other people are interested in this pedal and dont use a post distortion EQ like I do.

[John Lyons]

That's great Tcio! Glad it worked out for you.
Take a search for "mid cut" and you should come up with some good information.
The mid cut of the super fuzz with a variable "cut" knob may be all you need.

Thanks for posting back. Nice to here when things work out.

John