ampeg scrambler clone very shrill sounding

[JOHNO]

built this pedal ages ago from the ggg schematic and i really love it but its too shrill sounding. is it just a matter of changing the input cap to say .1 uf to let a bit more bass into the circuit or is there some kind of fixed tone circuit built into this circuit that i could fiddle with?
  thanks johno

[foxfire]

i'm pretty sure the one i built was stock and isn't shrill at all. i would guess that something might be wrong with your build...but if you like the way it sounds short of the shrillness then you could try swapping the in/out caps.

[MikeH]

The one I built was really shrill too, one the one end of the "texture"(? I think?). 

On a side note, it sounds really awesome in a feedback loop.

[Mark Hammer]

That's the nature of this beast.

The stock Scrambler lacks any level control or tone control.  I've built a few and what I find works really well is to place a modified MXR Distortion+/DOD250 as the front end, making sure that the Scrambler part receives full bass signal but a "tamed" treble at its input. 

here's what I do.

1) Make yourself a board with a Scrambler and Dist+/250.
2) Replace any germanium clipping diodes on the Dist+ section with 1N914/1N4148 type.
3) replace the .047uf cap to ground in the Dist+ gain stage with a .22-.47uf cap for more bass.
4) Stick a 47-100pf cap in the feedback loop of the Dist+ section.
5) Replace the .001uf cap in parallel with the clipping diodes with a larger value between .0027uf and .0047uf.
6) Use a 50k-100k pot for the Drive/Distortion control on the Dist+ section, and a 100k-250k log pot for the volume between the Dist+ front end and the Scrambler.

The front end's volume pot will allow you to set the sensitivity of the Scrambler to some extent and get some subtler octave blooms.  Push the Scrambler harder with the front end and you get wonderful "implosions".  Adjustments to the drive let you dial in how long and smooth the octaving lasts.  The taming of treble in the front end means that whatever you double with the Scrambler will not consist of too much harmonic content.  So, less shrill.  Finally, when the Blend pot is fully over to the clean side, you get an even bigger volume boost to the Dist+ signal.  All told, this will bring out the best in your Scrambler. 

Forum member Iaresee has one that I made, and he describes it as a very "deep" pedal.  I concur.  There is a much wider palette of tonal flavours available from this version, compared to the stock.  Not that you couldn't get the same thing out of placing some other pedal in front of your Scrambler, but having the added front end in the same box means that when you hit the switch the Scrambler receives a preconditioned signal optimized for best tone.

[JOHNO]

thanks for the replys. funny thing is, ive never tried the scrambler with another pedal in front of it. i really love the dist+ sound, but at the moment im really into the big muff sound. ive built all the versions and they all have differant gain and tones. i will experiment tommorow with the dist+, i have a few empty dist+ boards lying around. i will aslo experement with the muff and report back.
    thanks again johno

[Mark Hammer]

Whatever you push your Scrambler with, it will want to be pushed by a signal that curtails content above 2khz or so, such that it sees mostly fundamentals.  There are a lot of pedals that can accomplish that mission, not just the front end I described.

Note that one of the reasons why the Foxx Tone Machine produces such a robust octave is because it makes a point of accentuating the bass and mids prior to hitting the phase splitter.  With both octave up, and octave down, optimum performance is always attained by preparing the signal appropriately.  How you get there is your business, but you'll be happier if you take care of it.

[foxfire]

did i mention that my guitars are all tuned to C to C and i almost never let the amps treble get above 3...