Dr. Freakenstein

[mth5044]

wow. What a beast. No search hits on this site for it, so I thought some might want to see it. I can't take any credit for the find, as bieke over on HC made at thread about it. From the Rainger fx page  http://www.raingerfx.com/

Dr FREAKENSTEIN FUZZ (and Igor)

Distortion, adapted from John Hollis' 'Crash Sync' circuit. While giving amazing single note sustain it copes quite well with chords too. It has a built-in noise gate

There's a volume and a tone knob, the latter (labelled 'OSC') actually controlling how one internal oscillator interacts with another...
This sounds like a cross between a wah wah and a phaser. So an LFO option is incorporated to modulate this control (giving a triangle wave-shape, speed adjustable from a slow sweep to a fast wobble).
There's a switch on the front panel to turn this on or off, and the red status LED flashes to show the speed.

Also, being Dr Freakenstein Fuzz, it has an assistant called Igor - which is a large postage stamp-sized pressure pad that you tread on. This plugs in via mini-jack to either tweak the OSC (tone) according to how hard you press, or to adjust the bias of the modulation range; on a fast modulation setting, this can give an effect reminiscent of a bubbling synth, sweeping down from high cutoff to low.

Igor is like 'aftertouch' on a synth - but for guitarists. It's a new thing - tiny, light, and practically no moving parts. One Igor comes with each Dr Freakenstein.

There's also a meter for monitoring your input signal, plus - for a full gothic 'Dr Freakenstein's laboratory' vibe - the whole thing is mounted in a miniature boffin-style plastic desk console (170mm x 125mm footprint) complete with knife switch that you throw to turn it on.

NOTE: this is not a foot pedal - in full melodramatic style you have to get down on the floor and crank the switch by hand...Throw the lever and all the lights come on, the meter jumps into action, and the monster sound comes alive!

There is also a clip on the site.

I love the LED indicators on the knobs and the pressure thing is fantastic. So since this is a forum about building stompboxes, anyone know where to get something similar to those LED position indicators or that pressure plate?

[THOMMO]

Awesome!!! Very Sci-Fi sounding. That switch really sets it off excellently.

Jason.

[mth5044]