Tim E's Jawari with Drones

[deathfaces]

I was just eyeing this up as a next project. Anyone had a crack at it? I'm curious to hear what the drone sounds like. I've got a suspicion that there is a 50/50 chance they sound like crap.

Also, Hello All, I'm a long time listener, first time caller. I've been building pedals for about a year and a half now, I started with a Rat and am trying to wrap up a Gristleizer

[Mark Hammer]

One's expectations for the Jawari should be measured.  In some respects, you can get almost ANY octave-up fuzz to do what the Jawari does.  I can do it with my Superfuzz, my Foxx, my Green Ringer, , and my Octavia.  The Jawari just does it without having to futz around, and does it more cheaply and concisely.  The key is having the gain level set just right, using the bridge pickup, picking near the bridge, and generally keeping a tight lid on bass such that circuit doesn't lapse into sustaining fuzz.  It will NOT sound like a real sitar, but it will sound very much like a Coral Electric Sitar when you let it.  Which is not such a bad thing.

[Strategy]

I second Mark's assessment of it. Jawari's stated mission is perhaps not achieved, BUT, it is still cool sounding in spite of that.

The best real avenue towards electric sitar sound is the Gotoh buzzing bridge, forget the exact name but you can get a cheap guitar and affix the buzzer between the pickups and the bridge. Cheap DIY electric sitar, they make it just for this purpose! I think Jawari would sound fantastic with one of these probably.

A friend of mine just built Jawari as his first pedal and it has a great fizz and boingy short decay to it --and is an amazingly quick build. As long as you're open to the results and aren't dying for a guitar sitar pedal, there's no reason not to do it- super low parts count, you'll have it done within hours.

- Strategy

[deathfaces]

I'm not at all dedicated to a pure sitar sound, I'm very curious about the drone portion of the circuit using a 40106

[Processaurus]

It would be cool to be able to vary the pitch of the drones from one pitch to another, if you had 2 knobs to dial in the min and max, and then a big one one could turn with a foot or something to go between them

[El Heisenberg]

I'm interested in the drones too. I dont really use my jawari much. With drones it'd be a really cool effect though, worth having on my pedal board

[deathfaces]

the schematic says its possible to tune the drones, i imagine its similar to a simple 40106 oscillator.

[Mark Hammer]

While it ought to work, in principle, tuning of the drone tones may be tricky.  Particularly since Tim E has elected to allow for wide-range tuning of each of the 3 oscillators for maximum flexibility.  The user may wish to convert the 1M tuning pots to some combination of fixed resistors and a smaller value pot, or a trimpot and tuning pot in series.

I will also note that the 10k/1uf network to ground on the core Jawari circuit can and probably should, be replaced by a 10k pot with the 1uf cap tied to the pot wiper and the two outside pot lugs straddling the FET and ground.  That will let you adjust gain in a fashion similar to how the Fuzz Face gain control is wired.

As for the envelope-follower aspect, I think my own personal preference would be to have foot-control over the blending of the drones, since it is tricky enough to get one's picking just right to get the Jawari circuit itself to generate the sitar-like grind.  I haven't built the illustrated circuit, but my gut sense is that juggling the level of drones and sitar melody by picking strength may be more than most folks want to burden their picking hand with.  Best to sub-contract that work to your foot.  That would end up making it a simpler circuit anyway, since you could omit the follower and VCA and just feed the drone sounds to the mixer.

[El Heisenberg]

Hmmmmm how come bobodys really tried this???

[deathfaces]

I agree with EL

[El Heisenberg]

I dont have the ICs for this. Deathfaces, do you? Even if i did, i wouldnt be able to work out any kinks.

[Top Top]

I always thought the Jawari looked cool, but then I built a pushme pullyou and was able to get good electric sitar-like sounds out of that using the bridge single coil and picking near the bridge on my guitar, so I didn't bother.

As for the drones, I don't think it would come out sounding much like sympathetic notes, I think it would come out sounding like someone strumming the same chord with each note you play, though kudos always go to Tim E. for his very imaginative designs, of which I have built many.

[El Heisenberg]

Well if it can get close to "tommorrow never knows", then im there, dood!

[El Heisenberg]

Nobodys even tried it out though. Even if its not JUST LIKE a sitar, itd still be cool for sooomethin. Better than that "wobbletron" or "bronx cheer". Bleh.

[frequencycentral]

I own and play a sitar. There is a distinction between the drones and the sympathetics. A total of 18 strings and 2 bridges. The 'upper' bridge has 7 strings, all C's and G's of various octaves, except an F which is the only string you actually fret, the others being the drones used for accents and rhythmic accompaniment. The 'lower' bridge has 11 strings which are the sympathetics, tuned C D E F G A B C D E F, it's these strings that vibrate in sympathy with whatever note is fretted on the upper bridge's F. The sympathetics act very much like a 'tuned reverb' in many ways. I'm pretty sure that there was an early electro-mechanical instrument that had sympathetic strings stretched across the speakers for a similar effect, it may have been the Ondes Martonet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondes_Martenot

[deathfaces]

I have no doubt this will sound nothing like a sitar, nor do i imagine the drones would sound like sympathetic strings, i dont think any effect will be able to replicate sympathetic strings (which are amazingly beautiful). From what the schem looks like is that its a simple oscillator built from a hex schmitt trigger that is activated and blended with the guitar sound.  I've got the 40106, which are available from mouser (mouser p/n 511-40106). I'll see if i can breadboard this in the next few weeks. I'll race anyone who cares to challenge!

Here's Dano's version of a 40106 oscillator: http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/projects/bbp_DualOscillator_Rev_1_1.pdf

[CynicalMan]

I have no doubt this will sound nothing like a sitar, nor do i imagine the drones would sound like sympathetic strings, i dont think any effect will be able to replicate sympathetic strings (which are amazingly beautiful). From what the schem looks like is that its a simple oscillator built from a hex schmitt trigger that is activated and blended with the guitar sound.  I've got the 40106, which are available from mouser (mouser p/n 511-40106). I'll see if i can breadboard this in the next few weeks. I'll race anyone who cares to challenge!

Still, it could get you some cool synth-harmoniser sounds. It would be cool to be able to control the drones individually. Maybe with a series of momentary stomp switches. Maybe get a load of oscillators and have a guitar-controlled synth. 

[El Heisenberg]

I wish i could try this out on the breadboard

[Top Top]

What would be cool would be to somehow get those drones to react to notes that harmonically resonate with the pitch they are tuned too...

But I think that would be a lot more complicated of a circuit... similar in practice to one band of a vocoder.

[pinkjimiphoton]

so,...did anyone ever actually try this? seems to me, it would sound more like fuzzy bagpipes...