'SPITFIRE' Metal 'n' Blues Pedal...

[BoogiemanX]

Ok..so. I have C8 jumped to a breadboard.  When I ordered for the build I failed to get the 470 nf (AKA .47uf) and had to settle for a .1uf instead. Sense then I've ordered new parts to build another Spitfire and got the 'AK .47uf cap'. I have it and the .1uf side by side on board switching between the two to see what difference is. Unfortunately I am having trouble telling any difference. I can almost hear a tiny bit of added low end bass (like a BBE Sonic Maximizer adding low end without effecting tone) but my ears could be playing tricks on me. I did notice that with the higher value cap I can turn the tone to 10 without causing property damage and making my dog howl in pain.
So what's really happening here? Is the higher value cap just dampening the higher frequency or is it shifting the whole frequency range down cutting treble and adding low end?
Anyone investigated this and if so what were your findings? It would be awsome to see the frequency response on paper like a wave graph. I will be ordering a .68 uf when I can to see what happens when I take it a step further. And If it truly is adding low end would it be possible to have the best of both worlds by keeping the low end unaffected while bring back the treble with a bright cap somewhere?
Anyway just throwing my random thoughts and Ideas out there. But seriously if anyone has really dug into the C8 realm and explored it I would love to hear your findings. In the mean while I will do my own investigation and let you guys know what I think.
       Until next time.......Stay tuned for the next episode of......."Mysteries of C8"

[BoogiemanX]

Found an extra 1uf to play with on C8 so I played around with them a bit. My stock .1uf has a very dirty Randall ish thing going compared to the other 2. Very smooth distortion but a bit more sensensitive to picking up other sounds from strings. The .47 originally intended really does seam to bring out low end tones while dampening some treble and give a more well balanced feel with tighter notes. Jumping all the way up to a 1uf didn't seam to add any more low end but instead rounded out the notes and they felt too tight. Almost as if it was starting to loose some of its grit.

[BoogiemanX]

Rob I'm starting to like an earlier idea that you had about using a rotary dial to switch caps. I'm thinking of using my first spit to test this. If I can some how squeeze in 3 rotary dials for c8, c10, and C11 to quickly switch between values while playing. This will be god awful ugly but, very effective.
6 dials on a 1590b eww.

[stallik]

Hey Benji, I hope you're going to post a demo of this when you're done. I built a MK1 with the 3 switches and before I got to swap the cap values, discovered that it was nigh on perfect for me as it was. As a result, I built a barbed wire fence round the thing and posted sentries

[287m]

holy bloody molly
this thread has bookmarked and im visited almost everytime i open my pale moon
i dont know why im lust in spitfire update
maybe its curse of deadastro after i see in my dream?

Rob, dont laugh with very high gain to me 

[BoogiemanX]

Hey Rob I have a serious question for you. When you were making the spitefire did you ever go past 5 gain stages or did you stop at 5? Did you ever attempt a 6th?

[deadastronaut]

hi, nope...5 was enough for me...

[BoogiemanX]

Don't get me wrong,  the spitefire is a masterpiece. I would have worked 2 jobs and paid any price to have this pedal if it was the only way to get it. You are the Michael Angelo of pedals.
  By nature I am a tinkerer and like to push things to the limits. I would love to see how much further the spitefire can go. At some point it will have to peak and then start degrading, but I'm just wondering where the Spitty is sitting at. Is it near it's peak and how much more headroom for gain is there? Anyway I would love to push the boundary here but, I'm still a noob at this. Can you point me in the right direction on this? Where would another gain stage be added and would that change the whole layout?

[deadastronaut]

another gain stage would likely just turn to mush and squeel..rather than be defined..
i am merely a tinkerer myself really..if my ears like it i go with it..

i have a new version on the bb at the mo, but have been distracted by too much other stuff to finish it off..

so its still in the pipeline so to speak...

you might want to explore some of jok3rx's metal projects....very cool. very heavy too..
he knows his heavy stuff for sure..

[J0K3RX]

No need for another gain stage and you will probably get a lot of squealing oscillation if you try.. Just drop a tube screamer in front of it if you want that extra "kick in the nuts" high gain. I have tried this with the Spitfire and it takes to a tube screamer in front of it very nicely and surprisingly not a lot of noise, squealing or feedback. The pair would make a nice combo OD/Dist box... just throwin it out there   

[deadastronaut]

believe it or not ive never built a ts...

probably the only dude on earth who hasn;t....

one day...

[stallik]

TS in front then turn guitar volume right down. Add loads of reverb and enjoy lush cleansish sounds with sustain for days. Nice.

[deadastronaut]

^ ok, i'm convinced, i'll build a ts...

but which version?...bog standard?.

edit...dont you dare mention kirk hammett..lol..

[stallik]

Mine's actually a Vox 810 but I'm told that's really a TS. Tried it with a zendrive and that's good too.

[deadastronaut]

cool, i'll look into those....

[J0K3RX]

believe it or not ive never built a ts...

probably the only dude on earth who hasn;t....

one day...

You really had me there for a sec I thought for a moment you meant that you had never built a tube screamer... Bwahahahahhhhhahha...  Damn good one! 

[deadastronaut]

or a fuzz faeces

[BoogiemanX]

Actually that's where I got the Idea from. I put a gain pedal in front of the spit. It gives it more kick but also makes the pickups extremely sensitive to picking up even the slightest touch. So I get more gain but at cost of added background scrapings. That's why I was figuring that maybe if this could be worked into the spit circuit at the front (tied into spits natural super quiet circuitry) then maybe it would get same results without the side effects. Just food for thought.

[BoogiemanX]

It looks like a simple gain tone pedal. It was given to me by my cousin after her husband passed. Until then I didn't know anything about diy pedals and I didn't get a chance to meet him. That being said I don't know what diy forums he was in or if it was a kit from a pedal parts site.

[BoogiemanX]

Here is a gut shot. Does anyone recognize this design?  Would like to find a layout for this.