Turkey Day SHOOTOUT Competition

[oldschoolanalog]

...maybe after the comp we could have a show of "the ones that didn't quite make it on time"

Great idea. The prize for that should be a large, glossy, suitable for framing photo of the infamous "Sausage on a Fork"! 

[Ronan]

I dunno if I'd like to win that one Dave

[Mustachio]

Almost ready! About to make the video after one last tweak. And gotta put together the build docs a lil better. Didn't see my name on the list earlier from Gov'mnt so I pm'd him. Should be posting soon, It's 5am my time haha Last minute stretch!

[Perrow]

yeah no problemo...but i'll not hijack the comp thread..

it'll be up n running soon-ish.....all will be revealed!!!!..but don't expect too much from my usual dumbass experiments.. ........beep.................................beep................................

I'm just calculating a trajectory thru "Tiny Trem" -> "Spitfire" -> "Light Wah", I can't quite see what it'll be, but I'll be dissapointed if the trend is broken 

[haveyouseenhim]

yeah no problemo...but i'll not hijack the comp thread..

it'll be up n running soon-ish.....all will be revealed!!!!..but don't expect too much from my usual dumbass experiments.. ........beep.................................beep................................

I'm just calculating a trajectory thru "Tiny Trem" -> "Spitfire" -> "Light Wah", I can't quite see what it'll be, but I'll be dissapointed if the trend is broken  

A pedal that injects astronaut beeps at the end of each phrase  

[oldschoolanalog]

C'mon. You know you want this work of art!

[deadastronaut]

oi!..thats copyrighted...

note to members:  image above is ''actual size''. t&c's apply. warning: may contain sausage

[oldschoolanalog]

Guess I'll be hearing from your legal team soon. Tell them to queue up.   

[GGBB]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For my entry, I would like to present the Full Face Fuzz.

This is my second pedal build.  I was originally inspired to try pedal building by RG Keen's "The Technology of the Fuzz Face" article, but somewhere along the way to my first build I got more excited about tremolos than fuzzes and went in a different direction.  So for my second pedal I went back to my first inspiration.

This won't win any awards for ingenuity as it's basically a standard fuzz, but I think it is a fairly uncommon blend of fuzz features.  I decided to go with a high gain NPN silicon design so I am using BC108C transistors.  Beyond that, I liked so many things about so many different fuzzes that I incorporated a bunch of mods making this into a five knob and one switch fuzz.  The Mike Fuller mods and Fulltone fuzzes and the Joe Gagan Easy Face were the main fuzzes I was most interested in, so the name comes from there - "Full" is from Mike Fuller, "Face" is from the Joe Gagan Easy Face (as well as just from Fuzz Face).  From the Easy Face I have taken the input cap blend control ("Low" knob) with 4n7 and 3u3 caps.  I also added an input gain/bias control ("Sat" saturation knob) that is on a switch to toggle between Easy Face Gain mode and Fulltone 69 Bias mode.  I've also put in a tone control ("High" knob) which started out as a Fulltone Mids/Contour knob - that idea came from this forum.  Other additions to the stock fuzz face circuit include input mods, power supply filtering and reverse polarity protection, and an anti-oscillation cap - also ideas from this forum.  The General Guitar Gadgets site was a big factor too, having the five different fuzzes all in one place for comparison.

The layout is original - for some strange reason I enjoy doing layouts more than anything else.  Schematic, layout, pics, and demo video are below.  Not sure if this is normal but it seems like the sound quality in the video tends to make the changes in the pedal settings sound less dramatic than they really are.  I hope you enjoy it - I had fun doing this and although I am certain it won't be a winner, I feel honored to just be in this thing with so many awesome entries.  Hey - someone has to finish last - why not me?

[deadastronaut]

@gord:   cool design, for a second there i thought you had leds around the pots...




btw whats the led on the guitar for?..sustainer?....or is it a trick of the light?

[GGBB]

@gord:   cool design, for a second there i thought you had leds around the pots...




btw whats the led on the guitar for?..sustainer?....or is it a trick of the light?

Thanks Rob.  Trick of the light - the control plate is reflecting the blue light on the front of my computer.

[Mustachio]

Beautiful ! That's only your second build! WOW ! Great job great sound !

Mines almost done. All these entry's have been so good I'm embarrassed to throw in mine. But Ill be embarrassing myself shortly just have to upload the video and pics. Then sleep a few hours before turkey! I'm exhausted.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

ATTENTION CONTESTANTS!!
If you are a last minute entry... PLEASE PM me as soon as possible so I may confirm your entry fee with Aron. DONT GET LEFT OUT!!!

14 hours to go!!  

I STILL HAVE ONE ENTRANT THAT I NEED THEIR FORUM HANDLE. INITIALS ARE J.B. PLEASE CONTACT ME A.S.A.P.

[GGBB]

Thanks Jim.

All these entry's have been so good I'm embarrassed to throw in mine.

I know that feeling! I'm came pretty close to throwing in the towel myself after seeing all the early entries and hitting some 11th hour hurdles.  Mainly I just wanted to give a little back to this community since it has given me so much enjoyment.

[Mustachio]

All the entry's have been awesome and inspiring! You guys are genius's. 

I almost didn't make it! I for some reason thought I had till the 24th ! hahaha Then I realized It was sooner. Right before I was about to record a video I was talking some pictures and after about 10 pics I realized I still had the original white washer on the foot switch! I had hand drawn on a metal washer with a etch resistant pen and forgot to etch it! So at about 7am I took it apart and etched the washer haha!

I'm super tired and maybe standing over the etching tray to long made me sound funny. In the Video I sound like Ray Ramano Eating peanut butter hahaha. Sorry I should have turned off my vocal mic when I was playing . the recording is just mics set for flat response nothing added. Lots of room sound. I usually like to only have 1 mic on the amp cab to keep from string flopping sounds. But its not to bad.

My entry is the Mutron Micro V modified to use both half's of an LM13700 for the OTA. I built It in one of the new Smallbear BearBoxes! Its really a great new enclosure! I designed all the graphics from scratch using Adobe illustrator and Photoshop. Printed on sticker paper, applied, and used Pour-on over it all for the thick clear coat. (orange LED to match)

I used the original schematic from effects data base

http://files.effectsdatabase.com/docs/schematics/musitronics_mu-tronmicrov.jpg

And the Schematic at pisotones

http://www.pisotones.com/MuTron_Micro-V/Mutron-Micro-V.htm

I used ExpressPCB to draw the layout

Big Thanks to Ronan for helping me so much! He helped a lot with my early mistakes on my layout and then helped more getting both sides of the OTA to work! Great guy lots of knowledge!

Here Is the Layout



On With the show! Heres the pics!



















And now for the embarrassing video. Just remember I hadn't slept and I'm full of excuses 

Thanks to the forum for this contest it was fun to participate! And more then anything I just wanted to give something back since I've learned so much from this website!

[deadastronaut]

@jim:  beautiful design, and detail, and great sounds man...

just curious is there a way to reverse the sweep on that?...it a pretty similar sound-ish  to what ive been working on, but i want reverse sweep too...because i'm greedy...

[GGBB]

Killer graphics!  That is so sweet.  Nice job - I can rest easy now knowing that I've still got a stranglehold on last place.  This is very inspiring - my next pedal was going to be an envelope filter of some sort so now I'm thinking about this one as opposed to a quack variety.  That is exactly the sound I am after.

[Mustachio]

There might be a way, but as to how I'm not sure yet. The switch is just for high or low which doesn't affect the direction. I personally never use the other direction on my Mutron III. But that's just me, I do like the other direction on bass though

Thanks for the nice words about the build Rob

After this contest I'm thinking about trying to add another one or 2 LM13700's to get more Whomp out of it.

Gord , thanks for the kind words! Your fuzz is super clean and sounds awesome! I love a clean design and you nailed it!

As for envelope filters I want to play with this a bit more but so far my favorites are this micro V and the mutron III from RG Keens website geofex. I always liked the Sound Jerry Garcia and Stevie Wonder got out of their Mutron's. Really they are so much fun to play with . You start finding small nuances with the envelope and playing style. Really can get that touch response feedback ! I love em. I could annoy a band with one all day hahaha!

[Jdansti]

Beautiful builds, Jim and Gord, and both pedals sound great! 

Thanks for all of the support, guys.  I pulled an all nighter and just as I crept into bed around 6:30AM, my wife let me know that I was in the dog house and I had to get up and help bake deserts and make some kind of potato dish.  I also have to be her Black Friday shopping escort all day tomorrow..  It's 10AM and I just got a break to get back to my project. I've got to get it in by 1PM because we'll be doing family stuff until midnight or beyond (both of our families). All that's left is to do last minute changes to the build docs and I'll make my post.  I've made sure to save everything to my iPhone just in case I have to take a "potty break" durning dinner and make my post.  As Arnold said, "I'll be bock".

[pakrat]

Wow Gord and Jim, those are some spectacular finishes on this builds!