Toadworks - Mr. Ed

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
User avatar
soulsonic
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3880
Joined: 27 Jun 2007, 03:38
my favorite amplifier: Traynor YVM-1
Completed builds: too many!
Location: Morgantown, WV
Has thanked: 183 times
Been thanked: 467 times
Contact:

Post by soulsonic »

So basically, what this thread is proving is that the person who's selling that pedal on eBay has no idea either what it sounds like or what it's intended to be marketed as.....
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran

User avatar
DougH
Transistor Tuner
Information
Posts: 1087
Joined: 18 Aug 2007, 04:53
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Post by DougH »

This pedal was named after this speaking horse in this old TV series called Mr. Ed and the name has nothing to do with E.V.
Given that EVH coined the term "brown sound", at the very least it begs for the comparison.
Eddy's brown sound was generated by a NM Marshall and a BOSS overdrive pedal.
First I heard of that. Where did you get that info?

Up to this point the common story I've heard is that it was a dimed marshall into a load box. Pretty much sounds like that too, IMO, at least on the first 3 albums.

User avatar
indyguitarist
Resistor Ronker
Information
Posts: 388
Joined: 11 Jul 2007, 02:25
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 161 times

Post by indyguitarist »

DougH wrote:
This pedal was named after this speaking horse in this old TV series called Mr. Ed and the name has nothing to do with E.V.
Given that EVH coined the term "brown sound", at the very least it begs for the comparison.
Eddy's brown sound was generated by a NM Marshall and a BOSS overdrive pedal.
First I heard of that. Where did you get that info?

Up to this point the common story I've heard is that it was a dimed marshall into a load box. Pretty much sounds like that too, IMO, at least on the first 3 albums.
Man, I'd have to disagree a bit... I'm friends with Zeke, a tech of Eddie's and he and I have talked a bit about what Eddie really WAS doing and what was released to the press. Needless to say they are two different animals. Wish I could say more... I CAN verify that a variac was used though.
:)
bw

User avatar
DougH
Transistor Tuner
Information
Posts: 1087
Joined: 18 Aug 2007, 04:53
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Post by DougH »

Yeah, I realize there's a lot of controversy about what Eddie actually did use. I'm just quoting the "party line" so to speak. But I never heard the overdrive pedal story before and just wondered where it came from.

From the clips, the Mr. Ed sounds like a fine fuzz face derivation to me. Looks like a well built package too. If it is not intended to be some sort of "EVH/Brown-sound" thing, then peace...

User avatar
JHS
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 483
Joined: 14 Jul 2007, 11:20
Been thanked: 5 times

Post by JHS »

There was a story on the web about a maintenance job R. Bogner did on Eddy's Marshalls and with lots of infos from the recording engineer about the first recording session.

Acc to the rec. engineer Eddy used a BOSS OD-1, a BOSS 5b-Graphic EQ as a mid boost, a MXR Phaser, a VARIAC and his recording Marshall 100W NM stripped out of the housing for better cooling (English setting). Acc. to Eddy the tubes in the amp always had been replaced with Sylvania 6CA7 (the floor were covered with lots of empty Sylvania tube boxes so IMHO it's believable).

Some years ago I read an interview in a git. mag. where Eddy confirmed using the OD-1 and the VARIAC (the VARIAC only in the early days, 'cos it destroyed the Marshall to often). He talked about his live eqiupment too but I don't remember the exact line up, but as far as I remember live he used a bunch of HH mosfets amps fed by a signal generated via load box from a Marshall.

JHS

User avatar
soulsonic
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3880
Joined: 27 Jun 2007, 03:38
my favorite amplifier: Traynor YVM-1
Completed builds: too many!
Location: Morgantown, WV
Has thanked: 183 times
Been thanked: 467 times
Contact:

Post by soulsonic »

I remember seeing pics of the rack with the HH amps. He was feeding them from a Palmer Speaker simulator. Fairly standard gear for the times.

I've always heard two stories about the whole VARIAC thing - one is that he lowered the voltage to around 100volts and the other is that he boosted it to about 130. I'm thinking he probably lowered the voltage because he said that he used the VARIAC in an attempt to keep the amp from blowing up so easily when turned up all the way. He said that his logic was that if he lowered the voltage, the amp wouldn't be stressed so much.... Who knows what the truth is really, but I certainly believe it when JHS says he used an overdrive and an EQ because I've never heard any NM Marshall be able to get that distorted on it's own. A classic cranked Marshall sounds like AC/DC; EVH's tone is definitely kicked up a notch or two from what one of those things is normally able to do regardless of what kind of voltage is powering it. There's also added speaker distortion as well I'm sure since it's turned up so loud.
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran

User avatar
eddieod
Information
Posts: 23
Joined: 26 Aug 2007, 08:16
Location: The Netherlands
Been thanked: 9 times

Post by eddieod »

Hi everyone,

Did some research on the Toadworks Mr. Ed pedal some while ago. Here's the schematic!One edit: the feedback resistor from Q2 to Q1is 470K instead of 510K if I remember correctly after building one...

Have fun!

Ed's Custom Shop
Edwin Thoen
Maarssen
The Netherlands
Attachments
Toadworks Mr. Ed.pdf
(253.05 KiB) Downloaded 487 times

User avatar
analogguru
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3238
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 13:58
Been thanked: 124 times
Contact:

Post by analogguru »

Interesting:

In version 1 the brown control was a 2k poti in paralell to the 2k7 resistor (R3) and no cap (C2)ands poti at the input.

In version 1 the feedback resistor (R2) is 510k.

The rest is nearly identical, especially those crazy resistor arrangement and maybe even the crazy pcb-layout....: double sided for this piece of....

Funny that several years ago people were sick to buy one, today nobody is crying after that fuzzface-derivate.

analogguru
There´s a sucker born every minute - and too many of them end up in the bootweak pedal biz.

User avatar
ieatyouforbreakfast
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 115
Joined: 30 Nov 2007, 06:06
Been thanked: 10 times

Post by ieatyouforbreakfast »

i actually really like the sound of this pedal. I prefer it over a standard fuzz face any day.

thanks for the scheme.. ive been looking everywhere for this thing!

User avatar
Brian M
Cap Cooler
Information
Posts: 531
Joined: 10 Nov 2007, 08:37
my favorite amplifier: Vintage Twins
Location: Oregon, USA
Been thanked: 54 times
Contact:

Post by Brian M »

I have one of these, and really like it. It really only does one sound, but does it really well.

fuzz face derivative or not, it doesnt sound like a fuzz face at all.

User avatar
WormBoy
Information
Posts: 32
Joined: 23 Feb 2008, 20:24
Location: The Netherlands
Been thanked: 1 time

Post by WormBoy »

Ha, it IS a tweaked fuzz face! With too much resistors ... is that indeed in the circuit that way? Oh well, maybe there is some mojo in series/parallel resistors ... The choice of transistors is interesting, for me at least. After a little googling, I found that NTE199 are quite high gain, which may explain why it sounds different from a FF (together with the tweaking of the other values).

Funny how Toadworks describes the Mr. Ed on their website:
"Years of research and development went into the design and construction of this effect pedal. Begining with the most basic of circuit designs, our engineers developed, enhanced, modified and embellished the design until stumbling onto the biggest, baddest, loudest transistor based distortion circuit known to man."

User avatar
AL
Breadboard Brother
Information
Posts: 144
Joined: 14 Aug 2007, 17:26

Post by AL »

Thanks for the schem.

AL

User avatar
super velcroboy
Information

Post by super velcroboy »

holy shit, this pedal brings back a lot of memories. This has got to be one of the biggest hyped pedals about all times. It was about 5 years ago, it burst out of the scene. Version 1 was the distortion that had very little volume boost. I actually bought one for $90. A bunch of people at the HCFX bought one. The circuit was tiny but there was a bunch of goop to it :lol: It was supposed to be a secret as what the circuit was. Who would have guessed that it's a fuzzface clone :lol: :lol:

Comes to show that keeping the identity a secret can and will boost sales. If he had said, "yeah its a fuzzface clone," who would have bought it? :hmmm:

User avatar
analogguru
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3238
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 13:58
Been thanked: 124 times
Contact:

Post by analogguru »

What ? You missed the chance to see the worst and ugliest pcb-routing of the stompbox world ?
Ok, below you get a new chance - This is the result when you give somebody without any technical skills a PC with an autoroter-pcb-program:
There´s a sucker born every minute - and too many of them end up in the bootweak pedal biz.

User avatar
super velcroboy
Information

Post by super velcroboy »

the design of the pcb is not so good.

i have to say that if there was ever an epitome for hype, toadworks has got to be it. From the very beginning, he overhyped everything...from his knobs to his 3pdt switches. The description of the pedal is very different now, but the hype is there still.
ToadWorks Mr. Ed is hand wired, by people, not machines. From our high quality 3PDT switches to the custom made enclosures and knobs, each component is the finest available, making ToadWorks effects the most well-built and reliable pedals in the world.
um sure.

actually the aluminum knobs that they used to have in the originals were much better. The ones they have now look like plastic. Must be a cost saving measure.

I take it back. The hype is worst than ever. Read this lol :lol: :lol:
Years of research and development went into the design and construction of this effect pedal. Begining with the most basic of circuit designs, our engineers developed, enhanced, modified and embellished the design until stumbling onto the biggest, baddest, loudest transistor based distortion circuit known to man.
you can thank the original ff for that. :applause:

User avatar
Manfred
Tube Twister
Information
Posts: 1936
Joined: 04 Apr 2009, 23:42
Has thanked: 1668 times
Been thanked: 1344 times

Post by Manfred »

I traced the new small device and compared with the schematic at the beginning of the thread.
I found allmost the same part values but the potentiometer for volume and tone differs its values are B250k now.
I measured some DC-voltages and noted them down on the schematic.
MrED.jpg
MrEdPCB_Parts.jpg
MrEdinside.jpg

Post Reply