Catalinbread - Manx Loaghtan  [traced]

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Ripdivot
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Post by Ripdivot »

Just finished mine up using the vero layout, great sounding pedal. Very muffy but with much more control over frequency response. Cuts through nicely because the mids don't have to be so scooped but still does the Gilmour thing great if you are into that (which I am). This is one of my favorite muffs and I think I like it a little better than my Mojo Hand Colossus which says a lot!

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Post by Ripdivot »

I am noticing that something may not be quite right with the volume level on my Manx. If I have the bass and treb controls set below half I need to have the volume control cranked or almost cranked to get unity gain. If the bass and treb are above 3/4 then there is lots of level. Seems like I might be loosing some level somewhere but I have been through the circuit a dozen times and can't find anything wrong. Other than that it sounds kick ass! Any thoughts?

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Nocentelli
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Post by Nocentelli »

I don't recall that being an issue with mine (I dismantled it a while back to reuse the enclosure). Are you using the pot tapers specified? The James tonestack is lossy, so a dip in signal level when cutting bass or treble is normal. I'd first check all pinouts etc, but if it all sounds good apart from the output level, you can boost this by reducing the Q5 emitter resistor from 2k2 to maybe 1k8 or 1k5.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by Ripdivot »

Thanks Nocentelli. Reducing the emitter resistor on Q5 is precisely what I did. I changed it to 1K and there is more than enough level now. Just out of curiosity, what made you dismantle your Manx?

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Post by Nocentelli »

I think I'm just not really into playing through a Big Muff... Don't get me wrong, some of my favourite records feature this sound, I like it but I don't find it very useful for the sort of stuff I play. For some weird reason, every couple of months, I decide that I maybe need a big muff after all and build whatever variation has popped up here at FSB, play through it for a while, then it gets bumped off my board. At the moment, I've got a clone of the Blackout Effectors Musket which has survived for a couple of months, so maybe there's hope for that one yet.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by Ripdivot »

Nocentelli wrote:At the moment, I've got a clone of the Blackout Effectors Musket which has survived for a couple of months, so maybe there's hope for that one yet.
So How do you like the Musket compared to the Manx?

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Post by Nocentelli »

I think I just prefer the mids control and the pre-bass to the james tonestack on the Manx: I made the first (extra) boost stage of the Musket switchable, and tend to use it without the boost engaged so it's pretty much a standard muff but with the ability to swamp it with low end and keep loads of mids. It seems more flexible than the Manx, which I only really used with the bass way up and the treble way down. I built a slightly edited version of IvIark's vero which is in the Musket thread.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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