Garnet Whirly-Gig (gutshots)

Discussion regarding early stompbox technology: 1960-1975 Please keep discussion focused and contribute what info you have...
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ddrrll
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Post by ddrrll »

hey guys,
First post.
Here's a Garnet Whirly-Gig. It is a Leslie sim type effect with a beautiful uneven, galloping sweep to it's lfo and no controls other than a speed footswitch. For some reason they never printer "Garnet" on these things. As a Canadian I felt it's my duty to share this.
I can take close ups of any area required and provide cap values etc if required.
Here it is

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IMG_0073 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr
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IMG_0075 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr
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IMG_0080 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr
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IMG_0081 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr
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IMG_0082 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr
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IMG_0083 by ddrrll1981, on Flickr

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Dr Tony Balls
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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

Rad! Do you plan on tracing out a schematic? It'd be pretty easy if you have unit in hand. Probably wouldnt be so hard to do from the pics, either, but some part values and transistor types would be missing.

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ddrrll
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Post by ddrrll »

Dr Tony Balls wrote:Rad! Do you plan on tracing out a schematic? It'd be pretty easy if you have unit in hand. Probably wouldnt be so hard to do from the pics, either, but some part values and transistor types would be missing.
Yeah I'm definitely going to try to trace it out when I have some time. It belongs to a friend who wants an actual pot to control one of the switchable lfo rates which I am hesitant to do due to the relative obscurity of this unit.

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Post by astrobass »

I would definitely trace it and build a clone with the added controls rather than drilling into such a clean vintage effect. That's in pretty nice condition.

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Post by Nocentelli »

That looks pretty simple for a Leslie type effect: Handful of transistors, caps and resistors. I wonder if it's some sort of phase shift oscillator like the magnavibe.
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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

Nocentelli wrote:That looks pretty simple for a Leslie type effect: Handful of transistors, caps and resistors. I wonder if it's some sort of phase shift oscillator like the magnavibe.
But also I dont an optocoupler in there, which a Magnavibe would have....

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Post by Nocentelli »

Escobedo's wobbletron is virtually identical but has a JFET as the resistive element.
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Post by tube-exorcist »

Nocentelli wrote:Escobedo's wobbletron is virtually identical but has a JFET as the resistive element.
At least this unit uses a JFET (2N5458, in the 5th picture) too....
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Post by tube-exorcist »

.....
Here's a Garnet Whirly-Gig. ..... For some reason they never printer "Garnet" on these things.
.....
The question is: who is "they" ?

At least this unit is not vintage - have a look at the electrolytics. It is build from some vintage parts but it is soldered together within the last 5 - 10 years.
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Post by astrobass »

tube-exorcist wrote:
.....
Here's a Garnet Whirly-Gig. ..... For some reason they never printer "Garnet" on these things.
.....
The question is: who is "they" ?

At least this unit is not vintage - have a look at the electrolytics. It is build from some vintage parts but it is soldered together within the last 5 - 10 years.
What are you seeing in those photos that proves this? The electrolytics aren't in focus in most of the photos and where they are there's no text visible. Garnet went out of business in 1989 and all sources of information on the Whirly Gig points to it being made only briefly in the 70s.

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Post by The Rotagilla »

Hate to ask the obvious but...

How does it sounds? :scratch:
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Post by ranjam »

Interesting. What I knew of Garnet pedals is they were rebadged imports, but not the Whirly Gig. It's a hand-wired Garnet pedal all the way. FYI, if you ever see the fuzz box, it's a rebadged Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz. I had one, and regret letting it go ever since. :oops:
I believe the Whirly Gig is just a phase shifter circuit, maybe detuned for that warble. Something like the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe. I think that's a Phase 45 detuned a little. Even if I don't really like it, I keep the Pickle Vibe just so I won't regret letting it go later. It's so small that it takes no board space, and just a single control for speed. But the Whirly Gig looks cool. I'd keep it no matter what. :thumbsup
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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

astrobass wrote: What are you seeing in those photos that proves this? The electrolytics aren't in focus in most of the photos and where they are there's no text visible..
+1
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

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Post by okgb »

It's not just a tremelo of some sort ? Garnet was based in Winnipeg Manitoba where I live
In the later years of his life a bunch of us would hang out on saturdays with Gar , He was a generous & humble man
considering the cards didn't go his way to become a marshall or Fender.

I have one of the fuzzboxes That I'm selling for a friend [ Douchebag Edmond Ho claimed it was defective and got paypal
to give him the money back , even if it was would you mess with a NOS 70's item ? and there's only a handful of parts ]

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Post by astrobass »

The way that's put together looks pretty much the same as the amp of his that I have. I've got no doubt he built it. I'd be surprised if he designed it though. And it could easily be just a tremolo.

The thing about Gar is that he was a very passionate tinkerer and a great guy and all but he wasn't an incredible engineer. He really didn't invent anything. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's a completely legitimate way to operate if you ask me, but it makes it unlikely that this is not based fairly directly on something else. Any component differences are likely the result of him using components he had on hand that were close enough for it to more or less sound right. And a little bit of exaggeration in terms of what it actually does wouldn't be completely out of place either.

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Post by Puguglybonehead »

astrobass wrote:The way that's put together looks pretty much the same as the amp of his that I have. I've got no doubt he built it. I'd be surprised if he designed it though. And it could easily be just a tremolo.

The thing about Gar is that he was a very passionate tinkerer and a great guy and all but he wasn't an incredible engineer. He really didn't invent anything. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's a completely legitimate way to operate if you ask me, but it makes it unlikely that this is not based fairly directly on something else. Any component differences are likely the result of him using components he had on hand that were close enough for it to more or less sound right. And a little bit of exaggeration in terms of what it actually does wouldn't be completely out of place either.
Actually, he did invent the odd thing. His Herzog is one of his more well known inventions and is what created Randy Bachman's unique lead guitar sound on American Woman. (as well as on No Time and a few others) I can't remember all the details of how he invented it, but it was a solution to Bachman continually bringing back fried amps to Garnet for repair.

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Post by ranjam »

The story I got straight from Gar was Bachman would plug the output of a small Fender Champ into another amp to drive the living daylights out of that second amp. Of course that second amp often went up in a puff of smoke, so in frustration of having to repair that amp over and over, the Herzog was born. The name came from a book Bachman was reading. And you can figure it out easy enough; a Herzog is a Champ with a dummy load and a 'line out' volume control across that dummy load to set how much of the 'Champ' fed your second amplifier.
But the Whirly Gig looks like an honest-to-goodness Garnet build. The fuzz is 100% a Shin-Ei Companion with a Garnet 'badge'.
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