Just ran across a new muff variant that's been getting some buzz on ilovefuzz. The sound samples come off pretty great and the price is reasonable, I feel.
Read somewhere that the tone stack is a Baxandall work-alike. Anyone have any ideas how something like that'd be worked into the BMP circuit? Seems like a pretty unique idea, as far as I know.
Here's the manual in PDF from the builder's blogspot (includes freq. charts of the tone rolloff):
Muff with a bax, huh? I can feel the storm clouds brewing already...
"You've converted me to Cubic thinking. Where do I sign up for the newsletter? I need to learn more about how I can break free from ONEism Death Math." - Soulsonic
$130 shipped. It's a muff type with a Baxandall tone stack, switchable lo and hi inputs and switchable diode clipping. It's fucking brilliant. I'll talk with Mark and see how he would feel about me getting it naked for you guys.
This is the first pedal to work as good or better for me than the Blackout Effectors Musket.
A gut shot at the Black Art Toneworks website shows a conspicuous circuit board inside this pedal emblazoned with the words "generalguitargadgets.com".
I mean, dude, seriously?
Obviously GGG are cool with this, otherwise they wouldnt be selling him the PCB's in bulk, but I agree that it is a little lame. You learn a lot from PCB design. The BM is pretty simple circuit to get to grips with too.
The GGG boards are well made, for sure. But my view is that if you're going to start up a pedal company, you should be able to make your own layouts or team up with somebody who can. It's really not expensive to have them fabricated, either. For runs as small as 75 or 100, you can get down to about $2-ish per board for one that size. If you go bigger (like say 250+), you can get the price down even further.
What's even lame'r, is the fact that everyone busts this guys balls for using GGG boards but Catalinbread is basically putting out something VERY similar. And based on what the Wampler looks like under the hood it could be also be the same thing. Pretty lame that these "established" companies with supposed true R&D are taking advantage of the fact that Mark was open from the beginning what the Pharaoh was. Coincidence? Maybe? I guess it is what it is, but just leaves a funny taste in my mouth and all the more proud to support Mark.
hazelwould wrote:What's even lame'r, is the fact that everyone busts this guys balls for using GGG boards but Catalinbread is basically putting out something VERY similar. And based on what the Wampler looks like under the hood it could be also be the same thing. Pretty lame that these "established" companies with supposed true R&D are taking advantage of the fact that Mark was open from the beginning what the Pharaoh was. Coincidence? Maybe? I guess it is what it is, but just leaves a funny taste in my mouth and all the more proud to support Mark.
Couldn't figure out how to edit my post?
The Great Waldo Pepper;42603133 wrote:Yup it is a baxandall type!
hazelwould wrote:What's even lame'r, is the fact that everyone busts this guys balls for using GGG boards but Catalinbread is basically putting out something VERY similar. And based on what the Wampler looks like under the hood it could be also be the same thing. Pretty lame that these "established" companies with supposed true R&D are taking advantage of the fact that Mark was open from the beginning what the Pharaoh was. Coincidence? Maybe? I guess it is what it is, but just leaves a funny taste in my mouth and all the more proud to support Mark.
iit's not like the idea was revolutionary. There was a Muff posted here with a Baxandall stack, and I also built one before hearing of the Pharaoh...
azrael wrote:it's not like the idea was revolutionary. There was a Muff posted here with a Baxandall stack, and I also built one before hearing of the Pharaoh...
Ditto - I made my James stack muff from a schematic posted here on fsb: I believe mictester posted a couple of updated muffs, one was definitely called the "21st century muff". What's this catalinbread pedal that is suppopsed to be close to the Pharoah? I wouldn't knock Catalinbread, Nic has been very open with some of his designs on here in past.
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...
azrael wrote:it's not like the idea was revolutionary. There was a Muff posted here with a Baxandall stack, and I also built one before hearing of the Pharaoh...
I've built lots of Muff-alike pedals with the "James" tone control. It works really well, with a wide range of control, and doesn't matter that it's passive (and lossy) because there's always lots of output from the clippers in a Muff.
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"
hazelwould wrote:What's even lame'r, is the fact that everyone busts this guys balls for using GGG boards but Catalinbread is basically putting out something VERY similar.
Everybody is entitled, APPARENTLY, to make their own version of the Big Muff and call it theirs. But the least you can do is make your own layout. And it will save you assembly time as well, since mods to an existing layout generally require more off-board wiring. And assembly time is really where money is lost or made.
PCBs are cheap to have made. It's a LOT cheaper than buying them from someone else, even if they are giving you a wholesale "deal".
hazelwould wrote:What's even lame'r, is the fact that everyone busts this guys balls for using GGG boards but Catalinbread is basically putting out something VERY similar.
Everybody is entitled, APPARENTLY, to make their own version of the Big Muff and call it theirs. But the least you can do is make your own layout. And it will save you assembly time as well, since mods to an existing layout generally require more off-board wiring. And assembly time is really where money is lost or made.
PCBs are cheap to have made. It's a LOT cheaper than buying them from someone else, even if they are giving you a wholesale "deal".
I totally get that! It's more on the flip side of the coin of what I was getting at, not necessarily the slam on the GGG. Mark's original intention wasn't to be making these full time (from what I gathered from him). So I'm sure when he made the initial one it was more to fufil a need and then as word started spreading it was probably easier to just continue with the GGG and worry about taking the time fulfilling the orders as opposed to sourcing boards and what not. I'm in a similar predicament (outside of the electronic field ), where I have to determine if it makes more sense to outsource my screen printing needs or to get it done in house. Outsourcing will in the long run be cheaper because of my personal labor involved (but upfront will cost a lot more), but in-house will be cheaper for shorter runs, but my labor is SO much higher. In the end we'll probably end up doing most of it ourselves, with a quick route to having a secured printer so the switch will happen smoothly. I don't know I just read about the new CB pedal, and was kinda like
CJ you or someone should offer services to do board layouts and source the boards. I've seen your stuff and like!
), where I have to determine if it makes more sense to outsource my screen printing needs or to get it done in house. Outsourcing will in the long run be cheaper because of my personal labor involved (but upfront will cost a lot more), but in-house will be cheaper for shorter runs, but my labor is SO much higher. In the end we'll probably end up doing most of it ourselves, with a quick route to having a secured printer so the switch will happen smoothly. I don't know I just read about the new CB pedal, and was kinda like