Tim Escobedo's "Folkurban" circuits. Zipped.

culturejam · Post by **culturejam** » 17 Mar 2012, 15:41

I've recently noticed that Tim's great site at http://www.folkurban.com is coming up as a virus, trojan horse, or other "bad things" in my browser. So I thought I'd grab all the circuit images and zip them up for safe keeping. I have emailed him in the recent past, but there has been no reply.

Attached is a zip file of ALL of the effects circuits from his site.

Rock on, and may the creative spirit of the Great Escobedo be with you always.

danielzink · Post by **danielzink** » 18 Mar 2012, 21:46

Someone needs to do the same thing with Briggs's schematics

mhgl · Post by **mhgl** » 23 Jun 2012, 10:09

Thanks for this! I was having a hard time finding a few of these.

flood · Post by **flood** » 13 Apr 2013, 09:03

This is all hypothetical, but here goes:

I'm starting a small effects and amps company, and want to focus on doing very small runs (5-20 of each pedal max) of nicely finished and generally sexy-looking (outside AND inside!) pedals. Here are my ground rules:

1. Donate a portion of all income from sales to a worthy and proven charity (for primary education, protection of the girl child, anti-human trafficking and the other very fundamental problems affecting my country)
2. either work on original circuits (if any such thing actually exists anymore...), or credit the source if it's a clone or uses a part of an existing circuit.
3. unless there is a very compelling reason not to do so, publish the schematic.

something that's fascinated me since my early DIY days are tim escobedo's circuit snippets, which are marked as non-commercial use only. lately, i was breadboarding a circuit of his and made a few modifications to come up with a truly cool sound (which possibly nobody will like but me, but anyway...)

my question is: if i designed and sold a pedal, for profit, that used tim's circuit as a PART of it, and differs in the sense that it has more going on than changing the basic functionality, would that constitute fair use?

if not, does anybody know how i can get in touch with tim to approach him directly about this? is he on this board?

i've learned pretty much everything i know from the DIY community, and don't wish to violate the spirit of sharing in any way.

(just re-read the above, and it sounds too cryptic: full disclosure, the circuit in question is the PWM, and my changes to the circuit include higher gain on the 386, possibly an input buffer, and putting the unused inputs to use with an additional PWM module, possibly some LFOs and just maybe a 4046 based VCO circuit. I'd be happy to share the schematic once i'm done poking around, i'm looking for nasty grimy digital synthy fuzz).

thanks for and chiming in!

Nocentelli · Post by **Nocentelli** » 13 Apr 2013, 14:58

I'v not heard of Tim Escobedo posting here or anywhere else DIY-pedal related for many years: If you did track him down and he said "No, you cannot use any of my circuits in a commercial venture even with modifications" a) How would you feel? b) How could he stop you? There is pretty much nothing any designer can do that would stop use of their circuit - If you were to sell an "Escobedo PWM pedal", and marketed as such, there might be trademark issues but that is it. Morally, it's a different ballgame. However, speaking entirely personally, but with the vague notion of consensus on this board, what is morally wrong with most booteek companies is when they market a pedal as a revolutionary breakthrough in sound sculpting, and it turns out to be YAFF/YATS/YABM/Timmy.

If you feel, or if Tim tells you it is wrong to use his design in any way, shape or form, I'm sure you could find another workalike design by someone else who has less stringent restrictions on their usuage, or even work up a workalike using different components that you can claim as your own.

flood · Post by **flood** » 16 Apr 2013, 08:37

Nocentelli wrote:I'v not heard of Tim Escobedo posting here or anywhere else DIY-pedal related for many years: If you did track him down and he said "No, you cannot use any of my circuits in a commercial venture even with modifications" a) How would you feel? b) How could he stop you? There is pretty much nothing any designer can do that would stop use of their circuit - If you were to sell an "Escobedo PWM pedal", and marketed as such, there might be trademark issues but that is it. Morally, it's a different ballgame. However, speaking entirely personally, but with the vague notion of consensus on this board, what is morally wrong with most booteek companies is when they market a pedal as a revolutionary breakthrough in sound sculpting, and it turns out to be YAFF/YATS/YABM/Timmy.

If you feel, or if Tim tells you it is wrong to use his design in any way, shape or form, I'm sure you could find another workalike design by someone else who has less stringent restrictions on their usuage, or even work up a workalike using different components that you can claim as your own.

Thanks for the perspective... well, I've never owned a bow-teek pedal in my life (except the hartman analog flanger, which is just fabulous) and am pretty happy with the budget/lowfi stuff I buy. What puts me off is the attitude of the companies, more than anything else... the FB debacle comes to mind. I have no idea why people have a problem admitting that they at the very least based the design on something that already exists.

I'll try to track down Tim, if possible. I live in a country where the Boss Metal Fail (MT-2) is still revered to be the holy grail of distortion, and experimental pedals have never had a chance. For this reason, if I do go ahead with this pedal (and others like it), I will be limiting the numbers to between 5 and 15 pieces of each. There's simply no market for it, I'm just doing it for the love of doing it, really. I'm fairly aware, both from my own experiences and observing others, that I won't be making a livelihood out of this. It's more of a Sunday job, I guess. And if some proceeds can go towards a good cause, that's even better.

Nonetheless, I'd be a lot more at ease if I could get through to the person directly and get their go-ahead/stop immediately/let's talk numbers before slamming something out. Maybe I'm overthinking and overworrying.... but that's exactly what I do best.

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 07 Jul 2013, 23:12

tim escodbedo's email is at the bottom of the circuit snippets page, and he DOES respond to some things... i emailed him a year or so ago, and he replied. fwiw

flood · Post by **flood** » 08 Jul 2013, 05:18

pinkjimiphoton wrote:tim escodbedo's email is at the bottom of the circuit snippets page, and he DOES respond to some things... i emailed him a year or so ago, and he replied. fwiw

Thanks a lot pinkjimiphoton. I'll drop him a line sometime this week. BTW, I love your videos

Regards from Bombay!

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 08 Jul 2013, 14:14

thanks flood, all the best from willimantic, connecticut, usa!!

hope he responds. he did. once. when i wrote back i didn't get a reply, but i think i crossed the line asking something about one of the circuits.

atreidesheir · Post by **atreidesheir** » 09 Jul 2013, 01:59

A thought I had was there are several pedals in production in garages around N America with bits and pieces of the escobedo arsenal integrated or the core of the circuit. As long as you do not use his name to promote (acknowledge the creator and giving credit is not the same), there is nothing to object to really. I think you are being a good citizen of the DIY community to ask, but it is kind of like asking Joseph Heller's permission to use the phrase Catch-22.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 09 Jul 2013, 02:36

I'd say at least discuss it with Tim Escobedo first and let him know that if you do make any money it's going to some worthy causes, you never know, he might just give you permission, the only way you're going to find out is by asking him, it's always a good policy anyway....

My two cents worth....

flood · Post by **flood** » 29 Aug 2013, 08:40

DrNomis wrote:I'd say at least discuss it with Tim Escobedo first and let him know that if you do make any money it's going to some worthy causes, you never know, he might just give you permission, the only way you're going to find out is by asking him, it's always a good policy anyway....

My two cents worth....

Thanks guys. So far it's been a no-go since my PWM-based circuit refuses to perform on PCB, but does fine on breadboard. I've been tied up working on some other designs, I'll probably explore this a bit down the road and write to Tim once I get it working. Cheers!

~arph · Post by **~arph** » 18 Sep 2014, 11:21

Browsing the way back machine I found these: ENJOY

tabbycat · Post by **tabbycat** » 18 Sep 2014, 20:36

many thanks culturejam. this is fascinating stuff.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 19 Sep 2014, 03:51

Cool, there are some circuits that are real gems in amongst that collection, I got copies ofd all of them, might breadboard them so I can try them out.....cheers.....

Those Mosfet-based Fuzz Face circuits look really interesting.....

~arph · Post by **~arph** » 19 Sep 2014, 12:27

It's missing the ones I just dug up..

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=25061

guysmiley · Post by **guysmiley** » 04 Jan 2015, 17:11

I built some of Tim's circuits with a few mods of my own. I know there aren't a ton of demos for his stuff online so I thought I'd add some I made from today.

Push me Pull you Octave Fuzz

Harmonic Jerkulator

Utility Boost

tabbycat · Post by **tabbycat** » 04 Jan 2015, 21:21

hey guy, welcome to fsb. i hope you have a riot here. get in.

thanks for posting the demos. i like the jerkulator best. very punchy attack with a satisfying after-rattle. it’s a hammer of a pedal.
the sound on the pushme was very percussive and toppy, is that the pedal cutting lower frequencies or how you generally like your tone? what is your set up on that? hums or singles.

escobedo is classy. the seeds from which so much great stuff can grow. nice builds.

tonmann · Post by **tonmann** » 05 Jan 2015, 12:03

Here's the vero board layouts I did a while back on another forum - in case anyone is interested.

guysmiley · Post by **guysmiley** » 05 Jan 2015, 12:39

tabbycat wrote:hey guy, welcome to fsb. i hope you have a riot here. get in.

thanks for posting the demos. i like the jerkulator best. very punchy attack with a satisfying after-rattle. it’s a hammer of a pedal.
the sound on the pushme was very percussive and toppy, is that the pedal cutting lower frequencies or how you generally like your tone? what is your set up on that? hums or singles.

escobedo is classy. the seeds from which so much great stuff can grow. nice builds.

I think the PNP transistor is cancelling out a few frequencies in the Push me Pull me to make the octave effect. I was using a Tele with a p90 in the neck and overwound 60's single in the bridge. I'm located in Japan for the time being, so I end up renting studios out and use whatever they have. Usually it's a Roland Jazz Chorus. Thanks!