Soul Sonic - Folk Driver, The Honey Bee Challenge!

Original effects with schematics, layouts and instructions, freely contributed by members or found in publications. Cannot be used for commercial purposes without the consent of the owners of the copyright.
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rizibiz
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Post by rizibiz »

dorfmeister wrote:I'm pondering buying one of these from Soulsonic. Anyone have any new insights after spending some time with the pedal.
Thanks.
Ok, I know this was almost a year ago...

I bulit one and using it for some time (haven't gigged it). IMO it's more like a dirty boost than a drive pedal at least with single coil pickups. I have to turn the Timbre pot to the extremes to get some breakup. By itself it acts like a frequency range booster (controlled by the Timbre pot) boosts the lows (CCW) or the highs (CW) with a little bit of breakup at the ends. Noon is clean boost.

I found the best way to use it is to hit the front of it with another booster if you want some dirt.
Hope it helps.

I used the vero layout on aronnelson's site and it fits beautifully in a 1590A

Pics of my build:
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Seiche
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Post by Seiche »

just built one and I gotta say, I'm not so sure about this one. I compared this to my honeybee clone and I find it to be less rounded, less full.
it is also rather dark and something seems missing. I like the drive/tone fully ccw but then it's too dark, fully cw it lacks bass. I tried it with a casino (which has P-90s)
I don't like the middle and in between settings as the drive fizzes out. Haven't tried it live or loud yet.
rizibiz wrote:I found the best way to use it is to hit the front of it with another booster if you want some dirt.
this is very true, my favorite setting was with the tone fully ccw and then hitting it with a bright boost like an sho.
btw: nice build!
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rizibiz
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Post by rizibiz »

Yeah, I'm not sure about it either. I never bonded with it. I built a Honey Bee clone too and the two are very different.
The funny thing is I gave this to a professional musician friend who really liked it for..... BASS.
And they use it live on their gigs where the bass player needs some distortion for a few songs. And they auditioned several drive pedals and liked the folk driver the best for the purpose. Weird pros.... :shock:
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rizibiz
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Post by rizibiz »

btw: nice build!
Oh, and thanks!
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soulsonic
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Post by soulsonic »

I've uploaded a build document for this project. You can find it here:
http://www.soulsonicfx.com/FolkDIY/FolkDriverKit.pdf
(yes, it's large 19MB)
It includes instructions specific to the PCB I'm now selling in my online shop, but it also includes alot of general info that's good for anyone looking to build this. I've also updated the schematic to include test voltages.
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran
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Silver Blues
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Post by Silver Blues »

Nice circuit, I'll have to try it either by itself or as a component of another circuit/dual pedal. I'm a sucker for simple, effective designs and I think you hit this one on the head.
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MGaburriJazzDude
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Post by MGaburriJazzDude »

Hi! Today I set this circuit in my breadboard anda start trying some stuff. I notice that adding BS170's in the clipping section gives nice result! As Q1 and Q2 I used a pair of BC549's (the more gainy trannies I had for the moment) and works perfectly!

Thanks for the scheme Soulsonic!
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soulsonic
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Post by soulsonic »

MGaburriJazzDude wrote:Hi! Today I set this circuit in my breadboard anda start trying some stuff. I notice that adding BS170's in the clipping section gives nice result! As Q1 and Q2 I used a pair of BC549's (the more gainy trannies I had for the moment) and works perfectly!

Thanks for the scheme Soulsonic!
Yes! Changing clipping diodes can do alot to mod the circuit for different sounds. I definitely recommend that people experiment with that.
It should also work well with many different NPN silicon transistors. You could use BC109C for extra mojo. :D
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roseblood11
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Post by roseblood11 »

MGaburriJazzDude wrote:Hi! Today I set this circuit in my breadboard anda start trying some stuff. I notice that adding BS170's in the clipping section gives nice result! As Q1 and Q2 I used a pair of BC549's (the more gainy trannies I had for the moment) and works perfectly!

Thanks for the scheme Soulsonic!
How exactly did you wire the BS170's?
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Post by marcao_cfh »

Here's mine:
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MGaburriJazzDude
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Post by MGaburriJazzDude »

roseblood11 wrote:
MGaburriJazzDude wrote:Hi! Today I set this circuit in my breadboard anda start trying some stuff. I notice that adding BS170's in the clipping section gives nice result! As Q1 and Q2 I used a pair of BC549's (the more gainy trannies I had for the moment) and works perfectly!

Thanks for the scheme Soulsonic!
How exactly did you wire the BS170's?
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reneshelle
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Post by reneshelle »

I had a one-knob boost pedal that I never used in a 1590a type box. I wanted to reuse the parts and made a perf-layout that would fit the very limited space that the booster circuit had occupied. I now have a Folk Driver with one big volume knob that I can turn with my foot, and the other knob is sticking out from the top end of the box like on the tiny Hotone pedals.

Thanks to SoulSonic for the fine project.

Here is the layout should somebody want to do a similar thing...
Folk Driver complete.png
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