freestompboxes.org

Greg_G wrote: The fact that some people may come here just for a schematic so they can build a clone of a boutique pedal is a consequence of the information available here, but not the true purpose of the forum.

Eloquently put. That was my impression also.

Whoismarykelly wrote:I dont know that readability is serious business on pedals compared to a newspaper.

It's not. But using Comic Sans sends the message that you don't take what you are doing seriously. That goes for anything other than, perhaps, an 8-year-old's birthday party announcement...and even that is a stretch.

The signal-to-noise ratio at any forum that gets even mildly popular is always going to be an issue. Look at how many inane posts there are regularly at DIYstompboxes. For every awesome post there with new info or some great new idea, there are 20 (at least) along the lines of "Should I plug in my soldering iron?" That doesn't mean it's a bad forum, it means that for every tulip there are some weeds. That's a consequence of high traffic and popularity, not a result of a bad membership.

Oldgravity, if you want more talk about electronics, then by all means initiate the discussion. Don't sit around waiting on a fun topic to pop up. Make one!!

Very true, I'm going to do that.

oldgravity wrote:Very true, I'm going to do that.

Not going to lie; the original main attraction of this place for me was to be able to build a "boutique-quality" pedal without the price tag or fuckugly paint job some have, with a secondary motivation being to learn how these things work and why they work.

Now, after doing this for about a year, the stompbox itself is mostly a research/learning tool and cool residual perk to find out exactly what I like soundwise and what the commonalities are between them. For instance, I love the Civil War Muff I made, but it is way different to the Drag'n'Fly I made a short while ago as well, but even though I love both of them, they seem to be worlds apart (part count, clipping, combining two effects into one that competes with a totally different single circuit). I still have no friggin' idea how they are different, or whether I'm even in the ballpark--or even the same league--with those things mentioned in the previous statement, but I want to know. I want to know so that one day, I can come up with the chest-crushing, syrupy, oppressive, mind-numbingly blurry warm fuzz that has been in my mind for 15-20 years now (Jesus I'm getting old). And that's because once I learned a little bit (and I emphasize "little"), I realized it wasn't some dark art I'd have to sell my left nut on the Chinese black market to learn, but that it was quite conceivable that one day I might be able to come up with something close to that bitchin'. And I hope people "clone" the ever-loving shit out of it when I finally figure out how to make it, because maybe someone else will get closer than I will, and the circle of life begins anew.

Really, though, I gave up on the rockstar dreams and magazine interviews, or hanging out with the bigshots and headliners when I finally got honest with myself and said "Some things you just suck at, and playin' guitar is one of 'em"...and after I smoked a metric buttload of weed with some of those headliners and realized it wasn't nearly as rad as I thought it would be. But, the point is, it doesn't change the fact I still plunk around on the strings and try to find that magic sound I still love. And in order to find out what that sound is, I have to learn how people have gotten close to it in the past with their designs, since I'm a complete dolt and couldn't have become an Electrical Engineer had my life depended on it. But if I really wanna know, and I'm too stubborn for my own good, I've found that more often than not, eventually I'll figure it out with some help and examples.

Hence why this place rocks. [Note: I really need an emoticon of a smiley tearing ass on the guitar here, but there are none to be found]

....not quite sure what just happened.

Kollaps wrote: [Note: I really need an emoticon of a smiley tearing ass on the guitar here, but there are none to be found]

Does this help ? (Icon below).

Yes.. how a pedal sounds matters a lot more too me than the qualifications of the person who designed it.. and I don't think you have to be an Engineer to design a Distortion circuit.. the most important qualities are a good ear and enthusiasm.. although you need enough knowledge to make the changes you're chasing and I do acknowledge the invaluable contributions of some great EE's to our little hobby.. (RG.. thank you).
Having a few EE's interested in what we do and willing to answer the stuff we don't understand is great.

I also acknowledge that most the circuits we like to tinker with are probably based on the work of an EE, but I think the tweaked versions often sound MUCH better... because the designer had no hands on knowledge of what a musician wants.. and the tweaker was probably firstly a musician and secondly a tweaker.

If being an Electrical Engineer was a requirement, the hobby of DIY pedal building wouldn't exist.. nor this website.

All that doesn't mean I'm a Bootweaker fan.. but it's all about the sound for me and iof someone builds something that sounds different and awesome.. all credit to them, and I don't care what their occupation is.

Greg_G wrote:I also acknowledge that most the circuits we like to tinker with are probably based on the work of an EE, but I think the tweaked versions often sound MUCH better... because the designer had no hands on knowledge of what a musician wants.. and the tweaker was probably firstly a musician and secondly a tweaker.

I agree, but I don't see why there couldn't be both perspectives in one person. Surely, there must be a total shredder that is also a traditional double-E or electronics engineer (like mictester).

I wish some David Gilmour type with a EE degree would surface and show us all how it's done.

His name is Tom Scholz (of Boston and Rockman)

(Well, I think his a Mechanical Eng. but he has many patents daling with musical circuits)

Yeah, don't get me wrong: you don't have to be an EE, but it sure doesn't hurt to have that kinda background while doing this sort of thing.

mmm, its another big muff???????

noise31 wrote:mmm, its another big muff???????

No.. It's a BSIAB2 (Brown Sound In A Box).. designed by Ed Guidry.. kit and boards sold by GGG.