Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Other Stuff => Effects => Topic started by: dpm309 on August 03, 2017, 03:55:56 pm
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Has anyone built or had any experience with a guitar synthesizer pedal? Been kicking around building one like either the "Earthquake Bitcommander" or "Into The Unknown". I can get an "Into the Unknown" pre-made PCB or build either using Vero Board. Parts are readily available and not too expensive. According to the demos, both of these have some really cool sounds and effects that would be fun to play around with. Don't know if they would come in useful in a live band situation. Some of the comments on these is that they work better on high output pickups and humbuckers. Single coil pickups may require some kind of boost or compression in front of them. The other major complaint is that tracking on the octave down setting can be iffy unless you use the neck pickup with the tone rolled off. Both of these are a rather complicated, time consuming build I and want to know if it is worth my time. My last 2 pedal builds were a Uni-vibe type pedal and an MXR M117 Flanger clone so I feel I can build this one also. Just wanted to get some opinions before I pull the plug on this one.
Thanks
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I went ahead and built the Bit Commander using stripboard. Got it working the first time (need to pay careful attention to the underside of the stripboard - solder bridges and cold joints). Has some pretty cool sounds and works fine on single coil and humbuckers. Parts for this were about $52. Here are some pics of the Bit Commander, The Vibe and the Flanger.
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Into the Unknown is one of my favorites. I'm going to order the PCB for that one, apparently Fredrik made some modifications to it and it's really tick free now.
Nice work on the Bit Commander! That's a fun one!
I'm also lusting after a Schumann PLL.. I'm going to try the stripboard of that, but it takes a 12VAC power supply.
-Brett