Al Heeley

As an additional development of the ultimate tubescreamer, I put together this clipping module which will attach into the diode clipping stage of a distortion or overdrive pedal and wires up to a 6-way rotary switch. You get: 1) Normal back to back clipping 2) asymmetric 3-diode clip 3) 2 x LED clip 4) Si + Ge diode clip 5) 2 diode plus small cap smoothing 6) LED + Si diode clip Will wire this into the next tubescreamer coming out of the sonic kitchen

Go here: www.beavisaudio.com Read everything Get this: [url="http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/index.htm"]http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/index.htm[/url] I love this site So much really useful stuff tucked away, wiring, powering, LED's, 3PDT switches and true bypassing, Clipping mods, all sorts of useful stuff.

hope you don't mind the gentle tease Dave! Looks like a cool pedal, I'm still searching for my bass fuzz holy grail sound

I love this stuff: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DHA-VT1-Std-Bass-overdrive-and-distortion-pedal_W0QQitemZ310194954458QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Guitar_Accessories?hash=item48390f60da"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DHA-VT1-Std-Bass-ove...=item48390f60da[/url] It's his comment down the text that got me; "Even the box is hand marked" Bet it sounds great but it's the deft use of Sharpie pen that really sold me on it.

Awww, wish i'd known a week earlier, just ordered a couple of enclosures and some 3pdt footswitches via ebay shops

get the right follower bit and the template must match the exact dimensions of the hole you want to rout. Deepen the hole in stages of 2-3mm, take your time to reduce risk of accidents and tear-out. For routing some pickup holes I sometimes used 4 straight pieces of wood clamped together to give the correct size rectangle for the pickups, instead of making a template from scratch each time. You can drill for the string-thru ferrules without a drill press but getting it spot-on is really hard. You have to drill small pilot holes thru first from each side to get holes that line up then make use of an accurately drawn paper template to get the spacing right.

OK here's soime quick clips played straight out the pedal into the soundcard, pretty bare but you get an idea. [url="http://www.mediafire.com/file/q1myut44bim/ts808sclip.mp3"]http://www.mediafire.com/file/q1myut44bim/ts808sclip.mp3[/url] Tone knob set to 3 o' clock, gain set to about 10 o' clock first 4 soundbites are guitar (humbuckers N+B together) 1) Soft clip, hi tone selected 2) soft clip, mid tone 3) full clip, mid tone 4) full clip, phat tone (Normal default unmodded TS position would be full clip, high tone) Next is bass, again tone set to 3am, gain on about 10 am. Vol is on about 10am 1) soft clip, phat tone 2) soft clip, mid tone 3) full clip, phat tone - almost double the gain with full on 4) full clip, mid tone loses a bit of the heavier bass, gives a more aggressive edge to the o'drive

Finished the build, pretty pleased with the results. We have a standard classic TS808 circuit from DIYStompbox galley: [url="http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/MarkMs-Gallery/album15/album76/TS808_TubeScreamer_LAYOUT.gif.html"]http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php...LAYOUT.gif.html[/url] Then D1 has been put on a DPDT switch with a second 4148 diode siwtchable in series to give the FULL or SOFT clip option, I've wired up an ON/OFF/ON mini toggle switch to where C4 was sitting and wired so it gives either 0.047uF cap, 0.47uF cap or both in series to radically change the tone range. the rest of the circuit is pretty much stock. With lead guitar feeding into it, the pedal gives the expected lovely rich overdrive with the mid/high boost tone, that is with clipping on full and range on high. Switching range to mid or Phat gives a great heavy bass boost to the signal, maybe too flabby for some high gain stuff but maybe superb for baritone metal riffs. Switching clipping to soft introduces the third diode and assymetric clipping option, which softens down the distortion gain quite a bit while giving a more creamy smooth softer tone. Very nice. With bass, you really need tone range on PHAT or you just get a bit too much mid honk. Seems to work best with clipping on soft and gain up at half to give a softer fuzz-type overdrive. If you want to get really nasty, put the clip on FULL, the range on MID and bring the vol back a bit - very sharp aggressive tone, cuts out any bass flab, sounds more like a nasty fuzz. Seems this little mod gives a pedal that should be incredibly versatile for either bass or lead guitar. Will be trying it out live at next Friday's gig in Wooldale. Very constructive way to spend a Saturday morning

Simply stunning! Lovely enclosure work there. Now I understand more of the biscuit thread. Having just finished wiring up the pcb outside the box i must say i am initially very impressed with the modded TS808 circuit. I went for a switchable .47 - .047 cap and an additional (switchable) assymetric diode clip, plus the 1meg drive pot, and it's fat, it's rich and dripping with harmonic overdrive. Now I'm putting it all in its enclosure then i can runa full check with lead guitar and bass. Sounds like an instant winner so far - and worked first time straight from the solder mat, which is a huge plus for me....

that's great to hear - sorry your custard pic links seem to have gone AWOL

Aww, pic links look AWOL

Blimey. Do you have Melvyn Hiscox book "Build your own Guitar?" essential reading before you start. Second, have you drawn out the entire guitar, life-size, on a soutable roll of paper? This will help you make templates & take measurements to determine the exact location of pickups, neck, bridge, etc. Bridge: if your neck is fretted as a 34" scale neck then the distance from the nut to the bridge saddles needs to be 34". Position the bridge accordingly, draw it all out on your plan. Use the plan to draw a side-view section, including height of bridge saddles, right along to the nut, then you can see if the height is right for the design. You may need to recess the bridge, or shim the neck for a degree or two of angle in the neck pocket so the strings sit at the proper height above the frets, the body, the pickups and on to the bridge saddles. This will determine your neck pocket depth - can't tell unless you know the thickness of the neck. Most basses have a couple of mm neck between body and fingerboard. Study other basses and their dimensions for clues. Right place for pickups - that's up to you but use the existing well known basses as your guide. They say Leo Fender was pretty good at this sort of thing - take a lead from his example. Cavity routing: a lot of people use a Forstner bit to get the hole started, or a conventional 8 or 12mm drill bit, removing as much of the wood as possible first before starting to rout. Only trouble is you have to watch you don't drill too deep. Templates are essential - I make mine from MDF, use a follower router bit with a bearing. You can buy templates for some guitars and pickups, you can make them yourself with care and a fretsaw or jigsaw. String-thru holes for bridge - easier to get perpendicular holes right, not slanted ones. The Project Guitar forum help stickies have a lot of advice on these details. 12) You can add wood to a headstock but its hard getting a nice flush join. You can think about covering the headstock with a veneer. 13) Maybe not a great idea, bear in mind you want to keep string travel thru nut to tuner posts as straight a path as possible. 14) See the jack placement on a Dingwall bass - they are great. Don't bite off more than you can chew for your first project!

Nice one - thanks, that might just fit the bill

well its like the amp mount guitar holder but it has a clamp so you can clamp it onto a flat plane like a bookshelf for example.

Thanks Max & Umph, I stand corrected, was reading the schematic wrong. [url="http://www.muzique.com/lab/fatt.htm"]http://www.muzique.com/lab/fatt.htm[/url]

Thanks for the input guys - this is getting interesting. I'm thinking a mini blend circuit like I added to the fuzzy elephant, to mix wet'n'dry signals, and 3 mini toggle switches, one for the 51pF -> .47uF lead to bass mod as per Aaron nelson, one for cap bypass (AMZ phat mod) - or switching in a different value cap, and one for additional diode for assymetric clipping since I have a spare switch. There's another mod which switches in different types of diode clippers or LED's instead of the stock ones. Not convinced it will be tonally significant but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Looks like I need to go for a bigger enclosure.

You know those guitar stand clip things you can fasten to an amp or a shelf? A C-section padded metal + clamp to rest the guitar neck against to stop your instrument from toppling over? Please tell me what they are called cos I need to buy one! Searched on Dolphin & GAK and Ebay but can't find what I'm after!

[quote name='chriswilliams666' post='724695' date='Jan 25 2010, 11:07 PM']Anyone know what bass it is? lol[/quote] Anyone care?

best time to leave is just after you've been paid for a really crap gig

I'm thinking mid hump here.

I'm also the Proud owner of an EBMM piezo bridge 4-string, and a great 'airiness' is for me the best expression of tone for these. Sort of electro-acoustic zing for bass, which is to be expected, I guess, from the piezo bridge. Adds a huge sonic boost to a dull instrument. Get a good preamp as Owen says.

Ain't Google Great? [url="http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardian/Images/Pickguardian%20Neck%20Radius%20Gauges.pdf"]http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardian/I...us%20Gauges.pdf[/url]

theres a link somewhere to a website bass setup guide and it has some printable neck radius gauges. the name escapes me but I'll remember it at 3 o clock tomorrow morning.

In search of my ultimate bass distortion.overdrive, I've been contemplating a new pedal build based on my favourite guitar overdrive , the Tubescreamer 808. Made a few of these for guitar now and they are great, but high mid range boost means they are awful for Bass. There's a few posts on stompbox forums, Aaron Nelson, etc. with some info on modding tubescreamers to make them more bass frequency-frienly and I wondered if anyone had any experience with these mods and the sounds they can give. example: the tiny 51pF cap on the standard TS-808 circuit can be replaced with a 0.47uF cap, says Mr. Nelson, to extend the circuit's distortion/overdrive as low as 72Hz. there are other '(AMZ) Phat' mods bypassing a second 0.047uF cap, as well as adding a mini switch to toggle in a third assymetric diode to give a 'more tube-like' sound, a smoother cut off to the sine wave, nowhere near as harsh as a fuzz box square wave. I thought I'd have a go at putting all these mods + switch options onto one BassScreamer pedal and see how it works out, but be interested to hear from anyone else that's already explored the use of the modified ts circuit for bass.

I'd have thought with the extra mass of the strings the tension in a bass neck is far greater than a guitar. If I remove a string from a bass (EBMM or Squier Jazz or Warmoth gecko 5-string) the action goes to pot as the tension reduction relaxes the neck relief. This does not happen on any of my electric guitars. So I would say a normal bass neck has a lot more force to balance, so any small changes in humidity, temperature, might cause more of an upset to the balance of tension in a bass, and you may not necessarily see it in a guitar.