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Cheesy goodness!  

Man, I'd forgotten how totally nasty a Rat can be.  The bottom is kind of farty on the low strings below the 7th fret (might want to fix that eventually), but the upper registers sing.  I love how Rats kind of bubble slowly with this ever-changing harmonic structure.  It sounds like rolling lava, threatening to explode at any moment.  Rosie certainly has as much dirt as I'll ever need, which is exactly what I built it for.  My "normal" lead sound is more "ampy" - either a hot clean boost or a clear, dynamic overdrive (Eternity or modded SD-1).  Rosies' job is going to be over-the-top fuzzy stuff, and infinite-sustain special effects.

The dirt really comes on fast.  It cleans up way down around 1, but by 2 it's really dirty and goes up slowly from there.

I always had a thing against Turbo Rats - I rmember trying one 25 years ago and leaving with a negative impression.  Gearmandude's YouTube demo of the BYOC Rat clone reinforced that negtive image; I just liked the diode clipping better.  But now, I'm really glad I put the LEDs and mini-switch in Rosie - all three tones are different and usable.  The center position probably won't get used much since I have my normal OD/boost pedal instead, but if this was my only dirt pedal then I could see using all three positions.

This was all through my 18 Watter clone, with the attenuator (Weber MiniMASS) turned way down to bedroom level.  I can't wait to crank it up, take off the "blanket" and get a listen to more of the high-end detail.  The end game is going to be a shootout with my Monte Allums Recto Mod DS-1; another great distortion pedal but maybe a bit too polite for my needs.  Rosie should fix that problem easily.

The photo doesn't show the true color - it's more pinkish than orange for better or worse.  Meh, it's what I had in the junk box.  You can't see it in the picture, but the finish on the top is uh.... textured.  Yeah, that's the ticket, it's textured.  What that means is, I accidentally bought a can of Krylon GLOSS clear acrylic instead of my tried-and-true satin acrylic.  The gloss started to wrinkle the powdercoat, but I noticed in time, let it cure, and resumed with the satin.  (Another box I was painting at the time didn't get off so easy; I had to sand it down to the primer and start over.)  In the end, Rosie was not built as a work of art - she's meant to be stomped on with a pair of funky old red Converse hightops.

Nothing out of the ordinary inside - the only mod I did to the circuit is the symmetrical clipping diodes.  



With any luck, I'll get a chance to try it through my amp later in the day.

Man, it only took me a year to build this thing.  I got all the parts together, decaled the enclosure, then got busy with other things and didn't get back to it until now.  I wanted a Rat, but pedalboard space dictated it had to be a Boss-pedal footprint or smaller.  So, I ordered myself a Slow Lorus board.  I planned on a basic Rat design, with two clipping diodes and no switch.  This was to be a low-budget build, so I drilled a surplus 125-B enclosure that I got for free because it had no back plate.  It's one of those red-pink powdercoated ones from Small Bear, hence the name "Rosie the Rat".

It's late, so I could only test it through my Vox Amp Plug, which doesn't take boost or dirt pedals well.  However, early indications are it sounds like a Rat.  I'm glad I changed my mind at the last minute and added the 3-way clipping switch; there seem to be a lot of different tones in there.

Pics and a report on how it sounds through my 18 Watter tomorrow, I promise.

With any luck, my Small Bear order with the last couple caps wiil show up today, and I'll finish my Slow Lorus tonight.  As soon as that's done, it's time to wire up my Fat Pants.

Question:  I noticed the volume pot changed between Fat Pants v1 and v2.  I had aa 100K I could have put in there, but ordered a 50K just for this pedal.  Then, I noticed v2 changed to a 100K.

Has any body tried both values, and can you give me the pluses and minuses of each, tonally of otherwise?

Do you need a diagram for how to properly wire the switch?

Nah, I got that covered.  Just looking for some advice n starting points for the cap values.

Yeah, I saw that same 3-way mod in a response to someone else's inquiry.  I ordered a 3-way mini toggle this morning along with a few different caps to try.

Are Brian's original recommendations of 47n or 68n just "too much"?

[DOH!]

   Double DOH!

I just looked at my Fat Pants board - it's a V1, and does indeed only have a volume pot.  So my enclosure layout is okay.

However, I have a spare hole for a mini-toggle.  What are the recommended options for cap-switching using a 2- or 3-position switch?

[Doh!]

First, my major triumph:  I spent a couple hours and actually got my workbench cleaned off tonight, so I can build a couple pedals.  I've had parts for a Slow Lorus and a Fat Pants sitting around for over a year, waiting for time and space to put 'em together.  Woohoo!  The Slow Lorus is already assembled - I just need to solder the board and wire it into the enclosure.

Second, my goof.  I was so fired up tonight after getting the bench cleaned off that I decided to keep working and fab an enclosure for the Fat Pants. So I drilled a box I had lying around, primed it, and painted it bright metallic silver.  Then I came here, to find out about C3 mods.  Looking at the schematic, I realized it's designed to have TWO pots... "Volume" and "Fat". 

Doh!  I drilled my enclosure for one pot plus a mini-toggle for the presence (or C3) mod switch.  I just thought, "Eh, preamp.  Needs a volume control." and never dreamed it would have more than that.

Did I say "Doh!"?

So, my question for all you Fat Pants players out there: how important is the "Fat" control?  Is it something you adjust a lot, or do you find "your" sound and then leave it?  (Obviously, I'm thinking about using a trimmer for the "Fat" pot.) 

And anyway, what's the "Fat" control do?  Is it a bass control?  Mids?

I love all things Tele, and this one is very slick! But, no neck pup??? I can't live without the two pickup combo. I even wire my Strats with this option 

My last Tele was a Nashville, but I got sick of fiddling around with too many switch positions, and finding it usually sounded best on the bridge pickup.. This guitar is the Anti-Nashville.  I've finally learned that simpler is better.

My goldtop Schecter PT mutt has a pair of Duncan 59s, with a pull-split switch on the bridge volume pot and a pull-phase on the neck volume pot.  That guitar has plenty of flexibility if I need it.  The new one is all about the basics.

'Sides, it has the typical MIM humbucker route at the neck, so if I find I can't live without a neck pickup, I can fit anything in there with a simple pickguard chance.  I'm hanging onto the original pickguard and TexMex neck pickup just in case.  It would probably be a pretty good match for the QP.

The variable coil tap pot is the best part of tis guitar.  There are so many great sounds in between.  The 1/4 pound does a pretty good Tele twang on the tap - not completely authentic, but good enough.  The full coil is really fat, sometimes to the point of being buried in the band mix.  Being able to back it off a little bit to brighten it up helps it cut.

To use an AC/DC reference: 3/4 on the tap pot is Riff Raff, full up is Sin City.

Yup... when it's upside down on the bench with its guts hanging out, the input's on the left.

Me?  My first try usually fails because I forgot to put the op amp in its socket.

Hi, guys.  I haven't been around much lately.  Busy summer: kids off from school, vacation, traveling a lot for work. What little time I had to spend on guitar gear, got used on non-pedal pursuits.  I helped my son buy his first full-size bass back in June (Squier Classic Vibe '60s P-bass in Sonic Blue - SWEET bass).  Also, I spent some time finding him an old Peavey TNT 130 bass amp while I was out on one of my businees trips (great old amp that will probably run forever, AND it has a Black Widow 15").

Then it was ME time.  The latest project was this:



It's a 2005 MIM Tele I picked up for a reasonable price on line.  It needed a lot of work - I ended up having to remove the neck and clean the gloppy paint runs out of the neck pocket to get it aligned so the low E wasn't falling off the fingerboard. (Thank God for Dan Erlewine and his book How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great - his description of this problem and how to fix it was exactly what I found when I popped the neck off.)

Once I had it playing right, I proceeded to realize my "vision" a stripped-down Les-Paul-Juniorish Esquire, with a Duncan Tapped Quarter Pound pickup and two knobs - volume and variable tap.  That rear pot lets me dial in any tone between the twangy tapped position and the full-on QP coil, which is more P90-ish that Tele-ish.  I got the Esquire pickguard, blank control plate, and Wilkinson compensated 3-saddle bridge from Guitar Fetish.

I've always had a tendency to over-complicate things with too many knobs and switches and choices (the guitar before this was a Nashville Tele).  This is the backlash - stupid simple. I named it "Dangerous Type" after the first song I played on it; I've been on a huge Cars kick lately, and I love Elliot Easton's solo in that song.

More photos here: http://s785.photobucket.com/albums/yy134/Rich_S_GuitarGeek/Dangerous%20Type/

Next up... those four MadBean PC boards waiting in the workshop.

Well, you're both right.  That copper-plating Steam Punk guy was the one I was remembering, but pandadandan's photo is kind of what I have in mind.  I want to afix some stamped copper nameplates to these black crinkle-finish boxes.

Is there anybody out there in MadBeanLand who can make a couple for me?

Help me out, friends.  Somewhere on one of the many effects forums, I saw a guy who makes sort of post-apocalyptic pedals - rusty looking with stamped metal nameplates.  Like James Trussart stompboxes, or something out of Mad Max.

I have some enclosures that would make really cool pedals - they flat balck crinkle-finish, but normal labeling won't work on them.  I'm hoping I can track this guy down for some of his stamped metal tags - they'd look great on these boxes.

Anybody know who I'm talking about, and which forum I likely saw him on?

I was ordering a FaultLine board for my son the other day, and just before I read on the TDPRI that Mark Knopfler used an Orange Squeezer on "Sultans of Swing".  I don't even know if that's correct, but I was ordering anyway, so what the heck, I ordered a Cupcake.

What sort of compression tones will this thing give me?  I always associated the Orange Squeezer with Jeff Baxter's Steely Dan solos - a squashed, out-of-control totally abused little Fender sound (Boston Rag, anyone?)

I've never really found a compressor I like, though I love what others do with them.  My favorite compressor tones are Andy Summers (script DynaComp), James Honeyman-Scott (Boss CS-1?) and Jamie West-Oram of the Fixx (DynaComp or DBX IIRC).

In the great big galaxy of guitar compressors, where does the Ornage Squeezer/Cupcake fit in?