using the fatpants as a pt based delay preamp...

[B_of_H]

I'm playing around with this idea right now after looking at the new version of the fatpants.  Two of my delays (byoc and pt80 run off a charge pump so this would work for both powering those units and goosing the input as well possibly.  It seems so far that the stock fatpants doesn't quite darken up the signal enough for my taste.  So here are the mods i'm going to try (old fatpants pcb):

c1: 500p or up to 1n
c2: 33n or 47n
c3: 33n or 27n

r4: 47k to 68k or so

vol: 100kB (probably convert to trimpot and leave it inside the box)

will this be too dark and bassy?  I'm guessing that c2 will darken up the signal a bit and c3 raised will add a little bass.  I'm also assuming c1 will roll off high end at a certain freq..perhaps i'm over thinking/ over modding again?   Roll Eyes  I'd like it to be a little on the rough/dark side rather than bright and sterile. 

[B_of_H]

Ok...I guessed wrong on a few things.

raising C3 seems to make it brighter not darker for some reason

right now I have the values at:

C1: 820p
C2: 33n
C3: pulled

sound pretty damn good, it rolls off a little treble and is fuller sounding.  Makes my delay sound more lo-fi perhaps.

[madbean]

Increasing C3 gives it a larger frequency range. With a sufficiently large enough cap it will be full band across the range of the guitar.

[maysink]

I assume you're using this as a preamp straight into the delay. How you liking it?

[mjcyates]

On my Fatpants build I put C3 on a dpdt switch so if I want darker I take it out of the circuit it I want brighter I switch it in. Works nice.

[madbean]

Do you have any popping when switching it out of the circuit? I actually haven't tried mine without a cap there, but it sounds like another good mod.

[mjcyates]

No I do not notice any popping. I think it is a good mod. Allows you to compensate for single coils vs humbuckers.

[B_of_H]

Let me clarify: i'm trying to reproduce the sound of my dd20's tape echo setting, which I used on a few songs on our album that we play regularly.  it's kind of a 'ba-dump...ba-dump' sound from the multi-head modeling.  (I think of it as a Neil Young-ish type thing but I don't know if i've ever heard  it from anything he's done...just one of those things my brain does without logical explanation)  For whatever reason I want to hear a more dark and knarly sound out of this specific delay.  One thing i've noticed about the fatpants is that when you hit it with dirt it changes the character of breakup in a cool way...which kinda reminds me of some classic rock stuff that probably used an echoplex in the first place.  Plus, these pt delays are plenty bright and clinical sounding as is compared to what I think a tape echo would sound like.  I'm okay with it changing the dry sound because I use it on specific things only.  I'll probably make a little bit of a compromise in how dark it is when I install it (probably a little too dark now)

i used this dd20 preset on the songs ravenswire and love as you should (we recorded it in wet/dry fashion so it's pretty low in the mix):

http://www.myspace.com/hellhoundjunkieskc

madbean: i'll try a larger cap next, I only went up to 100n

mjcyates: nice idea, I can see how that would be a handy switch

maysink: yes, I just plugged the box into the input of this delay and I really like it so far.  It makes it sound less like a pt based delay and gives me a different texture.

I think it makes more sense to implement this circuit after the signal is split so it only effects the repeats but i'm not about to hack up the pcb now as i'm pretty busy for the next month and need to use it.