The Best of The Best

[electricb]

I've been reading forums for a while and especially at FSB, there is always some discussion when a pedal is traced about how badly or well designed it is. It got me thinking, is there a consensus about what the best designed pedals are from an engineering standpoint? Perhaps we can come up with a "Best Of" list for 2013. For example, I love the RAT and what it does, but is there a better engineered distortion that improves on it? People love the Klon, but does the Kingslayer do a similar job with a better design? Usually I just go by sound, but I'm curious what other more knowledgeable people think. Are some circuits clearly superior to others?

[midwayfair]

Oh this should be fun.

All the Boss pedals are exceptionally well-engineered. And yet sometimes they manage to use a crappy buffer, despite being able to make an almost perfect one (the TU-2).

You also have to define "better" in terms of engineering. There are multiple types of engineering that go into a pedal:
1) Industrial: can this pedal be cost-effectively manufactured? Can results be duplicated on a large scale? What are the additional time, labor, and parts costs associated with improving consistency of a particular design (e.g. if you can make two pedals sound identical by twittering several trimpots, is that worth it?).

2) "trade dress" or something like that -- some companies have physical limitations. Most boss designs must be able to fit in a certain sized enclosure. MXR pedals are all either 1590B or 1590BB. Moore everything is in a 1590A, almost always with a specific knob layout. EHX does whatever the heck it wants most of the time. A cost-benefit analysis must be done to determine which corners can be cut to meet this need. And while some people on forums might scoff at it or carp about how it affects quality control, recognizable enclosures are hugely important to the vitality of a particular company.

3) Lifetime: How long will these parts be available? Will we be able to source them while they're available? What is the plan if this changes? This is a huge one for delay pedals: It's why all the major manufacturers have slowly moved toward digital, and it's also why cool audio chips get used even though it's still possible to get panasonic chips. You don't want to have to do limited runs just because something sounds better to someone somewhere.

All of these are on top of "does it sound good"? And there are many, many other things to consider.

Here's my personal philosophy:
1) How hard is it to track down a problem if it happens?

2) How many things can go wrong?

3) If a part is likely to blow up (MOSFETs and CMOS chips, I'm looking at you), is there a substitute, or a way to protect it? Sometimes this one has really good results -- my Hamlet delay came about looking for a way to avoid using a compander to avoid distortion, because they blow up easily and cost a lot of money. I ended up with a single LED (2c) being the magic solution.

Also, sometimes "bad" engineering is the secret to a sound. The Fuzz Face has low input impedance -- bad for guitar pickups. But it sees the pickups as a current source -- awesome for touch sensitive fuzz. The RAT uses a horrible, low-fidelity op amp ... and won't sound right without it.

The Kingslayer is just "different" from the klone, and this is where designer choice factors in. It will accomplish the exact same thing 99.9% of the time with a simpler schematic. I'm a big fan of that. It will also do "more" with minimal additions (switches and diodes). I'm a fan of that, too. Is +9V/-9V the " 'best' possible thing" that could be done from a design perspective? Maybe not, because we know we can squeeze 18V out of the positive rail like in the klon, so if you think that the best possible way to build that circuit is with the highest possible voltage from a 9V source, then you will think that Brian made the wrong choice in the Kingslayer. But the situations where that comes up are few and far between. The other difference is that the overdrive section won't be clipping the op amp as much in the kingslayer. That's another choice, not a design flaw or benefit. If you think that op amps shouldn't be clipped, you'll think Brian made the right choice for the kingslayer. And so on.

[culturejam]

Oh this should be fun.

Indeed!

It got me thinking, is there a consensus about what the best designed pedals are from an engineering standpoint?

Do you mean engineering of the actual product (physical design), or the circuit design? Because those could easily be (at least) two independent discussions.

Back when I still frequented FSB, I was a very vocal critic of a few particular brands of pedals because they consistently turned out poorly constructed products. To me, selling a poorly built pedal is a big "F-You" to the customer, regardless of how innovative the circuit is. I think the days when a cool circuit was good enough to overcome a bad product execution are coming to close. Or at least it's less accepted now, and I really believe that FSB played a huge role in bringing build quality to the attention of the average boutique customer.

Anyway, here is my list of brands that do the best work inside and outside the box:

Boss
Barber Electronics
Subdecay Studios
Earthquaker Devices
Dr. Scientist
Blackout Effectors
Strymon

There are others, but those are the brands that I think do it right.

[pickdropper]

Yeah, to me there are two totally different engineering disciplines involved:

1). Circuit design - how does the circuit sound?

2). Design for manufacturing - how is the finished pedal being manufactured so that it is functional and reliable?

There are plenty of examples that accomplish both.  There are also plenty that accomplish one but not the other.

On the boutique side of things, it's not uncommon for the builders to be unaware (or uninterested) in common design practice.

Plus, everybody knows it adds mojo to have lousy rats nest wiring.

[croquet hoop]

Plus, everybody knows it adds mojo to have lousy rats nest wiring.

Exactly. The imperfections make the design/sound perfect.

Or the other way round.

[selfdestroyer]

aesthetically, I have always loved how Jack Deville Electronic does their layouts.

Example

[midwayfair]

aesthetically, I have always loved how Jack Deville Electronic does their layouts.

Yeah, Jack's layouts are works of art. Look even more closely and not only are all the resistors facing the same way, but they are grouped as much as possible by value.

[LaceSensor]

For me the best pedals being made right now are by Dr Scientist, both in terms of scope for sounds, graphic design, finish quality, PCB design and customer service. Seriously, if you have any interest in supporting a boutique company worth the money (besides folk like Jack Deville, Wampler and others doing it right) then check out their stuff.

The Elements has to be hands down the most versatile pedal I've played.

Aside from boutique, the brand I feel that really excels in terms of execution, customer support and price at the lower mass produced end, is Way Huge. Every one of their mk2 line is excellent, except from the Ring Worm (which while having great sounds, has shitty non-true bypass and carrier bleed etc). The engineering of Way Huge pedals puts almost everything out there to shame.

[culturejam]

For me the best pedals being made right now are by Dr Scientist, both in terms of scope for sounds, graphic design, finish quality, PCB design and customer service. Seriously, if you have any interest in supporting a boutique company worth the money (besides folk like Jack Deville, Wampler and others doing it right) then check out their stuff.

I agree all around. And Ryan is one of the nicest guys in the biz. He also encourages DIY building, rather than the usual boutique attitude that DIY=theft. I had a nice email conversation with him about how much I liked the RRR circuit, and he was nice enough to send me the DSP chips so that I could build my own version of it. Doesn't get much more awesome than that.

[LaceSensor]

For me the best pedals being made right now are by Dr Scientist, both in terms of scope for sounds, graphic design, finish quality, PCB design and customer service. Seriously, if you have any interest in supporting a boutique company worth the money (besides folk like Jack Deville, Wampler and others doing it right) then check out their stuff.

I agree all around. And Ryan is one of the nicest guys in the biz. He also encourages DIY building, rather than the usual boutique attitude that DIY=theft. I had a nice email conversation with him about how much I liked the RRR circuit, and he was nice enough to send me the DSP chips so that I could build my own version of it. Doesn't get much more awesome than that.

He's almost unnervingly too nice and that's the only critique I can reasonably levy...
What a legend.

[electricb]

Thanks everyone for the interesting responses. I was mostly referring to circuit design, although its difficult to separate it from manufacturing considerations. I was just curious to hear from some electrical engineering types to see if there is a "perfect" fuzz or distortion,  even if it doesn't sound like the classic "flawed" circuits!

[LaceSensor]

Too hard to answer. Everyone has their own tastes.

[selfdestroyer]

What sounds broken to one person is musical genius to another. Like the Zvex stuff or the Death by Audio stuff. They take a lot of crap for build quality and usability but if its good/cool to you then rock it. I think just like any other art form, there is no real right or wrong.

[Stomptown]

On the boutique side of things, it's not uncommon for the builders to be unaware (or uninterested) in common design practice.

Plus, everybody knows it adds mojo to have lousy rats nest wiring.

I'm actually quite interested in learning about common design practices. Do you have any links to info on this?

[chromesphere]

aesthetically, I have always loved how Jack Deville Electronic does their layouts.

Example

Surely that's gotta be a 4 layer board??