Fat Pants

[maysink]

The legendary preamp of an echoplex delay. I really like this little booster--she adds just the right amount of sparkle that's useable with clean & dirty tones. I do not like my hand lettering and should have left well enuf alone. This is a super easy build that makes a very useful pedal.

[madbean]

Super cool. Bonus points for putting it in a 1590A!

[db72]

Nice clean, tight build.

Looking at the footswitch wiring though, should'nt 3A and 2a be connected? 

[madbean]

It isn't necessary. They are connected mechanically inside. I connect them with my wiring because it preserves ground if the switch fails.

[db72]

good to know. thanks. those footswitches are still a mystery to me. like women.

[zaxza]

tell me about it lol. women eh, can't live with them can't live without them. A bit drunk at the moment, but still can't help checking out the forum.

[Rich_S]

Thanks for the report.  I plan to order a Fat Pants (as well as some othrer stuff) as soon as the store reopens tomorrow.  But I can't decide if I should build it into the front end of my pedalboard permanently (mounted under the deck for buffering and slight, fixed boost) OR if I should build it into a the carcass of of dead Cry Baby I have around, using it as a volume/boost pedal.

Maybe I should just buy two.

[maysink]

OR if I should build it into a the carcass of of dead Cry Baby I have around, using it as a volume/boost pedal.

If this works it sounds like a very cool idea. Definitely post back with pics if you pull this off!

[mjcyates]

Here are pics of my Fat Pants build.

[mjcyates]

When I built this I thought it sounded nice, however, it did add some high end to the tone. I wanted it to be a little more transparent so I discussed it with my brother in law who knows more about this stuff than I and he suggested I remove C3 from the circuit. I did this and that high end addition is gone. Just thought I would share for those looking to build or tweak this circuit. Some may prefer the high end, but I like it better with the cap removed.

[madbean]

You could also try increasing C3. Try 220n up to maybe 1uF. It will effectively apply a larger amount of gain across a broader spectrum of frequencies.

[hoyager]

Hi there, have just ordered one of these boards, will a 10k pot (linear?) work for the external gain control?

many thanks
Andy

[oldhousescott]

10k will technically work, but it will load the FET pretty hard. It will also change the high-pass corner frequency, cutting the bass more. I would stick with a 50k pot.

[Fastocker]

Nice job all!  I really love this pedal --- it really adds some shimmer and sparkle to any amp.  I tried fooling around with different values for R3 and C3 per the project document but came back to the stock values as sounding the best to me.  I even hooked up a pot to R3, set it where I thought it sounded best, measured the pot . . . . and it measured right at 3k3, LOL.  I've built two and here's the first one --- candy gold powdercoat with some gold flake thrown in:



I built a second one using carbon comp resistors but it sounded basically the same to me.  I tried to back-light the knob on this one ---- worked OK if you have the knob pointing straight north (it glows blue), otherwise it loses the effect (LED needs to be closer to the pot).  Candy teal powdercoat on this one ---- still needs a decal:

[madbean]

Do tell about these clear knobs