Besides the 1MC, any other mods (Nautilus)

[peAk]

Okay, so I did Jons recommendation of the gain pot being switched out to a 1MC, and this helped out a lot.

That being said, is there any other mods people have done to this?

This is such a great pedal but it's also very sensitive to certain settings and gets "out of control" pretty quickly.

Having never played an original, I am not sure if this was how the Mu-tron behaved as well.

Any tweaks people have done?

[Betty Wont]

after i built my first one I made a second that is easier to use by omitting less useful options from the get go. Made for a cheaper build too. Mine has no band choice, its just hardwired to low pass. I omitted the sweep control and also the range switch (it is permenantly in "normal" mode, I can't remember which is up or down but the reverse function is pretty useless to me). So all that is left is Gain, Peak, and lo/hi filter. it STILL has a lot of variety but no useless settings are available to the user.

[peAk]

I am just not convinced that my Nautilus is working correctly. I mean, I have listened to all the demos I can find, and while I am able to achieve some of the sounds, I also get crazy noise and some feedback/squealing on some settings.

I really can't get a good sound with the range setting to the right, with the filters going low>high. It only seems to sound decent with the range setting to the left where the filter dips down (LED dims with dynamics).

Checked all my resistors, capacitors, reseating ICs, ....

I am not sure if I am looking for Mods or if my build is not working correctly.

I guess the next step would be to take pictures and post in the right section.

[peAk]

By the way, I am using the MI1210CLF-R

Not sure if I should try the VTL5C3

[alanp]

I got fed up with the fiddly-ness you mentioned, and built a Meatball clone. Far, far easier to dial in.

[midwayfair]

Keep in mind that the Nautilus is meant to be a reproduction of a vintage device that can be built with today's parts, with one or two extra bells and whistles, and not a full-on "better Mutron," which is what the Meatball is.

Really any mods you're going to do are going to be either to affect the sweep or add more controls to the envelope. These are worth considering but will turn it into something else:

-Buffered input. This changes the input loading and does some other weird things. It's a big reason the Nautilus sounds and behaves slightly different from the EHX Q-tron.
-External volume (you could go with the gain trimpot -- or a real voltage divider volume control at the output)
-Decay control (make R15 variable, something like a 100K with 10K as the minimum resistance)
-Some sort of frequency selector for the envelope control (changing C4, which can affect which frequencies trigger the envelope)
-You could also make the "range" switch and the relevant resistors (R10, R11) a threshold pot. I'm not sure how big a range is really useful there, but I would say a 100K pot would cover probably the entire useful range of every guitar at almost any gain pot setting. It might even handle line level signals.
-You can tinker around with C5-C8 to change the frequencies of the sweep, but it's hard to imagine that you can't find a frequency sweep you like among the settings of the switches.

[peAk]

Thanks guys

What is this "Meatball" you guys speak of? Is it a fabricated board that is still available? I googled and found MeatSphere at musicpcb but that's about it.

[Guitarmageddon]

A Meatball



But this is the Meatball in question, of which the MusicPCB is a clone.

Now I'm hungry...

[peAk]

A Meatball



But this is the Meatball in question, of which the MusicPCB is a clone.

Now I'm hungry...

yeah, been trying to find the meatsphere but it's been out of stock

[alanp]

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=12140.msg110222#msg110222

This is my board. Droogie also did a build on this board. I've got it shared -- see sig link.

[thesameage]

The only problem with a meatball clone is that there are so so many knobs and options that you can spend all your time twiddling away. Personally, I like a pedal with a few less options.

[peAk]

The only problem with a meatball clone is that there are so so many knobs and options that you can spend all your time twiddling away. Personally, I like a pedal with a few less options.

and see with all due respect, I am the complete opposite. I like to have as many options as possible for tweaking but can totally understand someone who doesn't.

[thesameage]

Yeah, different strokes 

I had one and while it sounds great, it's tough to dial in exactly the sound that you want. You mess with it a lot. I need 2-3 knobs. More than that and I'm lost for an hour.

When it works, though, it gets that glorious Mike Gordon wet Down With Disease sound.

[peAk]

Yeah, different strokes 

I had one and while it sounds great, it's tough to dial in exactly the sound that you want. You mess with it a lot. I need 2-3 knobs. More than that and I'm lost for an hour.

When it works, though, it gets that glorious Mike Gordon wet Down With Disease sound.

no, I understand where you are coming from. I am actually going through that a little right now with the Sharkfin (Maestro Sample & Hold) and Cortexturizer is helping me with some mods. It's easy to get lost when you have a lot of options....but the more options, the more sounds you can get too!

[thesameage]

Too many knobs is a total double edged sword. I def learned that with the meat clones.