Duff Drive - Simpsons/Cornish Content

[eldanko]

Can't Get Enough of That Wonderful Duff!™

The Duff Drive is a Cornish SS-2 overdrive built on the Black Horse Effects "English Sustain" pcb that I picked up a while ago and never got around to building. With my Matchless in particular, I tend to gravitate towards ODs and fuzzes with a good amount of bass response; lately, I've been using my JMK Moon Lander build as an always-on pedal with playing my Tele through that amp, as it fills out the lows absolutely beautifully. Thus, when I read that some people found the SS-2 to be a bit bassy, I had a feeling that I would probably like it a lot. 

I built the project with no part substitutions and kept the buffered bypass for the sake of accuracy. The one part I did experiment with was the diodes; to my ears, they have a pretty drastic effect on the character of the breakup and the overall EQ of the pedal itself. I tried the following pairs:

D9K - A little brighter than I liked, but a strong choice overall. Bass response sat quite nicely.

OA126 - I really expected to like these the best, as they're my diode of choice in Klone builds. Nevertheless, they made the pedal waaaaaay too bassy. They actually seemed to attenuate the high end a bit as well, which I didn't particularly like.

AN307 - These were just right. Had roughly the same amount of bass as the D9Ks, but sweeter highs overall. Small Bear currently has quite a few of these, and I think they sound quite nice.

I swapped between the D9Ks and the AN307s three or four times before committing - it was that close. Ear fatigue may have played a role after a while, but I really was happy with the tones I was getting. That being said - if you find this circuit too bassy, a diode swap may make just enough difference to make it play well with your amp.

This thing really does a fine job fattening up single coils. For lack of a better term, the breakup is pretty amp-like... I'm surprised more guys don't go nuts over these. I have a feeling this will spend some time on my gigging board. Looking forward to seeing how well it performs as a solo boost.

[GrindCustoms]

Very nice!

Since you tend to like ODs and Fuzz with ballsy lowend, you ever tried the RAH?

[eldanko]

Yep! I have one of those built into a dual pedal with a DLS on the other side. Basically Jimmy Page in a box.

I like the RAH, but it doesn't seem to play well with all amps. I like it with my Fenders, less so with my Matchless, jury's out with my Naylor. I haven't played it in a while, but I seem to remember liking it considerably more with humbuckers than I did with single coils. I think it was definitely made to be played with a Les Paul

[wgc]

Sweet build!

Thx for the notes on diodes too

[bcalla]

That's slick!

Why the double stick on the back of the pots?

[eldanko]

Why the double stick on the back of the pots?

Before I attached them to the pcb, I erroneously assumed that they'd all be oriented downward (toward the pcb) so I added the double stick on there to cushion between the pots and board. I'll use that stuff whenever I happen to run out of pot condoms!