Naughty Fish success update and thoughts for people building one

[bscur]

I had trouble earlier with my Naughty Fish pedal. I fixed it, but had trouble with the Up- side of the pedal. I've owned many envelope filters over the years and I think that this one is just more precise in its need to be dialed in. After fiddling with it, I found that all of the switches/positions worked, but they all needed specific tweaks to the gain and peak knobs. As a result, the volume knob is a must-have addition to this pedal. I love the squishy, funky sounds that it has and clearly there are more sounds to unearth. If you feel it isn't working, spend time dialing it in. This pedal, by far, requires the most adjusting and experimenting every time a switch is flipped out of all the pedals I've owned. It is also definitely worth the effort. Thanks for all of the help.
Brad

[copachino]

i had the same problem but, i got use this method, dial the gain until the led stop flashing(the led that its up the pcb) when it stop flashing set the other knobs like volumen and sweep until you like it, tou have to do that always you move a switch.

tht how it works for me

[fredwreck]

I have to disagree with you guys... I have a real Mutron III pedal, and the Naughty Fish sounds very close, but it seems a bit glitchy and unstable.  A real Mutron isnt finicky with its settings or switches, it just works.  The NF was a fun build, but im still using my original Mutron because the NF just takes too much fiddling around to get a good sound out of it.  My opinion of course.

[bscur]

I'm sure a real one is awesome. I used to have the mutron phaser and it was excellent. The best envelope filter I've tried was the 3 Leaf  Grove Regulator. Funky and easy to dial in. I enjoy the naughty fish though, finicky parts and all.

[okeephoss]

what was the problem and what did you do to fix it?

[alanp]

I've built the MBP Nautilus (which I understand to be the Naughty Fish's predecessor), and I found it quite fiddly to dial in, compared to the Meatball (even though the meatball has far more controls.)

[Betty Wont]

I've built 1 Nautilus and 3 Naughty fish and of them, only one of the NF sounded right.

[midwayfair]

I wonder how many of the problematic nautiluses and naughty fishes involved substituting for the VTL5C vactrols or putting the sweep potb anywhere above 0. I compared my first nautilus to a vintage Miii and neither I nor the engineers at Invisible Sound could tell the difference accounting for small differences in the pot positions.

Except for different LEDs and photocells in the vactrols, I'm really not sure what you think can be different. There's nothing else rare in the pedal and its been traced multiple times independently by competent people.

[Orbis_Ignis]

I used the MI1210CLF-R only because that was what was on the parts list. Is the VTL5C3 better?

I just tested mine and seem to work really well. I will say it was sensitive to where the gain was set depending on where the switches were set. I can't wait to get my enclosure finished so I can really get to playing with it.

[Betty Wont]

I wonder how many of the problematic nautiluses and naughty fishes involved substituting for the VTL5C vactrols or putting the sweep potb anywhere above 0. I compared my first nautilus to a vintage Miii and neither I nor the engineers at Invisible Sound could tell the difference accounting for small differences in the pot positions.

Except for different LEDs and photocells in the vactrols, I'm really not sure what you think can be different. There's nothing else rare in the pedal and its been traced multiple times independently by competent people.

That was my conclusion. All of my fails used the Macron "equivalent" from small bear. they seem to be all over the place. I bought a sack of them to build Mutrons and they are useless for it. I've been using them up in delay modulations and they are wildly different from each other. The only Mutron attempt that worked for me used the VTL5C3.

[Orbis_Ignis]

I wonder how many of the problematic nautiluses and naughty fishes involved substituting for the VTL5C vactrols or putting the sweep potb anywhere above 0. I compared my first nautilus to a vintage Miii and neither I nor the engineers at Invisible Sound could tell the difference accounting for small differences in the pot positions.

Except for different LEDs and photocells in the vactrols, I'm really not sure what you think can be different. There's nothing else rare in the pedal and its been traced multiple times independently by competent people.

That was my conclusion. All of my fails used the Macron "equivalent" from small bear. they seem to be all over the place. I bought a sack of them to build Mutrons and they are useless for it. I've been using them up in delay modulations and they are wildly different from each other. The only Mutron attempt that worked for me used the VTL5C3.

I guess I need change mine out then

[Orbis_Ignis]

Changed the Macrons to the VTL5C3's and it made a huge difference.

[thesameage]

Jon,
I used the Macrons in the Nautilus that I just sent you to check out. It's likely that that is the issue.
JR

[thesameage]

Jon took a look at my nautilus and everything seemed to be in order (for the most part), except for the macron vactrols. He replaced those and now it sounds like it should... it was all in the vactrols!

[clifford]

I'm having a problem with the sound of my Naughty Fish. The sweep just doesn't sound right. It's very harsh.  I used the Macron equivalent. Should I try and switch them out with the VTL5C3's?