DeadRinger, based off Full Tone Fulldrive? Tried it before?

[brand0nized]

I've been going on TGP forums and people are suggesting the FullTone Full Drive 2 for Praise & Worship. My friend has one and he seems to like it.

Me, being on my limited high school side job budget, I want to make the DeadRinger, based off of the Full Drive, to save money.

Before I go through with it, I have some questions:
-This is based on the Full Tone Full Drive right?
-If so, is it based off Full Drive 1 or 2?
-How does this sound? Anyone tried it before?
-I'm a beginner, do you suggest this for me?

[Diamond]

I actually feel like I'm on TGP with the praise and worship mention. But I'll try to answer your questions as well as I can.

1) Yes, this is based on the Fulltone Fulldrive. It says so right on the projects page. You can also check out the schematic in the build document and compare it to Fulldrive schematics on other sites like freestompboxes.org or diystompboxes.com or even google. The Fulldrive, in turn is based on a TS808.

2) There have been many versions of the Fulldrive with subtle differences. Since this project has the mosfet and flat mids switches, it probably has most in common with the Fulldrive 2 Mosfet. You can, however, dig up schematics of older Fulldrives and adjust the Deadringer layout to one of them if you'd like.

3) It will sound like a modded Tube Screamer, which it is. Seriously, check YouTube for clips of the Fulldrive. This project will probably sound about 95% - 99% the same, as do most clones. Take into account though, that because of part tolerances not even two Fulldrives will sound 100% same. Also take into account the many different versions.

4) No I don't. It has quite a bit of extra switches and offboard wiring. If you've never used a soldering iron or built a pedal, I would suggest you'd try a simpler effect, like the Thunderpuss or Sprout, first.

Finally I'd like to say, don't do it to save money. Because it doesn't! Sure, when you'd only do one clone of an expensive boutique pedal using borrowed equipment you'd be off cheaper. The truth is though, that it's an addictive hobby and the total amount of tools, parts, space, time, etc always cost you more than you'd have expected when you started out and you end up like most of us, with a drawer full of pedals you never use and only a few on your actual pedalboard. Then also take into account resale value. If you buy a used Fulldrive today, you can sell it in a week/month/year for roughly the same amount you bought it for. It's a lot harder to sell clones, even for experienced builders with nice looking projects, not to mention for first time builders who may not work so neatly. The point is though, don't go into pedal building to save money, because you won't. Most of us here build pedals because we love to tweak things to our liking. If you want to save money, buy a used unit!

EDIT: forgot to mention, you can also use the search function of this forum to find previous builds/experiences with the Deadringer or other projects. It's a very useful function, try it!

[gtr2]

Today for P&W I used a rat for low gain  and a glitteratti for more drive.  Don't get hung up on one drive, many will work for what you need.

Josh

[jkokura]

One thing I'll mention Brandon, is that if you truly are on a budget and looking for a cheaper solution to getting a Fulldrive 2, building one yourself is not going to really save you anything unless you're going into this to build many pedals. After shipping from multiple sources, and the tool's and materials you'll need, you may find that saving $120 to get a used Fulldrive 2 is probably going to be the less expensive route. Not to mention you can probably find a used Blues driver for about $50, and I'd highly recommend getting one of those and doing the Brent Mason mods to that instead of using the Fulldrive.

That said, I've used the Fulldrive for P&W and it's nice. Does the job as well as my tubescreamer, Klone, and any number of other drive pedals I've used.

Jacob

[brand0nized]

Thanks for the help guys! And thanks for steering me away from something that I will fall into later on. But I still do want to make a pedal atleast.

As for production costs, I have all the tools I need at home. I went through an electronics phase a couple years ago. And fellow member on this blog (chromespherecom) has directed me to buy parts from mammothelectronics.com. I went there and put all the parts needed into the cart, including parts, enclosures, and jacks. So far my total is under $40, free shipping.

I hope I won't get into trading and selling pedals to get other pedals, because I'd probably end up spending extra money. I heard on an interview for Musician's Friend that there's this guitarist who has been using the same gear for 20 years, dialing in his tone with what he has. Pretty inspirational.

[gtr2]

I hope I won't get into trading and selling pedals to get other pedals, because I'd probably end up spending extra money. I heard on an interview for Musician's Friend that there's this guitarist who has been using the same gear for 20 years, dialing in his tone with what he has. Pretty inspirational.

haha... STAY away from the gearpage then.... 

[jkokura]

As for production costs, I have all the tools I need at home. I went through an electronics phase a couple years ago. And fellow member on this blog (chromespherecom) has directed me to buy parts from mammothelectronics.com. I went there and put all the parts needed into the cart, including parts, enclosures, and jacks. So far my total is under $40, free shipping.

Awesome. If you have all the gear already, and are committed to trying it out as an experience, go for it!

However, if you count the time spent, it will easily cost you more than you're expecting. If you spend 10 hours, and you're usually paid 10 bucks an hour at work, your pedal has cost you 140 bucks. Just saying...

You'd probably not make $100 bucks in that time you spend, but if you really want to learn how to do something that's fun and certainly rewarding, you could do worse than this hobby.

My point was to make sure your eyes are open. I know too many guys that try to get into this thinking they'll save big bucks, but that's certainly misinformation.

Jacob

[Diamond]

As for production costs, I have all the tools I need at home. I went through an electronics phase a couple years ago. And fellow member on this blog (chromespherecom) has directed me to buy parts from mammothelectronics.com. I went there and put all the parts needed into the cart, including parts, enclosures, and jacks. So far my total is under $40, free shipping.

Alright! What you also could try is to build a Tube Screamer clone. Madbean has the PCB for that project in stock. Check out the "Green Bean" on the projects page. It's a bit easier than the Deadringer, and can get similar sounds.

I hope I won't get into trading and selling pedals to get other pedals, because I'd probably end up spending extra money. I heard on an interview for Musician's Friend that there's this guitarist who has been using the same gear for 20 years, dialing in his tone with what he has. Pretty inspirational.

haha... STAY away from the gearpage then.... 

That's always good advise! I, and many others, spend way too much time contemplating and finding info about gear and keep spending lots of cash on new stuff and way too little time actually playing!

[Sigesmundninja]

yeah this hobby sure cost money... Banzaimusic saves all your order-history and sums the cost of them all... I have been building pedals for almost one year now and my total at banzai is now 1.900€ 

as for pedalpartsplus, smallbear and ebay, I don't want to think about it.

but hey, as long as we're having fun, right?! 

[brand0nized]

but hey, as long as we're having fun, right?! 

And don't run out of cash!