Gearmandude Demos a BUNCH of BYOC Pedals!!

[duhvoodooman]

While there are quite a number of video demos of BYOC pedals available on YouTube, they are all over the place in terms of audio quality, player skills, musical styles, guitars/amps used, etc.

The ubiquitous Gearmandude (no, he's NOT Jack Black, even though he sounds just like him) has recently posted a series of video demos with a whole bunch of the BYOC pedals. Fifteen of them, by my count, out of a current BYOC product offering of 24. The cool thing is that he used the same guitar & amp throughout--a King Bee relic Tele and a Jaguar Twin tube amp. Plus, the audio quality is very good and the guy can really play. There's a brief intro video and then a series of six actual demo videos covering the 15 effects. Here ya go, kiddies:

Intro video:

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Overdrive 2:

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ESV Fuzz & Triboost:

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Large Beaver, Shredder and British Blues Overdrive:

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Leeds Fuzz, Mouse and Analog Chorus:

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Tremolo, Analog Delay and Stereo Flanger:

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Phaser, 5-Knob Compressor and Optical Compressor:

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[Rocket]

Man, if I had to look down in the dark and see a board full of metal colored pedals at my feet... I'd freak and start stomping everything in sight!

[ragnarpk]

Man, if I had to look down in the dark and see a board full of metal colored pedals at my feet... I'd freak and start stomping everything in sight!

amen.

[duhvoodooman]

Guys, these are from Keith Vonderhull's cache of demo builds that he loaned to Gearmandude for this videotaping. The point is what they SOUND like, not what they look like. Once you build your own, you can finish it however you like. Or I hear that there are guys who will build & finish these kits for you, if you're not a DIY'er.... ;) :D

[marnold]

That Overdrive 2 is way cool. I just wish he would have been more specific on whether or not he used mosfet anywhere.

[duhvoodooman]

I just wish he would have been more specific on whether or not he used mosfet anywhere.
I'm pretty sure that one was built to the non-MOSFET TS808 specs. The side is labeled "Classic OD", which would connote the straight TS clone, I'm quite sure. Also, I'm not hearing much difference between the middle position and the right-hand position of the clipping (lower) toggle switch, which would be consistent with that.

If so, the right-hand position would be the red LED's. Because of their high voltage threshold (2.0 - 2.5V range), it takes a lot of gain to get LED's to clip audibly. So unless you're playing hard with the OD2 gain dialed way up, it sounds essentially the same as the middle toggle position, which is a diode "lift" mode--no clipping. In that setting, all you're hearing is the distortion either coming from the opamp gain of the pedal or from hitting the preamp section of the amplifier harder.

With the clipping LED's activated, you can actually see if they're clipping by removing the back of the pedal, turning it over, and playing in a darkened room. As I said, you have to lean on this circuit pretty hard to get much LED clipping, but the LED's will flash on as they clip, particularly during initial pick attack. Hard chording a la Pete Townshend seems to do the job pretty well. But it definitely takes a lot more to light them up in this circuit than in a higher gain pedal, such as the BYOC Mouse (ProCo Rat clone). That circuit pushes the voltage levels higher and the clipping LED's light up like a freakin' Christmas tree.

This is why I like to build the OD2 with the stock silicon diodes on one side and MOSFETs in the 2nd clipping position. The toggle middle "lift" position gives you the essence of the LED sound anyway. AAMOF, I bought a bunch of BS170 MOSFETs so that I can build OD2 kits with MOSFET clipping without need for buying the whole $8 MOSFET conversion kit. A pair of BS170's cost less than a buck.

One other note--the boost stage on this pedal (the left-side stompswitch) follows the OD portion of the circuit. Consequently, it's really just a volume boost with respect to the pedal's output. Now that doesn't mean it isn't capable of generating more distortion by slamming your amp's front-end harder. It's just not generating any more distortion from the OD2's overdrive circuit. However, the footswitch wiring can easily be altered to put the boost in front of the overdrive stage, so that kicking it on will become an OD gain boost. While I haven't tried this myself (yet!), a couple of OD2 builders tried this and really liked the result.

[Rocket]

The point is what they SOUND like, not what they look like.
Sure, I got that... it just triggered that nightmare response.

[duhvoodooman]

Sure, I got that... it just triggered that nightmare response.
Understood. Just didn't want anyone unfamiliar with the BYOC products who was reading this thread to think that the physical appearance of those samples in the vids was "what you end up with". The finishing of the pedals is where a lot of builders really get the creative juices flowing and put their own personality into the project.

[duhvoodooman]

I'm pretty sure that one was built to the non-MOSFET TS808 specs. The side is labeled "Classic OD", which would connote the straight TS clone, I'm quite sure. Also, I'm not hearing much difference between the middle position and the right-hand position of the clipping (lower) toggle switch, which would be consistent with that.
Confirmed by Keith--that is the straight TS-clone version. Clipping configuration is TS-style 1N914 silicon diodes on the left side of the toggle, diode "lift" in the middle, and a pair of red LED's (a.k.a. "Landgraff" clipping) on the right side.

[marnold]

One other note--the boost stage on this pedal (the left-side stompswitch) follows the OD portion of the circuit. Consequently, it's really just a volume boost with respect to the pedal's output. Now that doesn't mean it isn't capable of generating more distortion by slamming your amp's front-end harder. It's just not generating any more distortion from the OD2's overdrive circuit. However, the footswitch wiring can easily be altered to put the boost in front of the overdrive stage, so that kicking it on will become an OD gain boost. While I haven't tried this myself (yet!), a couple of OD2 builders tried this and really liked the result.
My personal feeling is that the stock wiring would make the most sense. Otherwise, if you are using the boost as a solo boost, you'd probably run out of headroom on the OD side and just add more distortion instead of more volume. Once again, there's no real right or wrong.


I'm pretty sure that one was built to the non-MOSFET TS808 specs. The side is labeled "Classic OD", which would connote the straight TS clone, I'm quite sure. Also, I'm not hearing much difference between the middle position and the right-hand position of the clipping (lower) toggle switch, which would be consistent with that.
I noticed that too in that clip. The reason I asked was because he used "or something" a lot when describing what the switches did.