Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Floyd Pepper on February 26, 2006, 05:14:10 PM
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After building a few effects I was on the look out for something more extreme than a regular Fuzz Face or Tube Screamer. I think this might fit the bill...
Has anyone ever heard of the SkyRipper before or seen a real one? Here's a description http://www.tungngruv.com/content/skyripper.html and here's some clips http://www.tungngruv.com/content/sounds.html
The SkyRippers got a send and return and when used you can get this http://www.ampage.org/sounds/files/Track01.mp3
0:00 - 0:40 Skyripper fuzz alone.
0:41 Skyrippper frequency generator 2:02 envelope - ish gulpy tone 2:56 more of the same 3:00 helicopter 3:56 li'l birdies 4:38 swell function l-o-n-g swell 5:14 coolgrooves 6:43 aggresive groove W/ lower octave [note how a clear guitar sound coexists with the noise] 7:49 Fuzz autowah like vocal-ish effect 8:05 lower ripping noise W/ clear guitar on top 13:30 whistling 15:01 guitar comes back W/motorboating 15:30 heavy fuzz, 'dark' riff
I thought the Fuzz Factory http://www.zvex.com/fuzz.html was nuts but the SkyRipper takes crazy to a new level.
This is a pedal for fans of knobs and switches with 6 of each + send/return
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Hi, that's a pretty cool effect right there! So what's the deal with them then - are they unavailable to buy these days?
On the subject of insane fuzzes - very addictive pedals - I always liked the Fuzz Factory but decided against buying one because, as lame as this sounds, I thought too many people were using them. So I bought this instead:
http://www.catalinbread.com/teaser.html
It's capable of those sounds in the first minute or so of that clip you posted, all that self feedbacking and shite. It's really cool, IMO. A while ago I did a quick demo of it for someone - again, apologies for the sloppy playing and lame tone (blame the soundcard, cos this fuzz is sweet) - but here it is anyway...About a minute or so into it I started screwing around with the feedback, hopefully you can hear some of the really crazy sounds it can make. Apart from the fuzz and the feedback, though, that's about all it does!
http://rapidshare.de/files/14201000/JC800FuzzDemo.mp3.html
Of course, you could go even crazier again! The two most crazy FX brands I've recently come across are:
Mid-Fi Electronics
Effector 13
Both of those will set you up for madness if you want it - particularly the Effector 13 Truly Beautiful Disaster fuzz :P Happy noisemaking!
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Thanks for the reply Willo. Looks like a great pedal but no sound card on this PC though so I can't listen to the clips at the moment. :(
The SkyRipper was made by Nine Volt Nirvana who went out of business as far as I can tell. They were designed by Joe Gagan. Nine Volt also made other pedals some stuff on them here http://www.musictoyz.com/guitar/pedals/nvn.php and http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Nine_Volt_Nirvana/ Clips of his other pedals here http://www.ampage.org/cgi-bin/sounds/index.cgi
From what I've read, Joe designed and built the pedals but also published the schematics for others to make their own as he beleived no one could make them like he did. Layouts here http://www.tungngruv.com/content/gaganlayouts.html
I brought a Fuzz Factory just before Christmas. It's a great pedal. Does regular fuzz, weird fuzz and feedback noises. My son can nail the Muse sound with it.
I've been hanging out at the DIY Stompbox forum
http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum and it's interesting what the folks there say about different pedals.
Zak Vex (who makes the Fuzz Factory) is seen as a god of fuzz. If anyone dares to ask for a schematic for a Vex fuzz they're flamed and told that his work shouldn't be copied. Fulltone pedals are the complete opposite. They don't like him as he copies old pedals, eg '69 is a Fuzz Face & Full Drive is a Tube Screamer, changes a couple of components and sells it like he's an effect guru who's come up with a great idea.
Keeley & AnalogMan are somewhere in between. Their mods are talked about but not that much. IndyGuitarist http://www.indyguitarist.com/ publishes a book on how to mod your own pedals. He posted to the forum asking for the same respect as Vex and his mods not to be talked about. He didn't get a friendy response being told that this was like comaring Bach to Britney Spears.
I wonder if the folks on effects forums think pickup forum people are weird. :)
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lol we should have a battle of the forums ... :twisted:
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It's interesting that Floyd_Pepper. I guess all communities seek the need to demonize one person and canonize another - I take it all with a pinch of salt!
It's certainly an interesting pedal (thy Skyripper). I'm also constantly tempted by the Fuzz Factory because a lot of musicians I like use one, but that same reason also is why I never take the plunge - I don't really want to sound exactly like anyone else, I guess.
Is that absolutely true, about the '69? Is it simply a Fuzz Face clone? Interesting...About Indyguitarist, I'm on his mailing list. He always strikes me as a decent chap, I've had a few emails with him. I can imagine some angry maladjust hiding behind their computer and getting all snobby on him...it annoys me a bit the internet sometimes. Surely, everyone deserves a little courtesy? Anyhow...enough rambling! Oh, and I prefer Britney Spears to Bach in certain respects! :wink:
Floyd_Pepper, I might be mistake, but don't you live in Newcastle? If you do, you're more than welcome to try my Teaser Stallion if you fancy it sometime!
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how many ruddy catalinbread pedals do you have willo!?!?! :o :D
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how many ruddy catalinbread pedals do you have willo!?!?! :o :D
just the two, just the two...although I was counting the days til the semaphore trem got released - but I've since decided against it. :)
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ahhhh i see. well they do all look pretty cool i have to say. what is the stallion thingy like? what kind of sounds can you get from it? probably best to pm the answer (probably should have pm'd this question) to prevent thread hijacking which i am desperately trying to cut down on (sorry).
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FullTone Vs Fuzz Face
Exhibit A: Fulltone '69 schema
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/fuzzface_b_sc_pp.gif
Exhibit B: A Fuzz Face schema
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/fuzzface_sc_pp.gif
I rest my case.
Note that the 69 schema above might not be an actual copy of the FullTone but if you read around everything says it's "very similar" to FullTone's. The 69 schema is basically a Fuzz Face with some resistors replaced with pots. If I remember right, the 2 extra 1M on the 69 don't make any difference to the sound and stop any pops when you turn it on.
I'm not trying to knock FullTone. They make great products and are well made (though I've never used one). If people buy them and they're happy then everyone's happy. There's also the question of part selection. Germanium transistors' gain varies a great deal from one transistor to the next. To get a good fuzz you need the right gain in position 1 and a different gain in position 2. Original Fuzz Faces varies greatly and some sound better than other.
I guess all communities seek the need to demonize one person and canonize another
Like Seymour Duncan Vs Bare Knuckle. :)
Willo, Thanks for the offer of a try of your Catalinbread but if you heard me play you'd think that's why I need a fuzz. :)
One thing about copying classic pedals, it's just guitar design or the notes in a scale, there's only so many ways of doing things. For example, the Boss SD-1 is basically the same as a Tube Screamer. Pedal guru RG Keen discusses the 15 types of distortion here http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/distn101.htm Check out number 12 - Back to back diodes. He says that Marshall JCM800 uses diodes for distortion just like the Ratt.
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Wondering if JCM800's really did use diodes for distortion I had a look at Google and found this...
"By the early 1980's, Marshall was producing amps that mixed tube and transistor distortion. The transistor distortion was accomplished by adding "diode clipping" circuits among the tube preamp gain stages, which gave the amps a lot more distortion, but sacrificed warmth. The tubes before the diodes helped to push guitar signal into the diodes, where they were clipped (distorted), and the tubes after the diodes both amplified and "warmed up" the sound somewhat."
http://www.thinlizzy.de/Guitar/earlymarshalls.html
Reading around it seems like there's even more build in solid state distortion on JCM900s than JCM800s. Guess this is why the JCM900's sound fizzy.
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Hey Floyd, I dont really understand electronics much, but they do seem very very similar. It's odd though, having read all the advertising gumph I was always under the impression that the '69 was an overdrive rather than a circuit primarily based on the archetypal Fuzz-maker!
I remember hearing what you said about the TS9 circuit being heavily replicated everywhere, in fact I think I read the same thing on either the Analogman or Indyguitarist website. Maybe these circuit similarities are why the terms 'distortion', 'overdrive' and 'fuzz' are so often conflated.
Oh, and the offer's open, seriously, if you want to give it a spin. I'm hardly a great player, I'm usually glad for the warm blanket of fuzz that covers up your mistakes! :wink:
Sam, that demo I posted kind of shows you the wilder side of what it can do. Basically, the feedback circuit within the pedal is dependent on the value of the input signal, so it's pitch is essentially crudely controlled by the volume pots on your guitar. So for parts of the feedback section of that demo I've basically set one volume control really low and one really high (thereby creating two different pitches, one for each pickup), and I'm toggle switching between the two as I physically move the guitar around in relation to the amplifier. It creates some pretty cool effects! It's a pretty good fuzz too, but the sound quality on that demo is not so good. It's also a beast to control even in normal fuzz mode, you can get quite a lot of noise. And the distortion knob doesn't seem too responsive above a certain amount, but, hey I like it! :)
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I really like the Joe Gagan designs and they're always worth building.
The Fuzz I want even more than the Fuzz Factory is the Wyllie Moonrock (though his others are amazing too), but I can't afford the bugger http://http://www.tonefrenzy.com/effects/moonrock.html or http://home.mindspring.com/~wylo/
As for the Zvex / Ful**one issue the following is purely personal opinion from having spent 3 years hanging around the fx sites
If a pedal is something unique it's usually left alone on thse sites, or only the most basic information is supplied. However if a design is a already existing item, such as a slightly modified Fuzz Face (Gi or Si), Ross compressor then it's viewed as fair game.
The reason Zvex are 'protected' is simply because Zachs designs are as unique as such 'simple' circuits are ever likely to be and therefore it's viewed by most that he should be allowed to profit from the 'real' work he has carried out. On top of that he is an incredibly helpful person, in the past has often fixed design errors in other designers (free) circuits in an attempt to put something back into the fx community. Hence he is held in high regard.
Unfortunitely other builders are quite happy to profit from the work of others and claim it as being all their own work. They are held in very little regard and like lickup manfacturers introduce a certain amount of mojo factor to discourage people from questioning the designs.
There is a Frank Marino interview that has a quite interesting section regarding his 'endorsement' of a certain companys univibe style pedal http:// http://www.mahoganyrush.com/askfrank.htm and it's the 2nd last item from the end.
Rob...
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Kilby, Thought I'd seen your name before. :)
That Moonrock looks and sounds great.
Going off topic again here but did you read this about what might be inside a Moonrock http://www.elixant.com/~stompbox/smfforum/index.php?topic=40819.0
There's a link to a schematic for a "similar" pedal.
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There was a short message a couple of years ago regarding the moonrock, basically it said that there was two transistors and very little else inside it.
Apparently all Wyllies stuff is minimal, but theyre the freakiest sounding fuzz boxes out there. I wish there was a uk dealer out there :(
Is it me or is fuzz really ignored these days ?
To head slightly back onto (well closer than usual anyway) topic, what is it with this facination with overdrive pedals these days ?
Personally I see nothing wrong with the following
1 overdrive
1 Wah
1 compressor
1 good echo
8 or 9 good fuzz boxes
On such a thought I'm looking to replace my Bluesbreaker 2 with somthing like a Crowther Hotcake, but I'm wondering about the Standard version compared with the Bluesberry version
Peavey Wolfgang (soon to have mules at last)
Strat (don't know whether to upgrade it or ditch it)
Ric 360-12 (proper vintage toasters)
Fender blues Jr & a marshall DSL 50
Musical style, late 60s psych, floyd, beatles, byrds, xtc & blues (or I suppose what would have been termed british R&B with a bit of Billy Gibbons thrown in).
Rob...
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Very cool forum, I had no idea this was out there. I drew up Joe's layouts for people to build these Fuzz pedals as Joe isn't making them anymore and if you want one, you have to build it. I've spoken to him a couple times and he's truly a great guy, down to earth and he also thinks very highly of Z. Vex and the Fuzz Factory. Joe is a living legend when it comes to Fuzz pedals. Also, the Skyripper is capable of lots of tones, effects and noises. Everything on my site was done without plugging anything into the effects loop, just plain Skyripper by itself. I'm glad to see Joe's name and designs are still being talked about. Thanks much guys.
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tungngruv, Thanks for all the layouts at http://www.tungngruv.com/content/gaganlayouts.html and your sound clips.
I'm starting to work my way through building Joe's pedals based on your layouts. Very much appreciate your work.
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You are going to love his designs. I drew these up as an exercise to transfer schematics to layouts without having to ask. The layouts could be done a lot better but mine will get you a working pedal. By the way, all layouts have been verified to work now.