Got my pedals from chris today


Timmy is exactly what I was looking for in a boost. I can keep it pretty clean or get it nice and dirty, and the Bass and Tone controls let me dial in a nice boost for the Mastotron. It also has a switch, which does things. I am not sure exactly what those things are, but I am sure chris could explain it I think it might be an external version of "Internal dip switches mirror the push/pull pot on the rear of the Tim pedal for selectable modes of more gain or asymmetrical clipping." I think I told chris I was not a fan of internal pots and switches, so he probably innovented all over that.

The Mastotron is pretty fucking awesome. The Pulse-Width knob lets you get fun nintendo noises to full on angry fuzz. The sub switch lets me dial in a nice huge sound and the tone knob lets me dial in the grind. Evidently the push/relax knob is an extra control for source impedance, but I has no active instruments so I just run it wide open. THIS THING IS MASSIVE SOUNDING. Pretty much nails the toanes I am going for.

chris says the paintjobs were shitty (oh yeah, he included a nice note outlining the controls and such), but I totally dig the graphics It looks like an ink pen sketch, and the knob layouts are spiffy. The LED on the Timmy is like, super bright. It sort of scared me at first




I'm going to go take some pictures and make a video on my sweet new HD camera on my Droid .



But yeah, if you were thinking of buying a dirt box definitely consult chris. He knows his shit, and the build quality is nice. I haven't cracked them open, but they both run nice and silent (until I put boost the mastotron, but the noice kind of comes with the territory there ...) and turn on with no issues.

YAY! You got them!

I thought i put words about the switches, but mayhap i forgot.

On the mastotron the bottom/left is the midsized capacitor, the middle is the small capacitor, and the top/right is the big capacitor. Basically, as you can tell they control the amount of ass the circuit has in a more or less directly proportional manner, WRT cap size.

The switch on the timmy is indeed for the extra diodes. The middle position is no extra diodes(my preferred setting), and the one's marked "A" and "S" are for asymmetrical and symmetrical clipping modes respectively.

I liked the mastotron moastly with everything up all the way.

The Mastrotron switch wasn't labeled but I know what that does. I usually keep it on the mid or big ass setting.


BIG ASS MOTHERFUCKING PICTURES. Do yo view image thing for a more agreeable and zoomable version. You can sees teh details of teh graphiqus.


Mastotron:



Timmy:





BAST FREINDS!

Oh shit, the foam pressed into the top of the timmy! It wasn't like that before i boxed it. Fucking clearcoat must not have been hardened all the way. Dickballs!

h well.

I noticed that too.

Completely unnoticeable from the floor though.

The Timmy in action.

I would only ask that you pull my name off anything connected to a timmy clone!

I won't build that circuit for anybody else, and Paul C has enough troubles without new "cloners" of his baby popping up on youtube.

We were talking about it from a long time back, and i had a feeling it would do what you wanted, so i went ahead and made it for you, but i don't want necessarily to be connected to it as a "dood who clones timmys".

Also there are a few differences between what i built and a normal timmy(wrt the op amp and feedback loop) so it is not necessarily 100% indicative of what one of Paul C's pedals sounds like(or fair to him to refer to a pedal as a Timmy, that he didn't build or have a chance to do any quality control on), but that is besides the point.

Other than those things: cool!

Sure thing man.

The video is set to private so only people from here can locate it anyways (you have to be linked to it, it is unsearchable) but I feels ya. I just needed a title beside o187263817263124-129837-12983.3gp

AH. Okay, that is fine then. But yeah, just so you know where i am coming from.

Just about anything else i build i really WGAF, but specifically as far as Timmy clones go, i don't want even get started with that whole scene.

Besides, "Timesque Pedlol" is just a way better title anyhow.

OMG the YouTube uploader is the slowest fucking thing in the world.

Yeah, i like that one. I was using it more for the big wooly muffish fuzz sounds(like with all knobs except volume, on ten), but i like how you have that set there, especially the first bit.

This is through my phone camera too. It really does not capture the thickness of the pedal very well. You can barely tell the difference when I mess with the Sub switch, which makes pretty drastic changes.

I might do a proper mic'd clip tomorrow.

Lovely art on the pedal Chris.

And finally, I may witness Devin in his native habitat.

Holy turds, the Mastotron sounds gnarly.

Chris, how do you get the LEDs to stay in their little hole in the chassis?

The hole is slightly smaller than the widest point of the LED. The LED is slightly tapered, so to install, you just carefully puuuushhh it into its place. Then it is connected on the back with bonded wire that holds it in place a bit more. I also tend to put hot glue on the back of the LED to lend more stability to the thin little LED legs.

In an ideal solution however, i would design the circuit board in such a way that it used standoffs, set the depth of the led (soldered into the board) to match the standoffs, and thereby use the circuit board/standoffs as the support.

These builds were slightly more punk rock though. I didn't/couldn't spend any extra pennies on standoffs or bezels. In addition, by choosing the 125B sized box, and the curvy control layout, AND using a 9v clip inside, i reduced what my options were for board design and LED location.

Ideally, i would leave out the 9v clip(and the 9v battery sized space it lives in), which would open up layout options some, and allow more options for where the LED could go and how it could be mounted. But i didn't want to force Dev to have to use the DC adapter only.

But yeah, that is a total tangent. The LEDs are basically just pressed into place. Technically they could probably be dislodged by slamming the box on the ground from a decent height, but most likely such an impact would cause bigger problems than the LED moving.

Ah, I see. The LED on my pedal build is not anywhere near snug, I suppose I will have to hotglue it in place. \
(The entire thing is still open, as I am yet to get a replacement for the jack)

I love the Mastotron. So much fun.

In that case, maybe look into getting some of those cheapo plastic bezels that they sell at radioshack? They go in a bigger hole(you might even have to widen the current one), but they hold the LED pretty snugly.