Effects - Pedals, Multi-Effects, and Floor Boxes

[Devi Ever]

I just thought about this, and maybe I'm wrong, but I think I might be right. To create a dieing battery sound in a fuzz pedal, you simply wire things up as shown in this handy diagram provided to the public by Beavis Audio Research http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/Pots/index.htm ... and then I was thinking about something Autopilot mentioned in regards to the voltage thread elsewhere at www.deviever.com, and it occurred to me that all you'd need to do to make a little box to make any pedal have the "sag" option as shown above would be like this PEEP enclosure [ female DC jack -> pot wired as such above -> male DC plug ] (all things available at www.mouser.com) ... and cost all of $10 or less to make, then any pedal could be experimented with in terms of sagging. :') Then all you would do is plug in your power supply to the "sag box", and plug your "sag box" into whatever pedal you want to sag. I'm too busy to draw up the diagram, but hopefully this might inspire some of you to make it happen, so make it happen!!!!!!

[SpectralJulian]

Sagging is such a funny word.

[alteredsounds]

got a sag control on my Flatliner, nothing sounds good 'under powered' except maybe a fuzz face I've found

[Lanefair]

That, is a very good idea.

[GRINGO_LOCO]

As crazy as it seems, I like to use a much higher value pot...it allows a larger range of voltage control.... If ya want to get "fancy", its easy to hook a VU meter to lug 2 and be able to monitor the voltage visually.

[ChuckNorris1982]

i agree. it's a useless feature.

[alteredsounds]

Mr Beadle :thu:

[ChuckNorris1982]

watch out, beadle's about!

[GRINGO_LOCO]

i agree. it's a useless feature.

unless you use fuzz pedals.

or some time based effects, which can do some crazy cool things if starved for voltage.

or some boosters, especially fet based, which can take on a, for lack of a better word, syrup-y overdrive character if starved for voltage.

[alteredsounds]

I use all the above and have starved them but tbh they sound crap

[GRINGO_LOCO]

I use all the above and have starved them but tbh they sound crap

Often times they do...but occasionally you'll find a pedal that they'll work wonders with....

Plus, sometimes glitchy "crap" is what you want

[alteredsounds]

FuzzFace can get a good dying sound but I cant handle glitching sounds lol.

[TweedBassman]

the voltage control on my LowFuzz pedal goes from 9 volts down to 1 volt. there are really rad, usable fuzz sounds all the way down to 1 volt. other pedals don't react so well, fuzz faces do and maybe a few distortions or overdrives.

[skr3ddy]

If I'm not mistaken, Joe Gagan had the idea years ago to create a sag control using a stereo input plug and wiring the pot between the ring and sleeve connections and then a regular input jack (stereo, too, if you want the battery-off feature preserved when nothing's plugged in). Same idea but works even for pedals without a dc jack.

[tenoken]

Interesting idea! Way to put your thinking cap on, son. Someone ought to try it out. I'm too busy with other DIY shit right now.

[Hanglow]

Good idea. The only other thing that I have found lesser voltages useful for, other than fuzz, is my ruby amp, so it can break up at lower volumes which is handy for playing at 3 in the morning. I think it works down to about 5v

[newstrat60]

I think the "stab" knob on the Fuzz Factory can do that on fuzz face-ish setting, as well as the "sun" knob on the Analogman Sunface ?

[blackjack davey]

Me likey this idea :thu:

Unfortunately, I'm a monkey when it comes to soldering, diagrams, etc. :cry:

[Snare227]

Yeah they make these boxes that do what you're describing. People often use them to plug power tools like drills into to make them very variable speed. We use them in the lab for centrifuging at various speeds. You may be able to find them at like a Home Depot or some place like that.

[english_bob]

I had a DOD FX-75B flanger back in the day that did some cool stuff when the battery started to die. With the battery a little underpowered, you'd get slapback delay/reverb-y sounds, then if you kept playing, you'd start a high-pitched whistling sound that eventually overwhelmed your signal before the pedal eventually stopped working altogether.

The Dano FAB distortion and overdrive also work well at lower voltages- they take on a gated (but not too gated), fuzz type tonality, and will work right down to about 3v.

On the whole, I'd agree that this gizmo might have limited use, but like GRINGO LOCO said, occasionally it might be like flicking the magic mojo switch :thu: