Members James Hart Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 I was looking for a cool dirt box that could give me a Tony Iommi meets Eddie Van Halen tone on my 7 string bass... I found www.runoffgroove.com and the "Thor" and liked the clips. I inquired with www.olcircuits.com to see if they'd build me one (since I doubt my skill on building my own) and they had just started building their first one and were about to add it to the website. http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_thor.html not quite Marshall with the bass... but only because I like it with the gain up higher than the authentic range of the pedal. Clip: bass -> Thor -> soundcard Next up, I was looking for a "Vintage Box" for my flat strung fretted 5 (white Benavente)... ok, I was looking for that Ampeg tone Meet the "Flipster" http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_flipster.html it's a 60s SB-12 Portaflex circuit adopted to a tone / dirt box. I think it nails that old school tone perfectly! I recorded a couple clips of just Bass -> Flipster -> soundcard.... Clip #1 Clip #2 I've got the "Orange Peel" http://www.olcircuits.com/olc_orangepeel.html on order... 1974 Orange MKII head adopted into a dirt box. Also an unadvertised Orange Juicer clone (HCFX mod Phil commissioned the first one, I'm getting a copy of his) and they are making my custom buffered blender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jugghaid Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 That Flipster sounds absolutely fantastic. I'm ordering a kit this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ender_rpm Posted August 15, 2007 Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 I like the sound of the Thor!! Very nice. The Flipster does nail that Old ampegy sound, its just not my thing, but it sounds nice. Congrats!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 15, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 15, 2007 thanks! I'm digging both... OLC makes some killer stuff. I can't wait to try the Orange Peel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 16, 2007 besides the Orange... they have a Hiwatt in a box pedal too. Some people on TB were chatting with the builder and these boxes are meant to work as preamps too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whoneedstherapy Posted August 16, 2007 Members Share Posted August 16, 2007 awesome find! i might have to get me an orange peel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kindness Posted August 16, 2007 Moderators Share Posted August 16, 2007 Thanks for posting this. The boxes look cool and after reading the threads on TB, the owner/builder seems like a cool guy too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rummy Posted August 16, 2007 Members Share Posted August 16, 2007 Great sound clip! The Thor sounds mean. Sounds thick and fuzzy. Almost like you have a Muff and a Tube Screamer plugged in together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 16, 2007 yeah, Mark is good people it seems. Here is the full clip I sent him (he only used the Floyd and MMW riffs on his site) http://www.myselfalone.com/tracks/mp3s/olc-flipster.mp3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 16, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 16, 2007 Great sound clip! The Thor sounds mean. Sounds thick and fuzzy. Almost like you have a Muff and a Tube Screamer plugged in together. thanks, I need to record it with my analog.man King of Tone pushing it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members takeout Posted August 18, 2007 Members Share Posted August 18, 2007 besides the Orange... they have a Hiwatt in a box pedal too. Some people on TB were chatting with the builder and these boxes are meant to work as preamps too."Preamp" as in "able to drive a power amp"? These are so {censored}ing cool. An audio engineer friend of mine and I will be ordering several of these kits to experiment with (Hiwatt, Dumble, Flip, etc.). We're gonna try to figure out if we can add a mic-level output on these for recording purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 19, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 "Preamp" as in "able to drive a power amp"?These are so {censored}ing cool. An audio engineer friend of mine and I will be ordering several of these kits to experiment with (Hiwatt, Dumble, Flip, etc.). We're gonna try to figure out if we can add a mic-level output on these for recording purposes. Yes the owner said they would drive poweramps. I don't own one currently to test that. My flipster clip is my white Benavente in passive mode (Dimarzio Ultra Jazz -> flipster -> M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard the Thor was the same but my active Bee -> Thor -> card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members heartsndspades Posted August 19, 2007 Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 awesome, im liking the flipster as well hmmm.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 19, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 awesome, im liking the flipster as well hmmm.. I'm missing the flipster.... I shipped it back on Friday to have the gain reduced a bit to work better with my active basses. It's a killer little pedal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Kindness Posted August 19, 2007 Moderators Share Posted August 19, 2007 It's a killer little pedal No doubt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PrestiaRules Posted August 19, 2007 Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 those are both very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mmb Posted August 19, 2007 Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 yeah, Mark is good people it seems. Here is the full clip I sent him (he only used the Floyd and MMW riffs on his site) http://www.myselfalone.com/tracks/mp3s/olc-flipster.mp3 I'm going to have to get me one of those. What great tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 78pbass Posted August 19, 2007 Members Share Posted August 19, 2007 its a shame that these cosmetics are one-off. I am SURE that they'd be easily marketable for a reasonable amount just because they are not a silk-screened cast box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 20, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 its a shame that these cosmetics are one-off. I am SURE that they'd be easily marketable for a reasonable amount just because they are not a silk-screened cast box. one off? this is how the pre built pedals look. If you order a kit, it's a plain metal box.... prebuilt pedals are as shown! here is the Orange Peel I'm getting and the unadvertised "Sunkist Squeeze" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members takeout Posted August 20, 2007 Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 James - do you know what mods he's doing for bass? Just a different input resistor value, or something more complicated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members i_wanna_les_paul Posted August 20, 2007 Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 I want to hear more *cough*guitar*cough* clips through that Orange pedal. Sounds mighty tasty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 20, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 I swapped the 220K feedback resistor (which connects two legs of the IC) with ~175K which I made by putting a 100K and a 75K in series. The IC is actually two processors, so the pinouts of each "half" are applied differently between different builds of the Squeezer, so it won't always be the same two pins. Just look for the two that are connected to each other by a 220K resistor. On the Tonepad site they recommended 200K, but I experimented and found slightly lower values were even better.I swapped the 4.7uF bleeder cap, which is the one that connects the diode to ground, with a 10uF as recommended on Tonepad.They recommended swapping the 4.7uF output cap with a 1uF; I experimented with a few values, and just settled back on the 4.7. I'm not sure if I actually heard any difference, TBH. Also, normally I'd replace an electrolytic with a "good" non-polar cap (e.g. polyester) in the audio path, but I didn't happen to have anything good in such a large size, and they wouldn't have fit in the pedal anyway. I tried a mylar .68uF, and it sounded terrible, so I stayed with electrolytic. The flipster is getting a transistor replaced to allow for more clean headroom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members der oxenrig Posted August 20, 2007 Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 That Thor is a bit too distorted for even my tastes , but the Flipster does sound a lot like my SB-12. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members James Hart Posted August 20, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 20, 2007 That Thor is a bit too distorted for even my tastes , but the Flipster does sound a lot like my SB-12. yeah, it's more authentic at lower gains... but I like the over the top distortion it puts out too I was shocked how real the Flipster sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 78pbass Posted August 24, 2007 Members Share Posted August 24, 2007 James, It doesnt say that, all it says is "Note: this is a prebuilt pedal for illustrative purposes. The kit version will be bare metal... an open canvas upon which to add your touch." Perhaps as a suggestion, it should be more clearly stated? They're too great looking not to market as complete pieces Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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