steve

[quote name='deksawyer' post='549272' date='Jul 23 2009, 06:42 PM']Looks good. Have you spoken to Alan about what kind of finish you're going to have applied? D.[/quote] Not got that far yet - I am considering having the grain for the swamp ash core grain filled with something dark to tie in with the veneer accent tho'.

Received another pic from Alan, feels a bit more real now the body blanks been cut out [attachment=29448:body_01.jpg]

another really good site is freestompboxes.org

nice idea for a thread, it's information I would benefit from too

Did you try the blend circuit Al?

[quote name='Musky' post='546280' date='Jul 21 2009, 12:20 PM']To my mind the only issue with this clone is calling it a 'fuzzy elephant', which is clearly relying on Zvex's reputation. Some might consider it a purely descriptive term to let people know what they can expect, but I think it's 'borrowing' from a lot of effort that Zak has put in to develop his company. Business isn't just about designing and building a product.[/quote] You could also argue the converse in that you are acknowleding the original pedal design without implying it is the same unit

[quote name='nick' post='545790' date='Jul 20 2009, 10:14 PM']Yeah can't fault [url="http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.html"]Bitsbox[/url], for all the same reasons - they are good. Used to to go to a small local shop, until it was put out of business by the big boys. Gave up on Maplins a while ago [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=9beccc49c3e5859b3a604d7efd77ed33&search_in=posts&result_type=posts&highlite=%2Bmaplins"]Maplins 'Electronics Specialists'[/url] For audio transformers 42TM018 etc, tend to use Banzai as I not been able to find them in the UK. My old man also gets me a lot of stuff from radio fairs with being a radio amatueur. I've had NOS Mullards, germanium transistors/diodes, tropical fish capacitors....all sorts.[/quote] I use Maplin for quite a lot of my stuff, generally they're OK if you know what you want in advance and there's one a couple of miles down the road so i can pick stuff up fairly conveniently. I'll have a look at bitbox tho', I've not come across them before

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='545688' date='Jul 20 2009, 08:08 PM']Heres the little stripboard layout for the mini blend - not tried it yet, need to find out about alternative/equivalent transistors to use [/quote] I've breadboarded the same circuit using a JFET - BF245 I think. Seemed to work well but I found I needed to include a trimpot inbetween the fuzz output and the blend return to match the wet and dry output levels - although I'm not using this with a mammoth clone

[quote name='bythesea' post='544768' date='Jul 19 2009, 05:04 PM'] You'll be safe - it's not that bad/good (delete as appropriate depending on your point of view)![/quote] yeah, i see what you mean

something tells me I should wait until the kids aren't around to have a look at that one

[quote name='harryharold' post='544598' date='Jul 19 2009, 11:44 AM']the main point people still buy expensive boutque pedals is the fact that they don't just use standard components, i think ZVex in particular may make their own transistors (correct me if i'm wrong). because of this you will never actually get the same tone, pretty close but not the same.[/quote] yeah I think I read somewhere that ZVex had some germanium transistors made for them, which can't have been cheap [quote name='harryharold' post='544598' date='Jul 19 2009, 11:44 AM']cloning is good fun, but unless your good or using a really simple pedal it can be infuriating, my scramble clone took an age to get right, most of the time it was just a volume pedal that could ick up radio![/quote] ..and when you've finally debugged the project and got it up and running, you get a real sense of achievement

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='544542' date='Jul 19 2009, 10:20 AM']Nowt wrong with building your own clones... Making exact copies of still in production pedals and selling them for a profit is wrong, but then again most boutique pedal builders a guilty of it themselves by ripping off the Big Muff, Fuzz Face and Tubescreamer. And if you take a look at freestompboxes.org you'll see there's a whole community dedicated to reverse engineering these pedals. It can be a great learning experience to make your own tweaked versions of various pedals out there.[/quote] +1 to all of the above

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='544477' date='Jul 19 2009, 04:02 AM']I think duplicating the Mammoth is an issue in itself, rather than just buying one, but profiting from duplicating it is wrong to me.[/quote] hmm, I think the word duplicating implies making an exact copy, with a further possible implication of trying to pass of the copy as an original. I don't think either of us is trying to do that. [quote name='thisnameistaken' post='544477' date='Jul 19 2009, 04:02 AM']I'm surprised people are doing stuff like this.[/quote] Can you elaborate on the phrase 'doing stuff like this'?

I'm quite intrigued by this method Mikey, how are you getting on with it? Do you think it was worth the money? I'm looking for something to deepen my understanding and widen my vocabulery I think, but all the tutorial books I've bought in the past have kept me hooked for a couple of weeks or so, and then I asked myself "how does this apply to me?" and I've never been able to answer that question satisfactorily.

Al, I have some schematics I found on the web that'll do the blending thing, I can email them to you if you like, or just send you the links if you prefer, (assuming I can find them)

[quote name='bobbass4k' post='544326' date='Jul 18 2009, 09:12 PM'](are we avoiding the actual names for legal reasons, or just to be all cool and sleuthy?)[/quote] legal reasons, I don't want to cause problems for the forum owners [quote name='bobbass4k' post='544326' date='Jul 18 2009, 09:12 PM']You have to remember a lot of the cost of the original is the hand painted enclosure, hand wiring, paying employees, distribution, marketing, all the costs associated with a business, yes you may be able to make a clone for a lot cheaper, but if you made them and sold them on the scale of the original, the cost would quickly skyrocket[/quote] thanks for that, but if you read through the above posts, you'll realise neither of us are intending to do that. I was hoping this would turn into an interesting thread about modding fuzz circuits and swapping out components instead of an misplaced lecture

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='544296' date='Jul 18 2009, 08:29 PM']Isn't it rather bad form to clone pedals that are still in production?[/quote] I don't know about Al, but I'm doing it for my own personal use. It has to be said that as far as the pedal we are talking about is concerned, the design is based on an earlier one from the 70's whose patent has expired

i used some BC107's in mine - sounds really splatty when you turn the pinch control up. i must try one with the stock transistors in to compare. re the 2K pot, I used a 4k7 with a 4k7 resistor paralleled to bring the pot travel down to around 2k3

Just built one of these myself from a schematic found on't web. I really, really like mine, but it needs a couple of tweaks I think to work ok with my wireless (strangely enough, I've had no probs with my active bass tho'). what transistors did you use in yours?

move away from east london

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='533833' date='Jul 6 2009, 02:52 PM']Digitech Bad Monkey! You can get em for £25 new if you look around, and cop an old skool bass grunt nicely.[/quote] +1