DOD 250 vs. Tube Screamer

Overdrives are so frustrating. Builders claim tubey tones when clipping diodes will never clip like a tube. Builders will say tubey when they mean warm and by warm, they'll mean mushy and undefined. I am very suggestible to buzzwords myself. I want transparent and tube-like and dynamic. But, I see the schematic and it boils down to a boost (with or without soft or hard clipping).

Overdrives are going to boil down mostly to a hard clipping 250 style or soft clipping Tube Screamer style op amp overdrives. The op amp boosts the signal. The clipping diodes shave off the top, bottom or both of the sound waves. This is not how a tube works. This does not sound like a tube. It does however distort the signal in a pleasing way. The differences of all the myriad ODs out there are due to passive component choices (e.g., big input capacitor for more low end), the inclusion or not of buffers, etc.

What follows is my own personal emotional response to these two types of op amp overdrives.

SHRIMP13 DOD 250 Clone

DOD 250

So simple, an op amp boost with clipping diodes after the IC. It covers a wide territory from slight gain and boost to classic rock distortion tones. It is pretty warm (dull) at the low gain end and bright as you increase the gain. The input cap and op amps changed over the years. The op amp doesn't effect much sonically. Some might be quieter or have slightly different gain. The input cap, however, affects tone a lot. The larger cap allowed for more low end but also kind of farts/fizzes out a bit with low notes. Later versions had a smaller cap that tightened things up at the low end. I personally like that out of control low end for some guitars, single coil Fenders in general and Telecasters in specific. When I plug a Tele into a 250, I am inspired to play 70s riffs and blues solos until I forget what time it is. It has a tasty grit that scratches a certain tonal itch with perfection. With humbuckers I sense no deliciousness, more of a fizziness and harshness. For me, the 250 is THE OD for a Tele, a perfect match.

SHRIMP13 Tube Screamer Clone

Tube Screamer

The Tube Screamer moves the clipping section to a loop within the op amp. The result to me is a blunted, boxed in, smoother grit with a lot of the clean lower frequencies coming through. It sounds like your clean signal is riding along with the overdriven signal. I guess this is a good thing for cutting through the mix, similar to the early Russian Muffs which strike me the same way, clean and fuzz separated in the sound. They hit the ears separately. For humbuckers I like an OD with Tube Screamer architecture but without buffers. Simpler is better. The Zen Drive comes to mind as a great humbucker friendly drive. It's bright enough to let some character come through the overdrive. I have had great luck with lower gain settings with PAF or Filtertron type 'buckers. Again, one might find himself sucked into a tonal flavor black hole only to emerge and realize everyone else has gone to bed.

Summary

I like 250s for Fenders and Tube Screamers for humbuckers and Filtertrons.

The Pink Secret Recipe Muff

This pedal came from me laying out a Muff on a breadboard and tweaking components for taste. The result is a nice tight Muff like a Ram's Head with more brightness when the gain is dialed back.

And this is what it sounds like!

A Foxey Lady

I acquired a Foxey Lady enclosure that had seen better days. What a great platform for hand wired Triangle Muff innards! I based this one on the 66 #11 schematic on the Kit Rae site but with more electrolytics caps like my '70. (I needed to replace all of these caps, unfortunately)

I used the Dougie board easily and reasonably found on eBay.

And mounted it in the Foxey Lady shell.

I had to drill the bottom to make the holes line up. I suspect these were not married parts in their previous life.

What does it sound like?

A Holy Heavy Metal (Literally) FY-2 Fuzz

Here's a fun one! My buddy Clay over at Rainbow Guitars works metal for fun. He recently brought me a fun enclosure to work with.

Of course this needed to house the gnarliest of all fuzzes, the silicon FY-2. It does not play well with chords in the style of an octave fuzz. However, there is little to no octave component to the tone. I added a pot to the mid scoop at the end of the circuit to dial back in some of those mids (and volume and ability to cut through the mix). With the control at zero, the stock mid scooped tone is fantastic and sax-like for single note melodies.

Here's a short down 'n' dirty video demo.

Transistor Muff Low End and Fuzzy Top

What has not already been written on the encyclopedic Big Muff page, http://www.kitrae.net/music/music_big_muff.html? That being said, there's an aspect to Muffs that is critical to my enjoyment of them; the presence of a cleaner low end with the fuzz sitting on the top. Perhaps this is part of why this omnipresent fuzz/distortion works so well with chords and especially melodies on top of a low string drone (Dinosaur Jr.).

The earlier transistor based Muffs (Triangle, Ram's Head) have less separation between the ends of the frequency range. The tone is cohesive and the fuzz feels balanced across frequencies. The Russian Muffs, Civil War, Green and Black, almost appear to be clean at the bottom. The tone knob needs to bleed in more of the high end to combat this. I say combat because, with fuzz, I like all of my frequencies to appear fuzzed out. Tube Screamers benefit/suffer from a similar action on the different frequency ranges.

The benefit becomes apparent in a band mix. After much experimenting with different fuzz, overdrive and distortion, the Muff sits in the mix of a 3 piece heavy rock combo with much authority. It doesn't get lost. It owns the room.

Here's a '76 Ram's Head I built for a friend.

This particular Muff has electrolytic capacitors in the clipping sections and sounds particularly good for the aforementioned low note, high note melodies over drones. Right now, this is my favorite.

FY-2 Silicon

The FY-2 Companion Fuzz took a giant step away from the Germanium, Fuzz Face architecture, version with the Silicon model.

My Build. 

It sounds mid scooped, splattery, gated, notes don't get along as in an octave fuzz but there is no octave! This is the nastiest of the Japanese fuzzes. The fuzz control is more of a mild shape control. I build mine with a potentiometer to control the amount of mid scoop and an output buffer/boost to combat the volume drop (maximum volume might be lower than unity in a stock model).

Here are a couple of rough sound clips in scooped and unscooped orientations.

Compressor

I have a love hate relationship with compressors. I love the polish that they lend. I love using them as an overdrive. They sound super great with sparkly things like Strats and 12 strings, lively, "stringy". I like the soft squish of a jazzy solo, the audible pump of Roger McGuinn's Byrds work.

However, I hate digging into a chord and getting muh instead of krang! I hate my hot bridge pickup being quieter than my uninteresting middle pickup. Here is what I use and how I get around my limitations.

I have never really been a guitar knob tweaker but with a compressor I kind of have to be. In order to back off on the input of an Orange Squeezer, for example, you have to pick softer or closer to the bridge or back off on your guitar's volume. Differences in attack and volume of each pickup will necessitate adjusting one or more of these parameters after switching pickups. Consequently, I live in the middle position for a lot of my clean stuff. When I really want to dig in or hit a full cowboy chord, I pick almost right at the bridge to lower output and bass frequencies.

See? Simple.

My favorite compressor from a build perspective is the Orange Squeezer. It is the simplest of the schematics out there and it sounds great! Squishy and sweet. It makes a great overdrive and with the bias mounted externally gives you some control over the amount of squish. Mr. Squishy incorporates this and an input volume control for a very versatile Squeezer.

In a Box.