Screen Memory

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NippleWrestler
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Screen Memory

Post by NippleWrestler »

It's the Screen Memory. Was meant to live in a 125b but I had this spare 1590BB so here it is.

It uses a pair of dual opamps (5532 and a TL072) to so some things. Not an ungodly amount of gain is available as I care less for that these days and wanted something that would suit a variety of styles and guitars from your cover of Glycerine to Bad to the bone to Run to the hills. It goes:

input filtering -> switchable soft clipping -> fixed gain stage -> hard clipping -> tone stack -> recovery gain stage -> then either out, or to a boost option which is another op amp stage with a variable gain of 1.2 - 12x if you want a fattener or some fire.

I've kept the bass response pretty tame, if i recall, the filters between opamp stages are generally starting to roll off below 300hz which keeps the sound pretty tight and also fast to react so it's a lot of fun.

There's a hard clipping stage of 2x red LEDs to gnd before the tone stack, in parallel with a 4n7 cap. This isn't to make gain per se, but is to limit the volume as without these diodes it's just ear splittingly loud and unity is somewhere around 11 o'clock. The LEDs keep it loud but stop things getting too crazy for the circuitry downstream and the 4n7 cap rolls off some of the blatty sizzle you can get with shunted diodes. The LEDs with a vf of around 1.8-2v compress just a little when the gain is high but when the gain is low they're not doing much.

Overall, I'm 100% stoked with this design. It's hard to do anything original with drive pedals but this thing just sounds great and took a lot of tinkering, simulation and general BS, it has a bunch of options to add a lot of usability and there's nothing in there that's redundant.

There's a on/off/on switch in the first feedback loop for a selection of 2 x asymmetrical soft clipping options, or no clipping at all for the full experience, including my favourite combo of a red LED and 1n34 in parallel

pics:

Image

Image

Image

I wish I could paint better.

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jeremyb
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Re: Screen Memory

Post by jeremyb »

Holy shit dude that looks cool AF!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by IMOCD »

jeremyb wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 5:19 pm Holy shit dude that looks cool AF!
Yeah, what he said. Any sound clips coming?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is creatively challenged in the art department. :wink: Seriously tho.... respect!!

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by jeremyb »

I know you're more about the unique kind of circuits, but do you do a bluesbreaker style one?
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by Cdog »

Lookin sweet bro! 😎

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by Capt. Black »

That looks very cool! I love this sort of original thinking. Would love to hear it soon.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by Capt. Black »

Out of interest, which guitar and amp combinations have you used when designing and testing?
Back in the late 2000s when I was close to good old FuzZie bRo, we'd do a lot of testing across vintage and modern amps and single coil or humbucker guitars. It was interesting how some circuits favoured certain combinations more than others. I'd nag FuzZ to make them suit my old Marshall/LP set up better and he'd go away and tinker with things until they sounded good with anything.

Not that that is essential. But I find it interesting.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by NippleWrestler »

[/quote]
Yeah, what he said. Any sound clips coming?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is creatively challenged in the art department. :wink: Seriously tho.... respect!!
[/quote]

Eventually, but I suspect it'll be in a 125b size enclosure once I figure out the drilling coordinated and layout for 6 knobs, 3 switches, and 2 LEDs. This might look a bit funny and it's not exactly something I can mass produce... then again I could keep it in this size box and fine tune the layout so they're replicable - this is the first one made after simulation so it gets socketed to hell and back and looks a bit rough at the end.
jeremyb wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 5:48 pm I know you're more about the unique kind of circuits, but do you do a bluesbreaker style one?
Sort of. A BB with the gain down is a lot of other pedals/circuits that use soft clipping but it's kinda like the barest circuit you can imagine which doesn't tickle my pickle. I have a circuit I drew up based on the BB but honestly the BB is like other circuits with the gain down and a shit tone stack.

The Screen Memory does a convincing BB impression with the gain down and the switch to the right.

The Sundog has a few similarities (soft clipping diodes in the feedback loop of an opamp) but takes it 400 steps further.

Otherwise I've got this guy which I've just finalised. The mode switch goes from mid hump to mid scoop on a single knob tone control but it covers a much bigger variety of gain and volume so calling it BB style is a bit of a leap.

I'm talking a lot of shit. Here's a photo of another pedal.

If you're interested in anything I do a 7 day return policy within NZ as long as the returned item is fine to be resold both cosmetically and electronically.

Image
Last edited by NippleWrestler on Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by NippleWrestler »

Capt. Black wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:07 pm Out of interest, which guitar and amp combinations have you used when designing and testing?
Back in the late 2000s when I was close to good old FuzZie bRo, we'd do a lot of testing across vintage and modern amps and single coil or humbucker guitars. It was interesting how some circuits favoured certain combinations more than others. I'd nag FuzZ to make them suit my old Marshall/LP set up better and he'd go away and tinker with things until they sounded good with anything.

Not that that is essential. But I find it interesting.
Good question. Everything gets played through my rig of a mesa and marshall 4x12 with about 5 or 6 different guitars. The tremoverb clean channel is one of the best around and plays very nicely with pedals. I generally go with a flat eq on the amp and see what's cooking. If it makes you play longer, you're doing it right. You know right away if it's working or not. I have a strat with single coils that gets a runout, but since I hate strats and single coils I don't find it as enjoyable.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by robthemac »

NippleWrestler wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:17 pm Since I hate strats.... I don't find it as enjoyable.
You and Strummers should chat.
Jops wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:46 am Spring is the comic sans of reverbs anyway.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by jeremyb »

jeremyb wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 5:48 pm I know you're more about the unique kind of circuits, but do you do a bluesbreaker style one?
NippleWrestler wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:12 pm Sort of. A BB with the gain down is a lot of other pedals/circuits that use soft clipping but it's kinda like the barest circuit you can imagine which doesn't tickle my pickle. I have a circuit I drew up based on the BB but honestly the BB is like other circuits with the gain down and a shit tone stack.

The Screen Memory does a convincing BB impression with the gain down and the switch to the right.

The Sundog has a few similarities (soft clipping diodes in the feedback loop of an opamp) but takes it 400 steps further.

Otherwise I've got this guy which I've just finalised. The mode switch goes from mid hump to mid scoop on a single knob tone control but it covers a much bigger variety of gain and volume so calling it BB style is a bit of a leap.

I'm talking a lot of shit. Here's a photo of another pedal.

If you're interested in anything I do a 7 day return policy within NZ as long as the returned item is fine to be resold both cosmetically and electronically.

Image
Intrigued, I find anything mid humpy terrible with a Vox, the hotcake is good and I'm looking forward to the broadcast arriving, but if that doesn't work out I'll give you a shout!!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Screen Memory

Post by FuzzMonkey »

Looks pretty sweet. Well done Tez!
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