Crescendrive!

Crescendrive DEMO!

Guitar a bit out of tune and intonation.
Guitarist a bit out of shape and luck.

anyhowanyway.. this is the Crescendrive:

Crescendrive update..

Making some progress. About 8 months of development went into this thing.
Hopefully I'll get to build more of them to make it worthwhile.

Plexiglassed

 

Graphics applied

Crescendrive update

Crescendrive overdrive update
Progress has been slow due to school and a lot of seemingly random mishaps.
The boards are now all finished and have passed (ACED!) final testing.
Next is stuffing the 1590DD enclosure with all of this stuff. It'll be a tight fit..

Main PCB without IC's

Main PCB

Final test - All hardware and PCB's hooked up

Breadbored

Work has been on hold for a while, since my computer violently died on me a while back. Though primarily traumatic and frightening, offline/"real"-life helped force me into doing more (still not anywhere near enough) of my LEAST favorite part of this hobby; drilling, sawing, measuring and painting enclosures..

I've experimented with a new finishing technique involving plexiglass.
Apart from improving the appearance of the effects I build, my main goal was making the finish bombproof and rugged enough to be kicked around.

If it's as durable as it seems to be, I'll be using this technique on future builds.
I'll have to do some more neanderthal-testing to make sure..

Since a laptop found it's way into my possession, work on the Crescendrive is once again under way. The buffering and routing is all laid out and I'm doing some final testing and tweaking. You simply can't own enough breadboards!

BREADBORED
Crescendrive Prototype

Crescendrive update

Crescendrive overdrive update

What started out as a relatively basic overdrive/booster has become a monster..

Seems I am totally unable to adhere to the 'less is more' -approach.

Basic features, subject to change;

Three independent 'channels', selectable with footswitches. 

Selecting one of the channels will automatically disable the other two.

Two of the channels are identical, each with gain- and volume- controls.

The third, 'lead' channel has more gain on tap and a parametric equalizer with a range of about 70Hz > 7kHz, +/-18dB boost/cut and variable Q.

The EQ can be switched between 'pre'- and 'post'- clipping. 

When the EQ is set to 'pre', boosting a specific frequency with a narrow Q will accentuate the frequency and shape the response of the clipping-circuit radically.

When set to 'post', the EQ operates similar to your average overdrive-effect, i.e. subtle(r?).

This approach is similar to the Maestro MPF-1 (which has got to be one of my favourite effects!)

Although the parametric equalizer in the Crescendrive is less complex, the possibilites for shaping trippy tones are huge.

Did I mention TRUE BYPASS? well, it is.

Electronic bypass-switching sure would have made things easier..

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and hopefully Emil will like it as well.
Next up is designing the PCB-layout followed by doing the actual building. Will update.

Crescendrive (and flame war-catalyst?)

Emil, guitarist of rock'n'roll-trio "Crescendolls" asked me to build him a overdrive similar to the 'Greedtone overdrive'. 

I looked it up and it surprises me that people pay so much for so little. 

The build quality is.. Well, see for yourself.

I added a picture of something I built at age 10 to the left for comparison..

(Click here for original size photo..)

build quality, 10-year-old kid vs. greedtone $299.95 overdrive

As I see it, this pedal is clearly not worthy to be cloned.. 

So, I started out with the same basic circuit as the 'Greedtone';

the popular Craig Anderton CMOS-inverter distortion, and went from there.

The prototype sounds really good for what it is (I don't like drive/dist.-pedals at all..)

It adds just a tiny bit of gain/saturation and has plenty of available volume-boost on tap.

Emil wanted two 'channels' with separate gain- and volume-controls. 

I'm currently designing the buffering, switching and signal routing for the two channels.

Stay tuned for more!

Check out Crescendolls at;

http://blog.crescendolls.com

http://www.myspace.com/crescendollsrocks