Welcome to the Revolution

Hi there, welcome to my blog - La Revolution Deux. It's an odd name - but I like it! Here you will find all the info on my various DIY Guitar effects builds, amplifiers and guitars. Everything from a humble Ibanez tubescreamer to the holiest KLON Overdrive.

You may also find a few effects builds that I am looking to move on - usually in exchange for other effects/gear/cash. You can always check my ebay account to see what I've got up for grabs.

Have fun, enjoy the blog - Fred Briggs :-)

CONTACT ME



Feel free to get in contact with me about anything you see on this blog or with any general questions about guitars, amplifiers and effects, I'll be happy to answer! Just click the button above to email me directly or alternately my email address is fredbriggs2007 [at] googlemail [dot] com

Search This Blog

Monday 30 June 2008

Vsex Tool - Zvex Machine


I've had a few emails requesting this scheme so here it is for you all to view :-)



Here's a demo video here:


And a short description from the Zvex Website:

"I designed this new distortion generator, Machine, with some different limitations. Like try playing chords through it. Hmmm. But put it in front of any string of fuzz pedals, and try to make it disappear. Machine is actually a dual frequency-tripler circuit that uses crossover distortion for the first time in any pedal, ever. It generates the distortion of the wave in the sloped part of the cycle, instead of the peaks and valleys like all other distorters and fuzzes. In other words, it distorts when your guitar string is in the middle of vibrating, while it's swinging, not as it's turning around. That's the same place where your speaker cone is sort of coasting, between all the way in and all the way out. Where nothing is happening, this pedal happens. With Machine you can leave your favorite distorting pedals on and still add a new element of energetic grind."

It's using frequency triplers like Tim Escobedo's "Tripple Fuzz", they sound pretty cool (The Lovepedal Karl also uses this circuit structure):


9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the schematic! Do you know what they mean at the bottom by "power filtering to prevent 60Hz hum"???

    ReplyDelete
  2. 60Hz hum is the hum created by standard AC power coming from a wall socket. In the UK the standard power rating is 240v @ 50Hz, I believe in the US it is 120V @ 60Hz. This means that the AC current switches polarity 60 times a second.

    Now pedals run on DC electricity - so the original AC has to be rectified and filtered - this is done by your 9V wallwart/power pack. If the filtering on these are bad you can get some audible "whine" coming though (known as 60Hz hum). The extra filtering is there to help prevent this. If you use batteries, they are already outputting DC so the power filtering is not really needed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. is the schematic verified? i built one and got nothing... as anyone else tried it? i'd like to know that this is correct and i just messed up!
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. the circuit is fine

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm confused about reading the BS170 in the schematic. Are 2 & 3 / gate & source connected together?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello,
    Is their anyway I could get you to make a wiring diagram for the Zvex machine? I would gladly pay you $20.00 for it.

    Many Thanks
    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello again,
    I'm the guy that requested the Machine wiring diagram. I forgot to leave a link to my email.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hei, very nice blog...I was asking if you also had the machine's pcb ready-to-transfer...

    my e-mail is franci.mora@fastwebnet.it

    good luck,
    francesco

    ReplyDelete
  9. Francesco non ti basta lo schema, ma sei capace a fare qualcosa oltre che copiare.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome on Revolution Deux. However, please do not spam links to unrelated sites - these comments will be removed! Thanks - Briggs.