Wednesday 30 December 2015

Lovetone Big Cheese

Here is the Lovetone Big Cheese with the OLC Chunky Cheese mod to increase the output volume
Original Infos:
The Big Cheese is a loving homage to the nasty, buzzy yet gorgeous and harmonically rich early fuzz. While having many of the classic characteristics that every fuzz fan will relate to it goes beyond to create an absolutely distinct character of its own. Its innovative and interactive controls can take it from almost "gated" break-up to overkill of shred proportions.
Far from being just a guitar pedal however the Big Cheese™ is eminently useful for seeing to any sound with the temerity to be naff or boring (with particularly amusing consequences in the lower regions). To lovers of that extraordinary spectacle known to some as "furrrzze bass!" it offers terminally thunderous, ripping yet glitch-free and buttock-clenching
mayhem that can only be described as Larry Graham on steroids (as demonstrated to devastating effect by the man himself!).






20 comments:

  1. I love the Big Cheese!! The main page did need this one, thanks Alex

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another great one Alex! Few issues with the bare board just. The 2 cuts at the top 47n need moved one column left, 2 cuts between Q1 and 2 need moved one column left and the small link next to them needs moved 2 columns to the left.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Serves me right for not reading the comments. I'd just put all the resistors but the clr in when I realised something was amiss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry about that.
      I've missed Ciaran's comment(thank you for noticing the mistake!).
      I've fixed the layout.

      Delete
    2. It's alright. Ciaran pointed it out. I just get too excited and don't read things. I need to learn.

      Keep up the good work

      Delete
    3. It lives! Thank you Alex.

      Started up by wiring the rotary switch wrong but I got it in the end.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah so I built this a few months ago and then got a divorce.. but this thing is so awesome. Thanks for the layout fellas. It brings a smile to my face

    ReplyDelete
  6. assuming I connect my LED as described here: http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/thoughts/wiring-up-a-1590b/
    should i have a problem in the circuit? I've only dabbled with one other veroboard and that was the reverberation machine by DBA and it did not have de LED set up from the veroboard as this one does. Can I run the LED through the power plug as described in the link? Thanks for you time

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah you don't need to use the LED or CLR on the board at all. Another thing I've noticed is that the Tone B100K is way too much for this pedal. I think I currently have a A10K in mine and it's way more usuable. It just gets super nutty bright, I was running the tone knob nearly all the way down the whole time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello everybody. I would appreciate a little help if possible. So, let's say that when looking to the back side of the 3p4t switch, if pin A is 12 o'clock, pin B is 8 o'clock and pin C is 4 o'clock, then which one is pin 1 and which one pin 12?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Sagan Delay layout should help you:
      https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.fr/2015/10/sagan-delay.html

      Delete
    2. Thanks a lot Alex! That is a big help!

      Delete
  10. Hi,

    First off, thanks for this resource, it's amazing! I've just built the big cheese as my second pedal, after an EP Booster which sounds brilliant and works perfectly.

    I've got the Big Cheese working (following two switch rewires and some track knifing!) but can't shake a high pitch squealing sound that's there the whole while the effect is engaged. The fuzz sounds amazing when the guitar's drowning out the squeal, so I'm know I'm close.

    Any ideas what might be causing this?

    I bought a bag of 2n3904's for this build so could keep swapping them out, but it's not made much difference so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. False alarm!

      Swapped out the PSU I was using and it's cleaned right up! Believe it was causing oscillations. The Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 I ordered should arrive over the weekend. The fewer unreliable variables the better as I get to grips with this cloning business.

      But anyway... this pedal's amazing! The gated fuzz mode is very very cool.

      Just as a side note - the 3p4t switches I got from China via eBay had no pin labelling, so I followed the pinout on the Sagan Delay layout as recommended by Alex. Unfortunately these switches I have seem to conform to their own convention. Fortunately I was able to work out the pin groupings by looking at the contacts in the open body of the switch. Definitely non-standard, but they seem solidly constructed and clunk nicely between positions. One to look out for!

      Delete
  11. Someone help me!! can't output sound. Is this big cheese schematic exact?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ok, I'm stumped. I get a clean bypass signal but when I hit the switch to engage the effect I just get silence and the LED is always on in both bypass and engaged modes. Checked all my connections and triple checked the wiring. Any thoughts on where to start troubleshooting?

    ReplyDelete