Yeah I posted a vid recently of Erik Arko doing this with his helix to take an EADG bass down to BEAD and it sounded great.
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I had the opportunity to get for very cheap a PCB of the Mojo Hand FX Colossus “Mother of Fuzz”, which is an enhanced version (added input voicing switch and midrange pot) of the “Civil War” russian Big Muff. Might be fun.
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Very interesting. Is that diode configuration like that meant to limit something? Two parallel diodes in opposite directions is new to me. Won’t one of them just always conduct? I know diodes are often used for distortion but I don’t understand that configuration.
The closest I have seen is a rectifier bridge but those have four.
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Those are clipping diodes. They clip the signal when it’s higher than the voltage drop of the diodes. Somethimes there are 3 diodes to make this clipping assymetrical, to make it behave a little bit like a natural clipping that occurs on a single gain stage like a triode tube.
In this configuration, the diodes are in a negative feedback loop between the input and the output of the transistors, which are out of phase. What it means is that, when the signal is higher than the voltage drop of the diodes (0.7 volt), the negative feedback loop is shortened and makes the transistor stops adding gain. That’s how the signal is clipped.
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That’s very interesting. The feedback from the sink back to the gate simply turns the transistor off once it exceeds the diode voltage drop, and the signal clips. I love it.
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Yes, that what we call a soft clipping. Some kind of hard limiter really. (so, not so “soft” 
)
A hard clipping shorten the signal directly to ground when it’s higher than the voltage drop, which creates almost a square wave. That’s what you find in a Rat for example (D1 and D2) :
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Neat, after the explanation the rat clipping is super straightforward now that I know what the diodes are doing like that - it just sends anything over their threshold voltage right to ground. The Muff one is super interesting in that it’s controlling a transistor which is gating when Va goes to ground rather than to the output signal then? Very cool.
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What happens if you mismatch the diodes? Some kind of biased clipping?
(sorry for all the basic questions 
)
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The diodes are not connected to the ground in the Big Muff, just before the input and the output signal, so that’s the difference between those signals that make the diodes clip when it’s higher than the voltage drop.
It just makes the clipping a little bit asymetrical, which can actually be very interesting. Also you can use two diodes in series on one side (one phase of the signal) to create this asymetrical effect.
Also sometimes, LED’s are used rather than normal diodes, because LED’s have a less linear behavior (because of the current that is drained only when the signal is high enough to make the LED produce light).
Look at the Boss SD-1 diodes configuration (D4, D5, D6) for an asymetrical soft clipping using 3 diodes :
And here is the LED clipping on a Marshall 8080 Valvestate (the two LED’s at the differential input of IC2, and the ones just before the 12AX7 tube) :
… possibly easier to see on the Marshall Guv’nor (D1 and D2 which are LED’s) :
No problem at all, I love speaking about all this 
and that’s not so basic actually
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i have developed a thing over time for lo-fi pedals and the new source audio artifakt looks amazeballs. i have a long history of buying source audio but i have never actually kept any of them. it wouldn’t be surprising to see that continue 
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That is so very not my thing (well except the Bitcrusher) and I still think that is a super cool pedal
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Used the HX One Poly Capo in rehearsal last night. Sounded fine.
Just looked up how much an individual pedal would be for drop tuning!!
Happy with the price of my Line 6 with its 200+ pedals in one.
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Weird, pricing should be around 150.
Iirc Digitech used to be cheaper, but that goes for most gear.
I was joking @Paul
Canadian Amazon pricing occasionally just has what appear to be mad made up figures.
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I got bamboozled!
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But it’s still $299 CDN regular price 
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Maybe a stupid question, but can the Drop pedal do anything better than what the Bass Whammy can?
I think the Bass Whammy ist just a few dollars more, can do the same thing as the drop pedal, and more.
The only reason for me to get the drop pedal would be limited space on the pedal board.
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I have no idea. I’m using a drop pedal equivalent in my HX One. 250 pedals for $250.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HXOne--line-6-hx-one-guitar-multi-effects-floor-processor
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Very different control over your sound, more options, takes up more space. I’ve never read anything but good stuff about the Drop, but I have a problem with that price versus something like the HX One.
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You know how there are multi-effects pedals like one that has 8 different types of Reverb or 9 different kinds of Delay. I want one programmed with 10 of the greatest sessions bassists of all time so that when I set the dial to Chuck Rainey for example I sound just like him. Wonder how much that would cost? 
LOL
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