You are a badass!!! Nice breakdown and detail on a great pedal company. I feel that all the earthquakers I own are more like separate little preamps instead of pedals… most pedals don’t stay linear to the guitar signal as in they choke or add noise as in these pedals sound amp like and full
Great video. I recommend going and watching the "designer notes" on the earthquaker channel. It's a good recap of why the pedal was made and why it has some smaller changes to it's circuit. Peace and stay safe.
Could you create a video review of the RYRA TRY-PI MUFF? Many of us are interested in these pedals and would appreciate a detailed review of the RYRA. Your channel is my go-to resource when choosing between pedals. I prioritize tone first, followed by build quality, in my decision-making process. Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to get one and fully taking it apart, as I was wondered since a while about the tech behind the Hizumitas. I own an Earthbound Audio Supercollider, which is more related to a russian green BM, and has a lot of tweakability, with additional controls for Mid, Bass and a Clipping switch. I modified it to have a second tone present to mimik the Elk/Hizumitas tone control response. For that cap in the tone control I have now a switch toggling between 10nF (standard), and 2.2nF (my Hizumitas guess). 2n2 gives you more mid scoop (but a not so much as it would be with the 330pF), and then with the SC Mid knob I can "compensate the scoop gap" to taste. Funny story: standard 10n and mid pot fully scooped CCW sounds almost as 2n2 and mid fully open CW, so by chance I got a very cool expansion of the sonic palette this pedal is capable of.
Thank you for this teardown! It makes the schematic build for the Hizumitas easier to understand. I've been into building guitar pedals and this is a great way to learn how to rebuild it.
Great circuit breakdown. I’m a huge fan of the Uncle Doug / Psionic Audio type channels and Gray Bench is a great way to round out the series of audiophile content. Happy new year and Thank you for the content. Respectfully Andrew
LOVE Uncle Doug… Psionic is a cool channel but I had to un-Sub due to content Overload. It’s just TOO many videos but that guy is a very knowledgeable tech!
Excellent video, and just what I've been looking for in trying to find the differences between the Elk Fuzz Sustainar and the Hizumitas, so Thank you! One question though, the R23 resistor in the schematic that replaces the Elk 1k, is that an 820R or an 820k?
Would be curious to see some other Muff variant teardowns - the Honey Pot Fuzz in particular is quite mysterious, and I'd like to see how close the Bass Big Muff/Nano is to the Green Muff and it's reissue.
That was awesome! I wanted to see this bad. I didn't think anyone would have done it yet. I don't know if it's really their "interpretation" of the Elk Sustainer so much as Jamie and Wata's personal 70's units. In the EQD launch video, Jamie said that he started off with an NPN interpretation of his personal Elk Big Muff. I'm sure he used the base schematic as a guide but he said he disassembled and measured the components of his. When that didn't end up the same as Wata's personal Big Muff, she sent it to him and he them matched the components to hers. Either way, not important. This video is awesome. Subscribed.
One of the tricky things about those elk units (and other 70's Japanese electronics), they used really crappy components, so the parts could be +/- 20% of the marked value. Not surprising they will sound different from one to the next!
5:58 It's no true. With lower clipping caps the distortion is less "bitey" and more bassy. Also the amount of distortion decreases. It generelly sounds cleaner but also more bassy. At the same time: with a lower cap value for the first clipping cap, more signal gets through to the second clipping stage and thus clipping it much more than with a higher value.
@@graybenchelec nice. I didn't know what microcontroller they used. I have done some with an attiny85 and then later with the attiny13a and used avrgcc for the compiler. I've fiddled with picc-c a little bit, but never really got that far in it.
How would one go about modding this pedal to remove the scooped mids? I find it unusable in a band setting. I'd like to have better control over mids and overall tone to make it worth the money. Thanks!
That panasonic style film cap is looks like JB capacitors from Taiwan. To me, they are best audio grade film capaciotr. However it's really hard to get. BYOC using JB capacitors for their kit.
You want a really solid connection to the enclosure for shielding. Using the spring means you'll always have positive pressure mechanically, even if the board shifts a bit in transit, or doesn't sit in the same position during assembly.
Where are D1 and D2? The only diodes on this board are labeled D3, D4 + D5, D6. Clipping of Diodes D1 and D2 is a fairly popular mod on the NYC Big Muff. So, this is interesting to me, and has me grinning while pontificating over how the Hizumitas is my favorite Big Muff ever.
D3 and D4 are equivalent to most BM schematic's D1 and D2. Hizumitas has a couple diodes in the power supply that the original BM didn't have, so the clipping diodes were "bumped" down the naming order.
In my humble opinion, this is the best-sounding most balanced big muff I have ever tried! it is a keeper for sure.
You are a badass!!! Nice breakdown and detail on a great pedal company. I feel that all the earthquakers I own are more like separate little preamps instead of pedals… most pedals don’t stay linear to the guitar signal as in they choke or add noise as in these pedals sound amp like and full
Great video. I recommend going and watching the "designer notes" on the earthquaker channel. It's a good recap of why the pedal was made and why it has some smaller changes to it's circuit.
Peace and stay safe.
Could you create a video review of the RYRA TRY-PI MUFF? Many of us are interested in these pedals and would appreciate a detailed review of the RYRA. Your channel is my go-to resource when choosing between pedals. I prioritize tone first, followed by build quality, in my decision-making process. Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to get one and fully taking it apart, as I was wondered since a while about the tech behind the Hizumitas.
I own an Earthbound Audio Supercollider, which is more related to a russian green BM, and has a lot of tweakability, with additional controls for Mid, Bass and a Clipping switch.
I modified it to have a second tone present to mimik the Elk/Hizumitas tone control response. For that cap in the tone control I have now a switch toggling between 10nF (standard), and 2.2nF (my Hizumitas guess). 2n2 gives you more mid scoop (but a not so much as it would be with the 330pF), and then with the SC Mid knob I can "compensate the scoop gap" to taste.
Funny story: standard 10n and mid pot fully scooped CCW sounds almost as 2n2 and mid fully open CW, so by chance I got a very cool expansion of the sonic palette this pedal is capable of.
The Hizumitas tone caps are 10nf and 3.3nf
this is the exact type of content I was looking for man. outstanding work!
Thank you for this teardown! It makes the schematic build for the Hizumitas easier to understand. I've been into building guitar pedals and this is a great way to learn how to rebuild it.
Great circuit breakdown. I’m a huge fan of the Uncle Doug / Psionic Audio type channels and Gray Bench is a great way to round out the series of audiophile content. Happy new year and Thank you for the content.
Respectfully
Andrew
Being compared to Uncle Doug is a big compliment, thank you :)
Uncle dougs the man!
LOVE Uncle Doug… Psionic is a cool channel but I had to un-Sub due to content Overload. It’s just TOO many videos but that guy is a very knowledgeable tech!
Digging this teardown series. Would love to see more EarthQuaker stuff in general.
Excellent video, and just what I've been looking for in trying to find the differences between the Elk Fuzz Sustainar and the Hizumitas, so Thank you! One question though, the R23 resistor in the schematic that replaces the Elk 1k, is that an 820R or an 820k?
820 ohm
Would be curious to see some other Muff variant teardowns - the Honey Pot Fuzz in particular is quite mysterious, and I'd like to see how close the Bass Big Muff/Nano is to the Green Muff and it's reissue.
Noted!
The Honey Pot is such a great Muff. One of my favorites actually and i've had a few Big Muffs from Black Russian V8 to more modern clones.
This is really cool how you break this down ,nice to see because I'm gonna be building a clone soon.
Thank you!
Them bunny's is Jackalope's. 🤣
This is a video of Jamie explaining the process of this pedal. ruclips.net/video/7egdV5EU7hg/видео.html
That was awesome! I wanted to see this bad. I didn't think anyone would have done it yet. I don't know if it's really their "interpretation" of the Elk Sustainer so much as Jamie and Wata's personal 70's units. In the EQD launch video, Jamie said that he started off with an NPN interpretation of his personal Elk Big Muff. I'm sure he used the base schematic as a guide but he said he disassembled and measured the components of his. When that didn't end up the same as Wata's personal Big Muff, she sent it to him and he them matched the components to hers.
Either way, not important. This video is awesome. Subscribed.
One of the tricky things about those elk units (and other 70's Japanese electronics), they used really crappy components, so the parts could be +/- 20% of the marked value. Not surprising they will sound different from one to the next!
@@graybenchelec absolutely. Between that and 50 years of component drift, finding 2 identical units would be hard.
Remember the hizumitus is modeled after Watas exact pedal as no two elks sound the same acording to EQD
5:58
It's no true. With lower clipping caps the distortion is less "bitey" and more bassy. Also the amount of distortion decreases. It generelly sounds cleaner but also more bassy. At the same time: with a lower cap value for the first clipping cap, more signal gets through to the second clipping stage and thus clipping it much more than with a higher value.
It criminal that u dont have more subscriptions man 🤦
Nice video! What kind of bypass circuitry are EQD using? 555 Timer? Microcontroller? NAND Logic?
microcontroller based, generally referred to as "relay bypass": www.coda-effects.com/2016/04/relay-bypass-conception-and-relay.html
@@graybenchelec nice. I didn't know what microcontroller they used. I have done some with an attiny85 and then later with the attiny13a and used avrgcc for the compiler. I've fiddled with picc-c a little bit, but never really got that far in it.
How would one go about modding this pedal to remove the scooped mids? I find it unusable in a band setting. I'd like to have better control over mids and overall tone to make it worth the money. Thanks!
That panasonic style film cap is looks like JB capacitors from Taiwan. To me, they are best audio grade film capaciotr. However it's really hard to get. BYOC using JB capacitors for their kit.
'Jackalope'
Nice as always! Do you think that spring is useful when the GND is tied from the DC jack to the input and output jacks?
You want a really solid connection to the enclosure for shielding. Using the spring means you'll always have positive pressure mechanically, even if the board shifts a bit in transit, or doesn't sit in the same position during assembly.
@@graybenchelec it makes sense, thanks!
Where are D1 and D2?
The only diodes on this board are labeled D3, D4 + D5, D6.
Clipping of Diodes D1 and D2 is a fairly popular mod on the NYC Big Muff. So, this is interesting to me, and has me grinning while pontificating over how the Hizumitas is my favorite Big Muff ever.
D3 and D4 are equivalent to most BM schematic's D1 and D2. Hizumitas has a couple diodes in the power supply that the original BM didn't have, so the clipping diodes were "bumped" down the naming order.
Where can I buy those green sockets?
lovemyswitches.com/rocket-sockets-pedal-building-socket-set/
@@graybenchelec thanks
Hi could you add that schematic
I didn't make a schematic, but I added the modified component values to the FSB thread on the pedal.
@@graybenchelec thank you. I will try and find it
Alright, so.. I still need to explain to the wife I pulled the creditcard on a "Big Muff Elk Sustainer".. What does it even mean