WHY THE MAKERS OF ANALOG PEDALS ARE IN A SWEAT!!!

A LOW TECH LOOK AT ANALOG PEDAL MAKING


First a quick look at digital. Put enough on/off digital messages together and you can have what works as a single transistor...in fact it is so easy with enough memory you can have hundreds. Its cheap...it's clean and the possibilities are quite endless.

The down side is it not only sounds as sterile as an algorism. LOL but..worse yet. If you make a pedal this way...your competitor can literally clone you...and both pedals will sound 100% identical.

Now an analog transistor is a real thing...it takes 3 to make a basic fuzz...in fact a basic fuzz only needs 7 parts. lol
Well you can hold one of these transistors between your fingers and read the info on it. So by digital standards an analog transistor is an extra large super jumbo size thing. LOL

There are 3 basic types...germanium...silicon and FET used for pedals. There are about 25 other types but they have a limited use for pedals.  Each kind represents a succession of better technology...but when I say better...I am talking about clarity and mechanical performance. When misused in making them distort. Well that is another matter. They are in general considered basically obsolete. In so much as the consumer market who think  digital electronic making is supreme.
In fact half of the "cool' ones are only alive in small obscure countries who either have some old stock gathering dust or they banged out a few to keep grandad's radio going a few more generations
          .                                        especially in the old Soviet Bloc.as well as parts of Asia.



The reason they sound good is that put an audio signal thru anything and out the other side comes distortion. In this case distortion means it goes in one way and comes another. The original idea was to distort the signal as little as possible. Often the best that came out was a pleasing distortion.
My ears love the distortion of a germanium transistor. Technically since it was the first kind of a transistor...it is scientifically crap  But It makes some stellar guitar distortion. LOL

OK...we have 3 types of transistor...several values...or strengths...and a dozen company's making a few different models...perhaps one made in 1955 was upgraded to the new improved 1960 model.

So my point is. The practical choices are limited...the ways you can wire them together are limited.

So...one day...the new improved model will cease to be new. A clone will be as good and what pedal you choose will be on your board until it actually wears out...maybe years and years.

ONE DAY>>>THE MANUFACTURERS..... WILL.... BE IN A SWEAT

BUT JUST LOOK AT THAT THING !!!   I THINK IT IS A EDWYN COLLINS BUM FUZZ
CIRCUIT!!!
MY GOD...LOOK AT IT!!!   WHY THERE ARE 9 PARTS IN  IT!!!
NO! NO! LOOK LOOK ....JUMPIN JACK RABBITS   THERE ARE 10!!!!!


OH POOP.... I GOT IT WRONG
THAT'S A RARE
SOLA SOUND MKII

OH DAMN! I THOUGHT IT WAS AN OLD ONE
ITS ONE OF THOSE CHEAP $580.00 NEW ONES!!!