REVIEW: DiStefano Nice 'n' Nasty vol switcher

[woodman]

many of you probably saw Rob DiStefano's post about his new innovation -- the volume switcher pedal. Rob was kind enough to send me a prototype to try out, and it works as advertised: dial in your rhythm volume (Nice) on one channel, your lead volume (Nasty) on the other ... one stomp and you're there!

when it arrived, i took it out to the Woodshed to try it out. plugged it into my brown Pro at roughly gig settings. everything worked great. the switch (true bypass) was silent and i didn't notice any tone suck. volume seemed consistent, and tone unaltered.

my first thought was, naturally you'd turn the Nasty channel up to 10 and dial the Nice channel to proportion ... but then i got to thinking, in a small venue, you could turn the amp up to 7-8 (a nice spot on most tube amps for getting the power stage involved), then dial in your Nice and Nasty settings from there.

Rob also added this note: To further enhance the tone, .001uf treble bleeder caps could be added to both pots - the caps are soldered between the input lug (on the left) and the wiper lug (in the middle).

the LEDs are BRIGHT -- no problem seeing them in a daylight gig. and, let's face it, it's a happy-looking little pedal! very compact footprint at 2 1/4 inches wide by 4 3/8 inches deep.

so i'm gonna put it to work ... off to Home Depot to get some industrial velcro for the pedalboard! Rob sez it'll work best as the first pedal in the signal chain ... haven't gigged it yet, but i'll update this post as soon as i do.

huge props to Rob for this innovation!

[pix: 1 - Nice channel on. 2 - Nasty channel on. 3 - guts plus Rob's personal inscription.]

[guit30]

Nice looking box
Jim

[tjalla]

Looks cool... a simple but practical concept - as to be expected from Rob I don't, however, quite get what you mean by a 'true bypass switch' - it seems this pedal would only be 'on' at all times, and the f/switch toggles btw the two settings, no?

[woodman]

right, tj -- i think the true bypass switch is just a fail-safe against tone-suck in either position.

[brownshoe]

Looks kinda like a dogs face, don't it? The knobs are the floppy ears...

Oh yeah, it looks a bit like good 'ol K-9 from Doctor Who.


Anyway, good idea for a box.

[eryque]

Kind of a cool concept for the times when you're too busy playing to grab your volume knob.

Originally Posted by woodman

right, tj -- i think the true bypass switch is just a fail-safe against tone-suck in either position.

If the device is always on (which it is), there is no true bypass. True bypass means that a switch connects the input wire directly to the output, bypassing the circuit. Since you're always using either circuit A or circuit B, there's no way to bypass it.

There's really no such thing as a true bypass switch. Some boxes just happen to have a switch that's wired to bypass the circuit. The same switches can (and often are) used to activate buffered bypasses, or can be used in designs with no bypass at all.

[woodman]

Originally Posted by eryque

Kind of a cool concept for the times when you're too busy playing to grab your volume knob.

right -- the primary value is (1) when you're coming out of an intensive vocal into a lead break, and (2) when you're coming out of an intensive lead break back into the vocal. one stomp does it all!

the secondary value is, you can change dimensions with the flick of a switch (Nasty, Nice, Nasty played subtly, Nice played aggressively) ... it's sort of like a clean boost, except better.

[outlier]

Looks really cool. Neat idea.

I sincerely hope no one minds my saying so — only problem as I see it is that always having a pot in the circuit path creates more loading as there are now two volume pots paralleled, one in the box, one in the guitar.

In other words, even with both of the volume pots turned up full, the combination of a Tele's 250k volume pot, and say, a 250K volume pot in the box combines to give 125k between hot and ground. It's effectively turning the guitar down halfway even at full rotation.

Probably most have had a similar experience. Ever plug two guitars into one amp by using a "Y" adaptor? Ever notice that when you unplug one guitar from the "Y" adaptor, the volume is louder and the tone is more upfront? That's because you've removed a parallel volume pot. There's less loading.

For that reason, in my humble opinion such a box would be most effectively used after a preamp pedal of some type such as the Axess-Electronics BS-2.

[guit30]

Very good idea, nothing in the box to combat that problem
J

[outlier]

If I were to build something like this, I would have just one pot in order that the pot can be completely bypassed. Or, I would keep two pots and add a second footswitch in order to bypass the pot circuitry altogether.

I'd have to think about it, but the interactions of the carbon path between the topside terminal, the wiper and the ground tab could make for some funky interactions with the guitar's pot and a funny taper.

I'd have to think about it, but I'd maybe wire up the pot in a box a little differently than the usual volume pot topology. I'd want something like a single resistor that could be varied rather than two effective resistors being varied in the pedal with the conventional volume pot topology. Follow me?

This might be accomplished by wiring it so that hot is connected to the wiper and the bottomside terminal to ground.

This way, the resistance could be varied evenly. I'd also experiment with pot values and taper, linear or audio...

Just thinking out loud here.

[John Thigpen]

When I first read this, I thought it was in essence a two channel clean boost, but apparently there is no actual boost circuit, so the unit can only subtract gain and not add it. An interesting variation would be to add a boost circuit that could both reduce or add volume. You could use such a circuit for the rhythm/lead switch as described, or use it to switch betwen humbucker and single coil guitars (put two inputs in it while you're at it!).

John

[Rob DiStefano]

There are lots of ways to switch from rhythm to lead and this specific twin pot version of the N&N addressed a specific need for a specific Southern bluesman. It's a no-brainer passive circuit, and like all passive circuits there's gonna be trade-offs ... the same can be said of too many active circuits, too.

If you, as the pedal builder, have the ability to tailor the trade-offs in yer favor, then there aren't any (trade-offs, that is). And now yer talkin' a really custom pedal that does what you want, for your sound/tone requirements.

Adding in a DPST mini switch allows the signal from the pickup switch to be diverted to the volume pot or directly out to the N&N. That's the ideal setup, IMO. You can either use, or not use the N&N with the flick of a switch, and have the best of all worlds.

[woodman]

finally got to take the Nice 'n' Nasty out for a spin. Thursday and Friday i played outdoor gigs, 5:30-8:30 for Speed Street in Charlotte, the city's big racin' festival. but instead of being down on the street with the pressing throngs, we were up on the roof of the Holiday Inn.

we started in daylight, and the N&N LED was the only light i could see distinctly on the pedalboard. i intended to use it sparingly, but soon found myself using it on every song -- man, the instantaneous switch to a predetermined higher or lower tier of volume/texture was invaluable. about 3-4dB difference ... used in conjunction with the volume knob, it made it easy to fine-tune my dynamics.

the unit operated silently and consistently, no tone suckage or any of that ... if you're using a pedalboard, you're altering your input anyway, and the N&N didn't seem to make any difference in my tone (loading considerations notwithstanding).

if you're good with circuits and soldering irons, this is an uncomplicated, inexpensive project that would be worth your time if you like the idea of a preset volume pedal.

[pottedmeat42]

cool...i like the design aesthetic. Seems to be a "do one thing & do it well" type affair. =jason

[aberrant]

Totally useful pedal, great idea, and a great project. I think I may try this out a little later. It kind of reminds me of the Barber Launch Pad though. Different in application for sure, but same basic idea.

[woodman]

this lil gizmo has been on my board for five or six gigs now, and i've been amazed at how handy it is. when you get in a tight spot, volume's just a stomp away. no fumbling for the vol knob or homing in the vol pedal, no necessity to kick in distortion simply for a boost ... in fact, i'm amazed that a simple device of such utitity has just now emerged!