Parallel Universe II

10/16/2014

EDIT 2014-10-20
Soundclip added. Clean sound running through the parallel Universe (nothing inserted in the send/return).

here is a cool circuit that reminds me of Tim Escobedo's Uglyface. It does heavy fuzz, oscillation and crazy synthy octaveish glitchy sounds.

Note that the send and return needs to be connected if you are not using other pedals through the Parallel Universe's effect loop. The easiest way would be to use a switched jack for the send and connect the switched lug to the input on the return jack. Or simply just omit the send and return and have them connected in the box. But it's when using other pedals through the fx loop you get really crazy sounds... :)

15 Comments

Dino

2/15/2015 10:43:04 am

This is the Parallel Universe II. This circuit is very sensitive to input impedance, which can impede the oscillation aspect of the circuit. If you're running a buffer (or several) in front of this circuit, you'll have problems. Even with the gain max'd, a buffer in front will kill the oscillation. To avoid this, I highly recommend adding an AMZ pickup simulator to the front end. This will over come any possible impedance conflicts. Detail can be found here; http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=uo6cqkih3tvqc4qieeb7droh17&topic=2904.0

Fredrik Lyxzén link

2/15/2015 02:48:38 pm

Cool, thanks for the tip! :) I'll update the headline to Parallel Universe II. Cheers / Fredrik

Dino

2/15/2015 07:39:55 pm

When I have some time, I'll see to updating my vero to reflect this. When I discovered the buffer problem, I had already built it, and was using it at the time. I simply added it into the pedal afterwards. It really should be a permanent part of the build though.

Brett

1/9/2016 08:33:20 pm

I built this one and finished it today.. woweeee! This thing is so much fun. It's not boxed yet, but I think I'm going to put in expression control for frequency, gain, and tone.. I'll probably put in the little transformer mod Dino mentioned as well. This is a really interesting whirlwind of sonic mayhem, it's not super 'musical' for my playing style, but I was certainly able to dial in very usable tones from the fuzz mode, and then with the oscillate and starve on, it gets super nutty. Thanks for the layout.

Fredrik Lyxzén link

1/11/2016 04:54:07 am

Hi Brett,
Thanks for chiming in. It's a fun effect indeed! :)
Glad to hear that some of my layout are being of use.
Cheers / Fredrik

Brett

1/13/2016 06:19:34 pm

Yeah sir! I've been playing with it quite a bit, and I think I've come to the conclusion that it actually is quite musical. So far I've only run a PRS with original dragons and my telecaster with Texas specials through it, and it gets nutty with both guitars, though with the tele I definitely have to tweak the knobs a bit to achieve the same range as on the humbuckers. I'm pretty addicted to these strange circuits that do something typical as the tip of the iceberg, with this vast unseen dimension of audio madness below.. that being said I'm looking at your 'Into the Unknown'. Thanks again for the layouts.

Jordan

2/18/2016 06:47:01 am

I cant seem to get the starve switch to work it just cuts the audio. Any idea whats going wrong?

Fredrik Lyxzén link

2/18/2016 03:06:49 pm

Hi Jordan,

The switch toggles between 9v directly (after the protection diode) or through a 2.2K resistor, to pin 6 of IC1.
So check that the resistor measures 2.2K, and check the cut around the top left side of the resistor.
If those are ok, then maybe you have a faulty switch, so check by doing the connections manually with wire.

That's all I can think of. I hope it helps :)
Best regards
/ Fredrik, Parasit Studio

Brett

2/20/2016 06:10:48 am

I recently corresponded with Colin who created this circuit about it briefly, and he indicated it was very sensitive to type of 386. Sure enough I tried a few in mine and got a world of difference from the oscillation mode. I got the best results and widest range on the oscillation sound from an old radio shack 386 of all things! Thanks again Fredrik

Fredrik Lyxzén link

2/21/2016 04:32:18 pm

Hi Brett,
That's good to know. Thanks for sharing! :)

Tyler link

6/6/2020 11:02:58 am

So I made this and tried it in my test box with the send and returned connected directly to each other. All I got was dubstep sounds. I messed with all the knobs and they changed the dubstep frequency. But when I messed with the input wire it didn’t changed the sound at all. My test boxed is set up for the standard 9v,ground, circuit input, circuit output connections. It’s seems like the problems with the input but I checked and it’s dead on with the layout. Should I wire this outside the box instead of using my test box? Like is their a chance it’s because I can’t test this like a normal pcb?

Fredrik Lyxzen link

6/8/2020 03:04:00 am

Hi Tyler,

Perhaps there's a problem with your build? I see no reason why it wouldn't work with a testbox just like any other pedal. However, it was 6 years since I buit this one myself so I don't remember the specifics of this perticular effect. But I would start checking for the usual suspects, shorts, jold joints, faulty chips ect. Good luck. Cheers / Fredrik

Oliver

5/14/2024 10:04:10 pm

I loved the sound clip so I ordered all the parts I currently don't have. However, I don't see an output on the diagram, only input , send and return, am I missing something? I'm relatively new to pedal building with only a few kits under my belt. I know this is an old build but any guidance would be appreciated! Thanks :)

Oliver

5/14/2024 10:07:34 pm

I see that Volume 2 goes to putput but I don't see a vol 2 on the diagram

Fredrik Lyxzén

5/16/2024 12:54:59 am

Hi Oliver,

Volume is an external potentiometer, so that's why you don't see a vol 2 on the board. Stripboard layouts usually doesn't have the output taken directly from the board, it goes out to vol 3, then the output is taken from vol 2 which is the middle lug of the pot. I hope that makes sense. :) Cheers, Fredrik

Parallel Universe II

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