Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

[ratherdashing]

Back story:

A few years ago, I built a pedal called the FTL Drive. It was a TS circuit with a few major changes: six position selectable clip circuit, additional EQ controls, and a foot-switchable gain boost. I liked it so much that I decided to offer a production run of them to the people on the forum. I built two runs of ten, and sold all of them.

It was a difficult pedal to build (mainly due to my less-than-stellar enclosure layout) so I retired it after two runs. However, I still had a stack of FTL Drive PCB's, so I decided to turn them into something else. The result of that was the Raptor - a simplified version of the FTL Drive. It had two clip/gain settings instead of six, a simplified EQ, and no foot-switchable boost. I set the price nice and low and sold out the entire run in less than 24 hours. I really like the Raptor. I built myself one and it's still on my pedal board.

After the Raptor run was completed, I toyed with the idea of doing another design. My life was going through a massive upheaval at the time though, and I didn't want to take on that much responsibility. Honestly, designing a pedal is fun, but building a dozen pedals is many hours of mindless, repetitive labour. So I scrapped the idea, decided to forget about pedal builds, and focused on other things in my life.

--------

About a year and a half has passed since I shipped the last Raptor. A lot has happened in my life since then - most of it good. Lately I've toyed with the idea of doing a run of pedals again. Yes, the manual labour involved is obnoxious, but I learned a lot about design and layout from my Raptor/FTL experiences, and I think I can streamline the process a lot. More importantly, I miss being able to help people find their tone. The most rewarding thing for me was reading posts about how happy people were with their pedals, and how they were using them.

So, I've decided to take another crack at building pedals. I'll talk about my design idea in the next post ...

[Kam]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

So when's the next post, jackass? Edge of my freakin' seat here...

[St_Genesius]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

I come from exile to say: Sign me up for the first publicly available one. Whatever it is.

FTL #007 has served me well and I'd love to have another pedal of yours.

[DankStar]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

I predict the sickest a/b/y pedal this side of the rio grande.

[BloodRose]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

I too am thrilled with the pedals and would love to see whats next!!

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

So you've already made your decision about exactly what it is? If I remember right, before your life was overturned, you were asking for ideas about what pedal to build next, and I don't think overdrive or distortion was on the list. But when you say successor to the FTL Drive/Raptor, it makes me think it's some sort of drive pedal.

I shouldn't have posted this. I should just wait until the next post comes up. But I was paying attention. That is all. Move along. This is not the post you're looking for.

[kjrocks]

Nice, Ive kicked myself more than once for letting mine go during one of my purges. It would work well now with the guys I play with and the stuff we do.

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

Sign me up for the second one.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

BSG fan, eh?

[MetalManiac]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

FUZZ!! FUZZY GOODNESS! FUZZ PEDAL..( did i menetion I want a fuzz?).

[drpietrzak]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

Hum ... a variation of a fuzz would be cool. I still love the Raptor BTW.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

Sorry for making you all wait. And thanks for the enthusiasm! This is exactly why I want to do this again.

First off, I won't be doing a fuzz. There's already a truckload of great fuzzes out there, and I wouldn't be bringing anything to the table there.

As of now, and this is subject to change, my idea is for a twin OD/Distortion pedal. It would actually be four circuits in one:

- a nice JFET buffer
- a distortion based on the Rat
- a simplified T/M/B Marshall-style tone stack
- an OD based on the Raptor

Essentially it would be two pedals in one: a distortion with a tone stack, and an overdrive.

The distortion would have the following controls:

- Gain
- Treble
- Mid
- Bass
- Level

The OD would have the following controls:

- Gain
- Level
- Fat switch
- Bright switch
- Three clip settings: vintage, modern, and clean

There would be a separate true bypass foot switch for each.

Here's the ace in the hole: I'm building in a nice JFET buffer, and letting you decide if you want to use it. By default the buffer is always on, boosting the impedance of your signal on its way to your amp. If you don't want the buffer (maybe you already have a good one), there will be a jumper block inside the pedal that hard bypasses it.

I wanted to build something that a guitarist could throw down in front of almost any amp and get the tone and features they want. You could use it to turn a clean amp into a three or four channel beast, or you could use the OD side as a solo boost (that's what the Clean mode is meant for), or you could use it any way you like in combination with your amp's channels to get different levels and styles of gain. It's a great distortion, a great OD, and a great buffer that you can use any way you like.

How's that?

[MetalManiac]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

Smashing! Technically, its a bit over my head what was described about it, but it kind of reminds me of a King of Tone type thing ( just bought one), but with a different tone stack /distortion? Theres two different sections in the KoT.
Will the OD /Raptor section do a decent clean boost..I think that would really be great if you could redesign to to be a decent clean boost/OD if it ain't already.
One thing I don't like about the clips ( haven't got it yet) of the KoT , is that on the OD section, it doesn't get as much 'hair' or 'rasp' on the OD as I would like, but Analogman does say its for those who already have their perfect tone , and just want to boost it or overdrive it without losing its signature.

[tc]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

As soon as you have a price estimate, let us know. Sounds like a nice box o' fun!

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Successor to the FTL Drive and Raptor

Back story:

A few years ago, I built a pedal called the FTL Drive. It was a TS circuit with a few major changes: six position selectable clip circuit, additional EQ controls, and a foot-switchable gain boost. I liked it so much that I decided to offer a production run of them to the people on the forum. I built two runs of ten, and sold all of them.

It was a difficult pedal to build (mainly due to my less-than-stellar enclosure layout) so I retired it after two runs. However, I still had a stack of FTL Drive PCB's, so I decided to turn them into something else. The result of that was the Raptor - a simplified version of the FTL Drive. It had two clip/gain settings instead of six, a simplified EQ, and no foot-switchable boost. I set the price nice and low and sold out the entire run in less than 24 hours. I really like the Raptor. I built myself one and it's still on my pedal board.

After the Raptor run was completed, I toyed with the idea of doing another design. My life was going through a massive upheaval at the time though, and I didn't want to take on that much responsibility. Honestly, designing a pedal is fun, but building a dozen pedals is many hours of mindless, repetitive labour. So I scrapped the idea, decided to forget about pedal builds, and focused on other things in my life.

--------

About a year and a half has passed since I shipped the last Raptor. A lot has happened in my life since then - most of it good. Lately I've toyed with the idea of doing a run of pedals again. Yes, the manual labour involved is obnoxious, but I learned a lot about design and layout from my Raptor/FTL experiences, and I think I can streamline the process a lot. More importantly, I miss being able to help people find their tone. The most rewarding thing for me was reading posts about how happy people were with their pedals, and how they were using them.

So, I've decided to take another crack at building pedals. I'll talk about my design idea in the next post ...

Nice RD....Once again...good luck with it! I'm sure you'll offer another good tone clip so all of us can hear it?