King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

[Curly]

a raw demo of the King Tut Fuzz, a DIY Big Muff variation from rullywow.com:

http://www.rullywow.com/product/king-tut-fuzz-pharoh-clone-pcb/

Starr tele/ Blues Junior/ King Tut

http://www.starrguitars.com/

[LReese]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

Sounds nice!

[Empty Pockets]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

It's a lot cooler to buy a real Black Arts Pharaoh and give the guy who designed the circuit a reason to keep designing circuits than it is to buy a clone kit.

[Curly]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

It's a lot cooler to buy a real Black Arts Pharaoh and give the guy who designed the circuit a reason to keep designing circuits than it is to buy a clone kit.

I appeciate your point.
I have a ton of pedals, and support good builders as much as I can. This wasn't from a 'clone kit', but from a DIY pcb project, and it's a one-off thing, totally acceptable for personal DIY purposes.
For the record, the Pharoah is a very cool pedal. However, it's a modded Big Muff Pie, with an expanded tone circuit based on Jack Orman's 'totally wonderful" circuit: http://www.muzique.com/lab/swtc3.htm.

lots of others have built a Pharoah from just a BMP circuit board, so really no rocket science here ... there's a whole industry out there of modded Muff pedals, as well as outright copies of the original circuit.

[jimijames]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

It's a lot cooler to buy a real Black Arts Pharaoh and give the guy who designed the circuit a reason to keep designing circuits than it is to buy a clone kit.

I think the word 'design' is a bit inexact here - more like 'tweak slightly' because the muff circuit is so simple. You wouldn't say the guy who paints a wall, or installs a window, 'designed' that wall, he's just switching it up some.

[everdrone]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

more pharaohs (and variations thereof) the merrier

cool stuff!

but ya any way to credit/pay black arts is cool

[jon the art guy]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah circuit)

Wow, backlash on DIY all of a sudden. How many 1 knob fuzzes do i have to slightly eq tweak before im considered a boutique builder and immune to the circuit thief label? Ive got about 10 pedals worth of guts in a box, will that do er?
Oh wait, ill need to come up with a cool name and graphics too. Then itll be MY circuit and not a mishmash of original, uncopywrited material from the 60s and 70s and some electronic 101 tooling.
I know what ill do, ill put a 15 component fuzz circuit that i added a tone stack to and put it in a 1590bb box! GENIUSoh wait, D.A.M. already did it again and again.

[d1dsj]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

I just picked up a Pharoah and won't get chance to try it for a day or 2 but I hope it sounds as cool as yours Curly.

[Curly]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

hey guys,
thanks for all the comments!
I didn't expect to post a little clip on my favorite forum, and get knocked for 'not being cool' because I built a DIY pedal at home. It's not even boxed yet, so there's no suggestion on my part that I'm going into business and getting rich selling knock-offs .
It's a damn hobby!

Guitar is my passion, and I like to see what makes things tick, so over the years, I've built guitars, amps, and pedals. Lately I've been building pedals more, and I spend time over on madbean's foum. I think I've gotten a lot better at it lately. I've been learning Eagle CAD, tracing circuits and designing board layouts for pcb fabrication. A real learning experience in itself, but I enjoy that design part, and I already have a lot of CAD experience.

the guy who has probably written as much about Big Muffs as anyone, Kit Rae, has a page dedicated to builders 'inspired' by the Big Muff:

http://www.kitrae.net/music/Music_Muff%20Inspired%20Pedals%20and%20Clones.html

so, the list of those who make Muff copies and variations is long.
Are all those folks "not cool" for building copies?
I don't think so. Most of them do it because they love that circuit, and are inspired by the tone of artists who are notable for using a Muff.

The fact is, the vast majority of circuits are not patented, so once something's been reverse engineered, the cat's out of the bag.
So, copying a circuit that's not protected is not strictly illegal, and that is where the ethical question lies.

I think it's interesting that over on the Free Stomp Box Forum, part of their hobby is reverse engineering certain pedals, and tracing the circuit. They seem to take special pleasure in de-mystifying expensive boutique pedals, especially if they're covered in goop. It's kind of surprising how many gooped up pedals have turned out to be common circuits, or out of production circuits.
The fact is, much of the pedal business and boutique market is based on a very small handful of classic circuits.

At the same time, pedals are in a great phase, and there are a lot of very creative builders out there now: Catalinbread, Strymon, TC Electronics, and Zvex to name a few.

Anyway, that is my rant on ethics. It really is a subject deserving of its own thread.

I'll just add this: Electro Harmonix (who 'invented' the Big Muff), have just come out with the Soul Food -- their own Klon clone. It costs about $60, and everyone loves it. So what do you think of that?

[Big Flannel]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

I support your endeavor, Curly.

[everdrone]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

support. clone the clonez!! drone on

[Chickenwings]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

build your own stuff if you want.
buy other people's stuff if you want.
play what you want.
play how you want.
there are no rules in art.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

i appreciate the perspective but i'm still kinda meh about the whole thing.

if you want to go all DIY ethos on me you shouldn't copy the Pharaoh and call it the King Tut... That's not even trying. That's like saying "Man that Black Flag show was great. We should start a band called GRAY FLAG!" If it was "This is MY unique take with THESE unique features and I call it the THIS," that's DIY.

Whatever tho. As long as you make good music with it.

[Curly]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

you shouldn't copy the Pharaoh and call it the King Tut...

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

I'm afraid, my friend, that once again you are ill-informed. The King Tut is the name of a DIY project that I built, but it's not my project, and I didn't chose the name. Whatever you personally think about it is your opinion. However, I'll say this: it's clear from the name, and the project docs themselves that there's no attempt to hide what it is.

I've noticed that some builders are pretty clever with their names. Skreddy has called his Muff versions "Mayo" and "PI9" after certain artists and albums. Stomp Under Foot just names his pedals after the circuit versions themselves Tri Muff, ram's head, Civil War, Green Russian. When you build pedals, you can have your own names. Either way, it hasn't affected either's success or reputation.

I suppose that you are just as conflicted about copies of Fender tweed amps, tons of strat copies, clones of Dumble and Train Wreck amps, etc, etc, etc., and that's your choice and your opinion.
It is not however, the only choice, or only opinion.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: King Tut demo (Pharoah clone)

Keep them coming Curly