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Thursday, 24 January 2013

Fulltone RTO Robin Trower Overdrive

Info about the original:

Robin Trower is known for TONE. While working with Robin during his 2008 tour, I developed an overdrive truly worthy of the Trower namesake.

Touch responsive, huge sounding, sustain for days... and crystal clear when the guitar's volume knob is reduced for great live dynamics. Being that Robin uses Fenders as well as Marshalls, it had to work well with both types... and it does. And Robin hits so hard that the front end of the pedal had to be tuned for those .012-.048 tuned-down strings. The RTO holds tight and smooth for Strat and Les Paul players alike.

Robin's quite happy with the way it turned out, and I think you will be too.







Here's Geiri's build, with AMZ mini-booster in front of it:



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16 comments:

  1. Geiri24 January 2013 at 12:49

    Any IC alternatives? Will a 1N4001 or 1N4007 do for D1?

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    Replies
    1. Ross24 January 2013 at 12:56

      Any dual op amp will work in place of the LF353, and I see no reason why you can't use a 1N4001, it's for clipping. To be honest, with these kinds of circuits, I always like to have a 2 or 3 position DPDT with selectable clipping options.

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    2. IvIark24 January 2013 at 13:25

      Yes the only difference between the 1N400x is the voltage rating, but even the 1N4001 is rated at 50V so I'd use that every time. When the diode rating goes up they get a bit unwieldy and the leads get very thick.

      As Ross said, a switch with your favourite selection of clippers is the best way to go with something like this. Madbean's take on this (the T-Bagger) uses mosfets as clippers, but that made the whole thing a bit too much like the OCD for me (which I don't particularly like anyway), so I kept it as per the original.

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    3. Geiri24 January 2013 at 14:24

      Great, thanks both of you!

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  2. mah6224 January 2013 at 15:23

    Built and verified. Another lovely Overdrive. Used 4001, 4148 and an NE 5532p. This one jumped the queue just a bit just because it had Robin Trowers name to it. I have LF 353's on order too but I think they have been sent "goat mail" too!

    Mark

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    Replies
    1. IvIark24 January 2013 at 15:31

      Awesome, I love the nice quick painless verifications! :o)
      Cheers Mark

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  3. Gc6625 January 2013 at 02:07

    Definitely doing this one this weekend. Any chance of seeing the 69 and 70? I think that ggg has a schematic for the boutique fuzz which is a 69.

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  4. Geiri25 January 2013 at 12:28

    Built it with TL072 and it sounds really good. I actually recommend putting the AMZ booster in front. It just gives the drive some much needed balls. Even if you just set the booster low, you can kind of have "two drives in one" by switching it on in front of the RTO.

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  5. Fredrik Lyxzén26 January 2013 at 14:39

    I just built this one (very much on an impulse). Had a free enclosure to fill that was already drilled so I needed something that would match it.

    It sounds decent, but the tone-pot goes from muffled to less muffled until the last 10% of the turn when it suddenly jumps to trebly and slightly fizzy sounding. I've tried both a log and lin pot with the same result.


    Anyway, I wasn't that impressed so I built the Menatone Red Snapper insted, wow!! Much better IMO

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  6. Unknown27 January 2013 at 06:29

    I built this one using an OPA2134 and I love it big time! Doesn't go fuzzy at all. Nice and very usable.Stacking a Guild brian may box with cornish buffer into it sound, err....WOW!
    For reference, I'm playing a low output strat into a Fender HRD clean channel.

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  7. Fredrik Lyxzén27 January 2013 at 21:01

    I played around some more with this one today, but I think I need some help with it.

    It actually sounds pretty good (I built mine with a TL072), especially with my Xotic EP booster in front. Today I tried a 1K linear pot for the tone and it works MUCH better, a very useful sweep all the way, no sudden jumps like before. A 1K rev log pot is probably perfect. I will try that when I have one.

    I also replaced the input cap with a 15nF to make it alittle more humbucker friendly.

    I have a problem with my build though. When I turn down the volume (like 50%) it sounds like the clean signal is coming through (and it sounds horribe, but with volume cranked it's not noticable). I've double and triple check everything but it seems ok. Any ideas?

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  8. pedalst3 February 2013 at 10:29

    Hi guys.! I'm wondering how Fulltone tuned the front end of the pedal for 12 gauge strings. Is it only the 22n input cap.?

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  9. Anonymous25 June 2013 at 21:38

    I've built three of these and each one has had a noticeable pop when turning on/off. The usual pull down resistor doesn't solve it. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

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  10. Raffo9 January 2015 at 18:48

    i'm desperately looking for the schematic of this unit.
    Any help?

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  11. Baz23 April 2024 at 17:24

    Just built this and I have. No output from pin 2 of the op amp, I've got signal on pins 3 and 4, just nothing on the way out to the drive.

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