The Rust Driver Distortion Pedal from Hao was designed to recreate the classic sound of a late 60's Marshall Plexi running at full-bore grind. Its carefully selected components allow the Rust Driver to faithfully perform this function with any amplifier, at any volume level. The result is a commanding guitar tone with a tight, thick bottom and extremely low signal-to-noise ratio. A single knob controls output level and gain while 3 switchable EQ curves offer plentiful tonal options without compromising your guitar sound. When you need that "Plexi Sound" regardless of the playing situation, the Rust Driver is an affordable, reliable, portable alternative to the real thing.
Overdriven tones of late 60's British Plexi panel amps are still considered by many as among the best guitar tones. The Rust Driver stompbox is designed to produce thick, throaty sound, regardless of pickup types, that enhances the vital frequency range for electric guitars to cut through the mix. At the same time the Rust Driver pedal amazingly maintains a guitar's original tonal character. As a result, Rust Driver generates a tonal character very similar to those fabulous classic amps. With a preset 3-position EQ switch (Normal, Bright, Warm) and a Level control (amount of distortion is fixed), simplicity is the key to Rust Driver's unmatched tonal qualities.
Sounds pretty good in the video, except for the "warm" setting. That sounds more like "warm blanket". Maybe it's just my speakers. Still it sounds worth a build.
ReplyDeleteI built one of the originals from the layout on this site and the dark setting was utterly useless, way too quiet and dark, don't bother with it (the dark setting).
DeleteCheers
D
I thing that the caps on the switch are 1n and 4n7...
ReplyDeleteyes. sorry, that's a typo. the 47n should be a 4n7.
DeleteVolume 2 to output, volume 1 to ground, true?
ReplyDeleteAt the previous vero from updated schematic, the 680p and the 470k are in pararell for the gain, it's the same thing?
the 500K pot (and 4K99 resistor) is taking the place of the fixed gain 470K resistor.
DeleteThank you John!
DeleteHi all.
ReplyDeleteZosotone asked but I saw no reply....how is the output routed?
SW2>>Vol2>>Output??
yes.
ReplyDeleteThanks John.
DeleteIn a little deeper now. Will a 1n5817 work for the 1n5242B? The data sheet looks like it will easily handle all the volts but I'm not real sure. I got no 5242B's.
thx, jeff
how about a update? messy project
DeleteIt doesn't have a 1N5242B (which is a 12 volt zener) in it. I only has two 1N4148's for the clipping.
ReplyDeleteDope!!
DeleteI had the SHO soulsonic thing printed on the same page. I'll build the Rust Driver next.
I'll switch to the correct page now...Thanks John.
Hey John, Thanks for posting this updated version. How close do it get to the gain and sound of the demo? I've built this thing a couple times, but have never gotten close to that demo. Probably something I'm doing wrong.
ReplyDeleteUsing to original layout I mean.
ReplyDeleteyou should be able to get the same tone out of it as the original. the original just has the gain set at a fixed amount with a 470K resistor instead of the 500K pot. my build has tons of gain and actually a little more than the original.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletedunno why he plays Dani California with RHCP when the sound isnt even close to that one??
ReplyDeletethe riff sounds more like an old Tom Petty song, cant remember which one :)
the pedal sounds great tho :P
yep, Tom Petty - Last Dance With Mary Jane, had to look it up ;)
Deletesimilar riff but not really, but the sound was more like it..
i guess the pedal reviewer mixed it up in his head ;)
jesus, it so many nice sounding pedals!! cant build them all, i go broke soon :(
Built it yesterday, big thanks for the layout! A very nice sounding pedal. The gain is better with a 1M pot IMO. Also boosting it with something in front (I used an AMZ Mosfet Booster) yields a nice sound, though not much difference. Just a tad fuller. The tone caps are to me absolutely useless, I removed them. But my guitar has a very dark sound, so I could imagine that some brighter guitars would need the 1n cap. The 4.7n seems to muffle the sound too much, I can't imagine that working even with a tele's bridge pickup. I'll try to increase the gain a bit, probably by changing the first stage. I'd love to get something similar to my Crunch Box clone, but only with one volume pot and I hope I could squeeze it into a 1590A too :)
ReplyDeleteyou can get a lot more gain if you raise the 33K resistor's value (to 100K or even up to 330K), I wanted mine to be able to go from clean to dirty so I went with the posted values but used a 1 meg pot for the gain.
ReplyDeleteThanks John. I went with 100k/330k for setting the gain in the first stage (would be the same as 10k/33k in your layout, but gives a higher input impedance), I think I'll try to lower the 100k input resistor of the first opamp stage to 10k.
Deleteanyone have found the right caps value ? i tried different ones but with no results.
ReplyDeleteHi, sorry.. i built this one last night, and i add mini blend in this circuit to get the clean signal, but something happen on my switch. I cant hear the different for all switch. What should i do? Thanks
ReplyDelete