Black Arts Toneworks BADASCAN

[Sphere80]

   The Badascan was a limited run B.A.T. pedal mixing elements of the Pharaoh with the LSTR. Both are high gain Muffs, with the Pharaoh focused on heavier tones, and the LSTR even higher gain, with tighter bass.

   I used Mark's Pharaoh layout and made a diagram to make my build easier. You may prefer to use the LSTR layout, since it's mostly an LSTR, other than the pre-gain switch, tone stack, and clipping switch.



   This is a good build if you like the Pharaoh, but want raspier fuzz with tighter low end.  Or you like the LSTR, but want more control over the gain and heavier bass/low mids.  

   I've built all three and it certainly bridges the gap. The "highs" on the tone section is not a normal mid range control, but brings in definition when you turn the tone below noon. With the pre-gain and clipping switches, you can get a loud dirty boost to a very heavy defined fuzz.

[nostradoomus]

Awesome. I owned one of the first run of these bad boys and regrettably had to sell it. Time for a new one! :D

[anders]

Nice one! I think I'm going to build this. Never bonded with my Pharoah clone because it felt to mushy and and unfocused.

Never heard of this one and thanks for the layout

[Sphere80]

Nostradoomus (!), glad to have an original owner and I hope it sounds like you remembered.  Can you tell us anything about how the project came about? Do you remember any of the early discussion/"doom room" stuff?

Anders, the 100n coupling caps will give you a tighter sound than the Pharaoh's 470n's and 10uf in/outs. It's more focused for sure.

[anders]

And done! Sounds fantastic! Much tighter and more crunchy than the Pharoah. And those uber high gain Darlingtons finally found a new home.I think I have to do the LSTR as well...

Thanks again for the layout.

[nostradoomus]

Its been a few years but I remember Mark from BAT did a tourbox and i think it was just a frankenstein idea between him and Nick from Dunwich that ended up being amazing so he did a small run.

[nostradoomus]

Finally got some MPSA12s in and built this up today...nostalgia factor 10! Love it (still) and thanks for the layout man.

[traktop]

I remember the Pharaoh made wonders on amps about cooking and ate all drive pedals in front of it like a champion. But in the end I found it kind of boring due lack of focus and personality menctioned above, so this build got me interested.
I´m thinking on adding a mid pot like the lstr:
Would adding a 500k pot instead the 470k resistor to ground after the 10n cap at the tone stack acomplished that?
I found this as well:

It´s a Quantum Mystic/Badascan BAT custom build. About minute 3:25 introduces the tone bypass stomp switch. Reading at the text description it says that it lifts the "High" leg, bypassing part of the tone stack.
I was wondering if it would be as simple as lifting the layout "highs 3" board  that connects to a 22n cap to ground.
Or maybe jumpering "Highs 1&2" straight to "Tone 1" bypassing the "Highs"pot and 22n cap completely...
I don´t know, any ideas?

Cheers, Gilberto.
 

[Sphere80]

Oh cool, I remember this one.  Do you know what the "Depth" control is?
The "pre" control should be easy enough. Replace the hi/Lo switch with the pregain from the Pharaoh Supreme.

 The "high" on the Pharaoh and " scoop" on the LSTR are pretty similar if you look at the schematics or test them side by side.

[traktop]

Yeah you´re right, they are the same with different values.
Anyway, so the mid pot I was suggesting would be a more traditional muff mid pot, right? What do you think?
Any idea about how the tone bypass switch would go?
I think the Depht control on that badascan is just the gain pot.
Gilberto

[Sphere80]

Depth= gain, of course, thanks.

Here is a little chart I made with some modded muff  tone stacks (using Kitrae's drawings). You're probably on the right track with your idea.

total tone bypass can be a jumper from the beginning of the tone stack, to lug #2 of the tone pot? It would make the signal much louder too. Do you know if the owner of the original pedal reported such a change?

[traktop]

Thanks for the tonestacks. The ones using a mid pot have a maximum value of 100k. Maybe I could try with a 100k pot with a 375k resistor in series and see what I got.
Bypassing the whole tone stack would be a big jump on volume with no doubt, and the one in the video seemed to just let more hi mids pass through. It just says that "lift" the Highs leg bypassing part of the tonestack.
Cheers, Gilberto.

[traktop]

I´ve just build it, and this thing is a beast!!!
The pharaoh has its place, but this thing is far more fun with that angry character and low mids definition.
Changed the 250k tone pot by a 100k, as I always felt the sound getting dull at 12:00 o´clock position; now is perfect.
I added the pharaoh supreme clipping board with some changes. The original badascan used just leds and silicon diodes by a reason, cause germaniums alone just didn´t work here, (mosfets were ok). I ended using 1n34/1n4848, 1n4001/1n4001,  2 x kd521/1 x kd521 (asim), 1n4001/green LED, red LED/red LED. The jumper possition, (no clipping), is not working at all. I get a drop in volume and the sound got dull. It happened the same to the 3 badascan builds I made, with its own different clipping boards, so there must something wrong here, (the pharaoh supreme thread has someone with this problem as well).
I  tried soldering a jumper on the board, but happened the same.I even tried jumpering Q3 Base and Collector with the same result: a dull low sound.

I managed to achieve with success the tone lift as in the video. I used a switch to bypass the high pot network sending the signal from Q3 collector straight to tonepot 3, keeping the the other half of the tone stack. The result is an increase on the high mids and clarity overall. This is a great feature, as the option of bypassing the whole tonestack was to much in terms of volume jump to be able to do it on the fly.

[Sphere80]

The no clipping option should have nothing at all, instead of a jumper. It's the same as  in the original's on/off/on toggle switch. Wow, you built 3?!

[traktop]

That´s what I thought, but I barely noticed any change between led clipping and no clipping with no jumper.
Since I started with the water decal artwork, I´ve managed to sell a couple of builds with the following regret of not keeping one for me. Not anymore!

[traktop]

I´ve just made a LSTR/Pharaoh switchable tonestack daughterboard layout, so we can unleash its full potential.
The 470k resistor and both caps involved on the main board tone stack network, (22n/10n), must be removed, as well as "High3"/"Tone1" board connection, (as they go wired to the proper toggle switch lug now).
If we wire a link where the 10n cap was, we can use main board "tone3" row to connect with toggle switch "Q3 collector" lug.
I used a 50k pot for "high/scoop" so the lstr tonestack worked like the original, (backwards indeed...). When pharaoh tonestack is selected, "high" pot is only usable from noon to full, but I didn´t find annoying dialing proper settings, as I always used to leave it barely at full blast.

[BetterOffShred]

Sorry for the dumb question,  but this is for the badascan layout above right?  I built the Pharaoh a while back, but I've been eyeing this one as well..  

[traktop]

Yes, it´s for the badascan layout above. But you can use it with the pharaoh as well.

[anders]

Yeah, it's alright and it sounds great. highly recommended build.

[traktop]

Pharaoh/Lstr tonestack switch layout verified.

Didn´t tried before when I posted the layout above. Just had the 50k high/scoop pot installed, and thought that the Lstr would work backwards, but finally it just added mids as I opened the pot like the original.

Well, hands up for the  LSTR. Loved that angry character refined by its versatile tonestack, but where it absolutely shined was when using the 6 positions  rotary clipping switch I built for it. For any reason, (probably that volume sucker tonestack affecting Q3 feedback loop), the sound characteristics of different clipping options were brought just in front of your face on a hi-fi brutal way, (specially the differences between no clipping and leds, where you barely noticed  any with pharaoh´s tonestack), which really made two pedals that behaved very differently.
For clipping I used:

No clipping
Led/Ge, (D9E)
Si III
Ge III, (1n34a)
Si II
Si/Ge, (D9E)

Totally Recommended mods!