Did I Design My Own Circuit?

[M. Spencer]

While teaching myself how to read schematics I ended up building a few circuits on my breadboard. One thing led to another and I found myself combining them and modifying them into a bigger circuit. I then redrew the schematic, learned how to draw up a vero layout (thanks mainly to the tutorial on this site) and then built the pedal. I now have a fuzzer that is basically a SHO cascading into a Bazz Fuss, followed by a switchable LPB into another Bazz Fuss with GE diodes. There's also a "funny" bias pot and BMP tone stack in there. I named it Stiff Sisters (credit to my girlfriend; it was her band name in a dream) and gigged with it a few times.  

Since most pedals in existence are based off of (or near copies of) earlier designs I'm wondering what you folks think: Did I create my own circuit, or did I just create a mod of four or five circuits in one enclosure?

And what is the difference?

[Beaker]

First off, that's awesome work - congratulations!

As to your question "is it original"? Well I guess there are a few points of view.

Some would say NO. As you state, you put it together from existing building blocks, (which came from already existing ideas) therefore it can't be original.

Some would say YES. There are plenty of pro builders out there who would proudly trumpet this as totally original, the the result of three years R+D ... (You get the idea).

Personally I would call it "NOVEL"  - not totally original, but far from a rip-off either. You have used your skill and imagination, to come up with something that works, and is al little different to anything else.

For that, you should be applauded.

[dexxyy]

Fuck yeah, if Sean can take an Electra and make dozens of pedal variants he proudly calls his own (and guards them jealously) then this (to me) is far more original. Yes they are built from existing building blocks but then so are all songs, realistically they are all variations of the same 12 notes, it`s how you string them together, tempo, emphasis etc that makes them unique. Same goes for this.

[Muadzin]

Well, you created something. And sometimes the biggest genius is not in coming up with something new, but using something in a completely new way. From what I gather viagra wasn't designed to make limp wood go stiff again, but somebody sure as hell saw the potential in that and made billions. And in military history both Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar contributed jack shit to military innovation, but they both used what they had in new and daring ways.

I'd say goop it, flog it on TGP as the latest unicorn's tear and lean back in glee as the tone hounds come running to you with their money. Just as planned!

[motterpaul]

Electronics is one of those fields - like plumbing, where you are dealing with components and physics, so in any given apparatus there is nothing completely new under the sun. A given transistor will always have certain specific ways to accomplish certain results, - either it works that way or not at all. It's like a pressure valve for water or an air vent. There is only one way to do it conceptually, although you may use different sized pipes or tap them in different places.

This is why circuits cannot be patented. If they could, there would only be one  "tube screamer" - not a dozen variations where the only thing they changed was the chip and a couple of capacitors.

In pedal building - the magic comes from the combinations you put together, the order of the gain stages, etc. You are using building blocks to create something new, and I am sure yours has a unique sound.

So - to say you basically borrowed this and that is not a crime or a ripoff. Even if you hired the best Electronic Engineer to build an overdrive from scratch, there is good chance much of what he would create would resemble bits & pieces of other pedals that have already been marketed. That is the nature of electronics, what works is what works.

So, the answer to your question is "yes and no" - you didn't design it from scratch, but you made a unique pedal design. You did the same thing as what a lot of successful pedal makers do with what they sell.

What if you ran a restaurant - would you say you invented the Lasagna on the menu, or would you just say it's your personal recipe? Parts of it would be just like any other chef's lasagna, but could you package and sell it as your own version of Lasagna? Yes, why not?

[M. Spencer]

Thanks for the input folks. I'm still a babe in the woods of pedal building, but I got big dreams... Here is a sound demo of the Stiff Sisters prototype recorded with my camera phone.



I still want to play with the tone stack values. It gets really fizzy on the "sister bypass" mode when you crank it to the treble side....but there's something cool in that fizz that if I could make it more stable could be a really unique (for better or worse) tone. Gigged with it twice and got compliments on the tone, so I'm at least in the ballpark but I want to make all parts of the sweep of each pot totally usable.

This is also my first finished enclosure, still a LOT to learn in that department.