shinei univox siren tornado hurricane wah exciter. because i like mad things.

[tabbycat]

shinei univox siren tornado hurricane wah. because i like mad things. and because it's called an 'exciter'.

have considered the ‘dub siren’ posted elsewhere within these threads but it doesn’t quite hit the spot. plus i have a real thing for the old shinei stuff. it presses my buttons on so many different levels. and my first build was a shinei superfuzz, which remains my favourite pedal. tbh i can’t imagine a pedal i could like more.

anyway, there are various excellent schematics out there for this. this one comes from the venerable pinkjimiphoton and was originally posted at diysb. i hope he won’t mind me reposting a link here. i know he regularly visits the forum so think he will be ok with it.


http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/Wah-Volume-Surf-Tornado.gif

the real fiddle appears to be the offboard wiring. a lot of switching to get right.



i’m going to have a tinker with it over the weeknd but it’s quite a bit bigger than anything i’ve attempted to date, so am not anticipating any kind of result soon. but thought i would throw it out there in case anyone else is interested or has actually come up with a layout for it.

demo comes courtesy of blonde graemey, whose demos and explanations of vintage kit are always worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svrvhiuHWL8

i think the fact that graemey can barely describe the effect and keep a straight face is testimony to its must-have qualities.

tabbycat.

[Beaker]

Ahaaaaaaaaaa!

Another blockbuster there Tabbycat.

Have you tried building the Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master yet?
 You need to.

[Beaker]

Tabbycat, sounds like You and I are swimming in the same pond.

Have you tried Anders SRS EQ Exciter on the layouts page as well?

[anders]

Ah, man that thing is crazy! I didn't know it exsisted. I'd love to give it a crack sometime but the switches and the offboard wiring seems to be a PITA.

Is it an inductor or transformer in wha section?

[rocket88]

Wow. Never heard of this. We've got to figure this thing out.

[Beaker]

The gutshots show a small transformer - no clue to it's specs though.

http://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/normal/shin-ei-me-7-surf-siren-tornado-170624.jpg

[Silver Blues]

Yeah there's an inductor in there. I wonder if it could just be replaced with a gyrator.

[tabbycat]

Beaker wrote

Ahaaaaaaaaaa!

Another blockbuster there Tabbycat.

Have you tried building the Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master yet?
 You need to.

who wouldn't want an effect that made every song sound like the sweet's 'blockbuster'? in a sane world it would be fitted as standard to every amp.
i'll write to my euro mp, brussels are good about getting these things through.

had been thinking about the fm2 for years, but since i began to learn more about reading schematics it began to look increasingly like another very slight variant on the superfuzz, of which i have two already (one hot-rodded with every mod).
everything after the first gain stage on the fm2 is identical to the superfuzz (like the ibanez standard fuzz) and i'm not sure the differences in that gain stage add or subtract enough to make it worth a big build like that worth doing atm. but am obviously curious about that whole family.

Beaker wrote

Tabbycat, sounds like You and I are swimming in the same pond.

Have you tried Anders SRS EQ Exciter on the layouts page as well?

re pond, am deep deep in the shinei pond. actually i think this is the only shinei pedal i know of that there doesn't seem to be a vero layout for. the one that got away. that's a terrible oversight.

thanks for the heads up on the srs. i had a listen to a soundclip on the dam pages. it looks like an earth sound research graphic fuzz and sounds like a cross between that and the double-beat fuzz (freppo has done an excellent vero layout for the double-beat either here or on his parasit studio site). the double-beat has that same really phat and grunty raspy bottom end, like when a bass speaker gets a rip in it.that's a three transistor job too, may well be a connection.

Silver Blues wrote

Yeah there's an inductor in there. I wonder if it could just be replaced with a gyrator.

re the inductor, i wonder how essential it is to the sound effects. if it's just part of the wah circuit, that's the weakest part of the circuit, very disposable, could maybe be better subbed with a coloursound wah (for which there is a verified schemo here), while keeping the sound effect stuff in tact.
but if the sound effects depend on the capacitance filling and draining qualitites of the inductor (the slow build up and fall) then maybe we could try the one that dirk hendrik recommends for his honey special fuzz. shinei and honey are generally very close if not identical, coming from the same factory.
or maybe the one in the octavia clone layout here? standard tandy £2 transformer thing.
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/colorsound-wah.html
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/tycobrahe-octavia.html

dirk's on fsb and ilf so maybe i'll message him re the inductor. i know he has a couple of mint versions of this in his collection so will surely know a lot about it. http://www.dirk-hendrik.com/shin-ei.html

[Beaker]

Tabbycat, when I said about swimming in the same pond, I was reffering not just to Shin Ei pedals , but the whole Psysch / drone rock / noise thing.

(BTW my son has a band called Shin Ei!)

The Fuzz Master is different enough to be worth a build. I describe it as the Superfuzz's evil robot twin. It has a definite octave down too, and the octaves are slightly "off". It can get very close to Neil Young's "Hey hey, my my" sound.

I would be happy to just have the siren part of this circuit, as you say, who wouldn't want one!

Also, I do realise that the transformer is being used as the wah inductor in this pedal!

p.s. Tabbycat, if you are unaware of it, check out Liverpool Festival of Psychedelia in September. It's a great event.

[rocket88]

Seems like a lot of us are into the whole psych scene. Travis and I are meeting up at a psych festival in Cali in a few weeks.

[Beaker]

Ooh, which festival is that Zach?

[rocket88]

Psycho California. It's all psych, doom metal, and stoner metal bands. To make matters even crazier, I have to fly out on friday super early, because I'm seeing janes addiction on that friday, then come home rest a day, then I go see mastodon, clutch, graveyard, and a few other bands on Tuesday.

[tabbycat]

Beaker wrote

Tabbycat, when I said about swimming in the same pond, I was reffering not just to Shin Ei pedals , but the whole Psysch / drone rock / noise thing.

(BTW my son has a band called Shin Ei!)

The Fuzz Master is different enough to be worth a build. I describe it as the Superfuzz's evil robot twin. It has a definite octave down too, and the octaves are slightly "off". It can get very close to Neil Young's "Hey hey, my my" sound.

I would be happy to just have the siren part of this circuit, as you say, who wouldn't want one!

Also, I do realise that the transformer is being used as the wah inductor in this pedal!

p.s. Tabbycat, if you are unaware of it, check out Liverpool Festival of Psychedelia in September. It's a great event.

hey beaker,

re pond, it would seem very much so. i like fat and dirty fuzzes, noisy chaotic feedbacky stuff (but more old-school fat fuzz-fuzz than the splatty 8-bit atari kinds of fuzz that seem to be big atm), extreme filters and modulators. extreme effects always interest me. it may well be because i'm not really that into learning technique re playing guitar. i just like to do the basics and take that as a starting point for creating different textures and moods with effects chains. so the way the effects interact become an inextricable part of what i'm actually playing, not just a post-playing gloss. and the more extreme and particular/idiosyncratic they are, the more options i have to play with.

shin ei! is a great band name. i would go to see them on the strength of the name alone.

will revisit the fm2 and re-evaluate. it has long been on my list but dropped in ranking after i built the superfuzz. but still want to build it somewhen. intending to move away from guitar effects for synth drone ambient stuff this summer, so maybe i'll temporarily end my fuzz building career with the fm2.

re the siren tornado pedal, i think it may be best to strip out the wah and see if what is left functions as a stand alone. the wah is rubbish anyway.
comparing these two schematics...

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com/temp/shin_ei_hurricane.gif

http://www.experimentalistsanonymous.com/diy/Schematics/Fuzz%20and%20Fuzzy%20Noisemakers/Shin-ei%20Fuzz%20Wah.gif

it's clearly the same generic shinei wah circuit in both, neatly divided out from the rest of the circuit by the ground rail across the middle of the image.

so lets ditch the wah entirely and see how far we get with a vero layout for the top half? half the circuit, half the headache. as a starting point.



and what doesn't work without the wah involved we can look at later.

re liverpool. a bit of a jaunt for me. am sunning myself on the south coast. but i hope you have a riot up there.

[Sergio]

Janes Addiction, Clutch, Mastodon, amazes me! Janes, RHCP, FNM, Primus, MrBungle, these are some of my fav bands! Whos is in charge of bass in Janes Adiction at those concerts? Eric Avery again? God! I need a "bean me up, Scotty!"

[Travis]

The "surf" setting is the part that uses the wah. It's basically just a bunch of static noise with the wah filtering it

[tabbycat]

Travis wrote

The "surf" setting is the part that uses the wah. It's basically just a bunch of static noise with the wah filtering it

 thanks for the reminder travis. my attention is not completely focused on this yet as am in the middle of building a very basic analog synth.

i've got a built coloursound wah (marks vero layout here) vero on my desk so may try to build the top half of the siren tornado etc and then patch it into the relevant places of the coloursound to see if i can get the same effect. it's just a sweep through the range which the coloursound can do much better than the shinei.

will report back as and when.

[negativefx]

Just saw Clutch/Mastodon at Red Rocks on Sunday.  Clutch was excellent as always.  Mastodon sounded like muddy garbage.  Love their albums, but in the two live shows I've seen their instruments drown each other out, Brent is too wasted to sing, and their drummer is way too winded to sing his parts.  Hope it's two coincidences and they sounded good for you!  Graveyard sounded great but not my style.  

[rocket88]

wow, that's sad to hear about mastodon. every show i've seen then they have been awesome. i actually met them once and they're super nice guys. i did notice that brent does enjoy the sauce a lot. i hope they get their shit together by the time i see them. every mastodon show i've been to they live up to their name, it's like a fucking giant hairy elephant running through the crowd, and always seem to be on point.

clutch by far never has a bad show, and i mean never, and i've seen them i think 6 times. every show is different, and you never walk away disappointed, even if they don't play what you want to hear.

i really like graveyard, so for me the band list is just too damn perfect. in fact there's another opening band that's a local band i've seen before that's pretty fucking good to.

[strassercaster]

back in 1985 i was at the pawn shop. loved it went to the bank came back it was sold. found out a few years later my friend bought it. he still uses it. he copied the siren and added a high and a low so its really thick.

[tabbycat]

strassercaster wrote

back in 1985 i was at the pawn shop. loved it went to the bank came back it was sold. found out a few years later my friend bought it. he still uses it. he copied the siren and added a high and a low so its really thick.

that sounds a very nice idea. any chance you can bribe him to post a gut shot or reveal his recipe? i think there would be a few people here interested to see it.