Paul Cochrane Timmy

Here’s my take one the Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive, err, the Lovepedal Amp 11, sorry, the Paul Cochrane Timmy. In the days where 90% of boutique dirt pedals are based on either a Fuzz Face, a Tube Screamer, or a Big Muff, it’s nice to see something original sound so good. This pedal is a great low to mid gain overdrive that compliments your current rig, rather than colour it. Known for it’s transparency, it sounds great boosting a slightly overdriven amp. While I find it somewhat buzzy at lower volumes with the gain knob past noon, if you turn up your amp and turn the pedal’s gain down that buzziness disappears. This pedal won’t turn your Gorilla amp and Sears guitar into Eric Johnson’s wet dream, but if you already have a decent guitar and tube amp this may be the pedal to use to get “your” tone, with more gain and impeccable transparency.

I won’t post the schematic to this one, as Paul is a great guy, and sells this pedal at a very reasonable price. I just like building my own gear, as I can tweak the circuit as I go. I didn’t really mod this pedal too much. The only real modification I did was swapping one silicon diode with a germanium, just to switch it up a bit. The diode toggle switch has 3 settings. The middle setting is stock, with 4 silicon diodes. The top position adds 2 additional silicon diodes, while the bottom position adds the previously mentioned germanium diode (1N34A). To be honest I think I prefer the stock position. Here’s how she looks on the inside.

I kept the enclosure a basic glossy white, and added a green LED (I’ve been all about the green LEDs these last few builds). I really enjoy the 2 band EQ; the pedal does sound a bit bright on my setup, but with the treble cut control I can tame most of it out without the pedal sounding muddy. While the pedal doesn’t have high amount of gain it works great as a clean boost as the sheer volume of the pedal can really punish your amp (transparently, of course).

 

 

2012

09/08

CATEGORY

Pedal Builds

TAGS

Overdrive
Timmy

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