Electricsheep

Jacques Charbit — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 16:46:31 +0000

The Electric Sheep is a completely new pedal featuring a 100% original all-discrete circuit for a natural high-end overdrive suitable for all kind of guitars. The Electric Sheep won Guitar Player Editors PIck Award.

1 – 100% discrete circuitry : No op-amps !
2 – Handmade using large circuit board avoiding parasite capacitor effects
3 – High-end transistors with carefully controlled data from Philips and Fairchild
4 – Selected and hand-measured passive components.
5 – NOT-A-CLONE : Completely new circuit architecture created from scratch

1- Transistor v/s op amps

Often considered a simple component today, the transistor is a very complicated and mysterious device. Its invention took a lot of time and efforts and nothing is simple when it comes to explain how it works. Most overdrive pedals use op amps (Operational amplifiers) which are a very small ensemble of transistors, resistors and caps, all printed on a wee silicium plate. Here is the schematic of one op amp :

Although very handy, I have always thought that op amps tend to muddy tone, because of wee small passive and too much unnecessary active components inside. This is why , for this exceptional pedal, I wanted to use discrete components only in order to keep the guitar sound as pure as possible in the boost/overdrive era. That meant inventing from scratch a completely new boost/overdrive circuit.

2- The 70/80 control

As part of this new circuit, this control morphs the overdrive tone from natural tube amp ( called here ’70s sound ) to classic overdrive pedal tone ( ’80s ) . It is not a gain control, but a real shaper of the boost/overdrive tone based on the way the discrete transistors work in my circuit. All the electronics will react differently depending on the setting of this knob.

low GAIN – high 70/80 = Classic creamy overdrive

high GAIN – low 70/80 = Hendrian low fuzzface overdrive tone

3- The HB/SC control

If you are here, interested in a high-end overdrive pedal, it is highly probable you may possess several guitars. And anyway, we do not have all the same tastes guitar wise. This is why I came to think you would need to adjust the pedal to your guitar, and not the opposite. With this control , you can control the input impedance from hi-gain humbuckers equipped guitar ( HB ) to classic single coils ( SC ) and everything that comes in between. I have always dreamed of this, and this is why I had to create this function while working on my ultimate overdrive pedal.

Of course, this very useful control can also be used to give the desired body a trebly pick-up . Don’t miss the special treat of a bass-beefed-up telecaster treble pick-up this function can achieve, even in low gain / clean boost settings.

4- From clean boost to raging overdrive

A good overdrive pedal must cover all the range from clean boost to high overdrive. Maybe a lot of pedals can do this. But my point , with this new circuitry, was to bring a new purity to this vast array of sounds, which implied working on the-less-components-the-better. This philosophy is widely admitted on hifi, and has been proven right, but I am sure that preserving the guitar and amp tones while using a pedal, benefits greatly from this solution. Try an electric sheep with your best guitar/amp couple and be convinced.

5- Paraphernalia

The Electric Sheep comes with a special extra-strong card box , optional quality non slip rubber feet and a sheep necklace. It will not include the Philip K.Dick book ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep’ but it is strongly recommande to read it.

6 – Video Demos

First Electric Sheep endorser : Joe Bonamassa !

7 – Suggested Settings

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Electricsheep