Section for the review of NVN Pedals..

Please State Model and Gear You Use....

NVN Dino Fuzz---this is a high gain fuzz in territory of Brit Bender and Foxy fuzz, but with more wildness? The gain knob appears to affect amount of fuzz present, turning the gain up just adds more and more fuzz around notes, turning the gain down decreases amount of fuzz leaving an OD/distortion reminiscent of a raging amp. Nice singing quality on single notes. The tone seems to add more or less bass, I keep it towards bassy side. Don't have to worry if your boosts or OD will work with it if you want to use one for a vol. boost for leads, a volume boost is built in with a control to vary ratio of rhythm/lead volume. The clean up on lowering guitar volume I think is as good as can be expected for a high gain pedal, still leaves some of that expressive grit/scratch there. I have not removed or change capacitor on rhythm, but that option is there to tweak tone. My MJM wah works fine in front of it. Disclaimer--I'm not very good at describing sonic properties/freq. etc., so read accordingly. Thanks Gary

Dino Fuzz first impressions:

Fender '62 AV Strat > Dino > Matchless DC-30

I can tell right off that this is going to be my most versatile fuzz (others I have are the Fulltone '69, '70, Soulbender and Ultimate Octave, PE Experience and Everman Fuzz Drive (not really a true fuzz). The Dino reacts to guitar volume rolloff better than any of the others, including the '69. I can roll down to like "1" on the strat and have a very playable light grit, almost like an overdrive (note: I do the anti-treble-loss cap mod on all my Fenders). And you can get away with this without hearing a waterfall of white noise, because the Dino is unbelievably QUIET, at all gain settings. If you tried this with the '70, you'd be listening to some Bulgarian radio station. All the way up and down the guitar volume control, you get great tones, with excellent note definition in chords. The strat quack in positions 2 & 4 comes through at higher gain settings than possible on my other fuzzes.

The tone control on the Dino is really cool. I'm not sure what it's doing, technically, but all the way counterclockwise you get your huge, billowing fuzz-facey thing happening, then turn it all the way up and you get an awesome cranked Marshall, especially with the bridge pickup -- dig in and chirp like mad!

I've read about Joe beta testing his pedals out in the real world, on gigs, and I think that's really paid off with the Dino. So many times you buy a pedal only to find that it has one or two good tones, so you set the knobs there and forget it. This fuzz is so versatile, you could get away with using it as your only drive pedal (not that GAS monkeys like us WOULD, but you definitely could...).

I'd still like to see a DC plug, and status LEDs -- one for effect on, and one for rhythm channel engaged.

Joe, a question for you -- The socketed capacitor on the rhythm channel pot is a great idea, and I'll definitely experiment. How exactly does it work? Is it like the bright cap on a Marshall, where a higher value cap = brighter tone? And what's the value in uF of the stock cap -- it says 1n0, but I can never remember how to translate those codes -- Thanks.

Tremo, thanks for noticing so many of the little things. I guess those weekends holed up in a motel room/makeshift lab on gig saturdays tweaking til ten minutes before showtime paid off [ who needs to shower before a gig, anyway?]

The socket on the Rhy vol pot contains a .001 uf cap.
You mention the 'anti treble loss cap' - if it is what I think you are saying- this socketed cap is the same concept. It passes highs all the time, so as you turn the Rhy volume down, the highs still go through.
I have tried various values in there, I don't recommend anything bigger than .047uf, you start to lose the action of the pot - because at that point most of the signal is bypassing the pot. Is this making sense?

If you want to turn the rhy volume into more of voicing control, however, try a .1 uf - this will be subtle but might work well for your setup.
This rhythm volume is situated pretty late in the gain stages, in between the second and third gainstage. So there is some serious interaction between the Gain control and how the Rhy Vol works. In fact, all three control except the Vol are quite interactive.
The tone control is quite unconventional in that it controls the input cap size rather than bleed highs to ground ALA the traditional tone control.
Some people have said it is too subtle, but Mr Ken Fischer of Trainwreck gave it the thumbs up, so who you gonna believe?
All of my circuit's schematics are available online. Dinosaur is at:
http://sounds.ampage.org/files/newdinofuzzschem2.gif

Thanks for those explanations, Joe -- I have enough "amateur" electronics knowledge that I can make sense of what you're saying. and thanks for posting the schematic -- I keep a file of schems for all my gear (if they're available), for troubleshooting and just for understanding what's going on inside. No black epoxy globs for NVN, huh?

I will experiment with the rhythm cap -- my thinking right now is that I'd like to get that channel voiced noticeably different from the normal channel, so I can switch between two tones. The Dino's dynamics are so good that I don't think I'll need to use the Rhythm channel for a volume drop -- I'd tend to just clean up the lead sound with my guitar volume. BTW, the Fender guitar mod I do is a .001uF cap and a 150K resistor in parallel across the volume pot, and it really fixes that dulling-down you get when you roll off the volume on a stock Fender.

I spent some more time with the Dino this morning, out in the studio where I was able to play at gig levels. Used my Strat again, through a Mesa Maverick into a Jenkins Highway 61 cab with Weber C12 speakers. This amp, while still Class A/EL84, has a lot "softer" quality than the Matchless. The Dino sounded fantastic -- even better than yesterday, since I was pushing the amp harder. I like the tone control just the way it is -- subtle, yes, but for me, the two extreme settings are perfect, and I'd have no need to go further in either direction. Full left on the tone is just a great old-school fuzz, and full right is that nice Marshally tone -- we're talkin' Judas Priest territory here, folks! Telepicker, if you're reading this -- the Dino might fill the role of that high-gain lead pedal you've been looking for!

Just finished wiring in a switching DC power jack on my Dino -- I'm happy now!

I ended up using a .005 uF cap on the rhythm pot. Now, this won't be everyone's cup of tea -- what it does is to change the rhythm footswitch from a volume selector to a completely different fuzz preset. With the .005 cap, the tone is thin, bright and nasty! So selecting the rhythm channel takes you from "Third Stone from the Sun" to "Psychotic Reaction". Well, maybe not THAT thin and nasty! anyway, it's cool to have that socket there for experimenting.

You bet I'm reading, Tremo. I appreciate all the insight you've given us on the pedal, and I will post my results when I get the pedal and spend some time. Then we can contrast and exchange advice/comments/etc. Thanks!!

interesting I was just wondering the other day if that Guitar cap/resistor trick could be applied to pedals..........Joe does the Dino have the parrallel resistor to go witht he.001 cap...................I havent looked .

No, there is no resistor. I have experimented with series resistors before the cap to lessen the effect of the cap passing highs [usually between 10k and 100k], with good results, but have not tried parallel. What does this do?

When I rig it for guitar , its on the volume pot and as you turn the volume down it maintains the EQ so you have the same tone at 4 as at 10.........so on a pedal I guess you could rig it so you could have the gain full up, but roll of the volume and keep the same 'tone' just less volume,,,,, might be useful on the 'Rhythym' knob on the dino- there seems to be some loss when the volume is cut to the lower level.............DonneR

There is also another set of tone pot mods like on G and L guitars- were instead of them both being treble roll offs , one is a bass roll off or whatever cap value you select- maybe a scooped mids fuzz tone....................DonneR