336 – Dying Battery Simulator

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This is a project I built today based on a design I found at beavisaudio.com, a great diy/guitar pedal site. What it does is simply drop the voltage going to a guitar pedal via a knob. This allows you to get all kinds of sounds that are reminiscent of what happens when a 9 volt battery goes dead in a pedal. The sound is an example where I play a chord and adjust the voltage to my MXR Phase 90 pedal, which it turns into a ratty distortion. This was inspired by an electro harmonix pedal I saw called the germanium overdrive, which has a voltage knob. Now, I can hook up any analog pedal with this and experiment with the tone. It also reminds me of some sounds that I’ve heard Christian Fennesz get from his custom ‘master distortion’ unit.
 

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