The DOD Carcosa just ate my MXR Bass Distortion and DOD Boneshaker for lunch

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I keep meaning to check one of those out. Dew Knot Hump is pretty hot on the Carcosa. I’ve been slathering Op Amp muff and RAT tones on everything lately, but I’m always game for something gnarly. I’m working on material for an interstellar power pop Sabbath LP and I suspect that the Carcosa might be a good fit.
 
Peen Simmons said:
I keep meaning to check one of those out. Dew Knot Hump is pretty hot on the Carcosa. I’ve been slathering Op Amp muff and RAT tones on everything lately, but I’m always game for something gnarly. I’m working on material for an interstellar power pop Sabbath LP and I suspect that the Carcosa might be a good fit.
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Carcosa is more of an insane Fuzzrite than anything else. For me, it's a Red Llama with more character that gets gnarlier as you get a hang of the controls.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
Carcosa is more of an insane Fuzzrite than anything else. For me, it's a Red Llama with more character that gets gnarlier as you get a hang of the controls.
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Cool. I dig the Fuzzrite. That Shoe thing I have is a take on the Fuzzrite, but a bit more polite. I’d dig a little crazier version.
 
The Carcosa is fairly awesome and an absolute steal for the price I paid. If it were "booteek" it'd be a $180-200 box easy.

It goes crazy on its own, but the options make it clean up wonderfully and stack very well with other dirt.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
Cram’s Black Spiral is $249
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Hmm:

The origin of the Black Spiral Fuzz can be traced back to Chicago at the always amazing Chicago Music Exchange. I was perusing their excellent collection of pedals and I saw a mint condition Maestro FZ1-S. I took it back to their demo rooms and fell in love. It wasn’t all puppies and rainbows however, anyone who has tried an original FZ1-S knows that they are not without their quirks. But the base fuzz tone was rude, raunchy, and very ’70’s Biker Metal, just how I like my fuzz.

A very simple version went on to become the DOD Carcosa Fuzz, but I haven’t stopped experimenting with the circuit. In July 2018 I tried a modified version of the circuit with the Nanolog N2 and I loved how it turned out. It had a Germanium-esque sonic quality without the volume loss normally associated with Germanium diodes. I also must admit there is something tantalizingly perverse about mixing a vintage circuit with an ultra-modern quantum tunneling device. This version of the circuit became the heart of the Black Spiral Fuzz.​

Veddy interestink.
 
Hey, @Help!I'maRock! , I never sold my Carcosa, but have never bonded with it. Now that my Fender Concert, (also never sold, partly due to youze guys), is fixed up and likes distortion again, I would like to explore that pedal more. Can you suggest a couple ways to try the Carcosa out? I understand you like to stack it also. What do you do there? Really the only fuzz I ever have played much is my old EHX little big muff, though my RAT clone can get pretty fuzzy at times, especially if I am using the red LED setting.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Hey, @Help!I'maRock! , I never sold my Carcosa, but have never bonded with it. Now that my Fender Concert, (also never sold, partly due to youze guys), is fixed up and likes distortion again, I would like to explore that pedal more. Can you suggest a couple ways to try the Carcosa out? I understand you like to stack it also. What do you do there? Really the only fuzz I ever have played much is my old EHX little big muff, though my RAT clone can get pretty fuzzy at times, especially if I am using the red LED setting.
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You have fortunate timing. Today is the first day in 6 months I have plugged in. I wrote a riff in Dropped D, with the B string tuned up to C. It makes a C6/D chord. I’m trying to learn how to play in the tuning while I develop the song, so I plugged in. Here’s where I’m at.

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@sunvalleylaw

Now if all you know from fuzz is the Little Big Muff, then take that and throw it out the window. Big Muffs have a completely different topology from other fuzzes. They use four diodes, where most other fuzzes use up to three.

The DOD Carcosa draws its lineage from the Maestro FZ-1S. This is not the Keith Richards pedal. That was the FZ-1. The FZ-1S better known as the Maestro Super Fuzz, not to be confused with the Shin-Ei/Univox Super Fuzz. But all the Carcosa really shares with the Maestro is some topology. Tom Cram used the FZ-1s as a starting point and threw everything else out the window.

I would start with both big knobs at noon. Turn the small knobs off. Put the mini switch down.

The "After" knob will starve the battery and make the pedal sound more spitty/velcro-like. The Hi-Cut knob actually adds treble as you turn it up. And it's a biting, potentially ear piercing treble. Tom said most people will keep those knobs around 9 o'clock, which is how I have them set.

The switch is a bass boost. You might like this if you're trying to make your single coils sound more like humbuckers. I like it in the down position.

Those are the most confusing parts of the pedal. The big knobs are just gain and volume. As you can see, I'm working with a fair amount of gain right now.

With your setup where the F5 or 55 is your main drive, I might set it up as more of a treble boosted sound. Where you're getting your main sound from the Catalinbread -> Fender Concert, and then using the Carcosa or LBM as your mega distortion or boost of choice. The difference is you're using the F5(5) as your foundation and I'm using the Carcosa. So it depends on what you want.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
@sunvalleylaw

Now if all you know from fuzz is the Little Big Muff, then take that and throw it out the window. Big Muffs have a completely different topology from other fuzzes. They use four diodes, where most other fuzzes use up to three.

The DOD Carcosa draws its lineage from the Maestro FZ-1S. This is not the Keith Richards pedal. That was the FZ-1. The FZ-1S better known as the Maestro Super Fuzz, not to be confused with the Shin-Ei/Univox Super Fuzz. But all the Carcosa really shares with the Maestro is some topology. Tom Cram used the FZ-1s as a starting point and threw everything else out the window.

I would start with both big knobs at noon. Turn the small knobs off. Put the mini switch down.

The "After" knob will starve the battery and make the pedal sound more spitty/velcro-like. The Hi-Cut knob actually adds treble as you turn it up. And it's a biting, potentially ear piercing treble. Tom said most people will keep those knobs around 9 o'clock, which is how I have them set.

The switch is a bass boost. You might like this if you're trying to make your single coils sound more like humbuckers. I like it in the down position.

Those are the most confusing parts of the pedal. The big knobs are just gain and volume. As you can see, I'm working with a fair amount of gain right now.

With your setup where the F5 or 55 is your main drive, I might set it up as more of a treble boosted sound. Where you're getting your main sound from the Catalinbread -> Fender Concert, and then using the Carcosa or LBM as your mega distortion or boost of choice. The difference is you're using the F5(5) as your foundation and I'm using the Carcosa. So it depends on what you want.
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Thanks! And maybe some treble boost will be nice if I end up in an actual band setting, as what will sound good to me here at home might get lost otherwise. It will be interesting to see how things work online if I start trying to play with others via JamKazam or similar. Which is my goal for motivation, and also as a social outlet as we head into winter with C-19 numbers shooting up through the roof. Not like I will want to try to be joining local jams or open mics at the bars. I thought I might want to give this pedal another try, as I knew you have stacked it, and Howard Gee in the videos I was watching in the last couple days was all about stacking the foundation series. With the button on the F55 being like hotter tubes which give a bit more bite to cut through mix. Looking forward to throwing everything I thought I knew away and trying new things.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Thanks! And maybe some treble boost will be nice if I end up in an actual band setting, as what will sound good to me here at home might get lost otherwise. It will be interesting to see how things work online if I start trying to play with others via JamKazam or similar. Which is my goal for motivation, and also as a social outlet as we head into winter with C-19 numbers shooting up through the roof. Not like I will want to try to be joining local jams or open mics at the bars. I thought I might want to give this pedal another try, as I knew you have stacked it, and Howard Gee in the videos I was watching in the last couple days was all about stacking the foundation series. With the button on the F55 being like hotter tubes which give a bit more bite to cut through mix. Looking forward to throwing everything I thought I knew away and trying new things.
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One thing I forgot about the Muff. The tone control cuts bass and boosts treble as you turn it up. This has the unfortunate effect of sucking all your mids out, which is why people complain the Muff gets lost in the mix. You might use the Carcosa as a solo boost after the Muff to bring it back into the mix.
 
It really depends on your rig and what kind of tone you're shooting for. My rig already has ample bite and I use the pedal for varying degrees of splatty tones mostly with the after turned up


Before 12
Output 11
After 12-3
High cut 7
Switch up

The interaction between the before and after positions is where I'll dial in different flavors with the pedal.
 
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