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Formiga B. Drive

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The Formiga B. Drive can be used for bass, guitar or with any instrument that you may want to clip, distort and drown in harmonics.

With two parallel channels (Clean and Dirty), the final result is a harmonically rich distortion that greatly adds to your instrument tone. There are independent Low-Pass filters for each channel and three clipping options (Silicon, LED, OpAmp) that altogether offer a world of possibilities.

 

Controls:

  • Ganho (Gain)
  • Saturado (Dirt channel Volume)
  • Filtro Saturado (Dirt channel filter)
  • Limpo (Clean channel Volume)
  • Filtro Limpo(Clean channel filter)
  • Toggle- Clipping modes

  1. Silicio (Silicon)

  2. OpAmp

  3. Led

Specifications:

  • Dimensions: 120mm x 64mm x 57mm
  • Current draw: 7mA
  • Voltage and polarity: 9VDC (center negative)
  • Polyester Capacitors: Wima
  • Ceramic Capacitors: Vishay, Samsung e Wurth
  • Eletrolytchal Capacitors: Nichicon e Wurth
  • Potentiometers: Alpha e Tayda
  • Bypass footswitch: SCI - Soft Switch
  • True-bypass with Kemet relay
  • 1/4"jack: Rean Neutrik
  • Cliff power jack

 

 

Full Description:

 

When an audio signal is clipped, lots of harmonic overtones are produced, and depending on how clipping occurs, this phenomenon can produce sounds that are very pleasant to our ears. However, low frequencies when clipped produce higher harmonic overtones that are added to the signal and the low-end itself ends up with little definition or completely lost.

 

The Formiga B. Drive has two channels in parallel (Clean and Dirty) exactly to avoid low-frequency loss or lack of definition. Each channel has independent Volume and Filter controls that are blended at the pedal output. The filter found in both channels is a first-order Low Pass (6dB/oct).

 

The idea for the saturation circuit came from the ProCo RAT. From there, we have worked on some modifications and added a 3-way toggle to switch between three clipping options (Silicon, OpAmp, LED).

 

In the dirt channel, the filter comes after the clipping stage, making it possible to control the excess of harmonic overtones produced. In the clean channel, the filter acts more harshly and we can only keep the low-frequency part of the signal in parallel to the distortion.

 

The dirt channel has got Gain (Ganho), Clipping, and Low-Pass filter controls. Ganho adjusts the amount of signal that is clipped and distorted at the following stage. These clipping characteristics can be set with a 3-way toggle switch that also activates a volume compensation circuit in order not to have abrupt volume gaps between them.

  1. Silício (Silicon): Offers the most saturation and compression. With gain turned all the way up, it gets closer to a fuzz.
  2. OpAmp: Offers the least saturation and compression, and thus, a smooth response. It is the less aggressive clipping option in the pedal.
  3. LED: Intermediary mode. Goes from light overdrive to distortion. Sounds open and clear.

The clean channel is completely transparent and does not color the tone of the original signal. Besides the Low-Pass filter, the Volume control can boost up to 12dB. This boost may come in handy to march volumes when the dirt channel is louder.

 

In spite of being optimized for the bass guitar, there is no fixed frequency cut that gets in the guitar or any other instrumentʼs frequency range. This way, the Formiga B. Drive can be used with bass, guitar, or with any other instrument that you may want to clip, distort and drown in harmonics.