D*A*M Forum

Awwwww, shucks! Dave's doing that goofy 1980s shit again. Yes, yes he is. It's spirit animal time again, motherfuckers.

Dig it. The EFE VYPR (Viper) - Project X111 (13) The continuing saga of let's pretend. Let's pretend this would have been an actual reproducible product line of pedals from circa 1983, akin to say Mattel designing the Masters of the Universe toy line. Is this Skeletor or Faker?, I'm not entirely sure.

First, a journey back in time. In approx 2008 we made a teeny stash of black n gold silicon transistor fuelled versions of the 1966. They were pretty cool. I liked them, you liked them. Good look finding one. Yet further back in time, I had in my possession two black Italian built two transistor Vox Tone Benders. They both featured the same circuit oddities in that they both had silicon transistors in situ rather than the staple germanium devices. (I'm talking two transistor voltage feedback circuit vibes, not that wacked-out three transistor affair.) Never seen another one since, I don't even know if it was a stock factory feature or a hot rod modification carried out back in the day. Either which way, it was a happening sound that worked marvellously well in that circuit set-up.
That weird silicon incarnation was the origin for that idea back in 2008. That is also the origin of this idea now in 2023.

VYPR strike! It's a high gain silicon fuzz device, with its genesis being the Italian built Vox Tone Bender. Extended in sonic aggression over its germanium brother, whilst retaining the glorious throaty midrange warmth and its searing projection. The chewy reedy bark is present, just ramped up with extra gusto.
Additional sonic control and tuning is at your fingertips. The Pre-Gain dial limits or augments the amount of input signal the circuit sees. This gives one the ability to remove the compression and midrange chub from the fuzz tone, offering up increased dynamics and a greater intensity of string attack.
The Fuzz control is a double-edged sword. As one would experience on a Tone Bender MKIV it is operating in the reverse orientation from the norm. Maximum at full left, minimum at full right. This converts the potentiometers chosen taper, of a logarithmic type, into one of reverse logarithmic taper. This is a superior technical selection for this circuit type. It is simply spreading out the higher gain settings that are usually found at the last quarter of the pot's travel, giving you a more even spread and therefore a greater degree of control over the fuzz tones to hand. Blah, blah, blah - we did the same thing with the Graveyard Tramp.
The alternate edge. Once the pot reaches its maximum position of gain and the highest degree of distortion (full left) it clicks over and introduces a new tone, one that has extended lower frequencies and increased output capabilities, basically, in the same way that Super Bee switch works on a 1966. The nature of the fuzz tone remains the same, just with intensified low-end presence and with overall increase in power.
The Master is the global output for the entire circuit and uses a logarithmic taper. This will smooth the signal to some degree at more conservative volume settings but will need to be pushed, as with a vintage unit, to give increased headroom and high output.

The vaguely toy like sci-fi style aesthetics is ultimately a mask to the serious business within. A set of high quality gain selected CDIL BC108C's are employed as the engine to the circuit then shaped with the use of mylar, polypropylene and polystyrene capacitors. The bulk of the hardware is from UK or European manufactures, such as Cliff Electronic, Omeg, LCR, Bulgin and Piher. The PCB design is the work of the mighty Stuart Castledine.

Thus far, there are a grand total of 18 pieces being produced. 16 that are available for pre-order via the D*A*M Direct page. Aside from a small scale local screen print shop, all fabrication work and construction is carried out in-house by myself and Daniel. Bespoke creations made through sweat and toil, yo.

Bonus pR0nographix...

Hot damn!

Fantastic those old black n gold 66’s are pure unicorn poop, great to see a version being put out under the EFE banner

Yes! Lookin' good! I love that Dave has gone sticker crazy.

So if MOTH was PROJECT XI and VYPR is PROJECT XIII what is project 12? Why skip 13 when you can skip 12, righ? All the best!

Love it! Great stuff Dave

Agree with everyone else: just love the look of these, Dave. Nice work from the local print shop, too!

Dude fuck this!!! I just spent 15 minutes tring to post a fucking youtube video. My favorite episode of GI Joe, THE VIPER IS COMING! youtube the episode yourself, i am useless.

Postal Alert My Viper is coming in your !
Watch the G I Joe episode on youtube, The wiper is coming and thanks Dave for making Em Fist Elect for those of us on a low rent lifestyle.

zingles!

Thanks for the youtube assist Doc!

Thanks David for Vypr -a killer fuzz. I always think the latest from you tops eveything and this continues!

Thanks for all the stickers! I really appreciate the lighter and 80's toy vibe you got going right now - the stickers and everyhing actually made me feel good! My life has been so bad lately I've been grasping at straws to right things, I actually went through my apartment and threw out all the metal albums and shit I had laying around with pentagrams and occult symbols and shit - after I found a button in my desk draw with some heavy satanic symbolism that I have no Idea where it came from! I threw that shit out and then cleaned my apartment of anything with evil symbolism. I'm crossing all my T's trying to fix my fucked life. I did keep my reign in blood CD and I don't think my Donavan era D*a*M*S have any graphics that are too heavy - so glad you have moved on fronm that stuff and are on to better more positive graphics. Other than some metal bands that seemed more funny than evil I was never into that Satanic shit anyway. I was an altar boy. For real, it was cool and none of the priests were creepy. The world is too fucked right now we need more fun and

What ever you need to do to get your head together mate, but remember is all just silly rock n roll make believe.

Congrats on the YYPR, glad you dig it