D*A*M Forum

I am a new D*A*M MKII owner and new to the Forum, Hi!

I'm am really loving my newly acquired D*A*M Tonebender MKII Fuzz! Simple to use and offers many great sounds (for only 2 knobs--Level, Attack).

I've tried it alone (Guitar--D*A*M--Amp) and along with my pedalboard, going first into Fuzz then board.

Even works nicely with my Fulltone Clyde Wah (second after fuzz). I didn't really like how it stacked with my ODs (Landgraaf, Zendrive), I mean it worked without any problems or noise but the fuzz just plain sounds best on its own. I do use it with Delay, Reverb, Vibe, or Wah but it just didn't seem better to stack with ODs, that seemed to take away fuzz or cover it up.

But I do have a question: my D*A*M self-oscillates on maximum Attack settings--is this normal for the D*A*M MKII? Do they all do this?

It's no big deal, if I want extreme gain (Attack) settings, I just turn it a tad below max and it's OK, so anything from Attack off to almost maxed is a usable range.

I suppose it's bad form to talk about D*A*M without some porn:





And, by the way, I am powering it with the recommended Carbon-Zinc batteries:



Once again, I am totally happy with the way my DAM MKII sounds and performs, I just wanted to know if all or some of you have experienced this self-oscillating at maximum Attack settings?

Fender Strat & Teles with low-output vintage style single coil pickups and low-output Tim White "Timbuckers" humbucker pickups in my 1959 Historic Les Paul; '57 Classics in my Fat Neck Gibson ES-335; original early Patent Number Humbuckers in my 1964 Gibson ES-175, through a May of 1969 Marshall Plexi 100 Watt Superbass or 1966 Fender Blackface Pro Reverb--the D*A*M sounds great with all my guitars and amps! But it's like the Attack knob goes from 0 to 11, and its usable range is from 0 to 10, from 10 to 11 it self-oscillates a high tone squeal.

What transistors are inside of the pedal?

The OC75s. I do not have a pic yet of the insides, I will do that one of these days...I did see a pic of her opened up before I bought the pedal but did not copy that pic so I will have to open myself and snap a shot.

I was also playing at home at pretty quiet bedroom levels into a clean amp and kept the Level pretty close to unity gain to match the clean sound level. It was awesome! Getting great tone at low bedroom volume!

Thanks. I don't really want to mess with it, sounds fine, just wanted to know if this was "normal" behaviour for the pedal.

You did say, "just avoid maxing it out"--will it harm the pedal to do so?

theRocco wrote:But I do have a question: my D*A*M self-oscillates on maximum Attack settings--is this normal for the D*A*M MKII? Do they all do this?

Normal, yes. All do it, no.

The older D*A*M MKII's, especially those packing 75's are pretty gainy so a little freak out at full Attack is to be expected. Same dealio with the vintage MKII's. Some do it, some don't.
Though this shouldn't effect your tone options any. As in, you should be able to get a fluid tone and high sustain without the oscillation by inching the Attack back a little teeny tiny bit.

Thank you very much for the info! That's what I do--just inch the Attack back a teeny tiny bit. Plenty of range with the Attack and each setting gives a very musical and usable sound. It also cleans up nicely with just a turn of the guitar's volume knob, with many sounds available then from 5 to 10 on the volume, so easy and intuitive to use!

The pedal is a wonderful musical instrument, plenty of low end chewy goodness and loads of high end that cuts through easy, all without an EQ knob, seems set perfect internally, and thus easy to use. You can just focus on your guitar playing and not think about the pedal.

Throw it in the freezer for a while and see if it still does it. Hot = higher gain.

Freezer? Won't condensation affect the electronics?

I've heard that people "cool" the pedal before they plan to use in hot weather, but didn't really think about "how" they cooled it. I figured just keeping the pedal out of the sun like tucked away in a box or something--but the freezer?

BTW, I tried it with my old 1955 Supro Comet amp (that I sold to a friend, duh!) and the pedal didn't seem to do it with that amp. Any connection? Don't know, but it was a bit cooler in his room on that day.

Still, there's no "issues" with my pedal, works great, just wondering if there were many others out there who experienced self-oscillation at maxed Attack settings.

theRocco wrote:Freezer? Won't condensation affect the electronics?

I've heard that people "cool" the pedal before they plan to use in hot weather, but didn't really think about "how" they cooled it. I figured just keeping the pedal out of the sun like tucked away in a box or something--but the freezer?

BTW, I tried it with my old 1955 Supro Comet amp (that I sold to a friend, duh!) and the pedal didn't seem to do it with that amp. Any connection? Don't know, but it was a bit cooler in his room on that day.

Still, there's no "issues" with my pedal, works great, just wondering if there were many others out there who experienced self-oscillation at maxed Attack settings.

Putting Germanium pedals in the reefer is common, especially in warm climates and summer time. I have had the tone of pedals go from downright crapola to sweeet fuzziness after just a few minutes in the fridge!