# Tator Tot (Barber Burn Unit Small Fry)



## MichaelW (Jul 30, 2022)

So 4am this morning, my smoke alarms started chirping.....sigh....low batteries on 2 of them.

And of course one of them is the one that always gives me fits, I have to try 3 different sets of batteries until it's good and satisfied that its batteries have been replaced.

So I was wide awake when all was said and done. I decided to finish the pedal project I started yesterday afternoon.

This is another @szukalski influenced overdrive. I actually didn't even know it existed but when I looked for it on the website I was pretty stoked to see it was based on a Barber Burn Unit Small Fry. 

I almost bought the Burn Unit right before I started DIY pedals, I was looking for a Zen Drive and the Burn Unit was mentioned in a number of forums as a "better Zen Drive". Instead, I bought a Zen clone off Reverb that I've talked about in other posts, that turned out to be a Mayahana and that's how I found PedalPCB and fell into the DIY black hole....haha.

Dave Barber is like one of the OG boutique pedal builders and I still have a Direct Drive that I got probably 16 years ago. I remember that was about when the whole "transparent drive" thing started taking off and I was looking pretty hard at the Direct Drive and the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. I've always liked the Barber low gain drives and his designs are always unique and there's always lots of different sounds in his pedals.

Taking a look at the Tator Tot schematic, it's pretty evident that this is not a Zen Drive clone. There's a lot more going on that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. 
The pedal can certainly do the Zen Drive/Dumble thing but it can do a whole lot more as well. I'm still learning the controls and using the Barber Burn Unit Small Fry manual as a guide. There's a couple of different complements of silicon and Ge clippers that are controlled in a number of different ways.

The "Burn" pot is equivalent to a "drive" control and brings in 4 of the 4148's, then you can also toggle an additional 3 4148's in asymmetrical clipping. 
Then the other side of the toggle adds one of the Ge diodes to the 4148's. Then there's a "Dynamics" control, that adds an additional 2 1N34A's, so it's definitely not like the shelving control of the Zen Drive's "Voice" which I originally thought it was going to be. Then there's 4 internal trimmers to further fine tune Mid, Bass, Presence and Shape.

The internal "Shape" trimmer is more like the "Voice" control of the Zen, so I suppose there's at least a couple of elements of the Zen circuit in here. 

This is definitely one pedal that it's going to take me some time to figure out and delve into all the tones available. I've set all the internal trimmers to mid-way for now
and I'm getting some really nice low gain sounds out of it. I've also tried some of the suggested settings from the Barber manual.

Like most of the Barber Overdrives there's lots of different configurations and sounds available, although most of the options are subtle. 

After chatting with @szukalski I decided to socket the diodes "just in case" I wanted to mess with some alternatives, but I have to say, this sounds pretty darn good with the stock 4148's. I used 1N34A's for the Ge that clocked in around .650 Vf. For now I'm going to leave it as is.

The only other substitution was a JRC4560D instead of a JRC4559D that the BOM called for, although I'm sure it wouldn't make much of a difference if I used a 4558 or TL072.

I also used the PPCB Relay board and the is my first relay switching build. (My first attempt at using the Relay was in a 1590B and it just wasn't happening....)

I have to say, I REALLY LIKE relay switching and my credit card is already trembling at the prospect of needing to stock up on boards and components for future builds. 

The sun was just breaking this morning when I snapped this pic.





I definitely need to get some low profile 100U caps for the relay boards. This barely squeaks in with the back cover on.


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## fig (Jul 30, 2022)

I think they still sell smoke alarms. Just sayin…  

Lovely build sir!


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## MichaelW (Jul 30, 2022)

fig said:


> I think they still sell smoke alarms. Just sayin…
> 
> Lovely build sir!


I was actually planning a trip to Home Depot today for that very purpose....that and grabbing a few bags of cow poop for my wife.....


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## music6000 (Jul 30, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> I was actually planning a trip to Home Depot today for that very purpose....that and grabbing a few bags of cow poop for my wife.....


Well, that's one way to stop from getting too close to her! 
Great Pedal!, here's my Build from back when:





						Tater Tot
					

This was recent & listed on the old Forum & lost. A great Versatile Pedal! Used 3362 Internal Trimmers with Knobs for Bass, Mids & Presence. Mods:  Battery Clip & Stereo Input Jack.




					forum.pedalpcb.com


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## cwsquared (Jul 30, 2022)

How is it that the batteries in them can tell time and always pick the worst times to die?

That's some excellent work, especially for too early in the morning.  Congrats on your first successful relay build.  Noted that low-profile caps are needed for the relay, gonna have to remember that.


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## tcpoint (Jul 30, 2022)

You'd think they would design a smoke alarm with super capacitor instead of a battery.  Nice write up - my build queue just got longer.


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## szukalski (Jul 30, 2022)

Looks great! This is definitely one of those “if I only had one pedal” pedals where I could be happy over multiple guitars. 

Makes me want to build another with the relay  switch!


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## Guilherme Collateral (Jul 30, 2022)

Awesome man, very clean and I love those mini chickenheads


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Jul 30, 2022)

Nice build!  When I finished my viib, I liked the intelligent relay switching so much that I bought a handful of the relay pcbs. I've since been avoiding them out of fear that I wouldn't go back to 3pdt and those are costly enough.


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## MichaelW (Jul 30, 2022)

Mentaltossflycoon said:


> Nice build!  When I finished my viib, I liked the intelligent relay switching so much that I bought a handful of the relay pcbs. I've since been avoiding them out of fear that I wouldn't go back to 3pdt and those are costly enough.


That’s definitely going to be a problem. I bought a 10pack of cheap momentary stomp switches
 from Amazon, seems sturdy enough and work well. Problem is….now I have 9 more use….hahaha


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## szukalski (Jul 30, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> That’s definitely going to be a problem. I bought a 10pack of cheap momentary stomp switched from Amazon, seems sturdy enough and work well. Problem is….now I have 9 more use….hahaha


Mod your echoes and delays for infinite feedback on a secondary momentary switch!


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## Route14 (Jul 30, 2022)

I still have my Direct Drive too! I got it in 2003/04. Nice build. I‘ve played a lot of Barber pedals but the Burn Unit is one I’ve never played. I’ll have to check it out.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 31, 2022)

Great write-up!  Great build!


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## Robert (Jul 31, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Mod your echoes and delays for infinite feedback on a secondary momentary switch!



Hang in there, you'll be able to do it with a single footswitch soon.


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## szukalski (Jul 31, 2022)

Robert said:


> Hang in there, you'll be able to do it with a single footswitch soon.


I’m quivering with antici.. pation!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 27, 2022)

Very clean build and great write-up.  

This one is in my ever-growing breadboard queue.


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## cooder (Aug 27, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Very clean build and great write-up.
> 
> This one is in my ever-growing breadboard queue.


Looking forward what you're cooking up with that. I had an original one many moons ago before I started building myself, enjoyed it. Sold it pretty much with every other commercial pedal I had (weren't that many) to fund the habit of building and enjoying those (there's many... ).


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 27, 2022)

The main thing I'll try on the breadboard is making all of the trimpots regular pots.  Then I can figure out what they do, and whether they are (for me at least) set and forget.


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## swelchy (Aug 27, 2022)

Your a building machine!... makes me crazy you don't label yer' knobs though...lol How do you keep up with what's what in your stash?


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## MichaelW (Aug 28, 2022)

swelchy said:


> Your a building machine!... makes me crazy you don't label yer' knobs though...lol How do you keep up with what's what in your stash?


It's getting harder as my "stash" is building up. One thing I've started doing is labelling the back of my pedals with a little thermal print label of what the pedal is.
Since I "play" and "record" sitting at my desk in front of two 32" computer screens, if I'm using a particular pedal I'll pull up the build doc to remind myself what the knobs do. But tbh, a few minutes fiddling with any of the knobs I can usually find the sound I'm looking for. 

Having said that, I've been trying my "top secret experiment" with a couple of pedals. Namely, painting the enclosures with rattle cans. I've had some limited success. (And I few failures) If I can get to the point of finding a clear top coat I like, I may start dipping my toes in the water with some knob labels.


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## swelchy (Aug 28, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> It's getting harder as my "stash" is building up. One thing I've started doing is labelling the back of my pedals with a little thermal print label of what the pedal is.
> Since I "play" and "record" sitting at my desk in front of two 32" computer screens, if I'm using a particular pedal I'll pull up the build doc to remind myself what the knobs do. But tbh, a few minutes fiddling with any of the knobs I can usually find the sound I'm looking for.
> 
> Having said that, I've been trying my "top secret experiment" with a couple of pedals. Namely, painting the enclosures with rattle cans. I've had some limited success. (And I few failures) If I can get to the point of finding a clear top coat I like, I may start dipping my toes in the water with some knob labels.


Mowahk clears are perfect if you can find a source.. it's real pro stuff as far as an aerosol goes.... My background is 30+ years of liquid coatings tech.


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## MichaelW (Aug 28, 2022)

I have a can of Mohawk nitrocellulose lacquer that I use for doing headstocks.


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## swyse (Aug 29, 2022)

Clean build as always. I hadn’t heard of this circuit before I saw your post but your write up has me intrigued. Did you go for the latching or non latching version of the relay board? Those have always caught my eye, but I still haven’t tried anything to do with relays.


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## MichaelW (Aug 29, 2022)

I used the "Latching" board. I can see how it might not be for everyone, especially in a live band or even floor board situation because there's no tactile feedback switching. But since I'm a "desktop player" and do all my switching by hand it's very sweet.


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