The Robot Devil is a fuzz pedal from Dwarfcraft Devices, a maker known for aggressive, unconventional fuzz designs. It is an octave fuzz: alongside the distorted signal it generates octave tones, and it gives the player unusual degrees of control over both, including a control that starves the circuit of voltage. The circuit is built around the CD4040 and CD4049UBE ICs, the latter being the same chip type found in the Red Llama, while Dwarfcraft's The Great Destroyer uses the BE version of that chip instead1.
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Starve | A voltage-starve pot. Builders report it can produce clock noise when dialed back; some replaced it with a direct 9V connection or a resistor1 |
| Dirt | Turns the effect down until it is silenced1 |
| Octave | Blends the octave signal. In one builder's unit, all the way "up" basically turns it off1 |
The Dirt control working in reverse, turning the effect down to silence, is worth knowing before you dial in a sound: it does not behave like a conventional gain or level knob1.
The octave and how it sounds
The octave sounds are reactive to the frequencies put into the pedal, so the octave content changes with where you play on the neck and what you feed it. Builders on the Guitar FX Layouts thread describe the pedal as very loud, glitchy and chirpy1.
"the octave sounds seem to be really reactive to the frequencies put into it"
The original pedal carries two footswitches, one of them a second switch to turn the octave on and off on the fly while playing1. That makes the octave a performance control rather than a set-and-forget blend, which suits a pedal whose octave character shifts with the input pitch.
Builder notes
The Robot Devil has been traced and documented on the Guitar FX Layouts blog as a stripboard project, and the thread records several modifications builders made1:
- Replacing the Starve pot with a direct 9V connection or a fixed resistor, to avoid the clock noise it can introduce when dialed back1
- Adding a second footswitch to switch the octave on and off on the fly, as the original has1
- One builder's extended mod added a further sub sub octave taken from pin 6 of the 4040, individual 100K level pots for each octave, and a single effect on-off footswitch, fitting it all on a 20x20 board1
"I chose to add a further sub sub octave (pin 6 of the 4040) and some padding for those signals, each going to an individual 100K pot for each octave."
That builder compared the resulting three-octave version to a pipe organ playing under your notes1.
Dwarfcraft Devices announced in April 2020 that it was ceasing operations after 13 years, with Ben and Louise Hinz taking a break to try something new. The Robot Devil is therefore no longer in production, and the maker's other fuzzes, such as the Reese Lightning and the Necromancer, are also discontinued.
Videos
JetCityMusic
maxime arseneau
theonetrueaen
Questions
What chips is the Robot Devil based on?
The circuit uses the CD4040 and CD4049UBE ICs. Commenters on the Guitar FX Layouts thread point out that the CD4049UBE is the same chip type used in the Red Llama, while Dwarfcraft's The Great Destroyer uses the BE version of the chip instead. That distinction matters to builders tracing or cloning the circuit.
What does the Starve control do?
Starve is a voltage-starve pot that lowers the supply voltage to the circuit. Builders on the Guitar FX Layouts thread report it can produce clock noise when dialed back, and some replaced it with a direct 9V connection or a fixed resistor instead.
Can the octave be switched on the fly?
The original pedal carries two footswitches, one of which turns the octave on and off while playing. Builders working from the layout have suggested adding that second footswitch to a stripped-down build for the same reason.
Sources (1)
- Guitar FX Layouts: Dwarfcraft Devices Robot Devil, Guitar FX Layouts (tagboardeffects.blogspot.com), 2013-03-17
