Someone posted a comment about my original Timmy/Jimmy build. I was never happy with this and not sure if I got it right. It didn’t sound bad, it didn’t sound great, to me. Maybe it was right but Timmy just isn’t my jam?
If I recall I followed the schematic from PedalPCB for what they called “Jimmy”. It doesn’t seem to be there any more, but they do have a Tommy III, which is very close to what the schematic I made.
After the comment I took another look at the schematic, looked up what others had traced. I found this post on Coda Effects. There is a guide image here. I tried to reconcile this against the schematic I made to look for differences. I added some notes to my schematic to show these. What I have seems pretty close.
Maybe I’ll build another with these values and compare them.
I dug out my original build and realized I should have used an on/off/on switch. I had used an on/on, so one of the clipping options was missing. I took it apart and swapped the switch. With a quick test I really couldn’t hear much difference with the new setting. I only noodled for 5 mins. I’ll take a closer look later in the week.
The clipping switch doesn’t have a dramatic effect. The first position with both pairs of diodes is noticeably louder. In the other two position, the difference is more subtle.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if this schematic is correct. Is this an accurate clone? Not sure, Timmy has evolved over the years, there have been several versions. Is this close to one of those versions? I’m not sure, I think its close.
How does this sound? Not bad. To be honest, to me it sounds as good as this Klon or this other klon. Maybe I’m no using the Klon correctly. Seems like the people that rave about this are using it as a clean boost to drive the amp. I’m always trying to get an overdrive sound from the pedal. The Timmy does a nice overdrive.
Would I recommend building this? Maybe. If you found an updated schematic, I might build that. On the other hand if you had a dual op-amp and the handful of other parts on hand, you could breadboard this in an hour and spend some time experimenting.
I could see, after some experimentation, dropping the clipping switch and going with your favorite diodes.