Fractal Audio DRIVE models: Timothy (based on Paul Cochrane's Timmy)

yek

Contact Fractal for your Custom Title
The contents of this thread, including updates, are available as a PDF Guide. Download it here.

Timmy-2.jpg

Timothy: based on Paul Cochrane's Timmy overdrive

The Timmy is a hand-made boost/overdrive pedal. Originally it couldn’t be bought in any shop or webshop. The Timmy had to be ordered by contacting its designer Paul Cochrane personally. The rave reviews on The Gear Page and other internet forums and its cheap price resulted in long waitlists. Boutique but not expensive! These days you can buy the pedal in shops.

The Timmy is smaller than its larger predecessor, “Tim” (with boost and effects loop), which has been discontinued. Their names reportedly are based on Tim The Enchanter, a wizard in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.

It’s considered by some to be the best overdrive pedal in the world, attributed to its transparent character and mild crunch. It’s a very flexible pedal that goes along with single coil pickups and humbuckers and stacks well with other overdrives. You can use it as a clean boost.

Analyzing The Hype: Paul Cochrane Timmy (Wired Guitarist)

The controls are:
  • Bass: cuts bass (model: Low Cut)
  • Gain: sets the amount of overdrive (model: Drive)
  • Volume: controls the output level (model: Level)
  • Treble: cuts treble (model: Tone)
The Bass and Treble knobs on the pedal work backwards, reducing as they go clockwise. When they are at zero, there’s no impact on the tone at all.

Cliff:
"They are labeled Bass and Treble but they are Bass Cut and Treble Cut controls."

Manual:
The bass control is pre-distortion. Most pedals roll off the low end before you distort the signal to keep things tight and clear. A lot of low-end distortion can get real muddy real quick. But what this means is you don’t have the low end when you need it for cleaner settings. The bass control will allow you to keep the low end for the cleaner settings, and dial it out for the good crunchy stuff.”

The treble control is post distortion. Like the bass circuit most pedals will have a preset hi end roll off to keep the pedal from being fizzy and noisy when distorting, but you’ll lose the hi freqs for the cleaner settings. Being able to control the pre and post EQ gives you the ability to kill the evil mid bump a lot of pedals have preset into them.”​

A switch that lets you choose between two kinds of symmetrical clipping (more/less gain) and asymmetrical clipping (where one side of the wave is clipping differently from the other).

There has been some controversy around pedals from other manufacturers (Vemuram, Lovepedal), which alledgedly are copies/clones of the Timmy circuit.

Fractal Audio's Timothy model is modeled after the original pedal. Bass has been assigned to Low Cut and Treble to Tone.

Cliff:
"To get "flat" turn Low Cut all the way down and Tone all the way up."

Personal note:
I've never played the Timmy. But I did play the Venuram Jan Ray once, through a small Hook amp, and it sounded fantastic. I must admit though that I don't quite see the benefit of a full transparent drive in the Axe-Fx or AX8.

About CPU:
  • Fractal Audio's Drive models take up varying amounts of CPU.
  • When a Drive block is engaged, CPU percentage will rise during playing, because CPU usage is "amplitude dependent".










Link to the list of published threads
 
Last edited:
Personal note:
I've never played the Timmy. But I did play the Venuram Jan Ray once, through a small Hook amp, and it sounded fantastic. I must admit though that I don't quite see the benefit of a full transparent drive in the Axe-Fx or AX8.

Mind if I ask why you don't see the benefit of one? Is it just specific to the Axe-Fx? If so, just curious why.
 
Unlike many other drive pedals, if all knobs are all the way down except the Volume (adjusted for unity), the Timmy doesn't impart any qualities on the signal. That's transparent in my book. As you increase the Gain, obviously internal clipping starts to happen, but it's mixed with the clean signal (or at least it sounds like it to me).

Timmy shines as an almost clean boost or a low gain overdrive (and can function as a totally clean boost). I don't like it with the Gain past noon. I run mine as a subtle low gain overdrive, where you wouldn't be able to tell I had an OD unless I turned it off. It sounds like the amp is pushed just past the breakup.

Note: this is all in reference to the real thing. I've spent time trying to match the Axe model but wasn't 100% successful - I've got mine running at 18V. At some point I'll switch it over to 9V and try the match again.
 
Mind if I ask why you don't see the benefit of one? Is it just specific to the Axe-Fx? If so, just curious why.

I'm not sure about @yek 's post, but a Filter block is a *completely* transparent boost. As is a flat PEQ or a Volume block. So the need for a completely transparent Drive block is less with the Fractal.
 
Mind if I ask why you don't see the benefit of one? Is it just specific to the Axe-Fx? If so, just curious why.

I'm not sure about @yek 's post, but a Filter block is a *completely* transparent boost. As is a flat PEQ or a Volume block. So the need for a completely transparent Drive block is less with the Fractal.

Good points from barh, there's also the Boost switch (12dB of gain), or Input Trim control (+/-20dB), if you want to hit the front end of the amp with a hotter signal w/o any eq to it.

FWIW, To me "transparent overdrive" means "doesn't color the tone much" (i.e. a mid hump or a scooped mid pedal would be "not transparent"), but that still doesn't preclude "mojo" ;)
 
FWIW, To me "transparent overdrive" means "doesn't color the tone much" (i.e. a mid hump or a scooped mid pedal would be "not transparent"), but that still doesn't preclude "mojo" ;)
My thoughts exactly... as in "still sounds essentially like the amp being used."
 
I bought a Timmy recently in a deal too good to pass up.

I absolutely love it. It is by far the most polite pedal I've ever played. Even when you've got it cranked it still sounds very well controlled. It plays nice with everything that I've thrown at it. It seems to be the pedal equivilant of a well-trained Golden Retriever. Very eager to please and overall a very pleasant thing that you want to hug.

To me it's got a bit of a tamed tubescreamer characteristic, without the EQ curve. I boost my rhythms with a TS808, but I boost my solos with the Timmy. It sounds the same, but suddenly there's a top end, and a bottom end and the mids aren't pointy. The character of the guitar really comes out as well. Calling it transparent is a bit optimistic, but it does let your guitar shine quite nicely.
 
I'm not sure about @yek 's post, but a Filter block is a *completely* transparent boost. As is a flat PEQ or a Volume block. So the need for a completely transparent Drive block is less with the Fractal.

Yes, this.

I tested it with an amp block when writing the article. The added drive from the Timothy with its controls set "flat" was very similar to the added gain using Input Trim. That's why I wrote the comment.
 
I think what yek (and general consensus) means by transparent boost (specifically referred to an overdrive) is when the pedal (or model in this case) adds that extra grit without coloring the core tone. For example, the ts9, no matter the settings, will always add that nasal quality to the tone, hence the ts9 is not transparent, by design
 
  • Like
Reactions: yek
Personal note:
I've never played the Timmy. But I did play the Venuram Jan Ray once, through a small Hook amp, and it sounded fantastic. I must admit though that I don't quite see the benefit of a full transparent drive in the Axe-Fx or AX8.

latest


Thanks for the write-up Yek
 
I think what yek (and general consensus) means by transparent boost (specifically referred to an overdrive) is when the pedal (or model in this case) adds that extra grit without coloring the core tone. For example, the ts9, no matter the settings, will always add that nasal quality to the tone, hence the ts9 is not transparent, by design

Yes I've been struggling with using the ts808 or ts9 for my lead rock tones and no matter what it seems to thin the sound to much.
 
Yes, this.

I tested it with an amp block when writing the article. The added drive from the Timothy with its controls set "flat" was very similar to the added gain using Input Trim. That's why I wrote the comment.

Thanks! I agree with the other comments on "transparent" (to me) meaning that it pushes just past clean at times. Usually with double string bends.
 
@Burgs - I loved the demo of the Timmy! Comedy and a pedal demo! :) Judging by the age of the video, I'm sure your daughter would be cringing at it now :)
 
Had a Timmy on my pedal board for years - such a versatile pedal. I've used it as an always on tone enhancer, 1st stage over drive, 2nd stage overdrive or lead boost depending on the setup at the time.

Really glad it's found its way into the Fractal world!
 
Back
Top Bottom