Modifying soft clip distortion module into a distortion for rock, metal

Started by contrataque7@gmail.com, December 26, 2017, 12:22:33 PM

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stonerbox

Quote from: GibsonGM on December 28, 2017, 07:38:07 AM
You probably would use your time better to build a multi-stage 'thing' with the mid scoop and things you want!   Stoner already said it...FET-based sound really good.      It's very hard to get a good distortion from ONE gain stage...

Mid scoop?! MID SCOOOOP!!?! You're nuts. There will be no palm muting with mid scoop on my shift, thank you!  :icon_evil:
There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen. - Holmes

ashcat_lt

Isnt the dual pot just gain and volume?  The Volume pot is not included in the scheme, but pretty self explanatory really.

Seriously.  More.  Gain.

But also remember this is distortion pedal, not an amp simulator.  Even if it's the only pedal in the chain, there's still all the tone shaping that the amp and speaker provide.  This thing probably won't sound awesome just direct into a real full range PA, but nobody does that.

thermionix

I assumed the dual gang was only for physical strength (got the whole board dangling off that pot) but only half was actually being used.

GibsonGM

Quote from: stonerbox on December 28, 2017, 09:56:57 AM
Quote from: GibsonGM on December 28, 2017, 07:38:07 AM
You probably would use your time better to build a multi-stage 'thing' with the mid scoop and things you want!   Stoner already said it...FET-based sound really good.      It's very hard to get a good distortion from ONE gain stage...

Mid scoop?! MID SCOOOOP!!?! You're nuts. There will be no palm muting with mid scoop on my shift, thank you!  :icon_evil:

Personally, I LIKE the Dist +, and with some mid BOOST sometimes! Ha ha.  Or a TS beating my amp up.   Never palm-muted AND mid scooped.  But that's what the OP says he wants.....Dist + is a 1-trick pony.   Dual gang or not. 

Throw together 5 JFET stages, each one tweaked...THAT will get the job done - something with a German name  lol.   
  • SUPPORTER
MXR Dist +, TS9/808, Easyvibe, Big Muff Pi, Blues Breaker, Guv'nor.  MOSFace, MOS Boost,  BJT boosts - LPB-2, buffers, Phuncgnosis, FF, Orange Sunshine & others, Bazz Fuss, Tonemender, Little Gem, Orange Squeezer, Ruby Tuby, filters, octaves, trems...

stonerbox

Quote from: GibsonGM on December 28, 2017, 01:17:28 PM
Quote from: stonerbox on December 28, 2017, 09:56:57 AM
Quote from: GibsonGM on December 28, 2017, 07:38:07 AM
You probably would use your time better to build a multi-stage 'thing' with the mid scoop and things you want!   Stoner already said it...FET-based sound really good.      It's very hard to get a good distortion from ONE gain stage...

Mid scoop?! MID SCOOOOP!!?! You're nuts. There will be no palm muting with mid scoop on my shift, thank you!  :icon_evil:

Personally, I LIKE the Dist +, and with some mid BOOST sometimes! Ha ha.  Or a TS beating my amp up.   Never palm-muted AND mid scooped.  But that's what the OP says he wants.....Dist + is a 1-trick pony.   Dual gang or not. 

Throw together 5 JFET stages, each one tweaked...THAT will get the job done - something with a German name  lol.   

Good! You got me worrying about you for a second there, Gibson.  ;D
There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen. - Holmes

iainpunk

Quote from: ashcat_lt on December 27, 2017, 11:58:49 PM

I also know that LEDS means you need even more gain to get the same amount of distortion, so that's kind of going the wrong way assuming that actual output level is not a factor.  If you want to push the amp harder, switch to LEDS, but if you want more distortion out of this thing itself, leave them as they are or swap them for something smaller like a Shottkey or germ. 

The OP wants more distortion, so they need more gain.  We can worry about the tone shaping part (which is really more important than anything else in the way it ends up sounding) once we get that far.  So, let's make that 4.7K resistor a lot smaller and see what happens.

Euhm... I understand that you come up with the fact that leds clip at a higher voltage, but this opamp is already clipping internally, which means (if fed by 9V) that the clipping diodes are hit with 3vpeak, which is more than enough to get the led to clip.

Id still advice you to try the mods in my first post in this thread.

I think you are absolutely right about that 4.7k (R2), id try a 47 ohm resistor to up the gain a lot.
And id like to add; replace R4, this resistor is taking out part of your signal, which is bad.
Also, take out C4 (1nf), this couldn't do anything good, in my eyes.

Cheers!!!

Iain
friendly reminder: all holes are positive and have negative weight, despite not being there.

cheers

GibsonGM

Absolutely the LEDs will clip (and sound more 'gritty' than the Ge diodes...and also LOUDER), the opamp will clip (oh, x1,000 it will clip, ha ha!)...if you were to follow this with an EQ you might get more out of it.   

But - given how easy it is to make exactly what you're saying you want....  *shrug*
  • SUPPORTER
MXR Dist +, TS9/808, Easyvibe, Big Muff Pi, Blues Breaker, Guv'nor.  MOSFace, MOS Boost,  BJT boosts - LPB-2, buffers, Phuncgnosis, FF, Orange Sunshine & others, Bazz Fuss, Tonemender, Little Gem, Orange Squeezer, Ruby Tuby, filters, octaves, trems...

ashcat_lt

Quote from: iainpunk on December 28, 2017, 05:04:02 PM
Euhm... I understand that you come up with the fact that leds clip at a higher voltage, but this opamp is already clipping internally, which means (if fed by 9V) that the clipping diodes are hit with 3vpeak, which is more than enough to get the led to clip.
If you want more distortion, you have to try to push the signal further past its limits so that more of the signal is clipped off.  Increasing the limit does the exact opposite.  If you switch to LEDs, you'll need to double the gain just to get back where you started.

dv8r601

Sorry to be late to the discussion, but as I remember the one I had was bleeding all the signal to ground bc the 1m pull down either had a 1k or a 100r there and a 1m where it shows the 10k in series out the opamp before the diodes. It was all kinda backwards!!! Also on mine there is an extra pad on each side of  the diodes in case you'd like to double up the ge for a higher vf or swap them for mosfets or whatever.
The pot just has the first set of lugs connected up as a gain ctrl and the 2nd set were soldered into the ground plane for mechanical reasons I suppose. AnywaysI think after swapping all that around it was an ok $8.99 dist+ (ish) pcb. I'll go dig thru the Vero /pcb graveyard in my shop and see if I can't find mine to verify


Btw OP if its not an issue post a pic of your actual board so we can see if its something out of place like mine was