Ultra Class A Superdrive Power Amp

[aron]

I built Tim's Class A Superdrive Power Amp tonight.

Very easy build - almost exactly the same as the IRF510 Mosfet build I did which hums too much  

Anyway, Tim's circuit works. You can't really drive it directly with a passive guitar. There's not enough level - it's very soft. I drove it with a Shaka pedal and it sounded pretty good (and louder) although it was really distorting a LOT.

I ran it off of 18V (two 9 volts) and it was better and louder.

I was using a 2N5089 as the transistor.

I then switched to a BS170 and it became a heck of a lot better.

It still distorts a LOT, but the distortion is better. This thing really saturates - so much distortion if you are pushing it with a distortion.

I'm going to play with it some more, but it's a fun and very easy build.

[bwanasonic]

Seems like the Superdrive would pair well with the AMZ Mosfet boost as a *preamp*. I'd be interested in making a little *pignose-esque* deal. Does it only do *dirty*?

Kerry M

[aron]

Yes, it pretty much does dirty to ultra saturated. You can get clean but it's fairly low in volume.

I need to think about this some more.