Shaka Tube Vs Tube Driver

[mugan]

Hi i'd like to build a tube overdrive, and i've seen the Tube driver at ggg, but it says:

"Please Note: this project has some problems with noise, build it at your own risk. Update to fix the problem coming soon, we hope."

Noticed that, i'm asking if the shaka tube has this kind of problem too ? Any build reports?

[Paul Marossy]

I was thinking about doing a Tube Driver next. I didn't notice that warning about the noise problem.  

I can tell you that I love my Shaka Tube, though. And it is one of the quietest pedals that I have in terms of noise/hiss.

[Paul Marossy]

Does anyone know what the "noise problem" is? Too much hiss, oscillation, or?

[mugan]

JD  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Doug_H]

;lkh

[Paul Marossy]

Hum could be addressed by using DC tube heating instead...

[george]

I've built the ST and using 12V AC wall wart and it's quiet (when there's no signal going through it).  I built it with small perfboard just big enough to fit the valve socket and associated components, with a separate perfboard holding the power supply and all the rest of the components.

I twisted together the leads to the heater filaments (carrying 12V AC) running from the PS board to the valve.   This is a tip I picked up when I built a PAIA stack-in-a-box a number of years ago - it seems to work.

I've heard that using DC leads to shorter filament life ....

[Lonestarjohnny]

I've used DC for the heater voltage for some time now, i've never lost a tube yet to heater filament damage,
and yes it's a very good idea to twist your filament lead's and keep them as short as possible and adjusted away from all high voltage wires,
when you wire more than 1 tube it's always a good idea to keep your filament feeder wire's ran in serie's, keep feeder A on the same pin's from start to finish, the same on feeder B.
These tip's will help you get a cleaner sound out of your circuit.
 
Johnny

[jrc4558]

A while ago I wanted to build Shaka tube. I was a novice back then (and am now too ) so the op amp stuff didn't really work. Just didn't. but I wanted a tube pedal a lot, so I figured: why should I bother with op-amps? there's a mu-amp out  there. Mortals know it by the name of Jack Orman's mini-booster.
So I used that to push 12AX7, running at 12 volts. Heaters were AC, plates were DC (of course) through the voltage doubler. Worked fine. mu-apm had more headroom @ 12V and didn't clip by itself much. A simple volume control after that, to control the distortion, and that's it.

And I'm still using it. Is is quiet as a cemetery, lively as a playground a raw as a roadkill. (pardon the metaphors, I just love it too much).

So i guess the original power supply of the shaka tube is quiet. I have stacked humbuckers on both of my guitars and even under the fluorescent lights, the pedal is quieter than RAT. Heavier distortion too, btw.

[Paul Marossy]

Hey, that's a cool idea. I had a similar idea with my "PJM Tube Overdirve" that I was messing around with a little while ago. I only used one FET to psu a 12AX7, though...

[supermasa]

I think the problem is in the DC feeding that the Tube Driver has.
In all the tube projects (Shaka, Bulldog etc) I saw that the voltage feeding is made from an internal tranformer that creates a dual tension.

I have built a Tube Driver with an external DC transformer (only 0 - 12V) (like reported on ggg until mid 2002) and it effectively have a loud noise, and I can't understand from what it comes.

Since I don't trust in me to put high current (220V @ 50Hz) into a stompbox, i'm blocked!

[Thomas P.]

no excessive noise here!

[supermasa]

I've used a simple copper wire to do all.
Maybe you used a shielded wire for the heater, or a twisted wire?

I have noticed that the noise problem of the 0-12 feeding is not coming from the ripple-rejecting stage, since i used large caps (over 5000uF) and/or an L7909, but the result is the same.

So I think that the problem is in the heater wires, which emit the 50Hz noise to the input stage.

[george]

twisted wire works.

Shielded wire should work, in the same way that coax guitar cables work ... just make sure the it's the shield connects to ground

[sir_modulus]

http://amps.zugster.net/articles/tube-pedals/

that dosen't help foor your hum bit, but does have all you need for tube pedals.

[mugan]

Thank you for the answers, now i know better the ckt that i'm going to build.