Best (with guitar volume pot) cleaning overdrive ?

mat · January 02, 2005, 10:05:12 PM

Suggestion ?

I vote for ROG Umble

mat

Hal · January 02, 2005, 10:21:59 PM

fuzz faces and related varaients do it nicely.

george · January 02, 2005, 10:49:26 PM

shaka tube, blue magic

bwanasonic · January 02, 2005, 10:58:44 PM

Strangely enough, I always found the Tech 21 GT2 to give a wide range of clean to dirty/high gain sounds using just the guitar's volume knob. I used to run a compressor after the GT2 to bring the *turned down* clean sounds up and to give the *turned up* tones some smoothing. A little more processed sounding than I currently favor. You might be able to come up with a Fuzz Face variant that works well for your needs. But you really can't leave the guitar and amp out of this equation. If you are starting with a cranked vintage-style tube amp with a nice OD sound, then you might favor something different than the person recording direct to a PC soundcard. I have yet to give the Umble a try, but I'll put that on my list.

Kerry M

mat · January 03, 2005, 03:04:29 PM

I was thinking about very clean overdrive (when backing the guitars volume) that is not so far from the guitars original tone. And then putting the volume full getting a nice rich round overtonefull overdrive happening :wink:

The fuzz and distortion was not in my mind (should have been more precise about it), although i love my BSIAB 1 and 2 and the Ge TBM2P and the tripple fuzz and use them alot.

The Blue Magic i just built is not in my opinion a good 'cleaning' circuit. Maybe it is my strat that darkens the effects too much. Have to check it and throw some cap in it. (PIA to open a strat :evil: ) I had a scratchy volume pot and changed that but with different value. I eaven tried a cap in it but it passed too much higs for my taste.

I've also modded the BlueMagic guite a lot so it may also be the reason for it to not clean so well.

The sound i had in mind was Larry Carltons tone just there where the sound breaks although it seems to have a lots of sustain.

I have wonderful tube amp (actually two) but very seldom crank them up because of the neighbours., so i was hoping to get the sound on reasonable volume levels with the pedals. I tried also a 1w champ that had a gorgeous tone

gotta save some money to buy that one :cry:

I have on my pedalboard the minibooster, orange squeezer, blue magic, bsiab2, tripple fuzz, tbm2p and umble so there are lots of good overdrive-distortion-fuzz happening in there.

Well i think i'm kind of overd-dist-fuzz freak :roll: so i'm going to build a lotts of pedals like this in the future. Next will be the ROG tube reamer

Thanks for the input, any further suggestions ?

cheers,
mat

Paul Marossy · January 03, 2005, 03:37:46 PM

IMO, the Shaka Tube cleans up pretty nicely. It's one of my best sounding overdrive pedals.

mat · January 03, 2005, 03:48:11 PM

Thnaks Paul

This definitely goes on my list

Have You built or tried the Chandler Tube Driver ? Any similarities ?

cheers,
mat

Quote from: Paul MarossyIMO, the Shaka Tube cleans up pretty nicely. It's one of my best sounding overdrive pedals.

Paul Marossy · January 03, 2005, 04:26:02 PM

I thought about building the Tube Driver, but I have heard that there are noise problems with the GGG PCB layout. (It says so on the GGG page)

I imagine that they are similar in the way they sound. I'll take my Shaka Tube any day, though.

sir_modulus · January 03, 2005, 07:56:02 PM

Well I have two (or more?) that definateley clean up:

Muff Fuzz - heck, with only a volume control, the real distortion control is your volume knob!

Tonebenders/Tone Burner - Real good distortion that cleans up. Use it on little wing, and just up the volume a little bit for the soloing bits...go from hints of distortion to good ol' Ge distortion

Nish

Torchy · January 04, 2005, 06:41:25 AM

crp

mat · January 04, 2005, 07:18:37 AM

Hello

Paul Marossy

QuoteI thought about building the Tube Driver, but I have heard that there are noise problems with the GGG PCB layout. (It says so on the GGG page)

All right. I'll focus on the shaka tube then. That will be my first tube pedal :?

sir_modulus

QuoteMuff Fuzz - heck, with only a volume control, the real distortion control is your volume knob!

Would You consider this something like the sound of Larry Carltons (if You have listened to him) or is it more like a fuzz sound ?

QuoteTonebenders/Tone Burner

I love my Ge Tonemender Mark 2 Prof but that is not the sound i'm looking for. Is the toneburner more overdrive like ?

Torchy

QuoteTry a Tube reamer, but with Ge Diodes and the mods from MartyMart
"the ultimate tube reamer" ...and I got the layout if you want it

Tube Reamer will be my next build and I would very much like to have the layout

thank You very much sir

Thank You all !!

mat
matti.tiilamaREMOVETHIS@pp.htv.fi

G Kresge · January 04, 2005, 07:54:29 AM

Jacques Fuse Blower gets my vote.

Paul Marossy · January 04, 2005, 10:24:38 AM

QuoteI'll focus on the shaka tube then. That will be my first tube pedal

I don't think you'll regret building it.

nightingale · January 04, 2005, 10:36:36 AM

if you have a tube amp,
any simple booster will get you some nice drive, with "clean up" as you roll the volume down. i am thinking specifically of the lpb-1, minibooster, or the modded tube reamer.

hth,

Paul Marossy · January 04, 2005, 10:44:45 AM

Or just buy a Z. Vex SHO...

mat · January 04, 2005, 04:28:35 PM

Quote from: Paul MarossyOr just buy a Z. Vex SHO...

If You mean the nanohead (did not find any SHO.. from the web site) it IS fabulous. I checked the video of the nano and while it was cool i wondered how the thing sounds on middle gain settings.. hmm - must be cool too

cheers,
mat

mat · January 04, 2005, 04:37:59 PM

Quote from: G KresgeJacques Fuse Blower gets my vote.

nice clips on http://www.ts808.com/tubebloweraudio.htm but not that creamy sound i'm after..

cheers,
mat

Paul Marossy · January 04, 2005, 04:41:46 PM

The SHO would be referring to the Super Hard On. It's a basically a booster pedal, and it kicks butt. Check out the video clip...

mojotron · January 05, 2005, 04:03:32 AM

Quote from: matI was thinking about very clean overdrive (when backing the guitars volume) that is not so far from the guitars original tone. And then putting the volume full getting a nice rich round overtonefull overdrive happening :wink:

The fuzz and distortion was not in my mind (should have been more precise about it), although i love my BSIAB 1 and 2 and the Ge TBM2P and the tripple fuzz and use them alot.

The Blue Magic i just built is not in my opinion a good 'cleaning' circuit. Maybe it is my strat that darkens the effects too much. Have to check it and throw some cap in it. (PIA to open a strat :evil: ) I had a scratchy volume pot and changed that but with different value. I eaven tried a cap in it but it passed too much higs for my taste.

I've also modded the BlueMagic guite a lot so it may also be the reason for it to not clean so well.

The sound i had in mind was Larry Carltons tone just there where the sound breaks although it seems to have a lots of sustain.

I have wonderful tube amp (actually two) but very seldom crank them up because of the neighbours., so i was hoping to get the sound on reasonable volume levels with the pedals. I tried also a 1w champ that had a gorgeous tone gotta save some money to buy that one :cry:

I have on my pedalboard the minibooster, orange squeezer, blue magic, bsiab2, tripple fuzz, tbm2p and umble so there are lots of good overdrive-distortion-fuzz happening in there.

Well i think i'm kind of overd-dist-fuzz freak :roll: so i'm going to build a lotts of pedals like this in the future. Next will be the ROG tube reamer

Thanks for the input, any further suggestions ?

I wanted the same kind of tone and never really found it either, until I was fiddling with a bunch of different Ge transistors in the "Boutique Fuzz Face" circuit at http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/fuzzface_b_sc_pp.gif.

With an NTE102 with an hfe of 70 in Q1 and an NTE 102A with an hfe of 160 in Q2, the fuzz pot rolled back to about 500 ohms and contour pot set to 1k - I use the bias pot to control the level of overdrive. Also, you really have to use mylar caps and .1uf for the output on this for warmer sound.

Now if I just crank the volume with the bias control at about 30% and let the amp's preamp do the bulk of the clipping - this is a very clean, warm slight overdrive that is really dynamic. If I pick softly or turn the volume knob on the guitar down to like 8 or 9 the sound is 100% clean, but with the volume all the way up I get a nice sweet overdrive when I dig into the strings... This is one of those settings where I have played hours while only messing with the volume and tone knobs on the guitar for a huge variation in tones. The carlton sound is one of them.

The key here is don't let the Ge fuzz face get fuzzy.... it makes a great booster/slight overdrive that can drive a good amp into a really nice dynamic overdrive.

MartyMart · January 05, 2005, 04:16:07 AM

Quote from: G KresgeJacques Fuse Blower gets my vote.

Have you tried the "Mercer Box II" ?
That box, which strangely enough gets no mention here? has the most killer sounds, from beautiful full range clean boost to "screwed up nasty fuzz" and every tone in-between.
It could replace every pedal I own, you just have to buy three !! :wink:

Jacques builds some fine pedals and is a very "nutty" guy !
Otherwise, I vote for the "Tube Reamer" plus my mods, Torchy's stripboard layout is fantastic !
In the latest one I used one 1N4148 and one Ge 1N34a.

Marty.

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Best (with guitar volume pot) cleaning overdrive ?