Supa Nova questions and Mod info

[cmat]

I built a supa nova and it seems a little muddy.  I substituted the 2n5088 with a mpsa18 which I have always had good luck with.  Could this be the blanket on my supa nova?   I have done a search and havent found any mods for the supa nova and thought this would be a good thread for everyone to tell what mods they have done to thier nova and which they like the best.

[cmat]

bump

[Gilles C]

It's been a while since I built the Super Nova, and beside the tone control that didn't have a lot of effect on the sound, I don't seem to remember it sounded muddy.

Here is an old link to a few sound clips that have a recording of my Super Nova.

http://members.tripod.com/gillcar/id20.htm

Maybe it will give you an idea on how it can sound. I can't say if it sounds correct or now,and I stopped working on it after that, so I can't talk about mods.

Gilles

[cmat]

Yours sounds smoother than mine.  Do you think the MPSA18 could be it?  I think they have more gain than the 2N5088 but I dont know if it would change the tone of it.  I have to run the treble all the way up and the mid at about 10:00 and it still sounds muddy.  My Bass and notch switches dont really seem to do anything how about yours?   Thanks for the clips!!!

[David Deen]

Yeah, I built a supa-nova about a year ago because I thought the sound sample was awesome. However, when I built it mine didn't sound as killer as I was expecting but it sounded okay. In like manner, my notch and bass switches didn't do much. You might be able to play with C12 & C13 like is suggested in the mods section of the file to get more bass variation with the switch.

I socketed Q4 to try out different transistors. The 2n5088 was a bit buzzy for me so I switched over to another J201 JFET which mellowed it out a bit but sounds to me like yours is already too mellow.

I know it's a whole other pedal w/ MUCH less clipping but have you tried the Blue Magic also by J. Nagy? Just curious because I built one that had a wierd barely noticeable almost ring modulator sound that I could not account for or get rid of.

-David

[Gilles C]

The MPSA18 has a bit more gain and maybe that the circuit gets too much signal. But if you turn down your volume of the guitar and that it still sounds the same, it shouldn't be the transistor, I think.

About the bass and notch switches, it's the same for me. They don't do a lot.

I just remembered that I added a gain pot for the input buffer. This could help.

http://gillcar.iquebec.com/files/inputbuf.gif

http://members.tripod.com/gillcar/id19.htm

Sorry about the pop-up adds, I lost the files on the server I use now (without adds...) in a server crash, and I didn't have the time and motivation to put it up again.

Gilles

[cmat]

I built a blue magic and I like the tone but with the volume all the way up it only matches the volume of the bypassed signal.  I must have a wrong resistor or something.  I havent had time to get back to it.   If anyone knows what the volume problem could be please let me know.