The Bear Boost Plus

[smallbearelec]

I had multiple motivations for doing this design. http://www.smallbearelec.com/Projects/BearBoostPlus/BearBoostPlus.htm
Part of it was about finding a good vehicle for using low-gain germanium, but I also wanted something that would be a good first pedal to manufacture: a relatively simple boost that would be different and unusual enough to call my own. I think this is it; it can sound like either an FF or an RM depending on settings, but the combination of FET boost and adjustable soft clipping gives it some unique properties. The full kit with board and drilled case will be available this summer.

SD

[jonathansuhr]

NICE! Definetely on my build list.

[jimbob]

PC board will be available in mid-to-late Summer '08

Will the board be like the pic or a manufactured  PCB? Id really like a pre-manufactured board as I dislike perf these days. I'll make a few when they come out. Nice work Steve! ( or whoever wrote the email from Smallbear:) )

[Auke Haarsma]

From your article:

R11 in my prototype is a single 100 meg resistor, but it can be 5 x 22 meg in series, or you can use R. G. Keen's Millenium Bypass circuit.

Is that really 100M? The biggest value I have is 10M, or does 'meg' mean something else?

[greigoroth]

Awesome idea Steve!

I am not good enough to look at the design and say if it is cool or not but based on the description, wow, great idea!

[ambulancevoice]

From your article:

R11 in my prototype is a single 100 meg resistor, but it can be 5 x 22 meg in series, or you can use R. G. Keen's Millenium Bypass circuit.

Is that really 100M? The biggest value I have is 10M, or does 'meg' mean something else?

yes, meg means something else
it means mega ohm

but yeah, its 100M (mega ohm) like he wrote, 5x 22M in series or blah blah

[Auke Haarsma]

lol

But why use 100M? Wouldn't it better to just leave the connection open (as in 'not connected)? I've not seen such a large value in a stompbox yet.

[ambulancevoice]

lol

But why use 100M? Wouldn't it better to just leave the connection open (as in 'not connected)? I've not seen such a large value in a stompbox yet.

r11 (or the 100M) is needed there to bias the transistor
and you dont have to use that LED circuit anyway
there is R.G.'s Millennium Bypass, or Joe D.'s LED trick
there have more regular values

[smallbearelec]

Will the board be like the pic or a manufactured  PCB?

It will be a ready-to-solder PCB. The design is very similar to the perfboard version, but the factory "scrunched" and optimized the layout to make it a little smaller. I have built a prototype on a sample, and the production boards are being manufactured now.