Tone circuits, bass and treble

[mnordbye]

I've been searching about for a while about tone controls featuring bass and treble controls. Haven't found much info or schematics, except for the baxandall and jamie's tone controls. Been planning to build a clean booster with these in addition to the standard gain and level knobs, like in Xotics RC and AC boosters.

So, does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with any 2-knob tone controls? Open to everything.

Tips appreciated.

Magnus

[PRR]

> baxandall and jamie's tone controls

Those are THE two go-to plans for hi-fi (flat when centered).

There is also the Fender (big mid-dip in most settings).

While there are other ways to do it, these three serve nearly all "Bass Treble" needs.

[sault]

FWIW, a simple treble tone control would be the Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control. Here is a link to Jack's update of it -

http://www.muzique.com/lab/swtc.htm

[roseblood11]

That booster already exists, it's called Boss FA-1:
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6613&p=172712#p172712

If somebody uses my veroboard layout: Please check it carefully, it's not yet verified.

[mnordbye]

Thanks for all the replies!

The Jamie's tone controls seems like a good shot, since the baxandall circuit (from what I understand) has to be put in a feedback loop? I'm unable to find much info on Jamie's controls, schematics and general info. Does anyone have any links easily available for me?

Roseblood: I'm looking for a tone stack only, trying to design something new myself. 

Thanks,
Magnus

[deadastronaut]

only the obvious tsc....

http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/download.html

[WGTP]

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/STMs-Circuit-Ideas/BBE/

STM has some cool stuff. 

[merlinb]

Good reading:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PvKPEFu2PVkC&lpg=PP1&dq=small%20signal%20audio&pg=PA267#v=onepage&q&f=false

[sault]

Is something like a Big Muff stack going to color your sound too much? Jack has a Bass/Treble mod of the Big Muff here....

http://www.muzique.com/lab/atone.htm

Also... are you looking for passive or active? How much color is acceptable - ie, that natural Big Muff notch?

[Derringer]

That booster already exists, it's called Boss FA-1:
http://www.....org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6613&p=172712#p172712

If somebody uses my veroboard layout: Please check it carefully, it's not yet verified.

so why is it called a Fet Amplifier if the fet is just a buffer? 


/unless that chip which I can't google anything about has a fet input

[mnordbye]

Great links! I'll check them all out.

The standard big muff tonestack has a dip in the mids that I don't want in a booster, but it can be modified to have a flatter frequency repsonse. Might breadboard that to just to see.

I haven't decided if I need an active or a passive tonestack yet, it really depends on the circuit it will be paired with. I'll jus try everything.

Magnus

[roseblood11]

That booster already exists, it's called Boss FA-1:
http://www.....org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6613&p=172712#p172712

If somebody uses my veroboard layout: Please check it carefully, it's not yet verified.

so why is it called a Fet Amplifier if the fet is just a buffer? 


/unless that chip which I can't google anything about has a fet input

The chip is a cheap part, similar to the 4558. The rest is (more or less...) clever marketing. 

[Bill Mountain]

Be careful with the James stack.  Because of modern log tapers and the general inconsistencies of said tapers, I have reason to believe it will not be a flat tone stack when centered.

[sault]

Good reading:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PvKPEFu2PVkC&lpg=PP1&dq=small%20signal%20audio&pg=PA267#v=onepage&q&f=false

Thank you! I managed to find it, and I'm already learning a lot just from skimming it. Plenty of material here to keep me occupied...

[AdamM]

I do like the responsivness of the Vox AC30 treble & bass tone stack, although have never tried it in a solid state (i.e. low voltage/impedance) situation. I guess if it was preceded and followed by buffers (jfet's maybe?) then it moght work. Or you could scale the impedances. the Duncanamps TSC is a good tool for figuring this sort of stuff out.

[seedlings]

Could try an opamp.  Scroll down to page 12 for bass & treble boost/cut or page 14 to setup at designated frequencies like a graphic eq:

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm833-n.pdf

CHAD

[mnordbye]

Thanks for all the great responses!

My first try will be the James circuit. I've been messing around with the tone stack calculator, and it seems perfect for me. Flat when everything is at 12 o'clock, and boosts/cuts the treble and bass, leaving the mids either scooped or yanked up.

I will be giving you guys an report!

Also, happy christmas!

Magnus

[FlyingZ]

I used a two knob baxandall type in my guitar tube amp and after several months of adjusting finally swapped it for a straight fender stack. The baxandall type is great if the music is already shaped like on a CD because at mid settings it is closer to bypassed tone then any other stack I know and adjustments cover a wide range of frequencies. The adjustments being so broad and interactive are frustratingly useless for guitar.

Stacks like the fender hurt tone big-time as a cost of being in the circuit but the adjustments are very useful and worth it in the end (for me anyway).

In my opinion most definitely use baxandall style for hifi, but only on guitar if you like the tone with it bypassed and will never need shaping.

[mnordbye]

A quick update on my search for a good bass/treble tone control.

I tried the James circuit both before and after many simple booster circuits, but I just didn't like the feel of it much, so that idea is scratched at the moment. Now, I'm experimenting with the Big Muff tone control. The first order is to get rid of the mid-bump which this tone control creates. Easy enough with Duncans tone stack calculator (Best freeware ever!). It sounds all right now actually, but I still want treble and bass controls, and after researching the circuit a bit, I found that I could implement a second pot, and thus effectively splitting it into a Bass and Treble tone control. I'm just trying out buffers etc. to make up for the lost signal now, but the results seems to suit my needs.

Thanks for the help so far!

Magnus

[roseblood11]

I do like the responsivness of the Vox AC30 treble & bass tone stack, although have never tried it in a solid state (i.e. low voltage/impedance) situation. I guess if it was preceded and followed by buffers (jfet's maybe?) then it moght work. Or you could scale the impedances. the Duncanamps TSC is a good tool for figuring this sort of stuff out.

Have a look at the schematic of the Catalinbread CB30, over at the forbidden forum...