So i'm building a valvecaster and i decided to add cathode bypass caps to increase the gain. Rather than add a gain control between the 2 stages the plan is to wire the gain control the same was its usually wired in a valvecaster except with the bypass cap, and that's where i'm stuck. Would i wire it with the cap coming off lug 2 to ground (like in a fuzz face gain control), or would i bypass the pot completely with the cap?
Depending on cap & pot values, if you bypass the pot you may have no gain control.. :icon_wink:
(especially at high frequencies..)
Yes, you would do it like a FuzzFace. Works exactly the same way.
I'm using a 50k pot with a 1uf electrolytic (will socket that if I need to change it). So I should be good if I wire it like a fuzz face pot?
1μF cap appears a resistance of about 2k at lowest frequency of interest which is about 2.5% of gain pot value..(50k)
On original FF there are 1k pot & 20μF cap on a 1/100 analogy, so if you want to keep the same gain setting "taper" you have to place a 1000μF cap..
You have to make some compromise between valve anode/cathode resistors and bypass cap values.. :icon_wink:
Just got my valvecaster up and running with the 50k pot wired with a 10uf cap and wow what a difference it made. The gain is much tighter and a bit less bass than before. IL post a shcematic as soon as I get a chance