I have build TS clone and i tried it without clipping diodes.
Does it make sense to have distortion without diodes and why? :o
whenever your signal amplitude makes your transistor or tube
operate outside the linear region, U have distortion or clipping.
Therefore, U don't need diodes to make distortion.
Diodes make distortion happen always--at any input signal amplitude.
look up "load line calculations" for transistors.
hope this helps.
tone
The chip is going to clip somewhere just above 0V and somewhere just below 9V. So turn up the gain on a TS and you'll get lots of clipping. Especially with a 4558, cos they will be lucky to make it down to 2V or above 7V.
Clipping basically occurs when the headroom of whatever device you're using it too low-you can clip quite well with a simple 741 with the gain too high, but I guess that's more overdrive.
-Colin
Hi,
if you like to drive the IC in saturation, change the DrivePot value from 500K to 1Meg.
And You'll get a very crunchy distortion - just sounds like a crunching
TubeAmp (i almost like it more than the classic TS Sound)
If You turn up a Tubeamp the Overdriven Tubes will sound smooth and
warm, but at one point, the sound will switch into a crispy crunch, and
that is the sound you nearly get with the IC Clipping from the TS.
bye
Oliver
Toneman suggests that diodes make distortion happen "always". That isn't quite precisely true, but it is very close to what is true, as are all the other responses.
Diodes insert an artificially low ceiling on signal headroom. Without such an artificial ceiling, you WILL get clipping if you apply too much gain to a signal in a device powered by 9vdc, but the clipping will be intermittent and generally unpleasant because of that. Check out some sound samples of the Electro-Harmonix Baseballs and you'll get a sense of how mediocre this sounds (the Baseballs adds in a something-for-nothing feature of "fuzz", which is actually just a cheap op-amp trying to provide too much gain).
Bear in mind that the initial transients of notes have a very high amplitude and are likely to clip, but they very quickly drop in level and the clipping may disappear. With the diodes there, and sufficient gain applied, you will hear clipping not only at the onset of the note, but for a while after the initial transient is over.
Certainly many players find they like the sound of their distortion pedals if there is something ahead of the pedal which increases the likelihood of staying above the clipping threshold more consistently. That can be hotter pickups, a clean booster, or a compressor. In the case of compressors, too, not only can the level be set to be above whatever is needed to keep a distortion pedal after it clipping, but the compression itself assures that the signal rarely descends below the clipping threshold.
As I'm fond of mentioning, players in the 60's used to complain about the fartiness and stuttery quality of fuzz pedals. A good part of that was because we often used wimpy pickups, and the fuzzes were being used with too little gain in the signal path. A nice "clean" SC pickup suited for surf guitarwould generally be insufficient to push a diode-based clipper hard enough to produce a satisfying long-sustaining fuzz, particularly how people used them at that time.