well, we're cookin' up some hog foots and greens, and some grits and bisquits...
and, well, pink's driver... presently on my breadboard.
used a pnp ge as a soft clipper. then i got twisted. and so did the circuit.
a LOT of balls... and tone... available without a lot of parts... no esoteric values, pretty much any ge pnp will work.
from mild overdrive to fuzzy ass balls, big muffish tone control with mid boost/cut
total 10,000 monkeys/10,000 typewriters/10,000 years kind of circuit
front end based on "pink's clipper" so it plays REAL nice with your guitar knobs, turn your tone down and it gets PHATTER...turn your guitar down, and it gets clean like a fuzz face....
hard ge clipping at the end. i am really digging this circuit so far.
so..... what did i reinvent/lummox across/rip off this time?
i don't recall seeing the soft clipping done like this before, but i'm sure it's been done.
if you're bored, and wanna have a play on the old breadboard...
here ya go... it's what's for breakfast. and lunch and dinner. and in between meals too today, been at it for the last 14 hours or so off and on,
tweaking and messing and tinkering.
i think it's good.
stupid pedal trick soon. vero/etc, too....
here's a schematic... again, based on a simple single opamp
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/pinksdriver1_zpsd3c9593a.png)
thoughts/ advice/criticisms welcomed.
this is way more than a fuzz or overdrive... i was very surprised at how many tones i can coax from it.
i think i may be beginning to learn a little. ;)
i THINK it's an "original"-ish circuit. as always... please educate me!! ;)
and if ya build it, and diggit, let me know!!
forgot to label it, but tone pot is 100k linear
How's it sound without the diodes?
How does it sound with transistors with different hfe's?
How does it sound with an Si PNP transistor?
Quote from: Electron Tornado on March 02, 2014, 10:09:13 AM
How's it sound without the diodes?
How does it sound with transistors with different hfe's?
How does it sound with an Si PNP transistor?
without the diodes, it's a mildly overdriven souning boost.
the transistor is just used as a diode, so hfe doesn't seem to matter.
no idea how it sounds with a silicon transistor. have fun and find out! ;)
i doubt if a silicon would matter, really, as it's realy just being used as a clippng diode.
adding voltage to the e/c seems to give it a bit of a gain boost and a LOT more distortion. you can put the node of the e and 1u on switch for a footswitchable gain boost if ya want to.
i tried a bunch of permutations, and several ge transistors... i wanted to bring it some of the germanium "sweetness".. didn't bother with silicon.
jfets or mosfets would probably sound nice in this kind of application too, they don't hard clip like si does.
side's i don't have any si pnp's with lead long enough to reach the way shit is crammed on this particular breadboard.
it was plug and play/mix and match til it sounded good, and it's pretty messy!
i will say this for the transistor, it brought the tone stage to life. i have no idea why it works the way it does, but it does, i'm good with it!!
That's neat, and you're right, I haven't seen that configuration used in a feedback loop before. I can't help but think that it's slightly different than just being a diode.
Just one thing: JFETs do had clip, and I think you might need to rearrange things to use a MOSFET in that situation (remember that MOSFETs conduct in both directions).
Quote from: midwayfair on March 02, 2014, 11:54:25 AM
That's neat, and you're right, I haven't seen that configuration used in a feedback loop before. I can't help but think that it's slightly different than just being a diode.
Just one thing: JFETs do had clip, and I think you might need to rearrange things to use a MOSFET in that situation (remember that MOSFETs conduct in both directions).
agreed, it definitely adds gain, but i think it may be thru leakage? it's being used mainly as a diode tho. if ya disconnect the 1u cap from the voltage divider on the pnp,
you lose a lot of gain.. of course, with it without the 10k and 47k resistors it works, and is crazy loud and distorted, but it's way too much. as it stands, with the gain knob off, it'll boost.. hit about 8:00 and it starts to overdrive, right up to almost fuzz full out.
the ge transistor there as a diode is really cool... wondering if maybe it's amplifying in a limited fashion some how there? maybe when there's voltage present, it opens it like a gate? it's pretty quiet, surprisingly so, noise-wise.
think i'm gonna change the name to "flying spaghetti monster fuzz" after looking at it in the morning light
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/1654053_10202551740587653_167316073_zps3ef205be.jpg)
:icon_mrgreen:
Another one for the build list! :icon_cool:
lol.... larry, dontcha wanna hear it first? ;)
Jimi your gettin me hungry!
Really man I don't know how you do it, you have some new type of circuit drawn up every other day , heck some times twice on Sunday haha! What ever your doing don't stop its great stuff as always! I gotta try out what you did here with the GE pnp trans as clippers. I recently was playing around using GE transistors as clipping diodes and in the octave section of the foxx tone machine, not the same way your doing it here. So I'll have to give this a try it looks cool!
Can't wait to hear it on youtube. Really man everything you play sounds good , I think its your fingers! :D
jim, here's a heapin' slab o' guitar beef for ya, my friend...
here's a vero. check against the schematic. i often make mistakes, cuz i'm a special kinda stupid like that. :icon_mrgreen:
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyinspaghettimonsterfuzz1_zps05d178f3.png)
and... as per your command.... one stupid pedal trick video, for the newly renamed
flying spaghetti monster fuzz.
Sounds good!
I've been playing around with the big muff tone stack myself recently, and I love it. Simple, extremely configurable.
hey lungdart, ya looks like a newbie... welcome!!!
yah fun to play with... definitely reccomend adding the midrange control to it, makes it so much more versatile.
and it's pretty forgiving of part values, too. ;)
now... couple problems, or potential problems.
it's somewhat photosensitive, and PROXIMITY sensitive. if ya touch the shaft of the gain control it buzzes... cuz it's connected to the base of the pnp.
i checked it for voltage etc, and tried isolating it with a cap and a resistor in a couple combos, but it doesn't work or sound the same at all.
since there's gonna be a knob on it, i figure screw it, good enough. but the proximity thing is kinda cool... don't know if it will act the same once boxed or not.
i really dig this thing, getting some wicked tone out of it. the more i play with the knobs, the more levels and flavors i can get out of it. the video of course sucks, it sounds way better than that crummy compressed bull.....oney...
once i build the vero, i'll try a bunch of different transistors. i tried 3 or 4 of them at random in the circuit, and tried connecting it in every permutation, like, swapping the leads around. since it's basically a diode, it doesn't really seem to matter... i went with the way it seemed to sound the best.
so... anyways... fun use for crummy low gain germaniums again. ;)
Nice work Jimi. Amazing variety of tones.
It might be my ears but I'm hearing a fair bit of an octave type of sound too.
Thanks for sharing. I might bread it when I get back.
I'm hearing Leslie West tone here
nice work Jimi
thanks guys. it's a cool circuit!! hope you like it if you try it. ;)
does anybody smarter than me (shouldn't take much, lol) have an explanation
for why the transistor works like that? i know it's got the diode action going to clip, but connecting it as i did i believe it's amplifying somewhat as
well as clipping.
and is the base of the pnp being connected to the pot dangerous? i didn't get any form of voltage reading, but it sounds like putting your finger on the end of a guitar cord.. it honk/buzzes somewhat.
i took voltage readings in dc and ac and milli amps but didn't find anything, so i don't think it's "live" or anything.
i figure it's gonna have a knob on it, but better to ask first.
it's definitely "wrong" i'm sure from any standpoint from ethical to electronic, but it sure sounds good. i'm thinking of putting this on a switch if it doesn't pop too bad, so it can give a "turbo boost" to the original distortion which is a little sweeter and milder... more of a decent overdrive. maybe switching output caps will be worth trying with it, put a bigger one in when it's off so it's nice and phat, and a smaller one with the beef on.
just ideas, if any brave soul decides spelunking into this cavernous black hole after that white rabbit nobody else saw took off down it kinda decides to play with it. ;)
pretty sure it could be improved upon slightly. but i'm really digging it as is. thinking about boxing it with mictester's really cheap compressor, the two are both in need of boxing and sound really good together, very natural... the comp rounds off the distortion nicely, tho it loses the cleanup from the guitar sucking all the distortion out. without it on, the guitar sounds much sweeter turned down, cuz you're not squashing it down til the distortion is evident.
cutting the output transistor from .47 to .1 makes for a slightly tighter sound. switching in the .47 makes a great bass boost.
brothers buy ol' pink here a clue? i'm thinking the transistor is "on" and working as an active drive circuit inside the feedback loop of the ic?
this is honestly just crap that was lieing around on my bench when i was cleaning up, so i didn't play with values too much, mostly just plug sh*^ in and see what it does... changed resistors on the voltage divider on the input, tried from 10k to 470k, and 100k won. also tried it asymetrically, with various combos.
i wanted to try and use one of these crummy ge's as a clipper. i tried it hooked up every possible way i could think of, and e and c sounded best as the diode.. slightly different tones depending on which orientation of the connection. as it ended up sounded best to me.
i wanted to see if anything would happen if i connected the b of the transistor, so i tried grounding it. and, being fearlessly stupid and willing to blow stuff up in the pursuit of toane, and since it was right next to it stuck it in the positive honeypot and holy cow did that scream. too much. so i tamed it down with a resistor or two or three, and decided i liked it. the tone controls in particular came alive, as did the volume, which prior wasn't much above unity.
i'll take some voltage readings to post in a little bit and post them.
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyinspaghettimonsterfuzzverovdcschem1_zpsec011489.png)
vero w/voltages and schem
probably build this today to see if it's good...
Hey Jimi-- since you are playing around with changes in tone by touch or proximity. Maybe your next project should be a ---
Fuzz Theremin
;D
Hey pink,
in the mood again huh? For the tranny amplifying let me try some highly speculative idea,
as it's germanium with all the mojo, leakage and stuff it might provide some conduction for the
signal on the collector to V+ with a signal on the base present, thus giving it a shortcut around the 47k
and enhancing the gain following the gain formula for inverting op amps in a crude way, as for the signal
in the feedback loop it's not of interest if getting shorted to ground or V+, it missing at the input, and that's what counts
for the OPA. Don't know for sure, just hit me if I'm dumb here...
Nice grunty sound btw...
Quote from: italianguy63 on March 03, 2014, 02:32:02 PM
Hey Jimi-- since you are playing around with changes in tone by touch or proximity. Maybe your next project should be a ---
Fuzz Theremin
;D
lol.... let's see if it still does it when off the breadboard and in a metal box!
if it does, we can say it's a "feature". lol
Quote from: deafbutpicky on March 03, 2014, 02:58:12 PM
Hey pink,
in the mood again huh? For the tranny amplifying let me try some highly speculative idea,
as it's germanium with all the mojo, leakage and stuff it might provide some conduction for the
signal on the collector to V+ with a signal on the base present, thus giving it a shortcut around the 47k
and enhancing the gain following the gain formula for inverting op amps in a crude way, as for the signal
in the feedback loop it's not of interest if getting shorted to ground or V+, it missing at the input, and that's what counts
for the OPA. Don't know for sure, just hit me if I'm dumb here...
Nice grunty sound btw...
thanks bro. i follow up to a point... so it's working as a switch you think? man, i wish i knew how to do a sim of it to see what it does. maybe i can catch it on my computer with one of them free o-scope things.
I might manage to put it in LTspice for you tomorrow, just as curious as you are;)
i knew i'd screw SOMETHING up.... :icon_redface:
on the vero, r1 and r2, the voltage divider feeding vb to pin 3 of the 5534 should be 100K, NOT 10K!!!
the vero is populated. it's cute. ;) as veros go. ;)
gonna wire it up and put some electrons to it shortly... with a little luck, it'll work. not holding my breath. :icon_mrgreen:
here's a corrected vero
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyinspaghettimonsterfuzzverovdcschem1B_zpsd207c227.png)
this is what i'm working on right now with it...
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/fsmfvero2_zpsb9f1890e.jpg)
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/fsmfvero1_zps27ea0624.jpg)
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/fsmfvero3_zpsb9c3e89c.jpg)
perf by rutabaga bob:
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/pinksdriverfsmfperf_zps56b22da2.jpg)
tone 1 and 3 need to be reversed on the vero,
but it is now VERIFIED... fired up first shot, sounds exactly like the one on my breadboard!!
will try some other more common pnp's to see if they fly... stay tuned.
i hope somebody tries this thing out... it has MONSTROUS big balls i can't show in any video!! lol
ok... the transistor? has to be germanium, so leakage is definitely coming into play.
it doesn't care if the transistor is pnp or npn. or what the gain is... i tried it with gains from 18 to 246hfe... some sounded better than others.
i tended to like a gain around 90 best with humbuckers. but i would imagine whatever ya got will work, as long as it's ge... hissy,, noisy, p.o.s. germaniums with lousy gain RULE here...
also.. output cap. with a strat, .47 is great. little wooly with humbuckers on my 335. also, doesn't clean up quite the same with buckers, sounds pretty much like you'd expect it to.
if you play a strat and a les paul, say, i'd add a switch. use a .1 on one side for a les paul, and a .47 on the other for a strat and the ass is about equal that way. tie the free ends of the cap together to the node with the 1n34's, and the other ends to two poles of a spdt switch. then you can flick a switch to change guitars if ya wanna.
anyways... whatever ya do... have fun.
btw... i have a feeling this thing will work well with bass, too... gonna try my fretless thru it tomorrow and see what it does.
Jimi , I been in bed sick was gonna ask yesterday. Have you tried this boxed up yet ? You mentioned that there's voltage coming in on the gain pot shaft. I'm wondering if this is going to ground out with the enclosure.
As soon as I can see straight I plan on tossing this on the ol bread board , sounded great in the video man!
nah, it should be fine... it's only on the shaft part. i'm getting no ac/dc or current leakage i can find with my meter... i think it's just cuz the top of the gain pot connects directly to the b of the q.
i haven't boxed yet, had to wait for the logo i stuck on the box to dry on... lol.. liquid nails, baby... stick ANYTHING to ANYTHING!!
lol
hang on, i'll check and see if it grounds... i'll jump it to ground... brb
sweet... good news!! nope, doesn't ground it out.. loses the proximity thing when it's grounded, too, and a "hum" that was bugging me.
i believe it's good to go!! ;)
Dude this looks awesome, you're always full of great ideas. Time to order in the ge pnps me thinks!!
just don't waste a lot of money on good ge's tom, the one in there at the moment is like, 18hfe or something... it's more diode than transistor i think, still waiting on someone smarter than me to figure out wtf i did. ;)
Flying Spaghetti Monster Fuzz?? Sounds like a yummy dish.
How about some "Flying Japanese Noodles Monster Guitar Synth" as the side?
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc196/digi2t/Jap%20Guitar%20Synth/DSCF3529_zps6bfaccc3.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/digi2t/media/Jap%20Guitar%20Synth/DSCF3529_zps6bfaccc3.jpg.html)
(That was my breadboard test of the "Japanese Guitar Synth" schematic, last year.) :icon_mrgreen:
Nice work bro! That germ in the feedback loop is a twist. Just for shits and grins, are you going to try Jon's suggestion of JFET's or MOSFET's?
Hey Jim,
tried it in LTspice tonight and couldn't get any reasonable results from it. I guess some decent
ge transistor model is crucial even for a simple sim.
Anyway, I still think it's a trade off effect between part of the signal getting grounded through
the 1ยต, raising the gain, and lowering Vf by paralleling b-c and b-e junctions (frequency
selective for the signal part going through b-e because of the cap and Rs in front of it)
adding distortion to the signal. Have to try it myself, when I've finished my recent Kronos project/built.
You should rename it the enigma drive...
Yeah-- The Pink Enigma... that has some serious connotations.
Quote from: italianguy63 on March 04, 2014, 02:55:24 PM
Yeah-- The Pink Enigma... that has some serious connotations.
i was married to her for 17 years...lol
dino... looks fun!! gonna have a play with some pll's soon i think. i love the way your mind works, my brother!!! lol
i tried silicon transistors in it, and a 2n7000 and vn2222, did not work. has to be germanium. low gain, high gain, doesn't seem to matter, but definitely affects the tone. i'm thinking it's just a power-filtered breaking down diode sound or something, but man, it sounds good!!
boxed. screaming... no more hum or crackles like on the breadboard.
gave it two violet leds for "eyes". i went and got lazy, no mods to the original circuit. maybe next one. ;)
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/fsmboxed_zpse4edaf9c.jpg)
ok, so i added another simple gain stage to it to give it some more balls. tried a bunch of crap on the breadboard,
and finally settled on this... for all intents, it's the final stage of a big muff... i used a 5088, but any npn should do.
i tried it without the input cap.. didn't work well. since caps in series divide, i figured using a 1u input on the extra stage would drop the overall output capacitance.. which i guess it did. made for a bit tighter tone.
tried a couple resistor values for the resistor on the input, 15k seemed to work best, so went with it.
for the voltage divider i actually used 430k top and 105k bottom just cuz the odd value was convenient.
went with a 2.2k e resistor, cuz it seemed to have the best gain and tone for the rest of the circuit... below 2.2k, it was too grainy, above, started to get kinda muddy to my ear.
it was now loud as hell, so i added a 10k resistor before the output cap.. this seemed to also focus the tone a little more. also added a little filtering. i figured since i didn't wanna change the tone coming out, i'd go with the same size cap as the input... seemed to work well, so .1u it was, seemed good. added a 4.7m to ground at the end of the output cap cuz this is on a daughterboard and i don't want "pops". seemed to do the trick. may be overkill.
also added a second 100u filter cap for the extra stage... i figured that would help with noise, and also decouple the two stages from the power supply.. nice, quiet, and solid.
on batteries, it is now really cool and squishy on dieing batts... and real tite and focused on a wart at a higher voltage. i won't be happy til i gig it next week, but im happy with the tone and response... it still cleans up nice, but doesn't need as much gain to get a good solid classic rock guitar tone.... i find the gain about 10:00 is PLENTY... above that it becomes a distortion and eventually a somewhat gated fuzz/buzztone. should be plenty of gain for even weak pickups now. tried it with my maple neck black strat and my blonde 335 copy both... could get virtually the same tones with either guitar, and now unity gain is maybe 9:00 instead of 2 pm.
anyways... simple little stage. just add it on between the output of the board, and the input of the volume control. it's not necessary, but i found it better to have way more firepower than you need and a volume control than not quite enough balls to cut thru the mix.
i want people's @#$%in' hair to part at the back of the hall when i kick this puppy on. i think that won't be an issue anymore. ;)
heres a pcb/schematic of the add on:
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonsterextrastagepcb_zpsafae23e8.png)
here's a vero add on board:
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/FlyingSpaghettiMonsterFuzzExtraGainStagevero_zps07fd84aa.png)
so if you're messing with this, ya may wanna consider adding on this to the project. i didn't think it was gonna be necessary, and if this is the only pedal you're using it's probably fine... but this way it has enough drive to kick some ass instead of making ya wish it had enough jam.
anyways... onwards and upwards, peeps... peace out
Awesome Jimi! I bet this extra stage is huge! Gonna have to try it out.
In the pcb version you posted here R3 looks like its only connected to ground and not the collector as in the vero. And R4 looks like connected to the collector instead of the base like in the vero. I'm just guessing the vero is correct ?
I might be wrong let me look at the final stage of a bmp again.
Still awesome dood cool ideas from you as always!
I need to buy a few more breadboards the two I have now are all full with current tinkerings.
thanks jim for the kind words...
you're right, the vero is right.. i made a mistake on the pcb... not used to doing those. ;)
updated really shitty schematic... ;)
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonstermk15schem_zps5f36ea0d.png)
here's the fixed pcb thing
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonsterextrastagepcb_zps43f9eae6.png)
it is WAY huge bro... it's neat, its different from every other fuzz i've built tonally... kinda like a big muff that cleans up like a fuzzface.
i'm digging it more the more i play with it.
i may try and work up an adapatation with a dual opamp instead, just to make it really stupid easy.
the ge clipper in the feedback loop sounds REALLY cool... it breaks up differently from ge or silicon or chips usually do... it's gotta certain "chime" to it you usually only hear in marshalls or voxes.
i hope ya diggit when you build it.
and believe me, there's more projects coming... i can't build 'em as fast as i seem to cobble them together. i'm at least 10 boxes behind, and that's not counting the audio effects fuzzound project me jrod and CRRR reverse engineered... and spawned at least 5 different fuzzes from on the way to discovering that it's the same circuit as the kimberly buzz box... which we also have in that project. yikes... lol
onward and upward!
Quoteon batteries, it is now really cool and squishy on dieing batts... and real tite and focused on a wart at a higher voltage.
Sounds like a prime candidate for a voltage control pot to me. Like the Skyripper. Dial that baby right in.
Quote from: digi2t on March 08, 2014, 07:57:02 AM
Quoteon batteries, it is now really cool and squishy on dieing batts... and real tite and focused on a wart at a higher voltage.
Sounds like a prime candidate for a voltage control pot to me. Like the Skyripper. Dial that baby right in.
for some peeps, that would be perfect. them ne55xx chips can sound real sweet when driven hard with a bad power supply!!
dangit, noticed i drew the added npn as a pnp...
fixed.
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonstermk15schem_zpsb856166b.png)
ok, revised it a little.
changed the clipper, so the b+ is switched to the emitter instead of hardwired. had to add a switch , a 2.2u cap and a 4.7m resistor (on the switch to ground) for pop control.
also added a switch to lift the ground of the ge diodes. this makes for a bit less rude of a pedal ;)
but with them on, you can get some very funky sounds.
anyways, footswitchable feedback clipper added, ground lift for the hard clipper at the tail end, changed the .47u output cap before the last stage to .1, lost some of the wooliness.
now with the soft clipper switch off, you get a nice overdrive up to fuzz. kick it on, and get a huge boost in gain, distortion, and brilliance. it's pretty cool.
anyways... i just added a track cut to the vero i built between the 10k and the e of q1 and flew a couple wires to the switch.
flying spaghetti monster, indeed... it's getting messier in there.
also, when the switch is on for the boost, it makes it sustain like a sumbitch and on some notes "bloom" into octave up feedback.
it does the octave up thing too, with the boost on and the gain cranked.
i don't find i need the gain above about 10:00, above that, it gets to be too much overkill for me. ;)
the switch is actually labeled "overkill"... the circuit snippet is "the bloom n' boost" circuit (the ge transistor as a clipper in the op amp feedback loop and the associated support passives...which i believe is an original idea, completely by accident)
here ya go, sorry, too damn lazy to update the vero right now
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonstermk15revb1schem_zpsb2b0ee1c.png)
So, as far as the transistor...can you use just any old Ge, leaky or not? Read about the lower gain ones...didn't know if you tried any with less leakage.
Hey Jimi-- I may try this if I get the time! On the back of the extra gain stage by the Volume pot you have a cap. On the schematic you show .1uF but on the vero you have .1pF?
as done as it's gonna get
(http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt137/pinkjimiphoton/flyingspaghettimonstermk15revbpcb_zps91c86e1d.png)
schematic/pcb thingie....
Quote from: rutabaga bob on March 10, 2014, 05:34:06 PM
So, as far as the transistor...can you use just any old Ge, leaky or not? Read about the lower gain ones...didn't know if you tried any with less leakage.
ANY old ge...leaky or not. gain doesn't matter, leakage doesn't matter, can be npn OR pnp and it will work. forward or reverse beta. one will sound better, but anything goes as long as it's ge.
Quote from: italianguy63 on March 10, 2014, 05:41:41 PM
Hey Jimi-- I may try this if I get the time! On the back of the extra gain stage by the Volume pot you have a cap. On the schematic you show .1uF but on the vero you have .1pF?
.1, 1pf means i forgot to set diylc to microfarads, sorry bro.
.1 is right.
the extra volume stage isn't really necessary, if ya breadboard it first, see if you feel it's important or not. it's a bit sweeter without it, but not as loud or as distorted... the last stage adds a bit of dirt that you may or may not like.
don't expect this thing to sound good with everything "on 10". i find the best gain setting somewhere around 8:30-10:00. above that, it becomes overkill. it's there if ya NEED overkill... lol
the bloom n' boost switch is also total overkill. off it's a nice sweet overdrive-fuzz. with it on, it's a fuzz sustainer octave synthy thing. the more i mess with it...
;)
Quotethe extra volume stage isn't really necessary, if ya breadboard it first, see if you feel it's important or not. it's a bit sweeter without it, but not as loud or as distorted... the last stage adds a bit of dirt that you may or may not like.
Maybe another switch. So, 2 stomp switches and 2 toggles. Might layout nice.
This project would be a long time out... I would probably draw it and order a PCB. Lots of time involved in that! Thanks for sharing! MC
mark,
i'd make the bloom switch a footswitch... probably get more mileage that way. ;)
but ya COULD put all three on..
i do that sometimes... i set them to different heights. bypass is highest, in the middle, and then gain boost on one side, or booster on the other.
or whatever. ;)
No that is what I was thinking -- 2 stomps (bloom and full bypass), and 2 toggles (clipping and extra gain on/off).
Well thanks Jimi.
That's the first time I've seen you a layout that's not vero.
Good work man
just have a play with it on the breadboard mark, make sure ya even like it before ya commit. :icon_mrgreen:
thanks rich!! ;)
no idea what i was doing, just tried to connect the dots :icon_twisted:
i've been trying to figure out just how/why the hell this works, so i asked another guru, max robinson, for his take on it...
i think i understand why it works now, thanks to his explanation...
"
Jimi, I would be interested to know if shorting out the 2.2 uf capacitor
above the transistor in the drawing has any effect on the sound. It
probably will have some effect when being driven to clipping but I think
when at low levels for a clean sound I think there will not be any
difference. In clipping mode there is rectification at the EB junction
which will put some charge on the 2.2 uf and slightly bias the transistor.
At clean levels the transistor probably isn't being driven hard enough to go
into forward conduction in either junction. The only effect is the reverse
saturation current. This is unmeasurable in silicon transistors but can be
several microamps in small signal germaniums and several milliamps in power
germaniums. With the emitter and collector being driven by the output of
the op amp there is a germanium diode in series with the feedback
resistance. But the capacitor allows rectification to add charge to the cap
and bias the transistor as mentioned above. It's an interesting circuit.
Regards.
Max. K 4 O DS."
so there you have it. i told him yes, removing the cap drops the gain considerably, tho shorting across it will RAISE the gain to a point it's unusable (at least for me)
so like... did anyone ever end up breadboarding this thing?