simple distortion box

[vdm]

im making a distortion box for a friend as a christmas pedal, and im trying to make something that's very simple and easy, and that doesnt require any hard to find parts.

she's into a lot of rock and some noisey experimental kind of sounds, kind of sonic youth-esqe.

i could do an mxr dist+ or something similar, as i have the tonepad layout and all for that, but i was unsure as to how much gain the thing can get.

all i want is good solid distortion box, with enough gain to get a bit of sustain.

thanks guys

[Jered]

If you have some J201's or other med/high gain fets you could do a mini booster. Low parts count, self biasing, and adds some nice harmonics and sustain.
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=121&op=page&SubMenu=

   Jered

[ErikMiller]

I think a silicon Fuzz Face would be good for that type of music, and it's quite the easy build.

[Marcos - Munky]

If you want something easy and with high gain, try the Obsidian. Joe's site is gone, but I have the schematic. Tell me your e-mail (or send a e-mail to me) and I send it to you.

[Mark Hammer]

A Distortion+ is fine for such a present.  All the parts are easily obtainable and the modification possibilities just about endless.  It is not my favourite such device in the world, but it works fine with minimum tweaking, provides more than acceptable sound, and demonstrates enough basic principles of such devices that you will get a present out of it too....you'll be smarter.

The stock Dist+ does tend to provide only a modest boost in volume level, despite having gobs of gain internally.  The problem is that the 10k resistor in series with the (stock) 10k volume pot makes the volume pot behave as if it is a 20k pot that can never go above halfway.

To increase the volume level (and often providing a moderately distorted but much boosted signal to an amp delivers some of the more satisfying tones) do the following:

1) Switch the diodes shown to either 2 silicon diodes (1N914 or 1N4148) or else double or triple up on the number of germanium diodes so that you have 2 or 3 Ge diodes in series going in each direction, rather than a single one as the standard schematic shows.  This will raise the clipping threshold so that you won't have as fuzzy a sound at maximum distortion settings, but then again you'll be pushing the guitar amp harder and generating distortion there too, so you won't lose quite as much fuzz at higher volume levels as you'd think.

2) Switch the output level pot from a 10k to a 100k pot (also audio taper).  In tandem with the 10k series resistor, this will make the pot behave like it is a 100k pot turn down just under 10% of the way, so the amount of signal loss due to the 10k resistor will be diminished.  My guess is that you can probably help things along by dropping that resitor value from 10k to 8.2k as well.  In some respects that represents a potential change from the original design, but once you've changed the diodes and output pot it isn't exactly the mirror image of the original anyways, so what the heck.  It'll sound pretty good though.

3)  Since the output level will be sufficiently goosed, you can take advantage of that opportunity and stick in a passive tone control.  Instead of that .001uf cap in parallel with the diodes, stick in a 250k to 500k pot (linear or log, probably makes little diff) and a .0068 to .022uf cap in series.  The pot is wired up as a variable resistor - shunt the input and wiper, and connect the remaining lug to the cap - which will vary how much treble is cut.  Try a .01uf cap for starters.  I wouldn't recommend this mod on a stock Dist+ because cutting the treble will bleed signal and the stock design has little enough output level anyways that one couldn't afford that loss.  With the much hotter output, it's an acceptable loss.

[vdm]

woah.. thanks for the replies everyone,

i think i'll go with mark's idea, and fight out a dist+ (i think ill make the ff for myself

thanks for all your help - it should be a good fun build.

trent

[80k]

sonic youth also used the Rat and Muff quite a bit, both of which are quite manageable for DIY.  definitely couldn't go wrong with the MXR Distortion+ too

[hank reynolds 3rd]

how about a blue box???
nice fuzz and filthy,spazzed out lower oct.........
can't remember where the pcb layout etc are but its a great little noise box......
the lady'll love it!!!

sam

[vdm]

ahhh the blue box you say,

im making one of those for myself currently after hunting the layout down from b. tremblay.

she most probably would love one too, but im still a relatively inexperienced builder, and it could take me a fair while to get the blue box up and running, let alone boxing it up or anything.

i was talking to a mate about selling a couple of simple distortion boxes to some mates, and the topic of the blue box continued to come up, mostly because noone knew just what it sounded like, so apart from the 5 second sound clip i found, i'm kind on a mission to find out what it sounds like, and hopefully get a list of back orders a mile long.

anywho enough endless chatter

trent

[Arn C.]

The "Jordan Bosstone" is one of my favorites and very easy to build.

Arn C.

[petemoore]

I biased one of these in there other day [not tuff to bias] and it is really a high gain monster.
 I think you could plug bout any guitar in through it and it would have like no trouble gaining up.
 There's a few ckts I've built that gained up BIG with stability right off the bat, this one has the fewest parts...Huge sound/small board.
  Oh ... Great Sounding Distorion ... IMO!!!!!!!!!!

[nightingale]

yep~
bosstone is a rowdy one!
good tone/circuit IMO,
best,
~ryanS

[brett]

Hi.  I agree with Marks ideas on the MXR D+.  When I eventually built one (after several fuzzfaces and tubescreamers) I was surprised at how good a rock-n-roll pedal it is.  

But at the same time, I'd say that a silicon fuzzface or especially an easyface or ez-fuzz is a good choice too.  VERY simple to put together, and lots of good fuzz and harmonics, especially if built with low Hfe (~100) power transistors.

Over at my website there's pcbs for the VoodooDrive, which has many features of the Distortion+, and an EZ-FUZZ, which is a consistent-quality, NPN fuzzface, similar in many ways to the EasyFace.