Highway89 Overdrive build (my report)

[Oliver]

Hello,

yesterday i build the Highway89 Overdrive.
After i build a Blackfire end of last year and was pleased with its
sounds, i wanted to test the HW89...

I used BC549C Transistors instead the suggested Trans.
After two hours solering on breadboard, it was done.

The first Test was at bedroom volume, but sounds good to me!
Today morning i was able to go for more volume and tested
again.
I like it most at about 1/3 to 1/2 gainsetting, 2/3 to full BASS
and 1/4 to 1/3 Treble.
It works fine in front of a clean Amp and in front of a slight overdriven
Amp to push it in to more drive or crunch.
Even with higher Gainsettings it works fine with the overdriven Tubeamp.
At some points my Tubescreamer with more GainMod sounds at same
Ampsettings slightly oszillating. I think its the mix from Diodeclipping and
the Amptubeclipping...

I find the tonecontrol of the HW89 may work a bit more effective in the Bass area...

Overall its as described a juicy sounding Overdrive.

here a picture from my raw circuit (working)

bye
Oliver

[petemoore]

Nice Job perfing..

[Doug H]

Sounds cool!

Glad you are enjoying it.

Nice perf work too!

Doug

[Oliver]

Hi and thanks for your commendation!

does anybody know where to tweak the circuit for a fewer Gain?
I would prefer a Gainlevel from 1/2 of the actual possible.

any suggestions?

bye
Oliver

P.S.: the bad looking Pots (in the picture used for Bass and Treble)
and the cheap one for Level (in the right corner) would be changed
for new and good onec, if the test and modify phase is done  
At the Moment, as you can se, the Battery is connected directly to
the Perfboard. If i am glad with it, it will move into a 1590BB House :-)

[Luke]

Very clean work, man!
It looks great! I would love to build one of those one day- Doug H, you are a genious!
Luke

[Oliver]

Hi - Back with an Update to this thread:

I put it in an Eddistone Enclosure (1590BB)

seems, that it feels well inside there..

one Question: did anybody noticed, that, when the Blackfire or
Highway is driven with a 9Volt Battery, thats going low, the sound becomes
crackling, fuzzy and slightly gated?

cu
OLiver

[spongebob]

does anybody know where to tweak the circuit for a fewer Gain?
I would prefer a Gainlevel from 1/2 of the actual possible.

The BC549C has a lot of gain, according to the datasheet the BC549C's hfe is 420-800, maybe try the BC549A or BC549B (the BC549A has a hfe between 110 and 220)?

If you use one half of a 6-pin IC socket for the transistors you can swap them easily and try different transistors without much trouble!

PS: The first picture you posted is soooo familiar! Glad your circuit found its way into a box! :lol:

[V!N]

Blue spaghetti ! I love it.

By the way, I have perfected my PCB and layout for the HW89. But I don't have webspace ..

Anybody who'd like to host it ? And check the witing of the wart input ? That's the only thing I'm still uncertain about.

[bobbletrox]

Nice perf!

I like how your heatshrink matches your wire too.

[Doug H]

Hi and thanks for your commendation!

does anybody know where to tweak the circuit for a fewer Gain?
I would prefer a Gainlevel from 1/2 of the actual possible.

Sorry I didn't get back to you on this before...

Do you mean lower distortion? Or lower output level? It's fairly "low-gain" as the distortion goes right now, unless maybe there is something wired wrong.

Doug

[Paul Marossy]

Nice job with the perf. I've built a couple of circuits with that type of non-padded perf, and it's considerably more difficult than using the stuff that has copper plates to solder to.

[Oliver]

Nice job with the perf. I've built a couple of circuits with that type of non-padded perf, and it's considerably more difficult than using the stuff that has copper plates to solder to.

Hi...

this board has copper plates (on the other side)  
makes it easyer to solder the parts onto the board.
I have another Picture from the other Side of the Board (i can post later the Day, when i'll be back home after Work)

I solved the Gainquestion.......
Driving it at 1/2 to 2/3 Gain as a goooood Leadsound and rolling back
the Guitarvolume from 10 to 7 on my SG to get a very slightly overdriven
tone (near clean, but colored Tone from the Highway = really good circuit!!).

The Heat shrinks i added are only for a better view  

Drive ON!!

Oliver

[Oliver]

Hello,

as promised - the Inside Picture of the Enclosure with the CircuitBoards Bottom :-)



bye
Oliver