A couple of Great Cheddar questions

[dosmun]

I got my Great Cheddar working tonight. I used the ver. 1.6 layout.  It sounds OK  I think I need to do a little tweaking, on one of the settings the pedal cuts out with the Fuzz set over half up.

On the lowest Fuzz setting mine still has quite a bit of Fuzz going on.  Is this normal for this pedal?  It actually has more Fuzz than my FF clone has at the max setting.

I used 5% resistors on my GC.  Will this make much of a difference or should I switch to the 1%?  When I originally printed out the Schematic it didn't mention the 1%.

Does anyone have any tips on tweaking this thing to its full potential.  I did a search and got all of the info I could from the archives.  I was just wondering if anyone has anything new to add.

Thanks guys.

Also a BIG thanks to RG for all of his great work!

[RDV]

I have yet to build this one, but did you measure your voltages against the ones R.G. posted on the schem? P1 probably plays some part in tuning.

RDV

[dosmun]

Here are RG's readings:  my readings are in ()

Base voltage Q1 = 0.609V  (634.3mV)
Collector Q1 = 1.248V       (1.339V)
Emitter Q1 = 33.5mV         (30.2mV)


Base Q2 = 1.248V       (1.34V)
Collector Q2 = 2.48V   (1.417V)  what do I need to adjust to get my voltage up to where it needs to be?



Position 4 is the one that cuts out with the Fuzz set anywhere past 12 oclock.  Is this the postion that the trimmer effects?  I tried the trimmer in this postion but it had no effect.  I am guessing it is not for postion 4.

[Dan N]

When I hooked up a higher voltage adapter to mine I lost the crackle setting. The trim pot allowed me to get the gated sputtery crap back.

[dosmun]

How many settings are supposed to be on the rotary switch?  From what I could tell on the reviews of the Big Cheese it is supposed to have 4 with a bypass.  Mine has 11 but I believe only 6 different settings, settings 1-5 are repeated.  What are these settings supposed to sound like?

The Lovetone site tells nothing about the controls on this pedal.  Any info on the Big Cheese would be greatly appreciated.

[dosmun]

I just looked up the data sheet for the rotary switch at Mouser.  It has a little tab that can be adjusted to anywhere from 2 - 12 positions.  So that problem is solved.  The Rotary switch came with no instructions.  I will fix that problem tonight when I get home.

[dosmun]

I got my switch adjusted to 4 positions.  Does anyone know what the 4 positions are supposed to be?  I think one of them is supposed to be an off position.

[Joep]

1-Cheese setting, extreme/grasping/octaving (etc...etc...) Fuzz
2-Tone Control 1
3-Tone Control 2
4-No tone control

One on the Tone Control setting has a mid scope, for a more modern sound.

[dosmun]

What components should I try tweaking to get this beast dialed in?  I  put a 1K trimmer in place of R6 which was the 470 ohm on the Emitter of Q1.  My voltage on the Collector of Q2 is still way to low.

[RDV]

What components should I try tweaking to get this beast dialed in?  I  put a 1K trimmer in place of R6 which was the 470 ohm on the Emitter of Q1.  My voltage on the Collector of Q2 is still way to low.

I would try a 10k trim in the place of R8, as that's what's controling Q2's collector v. I would adjust till the readings are on a scale with the others, rather than R.G.'s posted Voltages per se.

HTH

RDV

[dosmun]

I put a 10K pot in for R8 and I prefer the sound better when the Q2 collector voltage is around 5V.  

It sounds so compressed on all settings is it supposed to be that way?  It is hard building something when your not really sure what it is supposed to sound like.  I guess you just have to go with it and tweak until it sounds good to my ears.