GGG Stratoblaster

[Ge_Whiz]

Anyone got any comments on the 'Stratoblaster' at GGG, please?

[moosapotamus]

I've found it to have lots of headroom, very clean, cleaner than most, IMO. Volume control starts off at ~unity gain and goes up from there. I put one in a smallstone for a friend to take care of the dreaded volume drop. Worked out great!

~ Charlie

[Bill_F]

I put one in a smallstone for a friend to take care of the dreaded volume drop. Worked out great!

~ Charlie

Hey Charlie,

I've been thinking of doing this. Did you put it before or after the Small Stone circuit?

thanks,
Bill

[Ge_Whiz]

Thanks, Charlie.

[petemoore]

Putting it after lets you set higher headroom without distortion from the effect...course this may be what you want...a booster can always be chained to the front though.
 Putting it after the SS is what I'd do to cleanly fix the volume drop problem. You can always chain a booster to the front to get 'that combo effect.

[moosapotamus]

Yeah, I put it on the output. Worked out very nicely.

~ Charlie

[jsleep]

I like it better than an LPB.  When it does distort, it sounds pretty good!

JD Sleep

[Chris Goodson]

Why add this to your guitar?  If you don't have EMG's or something wouldn't it make it noisey as hell?

Actually I have one in the works I'm just waiting for a 201 from Small Bear.  Sure is an ultra simple build.

[jsleep]

Some people are really into on-board electronics and just have the cable from guitar straight to amp.  I'm the type of person who really thinks it makes more sense to have a pedal board (obviously ).  The modularity just makes good sense, especially in this day and age.

JD

[Yazoo]

In the Stratoblaster build instructions, it gives the option of using either a 100 Ohm resistor or a 68K. On the Parts Layout diagram, it shows the 100 Ohm option for R1.

What difference does this make? Should I go for the 100 Ohm or the 68K?

:?

[petemoore]

I did two of these up for my brother, who's doing the 'frankenstien guitar thing.
 Great sound and excellent Jfet performance, just what the doctor orders in many cases. Similar to other Jfet Designs, I like it.
 Mine come out above unity at min vol., I 'tag' a 10k or 22k on top of the 100k output resistor to bring the effect output above/below unity at max/min volume settings. Setting that resistor value carefully makes the volume knob work more the way I want it to.

[petemoore]

In the Stratoblaster build instructions, it gives the option of using either a 100 Ohm resistor or a 68K. On the Parts Layout diagram, it shows the 100 Ohm option for R1.

What difference does this make? Should I go for the 100 Ohm or the 68K?

:?

>>>IIRC the 100R is series at the input. Increasing this ones value will increase the amount of resistance to any signal trying to get into the circuit. Larger values will attenuate more.
  Personally I've been liking having it tamed down a bit, tried a 220k at the input but like the 22k to ground on top of the 100k at the output....100k is superfluous but Ez leaves it in there,...in case I might want it stock someday.

[jsleep]

Hi Yazoo,

I have a hard time understanding Pete's posts, so please excuse me if I say something he already said without knowing it.

That input resistor is there to squelch rf and keep the circuit from being a radio receiver.  I am assuming that this would be more of a problem in an unshielded guitar cavity than it is in a metal stompbox enclosure.  I'm also assuming that the higher value might reduce more rf noise.   I picked a more standard value, by today's standards,  of 100 ohm.  According to a geo article, it's useless without the accompanying cap to ground, so I may have to look at this one again.  This is a little difficult for me to experiment with because I live in an area where radio waves seem to be very tame.

JD

[Fernando Aguirre]

Who designed this booster?

[Paul Marossy]

Who designed this booster?

If I'm not mistaken, that is a circuit that was originally made by Alembic.

[Torchy]

crp

[B Tremblay]

No input dc blocking cap?

Since the gate of the FET is tied to ground via the 2M2 resistor, there is no DC voltage present.  Therefore, a cap is not necessary.

[Torchy]

crp

[guitarmonky55]

that stratoblaster looks intriguing to me(mainly because of its simplicity and the fact that im a total noob to pedals) but i must ask........what exactly is its effect on the sound?  the name seems to imply that it creates a strat like tone but i could be way off?

[gtech]

It was made to be added to a Strat and blast its output up...
But it doesn't change the sound.

Check this link.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/alembic/blaster.html

and this one that shows how to install it.

http://www.alembic.com/support/blaster_photos.html

Gilles