Messages

Hello, I have a question about the difference between boosting a solid state amp and tube amp.
I have only solid state guitar amps, so I play, make my tests and experiment with circuits with just those amps.
I'm wondering if the behaviour of the two kind amps is different when I push them with a booster.

In particular, I put on my breadboard the CE-1 preamp. On Low mode it based on op-amp has a good amount of clean volume, until it starts to clip in a not so musical way (op-amp clipping, I assume).
(In the high mode it there a BJT booster in front to push it even more, with more volume and more distortion. But the sound is more or less the same).

When I watch demos of some replica of the CE-1 preamp what I can hear is it get in overdrive nicer and milder, without push just in volume.

When I test this (or other) op-amp booster circuit with my solid state amp I got a big volume boost with distortion at higher setting of gain, (it depends from the circuit).
In a tube amp should I expect less volume boost and more natural overdrive of the tube preamp caused by the push of the booster?

Well, tell us about your testing.
I think I have to wait a bit to do some DIY stuff.

Yes, the B250k is the Gain.

I noticed R9 and R10, and I though R10 could be in parallel with the Level pot, now.

The other two red caps, because those are bigger than the other two, they could be 220nF. Especially if the tone stage is like the TS.

(Am I wrong or I hear a lot of gain, for a LED soft clipping, 250k gain pot and a P90 pickup? Even when the Gain trimmer is set at zero I heard much overdrive. My DIY TS808 in LED mode cleans up well at lower gain setting.)

In the video we can read printed on the PCB the trimmer value of the Level: B250k.
And C1 is labelled 473, so it's 47nF.
C1 looks similar to C2, maybe it's a 47nF.

I drawn this, I can't be sure about the schematic, but I think there's no too much schematics with those value and that number of parts.
The only component I can't place is a R10 10k. I don't know where it could be, except to the Level pot to avoid to goes to the ground cutting the volume. Or? In parallel with the pot? I bet it's placed near the end of the signal.

I seen the Sansamp Classic is back on the market.
I never had it, nor built it. Periodically I search some info about it, and every time I see that the schematic is not accurate at 100%, often it had oscillation problem.
I guess the PCB is design by you.
Do you mind to share the schematic you used? Just if you can!
Thanks!

If I remember well the BSAIB clean up very well with the guitar volume pot (but it even can reach a clean and sparkle sound at low gain setting with its Gain pot. The one was mine did it).

Maybe you can try to add a sort of Pre-Gain control, a simple pot in front of the circuit.

If you really want to decrease the overall gain (I don't know what kind board you built your circuit) you could try to add a voltage divider before the gain pot, a sort of fixed gain pot (at 50%), placed before the stock gain pot, I guess this will halve the amount of the gain.

Looking at the schematic of the BSIAB II and the Vertex Steel String Clean Drive, mentioned by zombie_rock123, I think a big difference does the caps and the resistor, on the transistor in the first stage, between the source and the ground. A bigger resistor and a smaller cap (it's enough one) will reduce the gain (and maybe the low end).

The schematic is very similar to the Ramble FX Marvel Drive, but I guess it sounds good.

Thought the tape will work better, seeing my experience with a linear, do a 5k cut even more gain?
DO you play it with a guitar? How do your pedal sounds at lowest gain setting?

Anyway, I can't explain how the original keeps all that gain at minimum and at half setting if it use a 2k, while the one I built, and other DIY I Woolly Mammoth I seen on some video need higher setting of the Wool pot to come alive.

Hello guys, I'm playing around the Woolly Mammoth circuit since... over three years! It's arrived the time to finish it. (Tagboard veroboard layout).
My build has some adding, but it's the same basic original schematic we know.
I play the pedal on a totally clean channel with a guitar.
Watching some demo, this for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwD5w4HDl1A&t=82s

I noticed something different in a pair of pots. I'm talking about the Volume pot (maybe it's a log not a linear, but that's not so important), and in especially way about the Wool pot, the fuzz control.

My Wool pot works a bit different from the demo I watched. First thing: at half setting I have lower gain than the original. And at minimum setting it sounds really poor, very low gain, not a nice cleanish, just a dirty muddy and faint sound. While the original sounds still rich of gain. In my pedal the Wool pot increases the gain suddenly in the last 10%. I see all these behavior in some DIY pedal videos.
So, the original seems to have a smaller range of fuzz, a more linear tape and it has more fuzz at minimum setting.

In all the schematic we can find the Woolly pot is a 2k linear, but I think a 1k rev log could sound more close to the original. Unfortunately I have none to try.
I just can't understand how every schematic, document, build, etc. I find has a 2k linear as Wool pot.

I used to make about 40 $ order only with coupon, too. And registered mail.

Unfortunately, DHL doesn't say, at least I didn't find out, how they calculate this fee. I heard a guy, with a 42 $ order, DHL shipping included, paid 28 $ of fee. More than 65% of cost.
I think small orders are the worst thing we could do today. In the past I did two or three 40-45 $ gathering all the parts I need for my projects, but maybe I should spend all in one bigger order just stocking parts.
Maybe the weight could increase some fee, but if a fee is fixed (16 €?) and the about 12 $ DHL shipping is fixed (this we know it) bigger order can be more convenient then small reducing the percentage of the cost causes by all the fee.
Afterall, Tayda itself says:«import tax and DHL import clearance handling fees can be very expensive!! not ideal for small orders».

I think with some example of orders made from Tayda we could draw a sort of graphic. If somebody from EU want to share his experience.
After we have this schematic we could decide how we should to spend from Tayda to be more convenient than Musikding or other shops, and maybe even what exactly to buy. Resistors and pots are very cheap, some film caps or IC costs almost the same, and save just two or five cents it's not enough, knowing in the end the cost will be increased of 30%, for example. Better to fill the cart with other stuff.
I need to order other stuff from Musikding, anyway.

Off Topic: The target of the EU was increase internal market demand, but that has only diminished our purchasing power, imho. I'll be more poor or I'll buy less stuff.

Hello guys. I have a big problem to afford the cost of my DIY hobby activities in the last period.
Tayda has been a big resource to buy material at low cost to build pedals. I always used Registered Mail and coupon code 15% discount.
But now we don't have coupon, and registered mail, at least in EU, I guess. And the new rules about duty and fee has increased the cost very much.
I can't place my order (around 65 $) because I don't know how fee I'll pay in the end, and I afraid it could be really much high.
I just know I have to add VAT (22% in Italy), but I have to include before even some other costs.

Do somebody calculate these duty or write here how much he paid for its orders, please?

How did you polish the enclosure? I use sand paper until 1000, then an abrasive paste, but I can't get that result.

Hello guys.
After some pedals in 1590A boxes:
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=29489.0
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=32628.0
I want to try the tiniest 1590LB boxes.
The one I'm going to buy will be this: https://www.musikding.de/BoxType-LB (51x51x32mm).
I have one of this boxes to build a simple project that includes 3.5mm jacks and a toggle switch, so I have enough room for it.

I don't need buffer or a "classic" booster. I want to put into this box a schematic with a sort of mid filter with boost.
But to fit into the box a 3PDT blue footswitch, two open frame jacks (even Lumberg type), DC jack (12mm mounting hole with external nut), two 9mm pots and a stripboard 21x26mm (with low profile caps) it's not so easy, and I afraid I can't find a right fit method.

I looked at some gutshots, but I need some tricks.

Thanks!

40K? Weird value for a reseistor.
Anyway, if that resistor is smaller than stock 470k let pass more signal, so more gain, maybe a bit of more treble.

I experimented on the filter in the power supply section, but my initial oscillations issue was caused from the layout design.

I tried to change the value of the 1uF caps, but in the end I like the original. It was more difficult to include resistors in the veroboard layout I used.
I included a three way switch to change the value of the cap in the first stage.