New design, it's been awhile

[joegagan]

I was working on a panning circuit and needed an overdrive circuit in it, I came up with a versatile unit that warranted further exploration.

Added an amp style tone stack, using some dumble/ac30 -like values. I really like the range of tone control in this thing.

It has a few oddities that make it a little hard to build, but they give it a unique tone and very wide range of use.
1. npn Ge trans.  
2. special dualgang 22k pot that controls gain and clipping simultaneously.

By scraping the trace of the pot section that sweeps the diode clipping in and out to totally remove the diodes from circuit on the 'clean' side, an unusually wide range of clean to clipped is available. The clean side is very clean, while it will clip almost as hard as a Rat or DS1 on the clipped side. It cleans up extremely well from the guitar volume also. Good touch reaction, especially when A/B tested against Ts 808s and MXR dist + etc.

I have not built any of the jfet based designs, I am curious how this one stacks up against some the Tremblay and other creations. I would like to send a prototype to someone who has some of the other jfet od/ dists to compare.

I am also inviting anyone to build it, I will even send a specially prepped 22k dual pot since it is critical to the design, and I have made the mod pretty easy to do in my shop. Not sure where to find good npn ge trans tho, I lucked into a few at my local surplus shop.

I got a chance to hear it played by hot Nashville band, Emerson Drive this past weekend. Guitarist Danick Dupelle played it for 4 songs in soundcheck and really liked it.

[puretube]

welcome back, Joe!!

[MartyMart]

Hi Joe,
That looks great and good that you got to hear it like that at "stage" volumes !
I'd love to build one and perhaps lay it out on vero board, if that is OK with you ?
I'd be happy to cover any costs for the dual ganged pot too.
PM me for my details,
Cheers,
Marty.

[Regan]

Good to see you back, Joe!!
Regan

[joegagan]

Yes, I did have to add an input cap, I forgot to add it to the drawing ( thanks Ton)

I used a 2.2 uf.
Marty, Email me at joegagan@hotmail.com with your address.

Danick was using a custom b bender tele > big pedalboard with an aphex optical compressor, a Wayhuge Green rhino, Boss Bluesdriver, a TS9 and some other stuff into a Badcat 20 watt head driving a DRz 2 12 cab loaded with a Celestion blue and something else. Sounded awesome!

thanks for the flower pics Ton!
I don't have flowers, but some FFs from my 'garden'

[Phorhas]

Sound samples ?

[Doug_H]

Hey Joe,

Good to see you back.

Still butchering your tele in the driveway? (http://www.zebox.com/joegagan/)  :lol:

That is really a cool looking circuit. I would love to try it out but as usual I'm up to my wazoo (wherever that is) with other stuff.

Doug

[petemoore]

I'ts great to have you drop by Joe !!!
 I was commenting to myself: "That looks like a Joe Gagan"...then I read it !!!
 A very interesting [convoluted' schematic !! Almost too hard to comment on...I'll try.
 The dual ganged 22k looks to reduce diode clipping and .. other stuff ... I'll have to go back and see this again !!!
 Yupp..SLick Design !!  I don't see many dual ganged pot applications...that's what made me look to read the Signature on the schematic.

[Torchy]

Joe - I want to have a crack at this. Can you explain how the dual gang pot is modded ? I guess that you break the track on only one of the pots close to the ccw lug ?

[petemoore]

Where'd you get them knobs
 Molded ?

[analogmike]

Hey Joe!

What you doing with that fuzz in your hand?

[Ry]

Joe!  It's great to see you back!  I still can't get enough of the Skyripper and Dino fuzz pedals, at least one of them is always first in my effects chain.

I'll have to try that new design.

Thanks for sharing!

Ry

[Ben N]

Joe: Long time (since you ran off to become a booteek pedal mogul --good to see you around!

That circuit looks seriously interesting.  What is the thinking for the second mosfet?

Ben

[joegagan]

Doug, Hi, no I am not using drills and strumming attachments on guitars this year.
I did that for a concert last year where I headlined a little blues fest in my neighborhood.    I set 3 guitars in a semi-circle on stands, each one run through it's own loop of fuzzes and delays etc. Then into a mixer to a guitar amp ( the sound coming out of the mains in the theatre was orchestrally massive but in a Zappa-esque sort of way).     The 3 guitars were tuned to a I, IV, V progression, the drill was used to play a blues progression by a friend while I rode the faders, mutilated the FX and played leads on my regular guitar over the top.         It was a fun show, but it was a little awkward for a regular blues crowd. They forgave me later when we reverted to 'regular' music. I have it on DVD tho!


Porhas, sound samples will be later, my studio time is alloted to other projects right now.

Ry, thanks for the compliment. Your comments about the skyripper immediately following  9 - 11 are still with me to this day.

Petemoore - those knobs are regular bakelite knobs scultped with a dremel etc, (using a dustmask of course) then painted. Each knob has approx 30-40 minutes of work invested.    Interesting thing about the gain knob - this pedal has extreme versatility but I didn't want any switches except the bypass. 5 knobs is still a lot , but the 3 knob tone section is a joy.

Ben, the circuit was nice with just the first two stages, but since I am a gain junkie I wanted to a add a third stage to regain some balls lost in the tone stack. Sure enough, when I tried the 3rd stage, the distortion smoothed out and the whole thing sounded better to my ears.

[joegagan]

torchy, I did a diagram to detail it out. see below

I am using omeg pots, they are easy to open and reclose without damage. Unfortunately, I do not know where they can be bought in this country without purchasing large quantities,  I had to place a $1k minimum order to buy omegs.
The reason for the dual gang is to get more control with one knob. As the gain goes up, the diodes are sweeping into play more and more as well. This obviously sounds different than simply raising the gain and letting diodes clip fully.  As mentioned, by completely disconnecting the diodes (via the modded trace), there is none of that hint of fizz that would exist if it was left in circuit. Of course, this could be done with a switch and an extra pot, but I think this is more elegant.

[troubledtom]

'bout time brotherjoe,
          i think i'll put on my "rocks" LP and listen to 'back in the saddle again' and drink a beer post haste in giving you a warm welcome back
 :twisted:    :twisted:    :twisted:  :wink:  :!:
                   call me bro,
                          - tom pollock

[Torchy]

Wow thanks Joe

AC127s on order ...

[Paul Marossy]

Still butchering your tele in the driveway?

Looks more like surgery to me...  :wink:

Welcome back to the forum Joe. I was wondering what happened to you.  

[Sonny ReVerb]

Good to hear from you, Joe. Another interesting design!

Sonny

[phillip]

Welcome back Joey G!  Glad to see one of my pedal building idols back in action...you had a big hand in getting me into this hobby.  Gotta blame someone, right?

Phillip