Peppermill Build Report: comments, pics, samples

[Ucho]

HI!
Here's my last work: the PEPPERMILL! 

The project, as you should know, is from Runoffgroove http://www.runoffgroove.com/peppermill.html.

PREAMBLE: DEBUGGING

Once completed the pedal assembly (it's the first i put in a box "seriously"), i proceeded with the usual testing stage, made connecting the pedal directly to PC, for ease, just to control that it works and that there aren't any undesired hum or hiss, o anything like that.
I started using the power supply (1.6A, regulated). Bypass is ok. When i turned on the effect i heard a loud and constant hum, but not the suond of guitar. I tried with battery: no hum, but also no guitar. I re-checked the circuit and i noticed i missed a connection between two components (shame on me ) - (I used perfboard).
I corrected it and tried again with the battery: now it works perfectly. Again with the power supply... there are news here: there's the sound of guitar... with the usual hum.
Since with battery the pedal worked, I ruled out problems on the circui itself. Neverthless the power supply is ok (I use with other effects without problems).
I started investigating over the net (no, it's not a cyber-spy-B-movie, and, actually, "the net" means "this forum")
Initially I tried a condenser between power and ground. Since I hadn't any condenser in the range on hundreds of uF, i joined in parallel the biggest i had (some 47uF, 22uF, 10uF) obtaining a 203uF "MegaComboCondenser"(aka "MCC" - under Copyright request  ). Well, using the MCC the hum decreased, but just a little.
Going on myi research i found this http://www.muzique.com/lab/hum.htm. So i put a 100Ohm resistor in series to power, as suggested in the article, and... well, no more hum, or, at least, no-audible/acceptable hum.
Then I tried some variations on condenser and resistor values, just to go back to starting values. So, since I needed a 'real' 200uF (or similar) condenser, I opened an old not working modem..and there was a couple of 220uF, what a luck! I soldered the socket (I made tests with standard version of Peppermill, but maybe with gain increasing mods I'll need to change again values of cond and res), and i installed the condenser.
During all this I made short samples (pedal dirence into soundcard), few seconds, just a chord to let you hear the hum and its variations afeter the mods.
cthulhu.interfree.it/pepperhum.mp3
In order: with battery - with power supply - power supply and 203uF condenser - power supply, condenser and 100 Ohm resistor - power supply and resistor without condenser (just to try). Obviously there's no editing on these samples.
For now I'll leave it with the stock 100R and 220uF. After tring the pedal with the band at more volume I'll see if change anything.

END OF PREAMBLE

PICS

Here's the pics. It's just the interior of the box and the circuit board (note the soldering  ), since i didn't 'decorated' it yet.






As you may have noticed I used socket (obtained from old IC sockets, since I'm didn't have the 'right ones' - the shopkeeper messed with my last order  ) for some components, in particular the ones lending themselves to mods (which I looked for in this forum previosly to building the pedal), to ease on the fly substitutions (in fact, as you can see I haven't yet cut leads since I'm still experimenting - and I'm lazy )

SAMPLES

And finally, after all this boring talk (please, tell me you didn't read everything!!! ), welcome to the soundclip corner! - the real ones, not the hums above (although, listening to the samples I hear a little noise, I fear  it depends on the amp, since there's noise even on  clean).
The recording is done with the pedal going in a Laney VC30, low input, clean channel, volume ad 1-1.5 (I couldn't go upper, sorry), eq: everything on 5, a little bit of reverber (from the amp, on 1), everything recorded by a crappy mic going in a crappier sound card (I haven't anything better, sorry again).
Eache sample is about one minute long. There are three simple riffs (poor playing ), unfortunately i couldn't play always with same 'touch' and dynamic (guess what? ...sorry )
Settings on pedal: gain at max (variations of gain mada by 'touch sensitivity' and changing pickup combinations) and unitary volume. First riff is played with single coil at bridge and neck together, second with bridge HB, and third with neck single coil.
I played also on the clean amp (to give you a sort of reference) and with pedal 'modded', beyoud, obviously, the standard original version.

cthulhu.interfree.it/clean.mp3
Guitar in the clean amp.

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-1.mp3
Standard original version

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-2.mp3
680R in place of 1K at mosfet source
10n in place of 6n8
(markm?)

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-3.mp3
47uF in place of 1uF
(wampcat1?)

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-4.mp3
4.7uF in parallel to 1k at mosfet source
(stm?)

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-5.mp3
47uF in parallel to 1k at mosfet source
(stm from ROG?)


cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-6.mp3
both mods from samples 2 e 3
(MartyMart?)

cthulhu.interfree.it/peppermill-7.mp3
22uF in parallel to 1k mosfet source
10uF in place of 1uF

Well, now I've finished. Well.. honestly I'm bored of writing 

Let me know what do you think, or if there are any sample you like the most (if any).

Oh, the 'Thanks Moment': obviously ROG guys (keep on working!!! we love your work!), everyone on the forum (this one and fennecelectronics.it/smf/index.php) especially markm, stm, wampcat1 and MartyMart for the mods, the "Search" function  wich  helped me doing this pedal, the mods and resolving the problems without even write a single line (informations are all out there, just "search" them!), and obviously Mr Jack Orman.

PS: Sorry (AGAIN?!? ) for my english.

[Ucho]

I've been reported problems with sound files.
Now you can download them from here:

ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 1.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 2.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 3.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 4.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 5.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 6.mp3
ucho.altervista.org/Peppermill - 7.mp3

You have to copy and paste to your browser

let me know please

[Jehle]

Copy and paste works.  I really liked the fuzzy sound of #7.  It nearly sounded like it was underpowered and gave the sound a natural compression.  Good job!

[Ucho]

Thanks for listening to the samples.
Glad you liked the 7th. It was just an 'experiment' of mixing mods 3 and 5 to hear what would come out. It actually is quite different from the original sound.
Now I'm thinking about using some switch to switch in/out some of the mods (you know, who does not love switches? )

[bluesdevil]

Thanks for putting in the effort recording and posting the different mod sound samples.... great job. I'll have to give this circuit a go!!

[Ucho]

It has been a real pleasure.

This is one of those "the-more-I-play-it-the-more-I-like-it" stompboxes 
Really great sensitivity to touch dynamic. I have a Laney VC30, and its drive channel it's just a light overdrive, very dynamic responsive. Well, I found the Peppermill,although having a different tone than VC30 drive channel, behaves in a somewhat similar manner, which I like a lot (it was really what I expected from it, reading all the good comments on this forum).
Now I'm trying it with 470k in mosfet source (since i want more max gain and achieve less drive using pickup switch, guitar vol, and playing dynamic) and swapping various caps in parallel with it. For what I can hear, these caps make the sound less transparent, adding some character to it, beyond the gain (instead, reducing mosfet source res, to my hear, just increases gain mantainig the original tone). It may be good or not, dependig on your needs. I like what those caps add to the tone, but I'm not yet sure if I like it more with or withour them.
Maybe when I'll have a Highway89 (next project, I think) I can set the Peppermil to have less gain and be more transparent, and the HW89 to be the "more gainy" and to add that character to the sound.

Well, another praise for ROG projects? They surely deserve it.

[Ucho]

Again about the files. Fennec from http://www.fennecelectronics.it/smf/index.php made me notice that there was just a case error in the links. Here's the right ones:

cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-1.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-2.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-3.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-4.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-5.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-6.mp3
cthulhu.interfree.it/Peppermill-7.mp3

They are the same on altervista, but, for lazier ones, now you can just click on it

[Ucho]

Here's the picture of the painted box with a switch for the 4.7uF cap in parallel to the mosfet source res