BSAIB II; can this be "opened up" more?

[m-theory]

I love this pedal.  It's got the gain I want, it's got the fatness that I want, and overall outstanding tone.  My only beef, really, is that it's a bit compressed.  I've found that this can be somewhat relieved by tinkering with the tone knob, but frankly, I don't care for it to be too bright.  A little sparkle is nice, but too much high end isn't what I want. 

I recently built a T/S, and found that a signal diode one way and two red LED's the other is a tone that I really dig.  One of the great things about that pedal is its "openness."  It's not at all compressed, which is how I like it. 

What I'd like to know is if there's a way to get the BSIAB to sound like a higher gain version of this T/S of mine?  In short, how can I reduce the compression a bit?  Perhaps, an additional control that would allow me to dial compression in or out as desired, if possible. 

[John Lyons]

The TS and the BSIAB are very different pedals circuit wise. I wouldn't call the BSIAB compressed at all really. It's a tight full sound but each string rings out and the sound does not blur, soften or get squishy as is a characteristic of compression. Fets don't tend to compress i've found.
The tone control does effect the gain as well as the tone but this isn't much or a compromise as you can dial down the gain or use all 2N5457s if you want lower gain.

The TS and the BSIAB are surely different but I don't think compression is the word to describe it. You can always drop in a mosfet boost to your TS is you want more gain.
John

[m-theory]

Yeah, compressed probably isn't the proper term.  I'm really not looking for more gain from the T/S or less from the BSIAB, and both of these are going into a DD box, along with a mosfet boost. 

I just want the BSIAB to be a bit more "open" sounding (maybe "punchy" is a better term) than it is, similar to what I'm getting from the T/S, but with more gain.  If it can't be done, it's not the end of the world.  I love them both, but was just looking for a way to get a bit more open tone from the distortion. 

This DD pedal is going to be for rehearsal and my jam band thing, because I play through clean amps for those.  My main rig is a plexi-modified BF Bassman, and both the T/S and BSIAB pedals sound remarkably similar to that amp (minus the overdriven output tube factor, of course) in terms of overall tone, but the BSIAB is less "in your face" than the amp, if that description makes sense. 

I guess I could describe the T/S as being "up in the mix" and the BSIAB as being "blended into the mix."  I'd like to get the BSIAB "up in the mix."

[Bucksears]

Clip the two .0022uF caps at the end (LPF). That opens the treble up more without giving up bass.
One of my (many) favorite sounds out of this pedal is to turn the gain down to about 25-30% and turn the volume up and the tone to taste. It really pushes the speakers nicely if using a double-humbucker guitar.

- Buck

[Victor]

You can:

- Increase pedal supply voltage;
- Crank amp's volume up, specially if it's all-tube;
- Do first and second and run this little beast at lower gain. And heavier strings. 

Second suggestion seemed quite enough for me while I was a newbie at DIYing and guitar sound in general, some years ago (i'm still noob, but not that much I think, anymore  )

Try it and see what happens. Worked just fine for me. 

[m-theory]

Clip the two .0022uF caps at the end (LPF). That opens the treble up more without giving up bass.
One of my (many) favorite sounds out of this pedal is to turn the gain down to about 25-30% and turn the volume up and the tone to taste. It really pushes the speakers nicely if using a double-humbucker guitar.

"Clip," as in remove entirely, remove one leg of each, or replace with different value?

I agree with you on that particular setting, btw.  At that setting, it sounds much like that T/S that I built.  That's more what I'm looking for, but at higher gain settings. 

[m-theory]

Victor,

I does definitely sound better with the amp at higher volumes, but that's not always practical. 

Higher voltage is something to consider, though I'd have to check and make sure all of my caps are rated properly. 

Lower gain territory is being covered by the T/S. 

Thanks for the suggestions! 

[Ed G.]

Use a silver mica or polystyrene cap at the 470pf/470K high-pass filter.
Up the value to 560pf for more upper mids. This brings out the guitar's character a bit more.
Mouser has polystyrenes in these values.

As suggested earlier, try all 2N5457s. J201s compress and clip faster than 2N5457s.

[m-theory]

Up the value to 560pf for more upper mids.

I think this is what I'm looking for...more upper mids.  I've got a polystyrene in there now, but it's the stock value.  I'll try this value, and will try swapping those trannies as well. 

Thank you, sir!  I really dig this circuit, btw. 

[John Lyons]

Ok, I get what your after now I think.
The BSIAB has a flat eq responce and the TS has a mid bump/boost.
By opening it up I think you want a mid boost, or for it to be more forward in the midrange.
Try uping the 470pf as Ed mentioned. Mesa uses .002 in a similar place. That should grt you more midrange and get the sound to cut through the mix more. All 2N5457s works pretty well to lower the gain if you want to experiment with that. Tried it today finally.

If you don't get where you want to be you can always fool with the values in the tone stack and Duncan's tone stack calculator to see the how each chage affects the Eq curve.


John

[m-theory]

The BSIAB has a flat eq responce and the TS has a mid bump/boost.

My T/S build is modified to reduce that.  It's still got some, I'm sure, but in a good way! 

I'm going to start with that 560pf cap and see where that leads me.  The pedal has far more gain that I ever use, so I'm sure I'd be fine in swapping out those J201's as well. 

As soon as Ed said "upper mids," I realized that this is what I'm looking for.  Without those, a distorted guitar tone can get sort of lost in a band mix, and that's happening. 

Thanks again to all, for the great advice! 

[Bucksears]

Clip the two .0022uF caps at the end (LPF). That opens the treble up more without giving up bass.
One of my (many) favorite sounds out of this pedal is to turn the gain down to about 25-30% and turn the volume up and the tone to taste. It really pushes the speakers nicely if using a double-humbucker guitar.

"Clip," as in remove entirely, remove one leg of each, or replace with different value?

I agree with you on that particular setting, btw.  At that setting, it sounds much like that T/S that I built.  That's more what I'm looking for, but at higher gain settings. 

Yes, remove these two caps entirely.

- Buck

[Ed G.]

Try J113s there also. It's a tighter-sounding fet, but not all sound good. I can't find any more National Semi ones, which sound good, but the fairchild ones are close. Vishay/Siliconix should be avoided, they have a muffled, unusable sound.
Some tweaking of the circuit might be necessary to make up for the lack of bass with these fets, such as some of the coupling caps can be increased. There's been threads on this in the forum.

[d95err]

Clip the two .0022uF caps at the end (LPF). That opens the treble up more without giving up bass.
One of my (many) favorite sounds out of this pedal is to turn the gain down to about 25-30% and turn the volume up and the tone to taste. It really pushes the speakers nicely if using a double-humbucker guitar.

"Clip," as in remove entirely, remove one leg of each, or replace with different value?

I agree with you on that particular setting, btw.  At that setting, it sounds much like that T/S that I built.  That's more what I'm looking for, but at higher gain settings. 

Yes, remove these two caps entirely.

I would remove one first and see how it sounds. Then remove the other if you want even more treble. I ended up with keeping one of these caps on my BSIAB.

- Buck

[DWBH]

I also own a Bsiab and I'd like to ask something of you please do, m-theory.

I notice that the clipping of the Bsiab is fat and chubby, and i know that Bsiab is just like this. But, if i want to change it a bit, how do i do it. I'm planning on testing some transistors, such as the J113 and the 2N5457. Do you thing these transistors will change the way it clips?