I just finished my second build today, Doug Hammond's Highway 89 (Or in my case, the California 1). It sounds EXCELLENT, full, biting, crazy sustain. A lot of high end output - some folks might not like that (I think a cap switch tames it?) but I approve.
Man, this is awesome.
One troubleshooting issue that I don't know how to solve: the gain pot is scratchy, seems to heavily affect the volume, and cuts out at the very top of its range. A post I found searching suggesting a capacitor somewhere, any idea where/how much or what else would help?
Thanks for your help, folks
Congrats!
Scratchy pot+cuts out...sounds like a little contact cleaner in this case.
You know, its easier than it seems to overheat a 16mm pot...gotta be quick~!
Change it out for another to test.
The '89's a little cracker isn't it ? :D
Well done, that's a cool 2nd build .
MM.
Thanks, gents! I'll put up pics of this and the bazz fuss once I label/paint them.
Quote from: Toney on August 13, 2006, 02:33:12 AM
Scratchy pot+cuts out...sounds like a little contact cleaner in this case.
Where do I put the cleaner, and what's a good variety to get?
Quote from: Antero on August 13, 2006, 06:31:05 AM
Thanks, gents! I'll put up pics of this and the bazz fuss once I label/paint them.
Quote from: Toney on August 13, 2006, 02:33:12 AM
Scratchy pot+cuts out...sounds like a little contact cleaner in this case.
Where do I put the cleaner, and what's a good variety to get?
Use anything that "evapourates" 100% and leaves no residue !!
The stuff for cleansing "Floppy disks" is good or just good 'ole isopropyl alchohol
MM
here is mine,
(http://pages.infinit.net/cbriere/userfiles/highway89.jpg)
looks is psychedelic,,,,,
Yeah for the scratchy pot, i know that the first one is the schematics is scratchy
on mine also. This because it is not decoupled. One mod to try is to put a higher Ohms value (250k)
and decoupling it with a 0.1uF and put it to ground. Are you following me?
cbriere
edit: URL of pic repaired
I'm glad you like the Highway89. :icon_wink:
The gain pot will be scratchy since there is dc voltage flowing through it. If you need to tame high end, tweak the LPF on the output.
Quote from: cbriere on August 14, 2006, 07:42:42 AM
here is mine,
(http://http--pages.infinit.net-cbriere-userfiles-highway89.jpg)
looks is psychedelic,,,,,
Yeah for the scratchy pot, i know that the first one is the schematics is scratchy
on mine also. This because it is not decoupled. One mod to try is to put a higher Ohms value (250k)
and decoupling it with a 0.1uF and put it to ground. Are you following me?
cbriere
Kind of? Switching to a 250k pot I can figure, .1uf to ground I can figure, decoupling I don't know.
Also, would this change the sound aside from the scratchy pot?
Searching the archives, I see a number of references to DC voltage on pots and needing a cap to ground, but nothing where someone describes where to put it. Can anyone tell me?
Danke
Never heard of such a thing. For "rangemaster-style" volume control you will have pot scratching, no way around it.
Sort of the same reason the SHO has a scratchy pot.
Ah! Well then, no sweat! It doesn't actually interfere in any way, I'd simply assumed I'd screwed something up. :D
This is really glorious - I'd wanted a RAT, but I don't need another distortion pedal at all now (though I'm certainly keeping my fuzzes). Hell, after my other guitarist hears this he'll probably want one too.
Here are the mods i did on mine,
-Changed the "treble/bass" section , replaced with 100k to ground.
-Put an Tone pot. at the output just before volume, 100K pot+4n7F to ground
wipper goes to volume pot. Easy an effective. Acts like a high frew. roll off
(http://pages.infinit.net/cbriere/userfiles/highway89.jpg)
cbriere
edit: URL of pic repaired
I built one a couple month ago and was disappointed with mine. :icon_sad:
Mine got no where near the sustain that the sound clip got.
Which soundclip?
My soundclip is on this page: http://dhammond_1.tripod.com/sounds.htm (http://dhammond_1.tripod.com/sounds.htm)
It was recorded through a transistor amp at "bedroom volume".
One thing about this pedal is that it really comes alive at stage volume. Once you get some air moving it easily sustains, blooms into octaves, etc, all the while being pretty touch-sensitive too. It's been my go-to pedal for a few yrs now and sounds great with the band at a decent volume level. It's funny because it's one of the few things I've built that I actually love more now than when I first built it. I'm even thinking of commercializing some version of it.
Hmm, that's not the clip I was refering to.
(but I do have that clip BTW and kudo's for your talents Doug)
The one I have is Hwy89.mp3 and it's 1,216kb, when I right click on the file, select properties (in WinXP) I get this on the "Summary" tab of the property page:
DESCRIPTION:
TITLE: Doug H's Highway 89
COMMENTS: Highway 89, max gain, max treble, ~min bass. Rhythm is bridge HB with vol. way down. Lead is neck HB with vol. up full. This clip was recorded direct through a speaker simulator. Only reverb was added.
ARTIST: RunoffGroove
YEAR: 2003
A quick check over at http://runoffgroove.com/salvo.html doesn't show the file there but it must have been at one time.
BTW ...Doug is this you?
(http://users.isp.com/brad_anne/guitar/dougH%20with%20his%20EDS1275.jpg)
I think Redhouse is talking about the clip here, bottom of the page (runoffgroove's first site?):
http://home-wrecker.com/salvo.html
My favorite is the Vibe clip playing the Zep.
Quote from: RedHouse on August 15, 2006, 08:47:24 PM
BTW ...Doug is this you?
Nope. :icon_mrgreen:
That guy has much more hair than I do. The beard's almost right though, except for the color.
Re. the clip: My point is that the hwy89 is not a bedroom pedal. Do you have problems with it not sustaining when you are cranked up? If so, there may be a problem with yours.
The HW89 is one of the best circuits I've herad. If you'd go commercial with it, I wish you the best of luck with it (although with it's tone - you won't need no stinkin' luck :) )
I wanted to thank you for sharing this one with us as not only it's a treat to play, I personaly have learned a great deal about tone design and I got inspired to go out and try all sorts of gain blocks, values, placements and tone shaping.
A few of my favorite designes would have not come to life if not for this one.
Again - thanks :)
Cool! 8)
When I built this I had a severe problem with oscillation and put it to one side for a while. I eventually solved it by grounding everything to the box and putting caps across the BC junctions of the transistors one at a time and keeping the values as low as possible to prevent it affecting the sound. It is now stable with everything on full and sounds superb. It is very loud and I sustained an open E5 chord for 58 seconds. I suspect my problems were due to using stripboard for such a high gain circuit as I have experiences similar problems in the past but I'm glad I was able to solve it this time. It really is a good design,
Col
That's weird... I wonder if you wired something incorrectly?
Thanks for the compliments but it's not really a high gain circuit. I use it as my low-med gain overdrive and my Fab Distortion for the high gain stuff.
Quote from: tungngruv on August 15, 2006, 10:23:17 PM
I think Redhouse is talking about the clip here, bottom of the page (runoffgroove's first site?):
http://home-wrecker.com/salvo.html
My favorite is the Vibe clip playing the Zep.
Thats the clip! when I heared that lead guitar kick-in I said "I gotta build this one" but then after I built it, well I didn't get near the sustain that clip has, they must have other things going on. It must be as Doug says best used to assist the amp into overdrive rather than the source of the overdrive.
Doug, it must be another DougH in that pic then.
I got that pic off the
Les Paul Forum some time ago and had been meaning to ask if it was you. I been wanting an EDS-1275 for some time now and was droolin when I saw that pic. Almost bought an Epi 1275 copy but bailed at the last minute.
Quote from: RedHouse on August 16, 2006, 09:00:13 AM
Thats the clip! when I heared that lead guitar kick-in I said "I gotta build this one" but then after I built it, well I didn't get near the sustain that clip has, they must have other things going on. It must be as Doug says best used to assist the amp into overdrive rather than the source of the overdrive.
Just to be clear- You don't have to use it to boost (overdrive, etc) the amp. The pedal is the source of the overdrive when I use it. I'm just saying you need to have some air moving (amp turned up) to get it to come alive.
Doug,
This circuit sounds very cool. Is is proprietary? I can't seem to find a copy of the schematic. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong directories.
Jim
Doug had it "out there" for a little while some time back, and eventually decided to withdraw it because it seemed to have enough commercial potential that he was darned if he was gonna watch others milk it without seeing a penny himself. I'm not sure what stage it is at right now, but I gather that it is the sort of schematic you would have to ask Mr. Hammond for directly, and it would be at his discretion (and rightfully so) to decide if he really wanted to distribute it to you. My sense is also that folks who were able to snag a copy at some point are probably declining to distribute it out of respect for Doug. He's a generous guy (as his thoughtful and meticulous work made available to us amply demonstrates) but sending him your request on Behringer or Dunlop stationary probably isn't such a good idea. :icon_wink:
This is one of the "great" pedals, Doug is the OD master!
The hwy89 has something in common with a current production amp. I don't feel right about posting it for that reason. (It probably doesn't really matter at this point but I may as well be consistent. Others have posted their interpretations of said amp, etc.) If anyone wants a copy of the 89 schem, email me and I'll be glad to send it. I only ask that you don't post it either.
(Mark, I think you may be thinking of something else.)
Quote from: Doug_H on August 16, 2006, 01:08:09 PM
The hwy89 has something in common with a current production amp. I don't feel right about posting it for that reason. (It probably doesn't really matter at this point but I may as well be consistent. Others have posted their interpretations of said amp, etc.) If anyone wants a copy of the 89 schem, email me and I'll be glad to send it. I only ask that you don't post it either.
(Mark, I think you may be thinking of something else.)
Quite possibly, or maybe confusing the H89 with some other design that GGG was going to sell or something like that...although I
did get the direct request part right! :icon_biggrin:.....that, and the "generous" part!
Quote from: Doug_H on August 16, 2006, 01:08:09 PM....I don't feel right about posting it for that reason...
Jeez man, it's your stuff and everybody knows it, move forward with any plans you may have.
(we all got your back)
Quote from: RedHouse on August 16, 2006, 09:25:14 PM
Jeez man, it's your stuff and everybody knows it, move forward with any plans you may have.
I'm not concerned about that. It's just my rationale for emailing and not posting it.
A friendly reminder: If anyone wants this,
email me and I'll respond to your email. Do
not PM me. I cannot attach files to a PM, and I don't have time to cut & paste email addresses from the PM window into a mail window to send it. It's much simpler for me if you just email me and let me respond. At this point I'm tossing all schematic requests I get in PMs. So if you're feeling ignored- that's why.
You're On Notice!(http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/OnNotice-1.jpg)
Doug,
I love how you (or I'm guessing your better half) left Barbra Streisand on the list. :icon_biggrin:
Jay
Yeah, I did that... :icon_mrgreen:
There's a site (listed in the corner) you can go to and it will generate the list for you. By the time I got to Babs I couldn't think of anything else to put on there. Then I looked at it and thought, hmmm, that's pretty funny as is...
Doug,
I didn't mean high gain as in an angry wasp type but this pedal has so much power it's amazing. The note just doesn't fade away. Ihave checked the layout and measured between points for resistance and all is OK. I used some 2N5089s from RSH and maybe they have very high gain, I didn't measure them. Thanks,
Col
Cool! It sounds like it is working correctly then. :icon_wink:
mine is unbelievable. i used bc549 and it gets pretty clean with the guitar rolled down, and it's nasty at full tilt. i use it to play stuff like hendrix, etc, instead of the fuzz faces. i really want to thanks doug for the amazing design, and also ask a question: when you create this pedal, you used a scale down version for the resistors and pots, comparing to the amp. all rog circuits use same values as original amps...i wonder if it would be better to have it scaled down, for better gain, vol, and tone characteristics, matching the fets tech, instead of trying to emulate the tubes circuits...
It's a great sounding circuit. I was planning to build one when I got the schematic and never got to start it, but finally yesterday I've etched a board for it. Hope to start to solder the parts tomorrow.
Quote from: swt on August 19, 2006, 02:00:48 PM
i wonder if it would be better to have it scaled down, for better gain, vol, and tone characteristics, matching the fets tech, instead of trying to emulate the tubes circuits...
Correct. And in this case it provides a few more db in gain.
thanks doug!. i'm about to build a firefly...yet another unbelievable circuit. and will also use it as a firezog :icon_mrgreen: :icon_lol:
Hi Doug,
the H89 is a great circuit!
But I've found it a bit trebly, so I'm tweaking the related control (added cap + different pot connection).
When I'll reach a good compromise, if you agree, I can post here my mod... (without schematics, obviously; please tell me what do you think).
I've also increased the input impedance, simply tweaking resistors and caps around the input (decrease the cap inversely respect the resistors, X4 or X5 just needs a try). In this way it charge less the guitar pickup.
For the gain and bass controls I've found them very useful (I've read in the past some critical posts about that...).
Yeah, post mods, whatever...
edit: Without posting the complete schematic, please.
As promised, this is my treble control mod to the Highway 89.
Simply I've used a 100K linear pot for the treble control and I've connected a 2,2n cap in parallel to R8.
In this way the pot works in 2 way: it control the treble trough the C8 cap, but it creates a first order low pass filter with the new cap (RAT like control).
For me the 2,2n value is a good compromise with both single coils and humbuckings. Decreasing to 1,5-1,8n there are more highs, increasing to 2,7-3,3n there are less treble frequency.
Obviuosly, this control doesn't operate a complete filter to the treble, like a classic tone control, because this filter is before the final source of the distortion. But this is the nature of the Highway 89... you'll love it or you'll hate it.
I think it's a great rock machine (if your fingers can support it... :icon_lol:)