Distortion and Mircro-Amp - 2 in one

[bluzman]

I'm sure this has been gone over here before, but I'm in the process of boxing a distortion and microamp from tonepad into a box.  I'm planning on putting the distortion first then the microamp after it.  Each one with an on/off true bypass.  Has anybody done this before and if so did you find that it worked better the other way around.  Also, I was told that the original MXR distortion used three clipping diodes but on the materials list it only shows two but the drawing shows three.  Looking for input and ideas there too!  Thanks in advance and happy holidays!!

PT

[Fret Wire]

The original had just two 1N270 ge diodes. Tonepad has two layouts for the D+. One is the original with the 741 single IC, the other, the one you mention, can be used for the Micro Amp and D+. It uses one half of a dual IC (4558, etc.), and has pads for three diodes. That will allow you more room for experimentation. For instance, if you want the original D+ sound, but with assymetrical clipping, use three ge diodes. Or two silicons in one direction and a LED in the other for a more modern sound.

Look under both D+ and Micro Amp and you'll see the differences in the layouts.

A few tips: if you're going with Ge diodes, omit C6 (10pf). It will round off the highs too much. If you're going with silicon diodes, use C6, it will take out the harsh highs silicons/LED's can have. For pots, go with a 500k rev. log for the dist., and 100k log for the volume. 500k rev. log was the original value for dist., and 50k log was original for the volume. Using a 100k log for volume will make sure you can get past unity gain with most rigs.

[Fret Wire]

Almost forgot, with Tonepad's dual Dist.+/Micro Amp layout, you can also build the DOD250 (gray & yellow versions), and Phillip Bryant's Liquid Drive.