Joe Davisson Strikes Again!

[jmusser]

Along with the Dallas Rangemaster I built Monday morning, I also threw together Joe Davisson's Easy Drive. I had it done about 10 minutes before I went to work, and plugged it in. Nothing! I took it to work with me last night, and went throught the schematic again, Nothing! All values good, jacks correct....Hmmmm....does that transistor say 2N2 something? Well, I got it home and looked at it through the magnifier lamp, and it said 2N2924! I have never in my life heard of this transistor, and have no idea where it came from, but somehow it ended up in the drawer with the 2N3904s. Anyway, I plugged in 3904 (honest and for true), and she lit right off. This circuit Joe down plays as being "something he threw together to see how much distortion he could get out of of a single transistor", but it's way more than that. It is very interactive with the guitar's volume control, and transistions from a nice overdrive, to distortion, to a sweet saturated fuzz. In just the 5 or 10 minutes I played it, I got a tone on the bridge pickup that sounded very close to Skunk Baxter on China Grove, and that saturated almost nasal tone of the guitar on "Aqua Lung" on the neck pickup. "Feeling like a dead duck"..OH Yeah! This a GREAT circuit period. I'm sure I will play it a lot. I would like to eventually mess around with a darlingtonized Germanium transistor pair in there, and different clipping diodes (germs, shottkeys, and LEDs),just to see what it would sound like, but it's just to do it. The basic circuit is sound just the way it is, and doesn't need any mods. The little Epi loved it. It has a nice breakup, and decent sustain. I am holding up my placard with a "9" on it, for not only the best sounding single transistor circuit, but also one of the very best I've ever heard. this one, anyone will get a lot of mileage out of.

[MartyMart]

Yeah, the "Easy Drive" is a little cracker isn't it ? 

I think it was the 4th/5th thing I built and it got a bit "lost" amongst all
the other "goodies" but it's a super little circuit.

Dragonfly's "Smooth silicon fuzz" and my little "Muff Fuzz" also sound
superb ( I rediscovered those yesterday, by coincidence )
The Muff Fuzz gives a great "Thin Lizzy" lead tone with a HB gtr !

It's almost as if, the more "simple" the circuit, the better it sounds !

Has to be a "great" circuit though !! 

Marty.

[z-zero]

Plus one on the easydrive from me, I love that little circuit, its one of my favorites tone wise. I'd recommend this as a good circuit to learn to "hear" differences between transistor types and diodes types/configs. Lots of milage from that thing.

z-zero

[David]

Along with the Dallas Rangemaster I built Monday morning, I also threw together Joe Davisson's Easy Drive. I had it done about 10 minutes before I went to work, and plugged it in. Nothing! I took it to work with me last night, and went throught the schematic again, Nothing! All values good, jacks correct....Hmmmm....does that transistor say 2N2 something? Well, I got it home and looked at it through the magnifier lamp, and it said 2N2924! I have never in my life heard of this transistor, and have no idea where it came from, but somehow it ended up in the drawer with the 2N3904s. Anyway, I plugged in 3904 (honest and for true), and she lit right off. This circuit Joe down plays as being "something he threw together to see how much distortion he could get out of of a single transistor", but it's way more than that. It is very interactive with the guitar's volume control, and transistions from a nice overdrive, to distortion, to a sweet saturated fuzz. In just the 5 or 10 minutes I played it, I got a tone on the bridge pickup that sounded very close to Skunk Baxter on China Grove, and that saturated almost nasal tone of the guitar on "Aqua Lung" on the neck pickup. "Feeling like a dead duck"..OH Yeah! This a GREAT circuit period. I'm sure I will play it a lot. I would like to eventually mess around with a darlingtonized Germanium transistor pair in there, and different clipping diodes (germs, shottkeys, and LEDs),just to see what it would sound like, but it's just to do it. The basic circuit is sound just the way it is, and doesn't need any mods. The little Epi loved it. It has a nice breakup, and decent sustain. I am holding up my placard with a "9" on it, for not only the best sounding single transistor circuit, but also one of the very best I've ever heard. this one, anyone will get a lot of mileage out of.

Hey, Jeff!  Do you have any 2N5089s you can try in there, just out of curiosity?

[jmusser]

Yea, I have 5089s. I'll give that a try, and let you know.

[jmusser]

OK, I tried a variety of transistors in this circuit 2N5089, 2N3904, 2N2222, MPSA13, an finally an OC140 germ. They all worked fine in there, and they all have their own flavor. So, it's going to come down to what you're personal preference is. The circuit never seems to get harsh no matter what you put in there. The 2N2222 is supposed to be fairly low gain, but it sounded pretty much as good as the 2N3904. The 5089, and the MPSA13 cause a bunch of feed back if you try to crank the amp gain up too much , but they still sounded good, just different. Marty Mart was kind enough to send me some OC140 germaniums. I popped one in there to try, and man was she sweet! You can absolutely nail the Aqua Lung tone, on the bridge pickup, which was totally different from the 3904. You needed the neck pick up to do it with that one. If I had a preference, I really liked the 3904 in the bridge pickup, and the OC140 on the bridge. You really start getting some formerMember1 Blackmore sounding stuff once you get off the bridge pickup.The OC140 will be staying in there, because it gives you more of a dark wooly Classic Rock sound. It give really dark sweet fuzz on the neck pickup. The 3904, gives you a more defined separation, between Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz. The Overdrive part of the effect with the 3904, is just not there with the Germanium. If I want my cake and eat it too, I may put two that are switchable in the same box. I believe Joe had the perfect choice in there to start with to get the absolute maximum tone out of this circuit. Who'd a thunk it!