Having problems with Shaka's and Jfets in general

[Nick C.]

I bread boarded the the Shaka 5 and it just doesn't sound right. Thin, brittle, harsh distortion even with the gain very low. I'm sure the problem is in the mini booster as I can't get it to clean up. I've tried changing the source resistor from 1k to 4k7. If I by-pass the booster, the sound is great, but a little low volume. I double checked the layout out on the booster and it looks ok, could it be the J201's? Any fixes?

I also prototyped the Shaka HV, running at 9v. Measured 4.5v at the drain. It sounded good at low gain, but again I didn't like the distortion qualities at high gain.

Could it be that I just don't like the way jfets distort? I was hoping for a very smooth progressive distortion, but that's not what I'm hearing. Do other people have these problems too or I'm I doing something wrong?